Cut down on energy consumption with a videophone

In the spirit of our new noncontroversial style, we have committed ourselves to finding new technologies and new lifestyle choices that will reduce the West's dependence on terror-sponsoring states.

The two month old post below provides one possible answer - electric or other energy efficient transportation that would allow us to maintain our mobility without consuming quite so many gallons of gas.

But there is another way. We can use new telecom technologies to reduce the number of miles we travel. Yes, email and the 'net have moved us pretty far in this direction, but there is still something missing from all of these forms of interaction - moving pictures of the people you're talking to.

For years, the seers (and even the Jetsons) have predicted that we would all communicate by videophone someday soon. but it is 2007 - 6 years after Kubrick's 2001 - and I haven't seen my family in California for a year (while the webcam on my laptop sits unused) because I haven't had time to fly out -- and my Dad and Grandmother aren't the kind of folks who download Skype. But this is not just generational. For one reason or another, neither my tech savvy brother nor my two daughters away at college have had time to set up their webcams either. It is just too hard.

This is about to change. I just bought an easy-to-install $149 videophone (my personal phone is pictured above - photo taken with my Nokia E61i mobile videophone). Added to my $23.99/month VoIP service, it gives me a normal dialtone and free unlimited domestic calls -- with the added bonus of video to similarly equipped numbers.

My sister has one on order and I will make sure that my Mom gets one too. Mom is only 2 hours away by car, but she is 69 years old and living alone - the videophone will let me check up on her in a way that the telephone cannot (with the additional benefit that she will get to 'see' her grandchildren more often).

More later - along with a report on calculated fuel savings.