Fed up with the high tolls charged by your ordinary telephone service? If you're itching to cut the copper cord with your costly, traditional phone service, you need "Talk is Cheap," the new, easy-to-understand guide to understanding and using Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and other Internet telephone options.

Technologies such as VoIP are gaining a great deal of attention these days as more people switch from standard telephone service to phone service via the Internet. But while the cost savings are outstanding, there are some issues with Internet telephony that you should know about. Are the connections reliable? Is the quality comparable? Will it include 911 services?

James Gaskin's "Talk is Cheap" addresses these issues and many more by explaining how to make the switch and what the tradeoffs will be if you opt for Internet telephony over traditional phone services.

"Talk is Cheap" focuses on the increasingly popular services from Vonage, which uses VoIP, and Skype--a free service that operates as a peer-to-peer (P2P) network with the ability to turn any PC, Mac, or Pocket PC into a telephone. The book explains your options; explores the background behind, the workings of, and differences between VoIP and P2P networks; and discusses the advantages and drawbacks of both technologies (including service offerings, quality, capabilities, completion rates, and more).

"Talk is Cheap" then goes into detail on what you can expect in Internet service from traditional phone companies such as Verizon and AT&T. In addition, you will learn more advanced techniques, including how to turn your Palm or Pocket PC into an Internet phone and how to work with Wi-Fi phones andvideophones.

A straightforward, quick introduction to the ins and outs of using Internet telephone services, this book provides everything you need to make informed telephone decisions--whether you're thinking about the switch from traditional phone service or have already made it and want to get the most out of your new Internet telephone.

Texas is bigger, bolder and wackier than anywhere else in the world. We celebrate that, and this book gives you a good dose of Texas history with the wacky included. Proper history books focus on facts, but what fun is that? Here you also get the jokes, opinions, and twists on stories you know and stories you never heard before. Know about the Pig War of 1841? Know what Stanley Marcus sold on his first job at age 10? Did you know the first Hilton Hotel was in Cisco, Texas, where Santa Claus held up the downtown bank in broad daylight in 1927? How did a collie named Reveille become the mascot of Texas A&M? In spite of the less than serious tone, the history in this book is accurate. When you can't tell the facts from the jokes, you're in Texas. We realize you will probably read this book in a small room, by yourself, where there's no TV and it's rude to use the phone. That's OK with us. Just leave the book for the next visitor, even if they're a Yankee. That's how friendly we are in Texas.