Friday, August 27, 2010

more purple and fatheaded than usual

Skype, which I've downloaded to my computer, has proven quite useful now that I no longer have my cell phone. With a fast computer, it actually makes better sense to use Skype than to make long-distance or international calls by more conventional means. I've made only Skype-to-Skype calls, which keeps the calls free of charge. Skype allows one to communicate three ways: via IM/chat, via audio-only, and via video-plus-audio. The latter option doesn't even require that you have a webcam, if you're OK with seeing the caller even though he can't see you.

In the video mode, Skype shows your caller in a resizable window, and also displays you as a tiny picture-in-picture in the corner of that window. In my case, for whatever reason, my image glows purple. And my head, already huge, looks even bigger in the PiP window.

Flicking your tongue while on Skype can be interesting for your interlocutor: if the frequency of flicking doesn't quite match up with the video frame rate, you appear to have Magic Tongue. This was not, alas, a discovery I made while Skyping with a beautiful woman; it was one of my brothers who alerted me.

In an age of unreasonably huge phone bills, Skype is a nice alternative. Given the state of most computer tech today, Skype is easy to install and easy to use. And keep in mind that Skype calls are free, as long as they're Skype-to-Skype.


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2 comments:

hahnak said...

hey just letting you know ive been using skype now for a month and i love it as well. ive been trying google voice, just to see what its like. i like it so far. though given the fact that you dont like phones, skype is probably just enough. plus voice doesnt work in korea (yet. no idea if there are plans to do so though)

Kevin Kim said...

Why doesn't Google Voice work in Korea? Shouldn't it be enough to download the program and have an Internet connection?

(Or is there some sort of piracy issue, such as the one that blocks Hulu from being accessed by Korean IP addresses? People get so touchy about data transfer.)