Do you know what VOIP is? Unless you have been living in a cave for the past few years, you have undoubtedly seen VOIP advertised at electronics stores, on TV, inside your cable bill, and from some of your friends. In a nutshell, VOIP allows you to make and receive phone calls over the Internet. Thats right, you do not need to hassle with SBC or BellSouth or Verizon anymore if you dont want to. The person you are calling does not need to have a VOIP phone, you can call them or they can call you anyway.

The one thing that IS required for any VOIP servce, regardless of the provider you get it from, is a decent and reliable high-speed Internet connection. The vast majority of the time when customers complain about the quality of a VOIP phone conversation, the bottom line result is that the fault is rarely with the VOIP service, but it is the fault of the high-speed Internet connection. The VOIP provider has no control over the quality (or lack thereof) of your high-speed Internet connection, so if your connection is not reliable or is "spotty", you need to either get a different Internet provider, or perhaps VOIP is not for you at this time.

The latter situation would be bad news if you look at the economics of it. From your local phone company, you are probably paying $25 to $30 per month just for dial tone, and then you have long distance charges on top of that. For less money, you can also get dial tone, plus voice mail, plus caller ID, plus a host of other features (depending on the carrier), plus unlimited long distance calling in the continental US (or beyond with some providers). It really is a no brainer.

Let's look at a couple of neat things that VOIP allows you do to, things that you cannot do with your traditional phone. Let's say you live in Chicago, and you travel on business or pleasure to Atlanta and you bring your VOIP phone with you. When you get to Atlanta, you plug your VOIP phone into the high-speed Internet connection at your hotel. You can STILL make calls as if you were still in Chicago, and when somebody calls your Chicago phone number, it will ring on your VOIP phone in your Atlanta hotel room! It's like nothing has changed and you are still at home in Chicago!

I have a friend who does this all the time, and he travels worldwide. When he arrives at his hotel in Los angeles or even london or Hong Kong, he plugs his VOIP phone into the high-speed Internet connection at his hotel, and he is making and receiving calls just as if he were at home in Denver!

now let's say that you have friends or family in Europe that you like to talk to, but you dont talk to them very often because international calls are so expensive. The solution is for you to get a VOIP phone and get a VOIP phone for them and send it to them. (Assuming of course they have a high-speed Internet connection at their home, as do you). now, even though they are located in Paris or Munich, their VOIP phone has a Houston (or whatever) phone number, and you can call them or they can call you and you can talk for as long as you want to at no additional charge!

VOIP technology brings a whole new era to the world of communications, and if you are not part of the VOIP revolution yet, you certainly should be, because it is not going away anytime soon!

Jon is a computer engineer who maintain a variety of web sites based on his knowledge and experience. For more information about VOIP, VOIP providers and home VOIP services, please visit his web site at Home VOIP Inside Information.

mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks is still a month away, but we got our hands on the demo and thought we would share. We were always taught that it was better to share than to play unreleased games and keep it to ourselves.

First off, lets have a little history lesson. mortal Kombat was a fighting game that was a good alternative to Street Fighter. What made it stand out was its combo system, its different graphics, and oh yeah, the gore. MK made a couple treks into the 3D fighting arena with varying degrees of success. But they also made a couple of mediocre action titles, namely mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub Zero and mortal Kombat: Special Forces. Well enough of the history lesson, you want to know if Shaolin Monks is any good. Well in a word, yes.

It took Midway a couple of tries, but they got the 3D fighting genre down with mortal Kombat: Deception. And well I guess it took a couple of tries to get the action genre right, but now they have. Shaolin Monks has all the gore and speed you would expect from a MK game. But now its in the form of an action game.

The version we played started off just after Shang Tsungs defeat. Raiden tells Kung Lao and Lui Kang that even though the defeated the evil sorcerer they now need to escape his island before it sinks or falls apart or something like that. Well basically you fight your way out stating at Goros lair. You have your quick punch, your hard punch, a throw and your jump to start off with. You can also play single or co-op.

The levels were split up into small areas with a couple various beasts attacking you at once. The good news is you can quickly attack in all directions so its not a big deal if you get surrounded. After a little bit you get your characters signature moves which you preform by holding the R button and pressing an attack button. Then you get your fatalities. To use your fatalities you need to fill up the fatality meter by preforming combos. Then once youre full you press the appropriate button and input the fatal sequence to end your enemy's worthless life.

The graphics are very good. The textures are realistic, and the world has a lived-in feel. My major gripe about the game is that there is a load time in-between each individual area. But its the trade off to keep the graphics on par with mortal Kombat: Deceptions.

mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks is coming along nicely, and is already pretty fun. Hopefully the final version has enough game, and extras, to keep us playing, and remember, watch out for the flaming monks.

The highly anticipated xbox 360 video game exclusive makes its way to the public. For those three people who are unaware of halo 3, here is the breakdown. halo 3 is a first person shooter that transpires after the events of the xbox smash hit Halo 2. Master Chief is reprising his role as the protagonist all the way through the entire game, and he is accompanied by the Arbiter. Those who played halo 2 will remember that the Arbiter is now an ally of Master Chief. The storyline in halo 3 starts with Master Chief and his men fighting against the Covenant. The plot is definitely the best in the series, and it answers all of the unanswered questions from halo 2. In terms of gameplay, halo 3 is eerily similar to the previous iterations of halo and Halo 2. Avid Halo fans should have no problem picking up the controls of Master Chief or the Arbiter. Gamers will not be surprised with the assortment of weapons.

These entail the handgun, assault rifle, sniper rifle, shotgun, energy sword, grenades, bubble shield, and so much more. I seldom utilized the bubble shield, but it is still a nice touch. A grenade in an opponents mouth is my preference. The most grandiose part of the multiplayer is the cooperative gameplay. Gamers can enjoy the whole Halo 3 experience with three other players. That means a total of four people can play the game from start to finish. One player will be in control of Master Chief. Another will be in control of the Arbiter. The final two players will be in control of two soldiers that fight alongside Master Chief and the Arbiter. The visuals in Halo 3 are not impressive.

The game looks adequate; however, nothing anyone sees will make their jaw hit the floor. Some of the environments appear to be next generation. On the other hand, there are a few character models that look downright dreadful. Maybe I have been spoiled with the graphics from video games like Heavenly Sword, BioShock, graw, Killzone 2, fear, and gears of war. But I was disappointed with the graphics in Halo 3. For the most part, the graphics look exactly like the multiplayer beta. I might have high expectations, nevertheless I would have appreciated it if the visuals were better than the final product (especially for a next generation console like the xbox 360). Another blunder with Halo 3 is the artificial intelligence. All of Master Chief's allies act like asinine children. Fortunately, the frame rate runs smoothly throughout the duration of Halo 3. The audio in the game is amazing. All of the dialogue is rich and full of life; furthermore, the voice acting never seems to be insipid. The sound of gunfire and recoil gives a fairly immersive atmosphere.

There are even a few comedic aspects with your teammates. The musical score is one of the best I have heard in a video game. A live orchestral musical score has a flawless amount of crescendos and decrescendos. It significantly enhances the gameplay experience. The Covenant artificial intelligence adjusts accordingly to your every move, so do not expect to see all fights to be identical. The wide selection of vehicles is limitless. Some of them are reconnaissance vehicles, tanks, aircrafts, transport automobiles, and most notorious of all the Warthog. There are also some original vehicles to the Halo universe. Most notably, the Mongoose ATV (who the hell comes up with these absurd names?) is a vehicle that has a motorcycle-like feel to it. The multiplayer features up to sixteen players and eleven different maps. It is not as engrossing as the 32 player multiplayer that Warhawk supports, but sixteen that is not bad.

There is also a level and video editor. The video editor is like making your own Halo 3 movie. Even though Halo 3 is only a succinct ten hours, the game is still worth playing for the gameplay. The final verdict on Halo 3 is that fans of the Halo series will enjoy Halo 3 for months to come. Overall, gamers should believe in Halo 3 and finish the fight.