Fight the Fight

Yes, I’ve been neglecting my blogging duties… But other than Mr. San Diego, many have been neglecting their commenting duties. It’s web 2.0 – user interaction is the point. There, I said it…

Things have been quite odd without a wife around. Sure, it’s kind of like being the king of the castle, but things are better when we’re not apart.

But I’ve posted all the images on Flickr that I’m going to right now from my journey abroad. Right now, there’s only 32 posted of the hundreds I did take, but a few may trickle in over the next months and years. Maybe not…

I am going to be writing a longer blog that is something I started thinking about over there that is still running around in my head. It’s thoughts and observations about the cultural differences in how architecture and public monuments are treated. I found it to be very interesting thing to think about. But I’m a geek like that I guess.

And lastly I will take this opportunity to give a glowing endorsement of Skype. This is a flavor of VoIP much like Vonage or other services offered by your cable or phone companies.

Allow me to explain for those that don’t know. VoIP is a manner of talking to others using your computer as the tool instead of the phone. The advantage of Skype over other manners of VoIP is that at its core, Skype is free.

Remember that… It’s FREE.

Once you download the software, you can text, voice, or video chat with anyone else in the world. FREE! What you need to do the voice / video is a microphone, speakers / headphones, and a webcam (optional).

Then there’s some paid options. Things like for $29.99 a year you can make unlimited calls to anywhere in the US or Canada. If you want to call overseas, you buy an amount of credits that go towards a set rate. I was talking to Vic in France for about $0.021 per minute. I couldn’t find a better deal.

But halfway through Vic’s time in France, she got internet access and downloaded Skype. The jump in quality of the voice transmission was amazing. It wasn’t like talking on a phone at all.

No, I have no interest in selling the service to anyone… I’m just amazed at the quality for the free services. I totally recommend it to anyone with a capable computer and Internet connection.