Skype Me

I used to suffer from Early Adopter Disorder (a condition that I am morally certain will be rigorously defined in a future revision of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders... according to Everett Rogers' definition, I would have been an Innovater, rather than an Early Adopter, but we'll let the psychologists sort the definitions out later.)

Anyway, I used to require the latest and greatest and newest of everything, and lived on out the technological bleeding edge. I have the scars, and the expensive graveyard of utterly useless hardware and software (dedicated eBook readers! worthless PDAs of every description! enough abandoned cellphones to outfit the posse of an up-and-coming rap artist!) to prove it.

I've calmed down considerably, and now I let other people do the product-testing as a general rule.

Well, I've been hearing about this Skype thing for quite some time now. It's a voice-over-IP application, meaning in plain language that you can make free "phone calls" over the Internet(s) to other Skype users, and can use Skype to call just about anyone in the developed world with a regular landline or cell phone for 1 Eurocent (about 2 cents U.S.) a minute. The software itself is free; their business model is to charge you for making calls to non-Skype users, and to offer extras like voicemail and a dialin number for an annual subscription fee.

As a Recovering Early Adopter, even though the software was free, I was dubious.

Now that they've hit a hundred million downloads, however, I felt safe to approach it.

It works pretty damned well. The audio quality is amazing.

My Skype ID is "enrevanche." If you're a Skype user, and notice me online, hit me up.