If we build it they will come: Cringely interviews Bob Frankston on why consumers must buy the "first mile" from their homes to the Internet, ripping away cable and telco firms ability to filter or tax your net access. Great read, it's just like talking to Bob but slowed down so you can follow all the points. via John Maas

Gizmodo bails on Skypecasts: quality issues. "Sorry listeners! There was a little bit of audio difficulty, as those of you who tuned in may have heard. We won't be using that service again."

Xeni Jardin of Boing Boing collects comments about Google Checkout's predatory pricing (below cost, subsidized by advertising) and content policies (more restrictive than eBay, tending toward "evil").

Real-Time Guardian blocks Skype, including Skype 2.5. Networking Pipeline tested it on a university campus. Detects supernodes too.

Lessons from the Collaborative Technology Conference:

1. Everything is coming from the bottom up.
2. Harness the collective intelligence of your organization or the Internet.
3. Let everything grow organically.
4. Let a few people lead and pull in everyone else along with them.
5. Move fast enough or else users will use free Internet services and bypass the IT department.

John Locke's tutorial: The EasyUbuntu installer puts Skype on your Ubuntu Linux desktop.

Yahoo!: more like human activity and less like software. What happens when you embrace opening wide your business and systems and embrace long tail of customer behavior.

Daniel Aleksandersen's tutorial: more Skype presence formatting ideas for web designers.

Hip Telecom offers a net2phone based softphone, giving Brazil's two million Skypers a choice, says one blogger.

WaPo reviews the wireless DUALphone. Pick up the handset and dial via POTS or Skype, your choice. Are Skype's partners reshaping it as a telephony replacement service? IP Democracy: "Isn't it only a matter of time when new developments, such as this dual-mode Skype phone, make customers rethink their cable or even plain-old-telephone voice packages to pay only 1/12 the annual expense for phone service?"

Jeff Pulver on the US FCC's USF tax for VoIP order. How a regulatory body screws with the new guys at the behest of legacy telcos. Sure to hurt many VoIP customers. Read the Order (pdf, 150 pages) for details.

Some of the top search terms leading to Skype Journal: emoticons, video, sip, record, symbian, voipbuster.

Google All goes live.