Hundreds of thousands of people will learn how attached New Yorkers are to their area code - especially when it's a 212 area code - when they read Ian Urbina's article on how voice over internet technology allows area codes to be anywhere.

"For me, it's just a matter of convenience," said Gen Kanai, 31, who signed up with an Internet phone service in order to keep his 212 phone number when he moved to Tokyo last year. "I like my family, who are in Manhattan, to be able to make a local call to get me. It's just that simple."

And, of course, Kanai is a blogger. Basically, as convenient and great as paying a local rate for your overseas calls is, it kind of freaks people out, in good and bad ways, about the potential of technology. One reverend incoporated it into a sermon, "God's Area Code" (no Reverend Lovejoy here). Our friend Peter Rojas of Engadget is quoted as well, asking this pressing question: "How long before Ludacris's 'Area Code' ceases to make sense?" That's what we like about Peter: If it has to do with technology, he's on it.

Classic Seinfeld episode about Elaine changing her number and her horror at a 646 number: The Maid. Gothamist on having a 212 cellphone. And, naturally, Gothamist is intrigued by Tama Janowitz's book slated for a November release: Area Code 212: New York Days, New York Nights. And the FCC on Voice Over Internet Protocol and How Stuff Works break down how voice over IP really works.