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I finally got the VAIO fitted out with a headset and microphone and chatted with LJ friend ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
auto194419 via Skype. I was favorably impressed with the quality of the call, and especially the brevity of the delay when speaking with someone 10 time zones away. There are times, when speaking over the conventional phone network, that the circuit appears to get routed though a satellite, which makes the delay quite noticeable.
I decided to risk 10€ and buy some SkypeOut credit, which allows one to place calls to landline phones. Apparently, the call stays "inside" the Internet until somewhere close to the destination phone, at which point the rest of the call is accomplished using the conventional phone network. This setup reminds me of an early electronic mail service called MCI Mail, where one of the alternatives one could choose when sending a document was to have it printed out at (or near) its destination and sent the rest of the way by surface mail.
My first SkypeOut call was to the store, as it was too late to call my sister-in-law in Moscow. The quality of the call was excellent (i.e., just as good as my call toauto194419), and I'd guess that the delay was about the same as the call overseas. Two cents per minute is not the lowest price available, but it's pretty close.
* * * This morning, I translated two of four files due midday tomorrow. I had to interrupt my work when the electricity went out at the house at about the same time I heard a loud pop outside, some distance away. I suspect the heavy, water-laden snow that fell last night probably got the better of the transformer that supplies our neck of the woods. (Upon stopping by the house about an hour ago, the power was back on...)
Time to button up the computer. I'm at the store, waiting for Drew to come back with Huntür, who (a) wants to have a look at some stray cats Drew found earlier today (The humane society has a health-related moratorium in place on accepting cats), and (b) has a letter waiting for her from Kazakhstan, sent by her grandfather (A whole 12 days transit time? What is the world coming to?)
Cheers...
auto194419 via Skype. I was favorably impressed with the quality of the call, and especially the brevity of the delay when speaking with someone 10 time zones away. There are times, when speaking over the conventional phone network, that the circuit appears to get routed though a satellite, which makes the delay quite noticeable.I decided to risk 10€ and buy some SkypeOut credit, which allows one to place calls to landline phones. Apparently, the call stays "inside" the Internet until somewhere close to the destination phone, at which point the rest of the call is accomplished using the conventional phone network. This setup reminds me of an early electronic mail service called MCI Mail, where one of the alternatives one could choose when sending a document was to have it printed out at (or near) its destination and sent the rest of the way by surface mail.
My first SkypeOut call was to the store, as it was too late to call my sister-in-law in Moscow. The quality of the call was excellent (i.e., just as good as my call to
auto194419), and I'd guess that the delay was about the same as the call overseas. Two cents per minute is not the lowest price available, but it's pretty close. Time to button up the computer. I'm at the store, waiting for Drew to come back with Huntür, who (a) wants to have a look at some stray cats Drew found earlier today (The humane society has a health-related moratorium in place on accepting cats), and (b) has a letter waiting for her from Kazakhstan, sent by her grandfather (A whole 12 days transit time? What is the world coming to?)
Cheers...
