Skype + iPhone = saving $20/mo.
If you have an iPhone with AT&T and you're not on the lowest rate plan, you could be throwing money away!
Skype has a new app for the iPhone, that works pretty well, and (as you'd expect) lets you make calls using Skype! Skype also offers an unlimited calling plan to Canada and the USA for $3/mo (or even less than this if you prepay).
AT&T's phone plans provide a lot of night& weekend minutes (5000 or unlimited), but are really stingy on the daytime minutes. I seem to make most of my calls during the day, but I'm also usually in an area with WiFi. So I just downloaded the skype app, switched to the cheapest calling plan ($20 cheaper!). Now, I make my calls during the day on Skype. The sound quality is good -- often times better than AT&T! Be sure to set skype up so that your callerid is displayed correctly.
Unfortunately Apple/AT&T have strong-armed Skype into not making calls over 3G. You can, of course, circumvent this restriction via jailbreaking and installing this app. But for me, this is more than enough.
The Skype app has a few significant drawbacks: it doesn't seem to detect when you move your phone to your head, so for the first few seconds you should be sure your cheek doesn't hang up the call. Also, I couldn't get bluetooth to work properly. Otherwise, everything works just fine.
Greece: Part II of II
As we saw before, I'd been wandering around Athens for a while, checking out cool and interesting things.
Next up: a strange series of Greek dances at a theatre a little ways away from the Acropolis. There was a little band and some people in various costumes performing dances purported to be from around Greece. I didn't think the music was particularly good (the flute guy was off-pitch and the violin guy was off beat), and I couldn't really tell the dances apart. All in all it was kind of interesting mostly for the venue, but a bit of a waste of time. I'll have to edit some of the video I took and post it eventually, but here are a couple of photos:
After a couple of pit stops, Cape Sounio was at hand! Cape Sounio -- punctuated by a bluff -- is the Southern-most point of mainland Greece. Pericles (legendary politician of the Athenian city-state) persuaded the city to build a huge monument to Poseidon, the God of the Sea, to serve as beacon for weary seafarers and a statement of the power and strength of Athens. Much of it was ruined by various attacks, but parts of it still stand. The sunset there is absolutely amazing, as evidenced by these photos and the billion or so tourists all trying to capture the scene.
There were some beaches around there, like this one, where I read a book:
Driving around Greece, one cannot help but notice the plethora of unfinished buildings that dot the landscape. At first I thought they were parking garages, or perhaps some kind of weird modern art, but it turns out that they're tax reduction scheme!! In Greece, partially constructed buildings somehow allow for a tax deduction and depreciation over time. This tax break goes away when the building is actually completed! Sounds like the kind of insane incentive structure that would exist in the USA, dreamed up by Geihtner and Bernake and co.. But my economic commentary belongs in a different post!
That's about it for my Greek trip. Up next: Finland; then Estonia!