How does my voice sound when I’m talking into my cell phone?

I've been trying out some headsets for my smart phone. Some of these are cheap, but got good reviews on Amazon. For instance, this Panasonic $9 headset (yes, I meant nine dollars), which requires a 3.5mm male to 2.5mm female adapter to use with a cell phone (as opposed to a cordless phone). I use headsets when talking on the phone at my desk to keep my hands free. I like the ones with microphones that wrap around right in front of my mouth, so that I need not disturb others when in my collaborative workspace. I've tried some other headsets too, including a bluetooth set that people complained about constantly.  I simply don't want people staining to hear what I'm saying.   I've found myself asking other how my voice is coming through when I speak on my cell phone (through the phone itself or using a headset).  People will give vague answers, such as "It sounds OK."   I've been wondering what my cell phone really sounds like on the other end.  I think I've found an answer.   I found a phone number that plays back your voice:  909-390-0003  .  That's all this phone number does.  When you call this number, you don't even hear a phone ringing.   But you can immediately speak into it and hear what you sound like.  Excellent.  Problem solved. I'm going to recommend it to others.  For instance, a friend of mine sounded all muffled.  I told him about this a couple years ago.  He eventually got a new phone and his voice quality immediately improved.  I wondered whether fuzz or dirt got into his phone's microphone.  Now his new phone sounds muffled.  I can't hear his consonants.  I'm going to give the test number to him, so he can hear it for himself. It turns out that my Panasonic $9 headset "sounds OK."    No, really.  It's a keeper.  It sounds great.

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Encryption tools for journalists

Glenn Greenwald recently answered questions on Reddit, including the following: Reddit comment: "Thanks for doing this. At the university I work at, we are putting together a workshop for Media Professionals, including journalists regarding IT security. We plan on covering: PGP, truecrypt, TOR, OTR, and strongbox. What tools, concepts, or techniques should we be teaching aspiring journalists?" Glenn Greenwald: "That's so great to hear. One of the most gratifying things I've seen since this all started is how many journalists now communicate using PGP, Pidgen, OTR, TOR and similar instruments of encryption. Just as was true for me, so many national security journalists - including some of the most accomplished ones at large media outlets, the ones who work on the most sensitive materials - had no idea about any of that and used none of it. Now they do. In this age of a War on Whistleblowers and sources and ubiquitous surveillance, it's absolutely vital that journalists learn advanced encryption methods and use it." It's a shame that modern day journalists need to spend so much time learning about and using encryption technology to protect their sources from spying by the United States and other governments. What would the founding fathers have said about this more than 200 years ago, that the federal government is spying on its own citizens without probable cause and even spying on journalists?

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The properly divided brain

Psychiatrist and writer Iain McGilchrist agrees that the brain is divided, but not at all in the way that is it is commonly thought. This is one of those quick-draw RSA Animate illustrated videos, deeply thought-provoking and also entertaining. Here's a transcript of McGilchrist's lecture on the divided brain.

So you have, essentially, two kinds of attention, one that narrows a thing down as much as possible to a certainty so that you can pick it up and get it and sort it out. This is very useful for manipulating the world. It’s not good for understanding the world. For understanding the world you need what I would call a relational attention in which you don’t see yourself as somehow disconnected from everything around but realize how interconnected you are with it and need to be aware of all of it. [More . . . ]

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