We'll be blogging lightly this week. Bill is sick, so is my computer (blue screen after blue screen), Stuart is travelling and Martin's overwhelmed by Baby Geddes. Tips are most welcome.

I have four more passes to O'Reilly's Emerging Telephony Conference to give away. Please leave a comment or Skype me with your contact info and I'll pass them along this week. If you're coming to San Francisco 24-26 January, please let us know; we should have an eBay/Skype dinner. You can still get a 40% discount when you use the code "etel06sms" to register.

Of interest:

• Skype seems to trigger Intel and AMD cpu errors, easily recovered from but preventable if Skype engineers had been using new computers.
  
• Days since Saul promised to call Bill: 28.
  
• Not a Mac guy, I didn't know you can convert skype voicemail messages to mp3s using Audio Hijack Pro. Thanks, Language Lab Unleashed.
  
• SKMAP: Skype status icon on Google Map. Nice mashup. Thanks, Jan.
  
• IM This Page. Nice mockup and explanation on flickr for Skype's browser toolbar wishlist.
  
• How to configure Skype for a portable USB drive. In Japanese with screenshots. Don't miss the extensive thread at PortableApps.com for instructions in English.
  
• Reason of the Day to use Skype video: "I’m looking forward to seeing the 2006 calendar that features Czech politicians’ heads grafted onto famous works of art." by Rabbits, Toyen, and so forth
  

Tag : etel

In case you haven’t heard of me, my name’s Kevin Delaney. I’m the co-founder and head of project management at KhaosLabs and an occasional author over here at Skype Journal. I’m really excited to announce a new product that my team has been working on for the last little while. MapMe for Skype is a free plugin that connects your Skype contact list with technology from Google Maps. You can

• calculate distances between your contacts,
• map incoming SkypeIn calls,
• find users in your area and much more.

We’re looking for 50-100 testers for our initial closed Beta program. Please sign up for the Beta if you:

• Use any version of Skype since 1.1
• Use Windows 2000 or XP
• have the Microsoft .NET Framework v1.1 (we can help you get it)
• Decent technical knowledge
• Live in the USA or Canada

We are not able to extend MapMe for Skype outside of Canada and the US due to technical limits. More countries will be seen soon. If you’re still interested, but live in other parts of the world, sign up for notification.

If you have suggestions or comments for us, please email info@khaoslabs.com.