Skype

[ffutures]

After a lot of hesitation I've decided to uninstall Skype - I'm not using it very often, and I think it's slowing my PC quite a bit. If there isn't much improvement I might eventually reinstall it, but for now at least the account is off line.

Comments

[speakr2customrs.livejournal.com]

At work I often take calls that are being made with Skype; the experience has left me with a deep and abiding hatred of it, and I wouldn't use it myself if I was paid large sums to do so. The call quality is so abysmal that whatever it might save the customers on call charges will be outweighed a thousand times over by the enormously extended call lengths and by the catastrophic mistakes that happen over and over again because of us not being able to understand what they are saying.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

I've never found it that bad quality-wise; it's more its effect on startup speed, and on the reliability of the PC in general. I'm leaving it on my laptop pro tem, in case I need to make a call while travelling, and I may reinstall it when Virgin upgrade my line to 10 mb (which they've promised for the summer).

[epocalypse.livejournal.com]

Personally I usually have mine switched off 90% of the time, running it only when I want to make a call. I've only got two Skype contacts anyway.

[speakr2customrs.livejournal.com]

Ever used it for an international call? Or, more pertinently, been called internationally by someone using Skype? Someone calling from Switzerland with Skype sounds like someone calling from an echo chamber in Swaziland on a normal phone. Someone calling from Swaziland on Skype sounds like someone using a normal phone from a tin hut in Antarctica in the middle of an elephant seal colony, in mating season, while Mount Erebus is erupting and the katabatic wind speeds are topping a hundred and thirty miles an hour.

[gonzo21.livejournal.com]

You know, I wondered if that was just me.

Is it not the same technology though, to call internationally as it would be to call domestically?

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

No, never used it internationally - most of the calls I've had have been from the London area, which makes it a bit pointless anyway. Having said that, I know that at least one friend is making regular Skype calls to the USA and Korea without problems. I suppose it depends on the infrastructure and routing.

[trinfaneb.livejournal.com]

Skype should use your bit in its advertising. It may not paint a pretty picture, but it is entertaining :)

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

That's why I'm leaving it on the laptop.