Do you Skype?

[beloitpiper]

In Ireland, I bought a $5 microphone and signed up with Skype to keep in touch with friends back in the US...now I use it to talk to my friends in Ireland!

But it is great. I've talked to Hamish and Steve, and (besides $5 for a microphone) the whole thing is free.

[Alan H]

I recently installed skype on three faculty laptops and the Biochem CORE checkout laptop. I did it because we had a small conference, but unfortunately one of the invited speakers couldn't attend at the last possible minute. He had skype on his laptop.

so what we did was set up two laptops in the room, one pointed at the primary projection screen and the podium, the other pointed out into the room at the audience. I hooked up the one pointed to the audience to a second projection screen. The speaker who couldn't be there connected to both of the laptops in the room, and I set it up so that his face showed up on the second screen. Thus, everybody in the room could seen him. About 5-6 other people dialed in and did "conference calling" with skype and "attended" the seminar. One was in New York (I'm in California) It went quite well.

In the process of doing this, I liked it so much that I installed it on my own laptop. It works like a charm.

for the "Make a Kilt Day" in October I'm afraid this isn't going to work unless I can find space with a blazing fast network. The church's old dual-modem mini-router doesn't quite have the oomph to handle the traffic. If that's where we wind up, I'll videotape the day and make an imovie project out of it and post it.

Back to skype. It's painless to use, and works like a charm. It also EATS time...LOL....the temptation to yakk all day long is strong. We just had a three-way call between Panache and the Wizard of BC and x-kilt (me). With the free version you don't get video in your conference call, that's limited to the "paid" version. However, you can get video with a one-to-one connection on the freebie version.

[ccga3359]

I have thought about it, but then the computer would need an audio card, speaker, and microphone, plus possibly a web cam. All of these need space, which in this closet are currently at a premium.

It's possible you already have audio (do you hear the windows startup music or the critical error chime?) and some monitors have built in speakers. My new laptop is capable of Skype right out of the box with built in speakers, mic and webcam.

[Kiltman]

We have Skype too. It was great to visit our son and his wife in Sacramento and talk to and see our daughter and her husband in Switzerland.

[emolas]

I started using Skype a few years back when my work sent me to Bulgaria. It was the only cost-effective way to call my children since it was well over $1US/minute on the telephone but only $.03US to use Skype and call a real phone (Skype to Skype was free). I still have it installed but I haven't used it in a long time.

[Fox]

My fiance and I actually Skype each other from our respective play rooms. It beats yelling across the house and very useful for sharing links like those to XMarks photos etc...

[cessna152towser]

The Wizard of BC introduced me to Skype last week. But so far he is the only person I have chatted to on Skype.

I have thought about it, but then the computer would need an audio card, speaker, and microphone, plus possibly a web cam. All of these need space, which in this closet are currently at a premium.

I do not have a speaker on my computer but all it needed, as the Wizard of BC explained, was a small headset and videocam. The add on package with those items was available from my local Morrisons supermarket for just £10.

[ccga3359]

The Wizard of BC introduced me to Skype last week. But so far he is the only person I have chatted to on Skype.

I do not have a speaker on my computer but all it needed, as the Wizard of BC explained, was a small headset and videocam. The add on package with those items was available from my local Morrisons supermarket for just £10.

A videocam is not actually needed but does add another dimension, I've yet to use mine in conversation. I thought that Skype was another option with vBulletin (our forum software) but has not been launched.

BTW my Skype ID is: ccga3359 (big whoop-te-do, eh?)

[Sheep In Wolf's Clothing]

Alright I jumped on the band wagon. I have it installed on my home computer, but I live in the last century and use dial-up. I have only test called and I can't seem to get my sound working right. I fixed my firewall, but I still think things are amiss. Has anyone used skype on dial up and is it worth keeping if all I have is dial up??
Sara
who is off to go mess with it some more..
skype: sara.easter

[Sheep In Wolf's Clothing]

Thanks to Grant I now know it works!!! It's not bad on dial up (after the computer user pluged in her other speakers!)
Hey I really like it..
Thanks again Grant!
Sara
who see most of her free time going to playing with Skype