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One of the economies we adopted a long time ago was to abandon telco long-distance service. Those attractive plans that promise unlimited calling for only $x.99 per month are always quoted sans tax, which, once added to the base tariff, always seems to boost the monthly cost into the low stratosphere. As a result, we now use an AT&T calling card that provides LD service for about 1.7 cents per minute, at the additional inconvenience of having to press a couple of extra pre-programmed buttons when dialing long distance from the house.
Yesterday, however, for the first time that I'd noticed, the AT&T service didn't work very well. I tried calling the house in Pearland a couple of times and never got through, though I got some interesting error messages. As I was calling Galina back (to avoid spending cell minutes on both ends) and really needed to get through, I tried calling via Skype (out of necessity), and lo! made the connection.
There's a new version of the Skype software out there, which "centralizes" one's contact lists (so if you log in from a different machine, you still have all your contacts at hand) and further, will analyze your local "address book" and search for Skype users among your email contacts.
The first feature is very convenient, surely, but by the same token, you lose control over who has access to your list of contacts. In and of itself, this should not really matter (I can easily imagine the chorus "Whassamattabuddy, you got sumfin' to hide, huh?" from the peanut gallery), but it is yet another paper cut in the "death of a thousand cuts" that is being exacted upon privacy in the world today.
The second feature works, sort of. By that, I mean that after your local address book is opened and compared against the Skype user base, you are presented with a list of Skype users who may not necessarily be the people you know (they may, for example, merely share the same first and last names of your contacts). Therefore, blindly clicking on "OK" when asked to add these folks to your contact list is probably not a good idea. Still, this feature uncovered three potential Skype contacts (two of which are among my LJ friends).
In other Skype news, I've collected two short Skype voicemails from someone in Siberia over the past several days. Hardly anything is said by the caller, which sure beats the situation I experienced with some landline calls back in 1997 (but that's another story).
Gotta get back to work.
Cheers...
Yesterday, however, for the first time that I'd noticed, the AT&T service didn't work very well. I tried calling the house in Pearland a couple of times and never got through, though I got some interesting error messages. As I was calling Galina back (to avoid spending cell minutes on both ends) and really needed to get through, I tried calling via Skype (out of necessity), and lo! made the connection.
There's a new version of the Skype software out there, which "centralizes" one's contact lists (so if you log in from a different machine, you still have all your contacts at hand) and further, will analyze your local "address book" and search for Skype users among your email contacts.
The first feature is very convenient, surely, but by the same token, you lose control over who has access to your list of contacts. In and of itself, this should not really matter (I can easily imagine the chorus "Whassamattabuddy, you got sumfin' to hide, huh?" from the peanut gallery), but it is yet another paper cut in the "death of a thousand cuts" that is being exacted upon privacy in the world today.
The second feature works, sort of. By that, I mean that after your local address book is opened and compared against the Skype user base, you are presented with a list of Skype users who may not necessarily be the people you know (they may, for example, merely share the same first and last names of your contacts). Therefore, blindly clicking on "OK" when asked to add these folks to your contact list is probably not a good idea. Still, this feature uncovered three potential Skype contacts (two of which are among my LJ friends).
In other Skype news, I've collected two short Skype voicemails from someone in Siberia over the past several days. Hardly anything is said by the caller, which sure beats the situation I experienced with some landline calls back in 1997 (but that's another story).
Gotta get back to work.
Cheers...
