Why Type When I Can Skype
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Throw out Yahoo! Messenger, if you're not using Skype, I'm no longer your "buddy" :P. I've tried voice chat before but nothing even as close to as good as this. I can't believe I've never heard (pardon the pun) of it before.
I plugged my headphones in, "called up" a friend and starting speaking at my laptop (there's a mic there somewhere though I've no idea where). The sound quality is astonishingly good. My friend might as well have been sitting next to me.
So I started calling up everyone I could. My brother travels a lot for work and has two kids and I figured it would be really useful for him. "brb (be right back)" he says so I start playing some of my newly ripped CDs as "hold music". When he got back I asked him what the sound quality was like. "I thought a CD had started playing on my computer" he replied.
Apparently you can have up to a 4-way chat. Though I've not tried, if you're prepared to pay, it allows you to make international, and possibly even local calls. I'd be interested to hear from anyone that has. And even better it has a text based IM client built in so if you like to type instead you can; though why would you bother, Jon? :P
The next bit is to work out how to get VNC working over a VPN across The 'Net so that James and I can do a bit of remote pair programming...mmmm
Now if only I could find a way to have multiple voice chat conversations going at once without having my brain explode. Oh well I guess it's a little too early to throw away the IM client after all. DOH!
Comments
i think i found you on skype :)
if you want to do pairing over the internet, buy a mac and check out SubEthaEdit.. http://www.codingmonkeys.de/subethaedit/
Posted by: peter royal | October 23, 2004 12:04 PM
Hey Peter. Just added you (I think). I've been using my new powerbook for about a week now. It's great. Still trying to get used to all the hot-key differences (especially in IntelliJ IDEA) and yet to find a decent virtual desktop manager but apart from that I love it.
Posted by: Simon Harris | October 23, 2004 01:56 PM
Amen to that. Skype is certainly impressive. I don't know if they are doing anything particularly hi-tech but it certainly seems to work nicely.
I have found even using it over a dial up connection can give decent (certainly much better then GSM mobile) quality. Only done it with one end dial up, the other broadband, so not sure if that is an issue...
Bring on IP6 support (everywhere) with QoS built in and the telcos have every reason to be nervous.
Posted by: Mic | October 23, 2004 08:53 PM
Hey Simon. A friend of mine has the paid version so that he can call home, internationally, and he has thrown away his discount calling card because he finds it so good. He's using it over broadband.
Posted by: smurfette | October 23, 2004 09:02 PM
that's right.. i remember you asking mac questions on irc :)
for virtual desktops, there's a free solution and a pay solution (and those are the only two solutions i know of)..
http://wsmanager.sourceforge.net/ (free)
http://www.codetek.com/ctvd/ (not free)
personally, i've been able to change my workflow to remove the need for 'em. expose has helped, as well as plugging in a second monitor while at the desk.
Posted by: peter royal | October 24, 2004 03:25 AM
Pam,
I may have to try it out if I go to Japan so it's good to know that it works.
Posted by: Simon Harris | October 24, 2004 10:20 AM
Peter,
I tried WSManager but the fact that I couldn't disable hot-keys screwed me up. It has so many of them that they were guaranteed to clash with some app that I run.
I'm trying Codetek now but it aint rockin' my world. The problem is I have: browsing, chat, coding, mail, multimedia, and terminals all open and doing stuff. Maybe I should just try expose and see if I can't modify my own workflow as you suggest. Unfortunately I don't have a second monitor. Mmmm those nice big, apple displays do look nice though ;-)
Posted by: Simon Harris | October 24, 2004 10:24 AM
My mom calls me from Canada through Skype and I can even hear people talking in the background. I'm sure Japan will be fine.
Conference calls are pretty choppy though, at least the last time I tried.
Posted by: Jason Yip | October 24, 2004 02:06 PM
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Simon,
You can configure IntelliJ to use the default (i.e., non-Mac) keymap - I switched over recently and find it much nicer than playing finger Twister trying to work out what Ctrl-Shift-Space becomes in Macland.
Look (somewhere) in the preferences and you should find the option.
I've been battling IntelliJ on a Mac for 4-5 months now, and I cannot believe how many rough edges it has compared to the version I run under Red Hat!
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Posted by: Andy Marks | October 25, 2004 04:12 PM
I really need your experties, I was trying to chat on skype on dial up connection. I can log in to Skype but can't conn ected to chat. Please help me?
Posted by: Gedion | November 23, 2007 11:04 AM