We had a good time today playing with Ashod's new video technology mulwigi1

Don't be fooled by the exceptional quality. I selected the best pic. (grin) To my right is Ben in Sweden, Carlo in Denmark and Willem in the Netherlands.

This should only played with by video geeks who have 300 kbs upload bandwidth. This is not server based. It is Peer 2 Peer. My CPU utilization... ... continue reading.....

I keep getting Chat Messages requesting information to help people select a webcam. I keep recommending the Logitech 4000 Pro along with some words about why. Do people listen? Sure they go off listening to their wallet. (grin)

This picture should tell the story. Carlo bought a new webcam.

It is dark in Denmark. Carlo had to have a light shining in his face as well as the ceiling... ... continue reading.....

CEO Niklas will be there to give the keynote. In the flesh! No failed video broadcast to fail as happened in VON Boston. Or failed DVD presentation as happened Skype Night in Palo Alto, California.

Go here to see the agenda.

Thanks to Skype Staffer in Japan, Vince Shortino, for this bit of news. He is an US mid-westerner located in Tokyo. Vince is the guy who... ... continue reading.....

A few months back Hawking Technologies introduced a device they called a Broadband Booster.

My first thought; snake oil. After reading, I thought; well maybe not.

While I was in a conversation with Andrew Sheppard, the author of Skype Hacks a new book to be published by OReilly Media Inc.

Andrew mentioned he would be testing... ... continue reading.....

I want to call again for the designers of the Skype API to provide a mecanism for developers to read and write to the audio and, someday soon, the video data streams. This lets programmers create real-time apps that augment conversation. For example:

• Apply noise reduction algorithms to quiet background sounds
• Mix in audio to create a background ambience
• Look up product profiles from recognized barcodes
• Recognize spoken language and pipe...

Why not nominate Nominate Skype Journal for the second annual Blog-X awards for technical blogs?

Skype had a few bugs of the security kind, reported them, fixed them, and you should probably download a free update from Skype.com. Via Share Skype blog earlier today. Kudos to Skype for prompt and letter perfect customer care. Here's the original post in full...

Hi, I'm Phil Wolff, Editor of Skype Journal.

We're spread thin covering the revolution. Can you help?

We're the romantics and the cynics, the engineers and the coolhunters. And we're building a publication with a large and loyal following. (681k pages served in September, and growing rapidly since we started in March 2005).

If you can find news and make sense of it,... ... continue reading.....

Skype Gift Certificates came out of beta testing yesterday. You can use your Skype credits to pay for someone else's Skype products.

While they make fine holiday gifts, there are a few limits in this early release. Not everyone can buy a gift certificate: you must be a Skype user, your account must be in good standing (at least with Skype's credit department), you must have been using your Skype account for three... ... continue reading.....

There’s been a lot of press in the last year or so about port blocking, open access, Net Freedoms, and so on. I won’t provide the links, you go find ‘em. Every forum, mailing list, conference, and discussion panel seems to have a lot of heated opinion about it. Although I couldn’t attend the VON sessions, there was heated debate there between the... ... continue reading.....

Ten fingers, ten toes. Mazel tov!

The Skype Forum is buzzing with commentary on Tom Berson's security white paper. Most of it from sidewalk superintendents. Here and here.

I thought I would find an industry specialist to talk with.

Please meet Michael Gough.

Security consultant, trainer, author.

Michael, what were your first thoughts when you read Tom Berson’s white paper on Skype Security?

“Nothing custom; nothing home grown....

Finally we have the word of a third party security consultant Tom Berson, who has reviewed the Skype source code and encryption system.

His bottom line:

The designers of Skype did not hesitate to employ cryptography widely and well in order to establish a foundation of trust, authenticity, and confidentiality for their peer-to-peer services. The implementers of Skype implemented the cryptographic functions correctly and efficiently. As a result, the confidentiality of a...

Ebay

Steve Dzemidzenka tips us to an ISP-Planet interview with a company that offers pay-per-call advertising on Ebay (vs. pay-per-click); a great read and with one or two insights into models Skype may enable. A related AP story: Online ads... ... continue reading.....

They are not really advertisements, but they are pretty close. I find them very annoying.

Here is one example:

Others are more pushy regarding buying of Skype's service.

Skype has a new president. Rajiv Dutta. He has a very challenging job ahead of him.

Axcess News reports..

Rajiv Dutta, eBay's chief financial officer, will transition to the new role of president of Skype after his successor is named. Dutta will work with Skype CEO Niklas Zennstrom and Whitman on Skype's growth and integration across eBay and PayPal.

Follow the commentary on Skype' Forum here.

Rajiv Dutta's Background.

Skype has a video for developers who want to understand the Certification process.

This should be of extreme interest for any developer who wants to monetize their effort in Skypeland.

Skype Staffer John Hammink, the man behind the Skype Certification process, is interviewd in this 14 minute 10 MB Video download.

He covers some good points that will help you save some time and money getting... ... continue reading.....

October 20,2004 was an exciting day for Skype and Skype users.

The excitement can be felt in this Forum Post as Skype hit one million concurrent users online.

I suspect tomorrow or Thursday Skype will hit four million.

That is quite a phenomenal growth curve.

Exclusive to Skype Journal. “Festoon”, not vSkype”, says Itizk Cohen, the new CEO of Santa Cruz Networks. “We have a new product name and a new CEO”, Itzik grinned.

“We are putting fun into video conferencing. We are creating eye candy for our video conferencing application Just like Skype adds expressive media content with its ring tones and buttons”.

Product Manager, Sam Baron walked me through Festoon’s new “Eye Candy”. “When... ... continue reading.....

I signed the FedEx hand held. Slit open the package. There was the label I needed to see: Skype Certified. What a relief. I know Skype serves millions of free minutes every day, but I think an equal number of minutes are wasted by users testing pre-pre-close-to-beta Skype add-ons!

Thanks, IPEVO. IPEVO is a US sub of Taiwan Skype Partner PC Home.

The name means IP every where and helping you... ... continue reading.....

Not nice news from InformationWeek.

We should all know better. There is only one place to download Skype. Clever cons.

For Skype Groups Administrators with a good credit history with SkypeOut you can now use credit cards.

Good going Skype Staff! Announcement made here today.

Skype Groups allows you to adminster credit for multiple SkypeOut accounts.

Try it. Free and very handy for Family or Business!

Stuart Henshall's post, "megatwork on Skype", provoked an anonymous comment:

I really don't think that Meg appreciates you referring to her by her Skype name. That's really unfair for you to do to her, as she most likely will get bombarded by auth requests or chat messages.

Do you want to try out "voice services"? You can Skype Tellme and try getting directions or making travel plans. All you need to do is call the Skype name "tellmeonskype". Do you want to sign up as a developer? Go here..

And for fun, you can also add "tellmeonskype" as another Skype contact, calling this buddy will connect you to Tellme's 800.555.TELL...

How will eBay integrate Skype into their business? How will eBay train their category managers in developing Skype programs? How will "megatwork" put an employee Skype ID on every desktop? What has to be done at eBay to adopt Skype 100% as their core communications platform. Will it result in eBay throwing out their PBX?

I'd like to believe that eBay management is throwing almost revolutionary... ... continue reading.....

Sweet. Go to your Skype account page. Sign in. Buy, buy, buy. SkypeOut, SkypeIn or VM.

It is a good idea. Should be a hot item this Christmas.

For more details check here.