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Just got a funny automated email from Skype, reminding me to use up my Skype credits before they expire. But I’ve used up my credits long, long ago…

Hi there dlnorman ,

It appears that you haven't used any of your Skype Credit for a while now.
Skype expires inactive credit balances and you have 30 days left to take
action to keep your credit.

Your account details:

Skype Name: dlnorman
Balance: CAD 0.00
Expiry date: 2007-01-29 00:00:00+01

I’ll be sure I use that credit up. Maybe I’ll call nobody, for zero minutes. That should just about do it. Phew!

I just got an email from my dad telling me about this cool new audio tool he found for making phone calls on the computer for free. Skype, he says, sounds pretty cool.

My dad is turning 70 this year, and really enjoys tinkering with his iMac. He’s got a (now aging) blueberry iMac, and it’s tricked out with extra RAM and MacOSX 10.3.

And he’s finding stuff like Skype.

So, I just added him to my contacts list, and we played around a bit. I called him on Skype Out, and he was pretty impressed. I’m even more impressed that he’s able to find and use these things, and that he actually gets it. I hope I’m still doing new things when I’m 70… (woah – just realized I’m just over half way there.. )

I told him about how we’ve been using Skype for the Pachyderm project, and he was impressed that it worked so well. He’s planning to use it to keep in touch with my brother Kevin (in Manila), and some family in Vancouver. At 2 cents per minute, it’s a heck of a deal…

I was just chatting with Joshua Archer and we tried out Skype. It looks really promising, but we didn’t get to have an actual conversation over it because I didn’t have headphones, and the feedback from my powerbook’s internal microphone was pretty nasty.

Assuming the addition of headphones clears that up, this should be a great addition to our suite of collaboration tools (and would wind up getting a spot in our potential NMC 2005 session in June…)

So, I’m building up my Skype contacts list… If you use Skype, let me know what your account name is, and I’ll add you.

Oh, I’m dlnorman on Skype…

UPDATE: I’ve had 2 Skype calls today. The first was with Josh, and it was basically unusable. Feedback that built up in a couple of seconds to sound like a team of wild horses galloping through the room. The second call was with Tim Wang, and it sounded as good or better than a regular long distance phone call. We were both using the “stock” microphone and speakers in our laptops, so I’m not sure why it was working better with Tim than Josh… But if Skype calls sound that good, then, well, DAMN! Bring it on!

UPDATE: I had several Skype requests waiting for me when I got in this morning. Unfortunately, Skype conveniently crashed after adding the first one… And I don’t know if it keeps a record of requests anywhere. So, if you sent me a request, and I didn’t respond, it’s not personal Please send it again…