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Skype Founder Interviewed On Engadget

prostoalex writes "Niklas Zennström, the ever-elusive CEO of Skype, is interviewed by Engadget. Turns out Skype currently has more than 13 mln users in 200+ countries. The interview also discusses the future of Skype and VOIP applications in general."

14 of 190 comments (clear)

  1. Skype = today's Ham Radio for everybody :-) by ivi · · Score: 5, Informative
    I got into Ham Radio as a kid...

    Besides access to a lot of cool technologies, it offerred one of the only places around where you could go & call out (albeit cryptically):

    "Hey, anybody out there wanna talk to me right now?"

    Of course, there were many more males prepared to jump the entry hurdles into Ham Radio, then as now.

    But, today, we have Skype... Since September 2004, I've had the pleasure of meeting:

    - a plastic surgeon (from India) in Israel

    - a Palestinian woman in Jordan

    - a Swedish-speaking student in the Far North of Sweden, with whom to practice my Swedish

    I've also used a Kenwood TS-2000 HF / VHF / UHF transceiver remotely (it's a bit like the now dated JavaRadio, but with Transmit Capabilities for licensed Hams). ... all via Skype!

    ALL I NEED TO KNOW IS:

    What do I need to provide so as to be able to use Skype exclusively on an Intranet?

    Has anybody done this -without- an Internet connection? ;-/

  2. Re:What about 911? by MoralHazard · · Score: 4, Informative

    "We use Skype mostly, and mobile phones to receive calls from people not on Skype."

    Miss Cleo told me that they use mobile phones to call 911.

    No, really--did you even read that quote you cut-n-paste'd?

  3. Re:My poor Linux by dark-br · · Score: 2, Informative

    I've been using it for quite some time and i didn't notice anything unusual about the system.

    And mind you, i don't ware a tinfoil hat but i've runned lsof, tcpdump, etherreal, netstat and so on on the quest to find any suspicious behavior.

    The only problem with skype is that it will decrese your telefone bill but it will *rocket sky* your telefone time :/ Can't get mummy out of that microfone! Damn!

  4. Re:My poor Linux by NerdENerd · · Score: 2, Informative

    They invented the fasttrck network and not the spyware infested Kazaa as we know it today. Skype is Spyware free and is also a fantastic piece of software. I am in regular contact with a few of my friends overseas no that we all use Skype as we often talk whenever we see each other online. Before Skype we very rarely used the landline to chat. Skype also just works. Doens't matter if you are behind NAT it just works without any port fowarding or configuration. Trying to get the audio option to work on MSN messanger is a nightmare and just not worth it if one or especially both of you are behind NAT.

  5. Re:Mobility by Sinus0idal · · Score: 4, Informative

    There is a skype for pocket pc as long as you are in range of wifi...

  6. Re:Comments on skype by Nomeko · · Score: 2, Informative

    Shit.. I didn't mean skype's transmission though.. I haven't had one problem with skypes transmission since I started using it. It is way better than normal phonecards which lag for up to 30 seconds..

    (Just barely passed a midterm in a foreign language, thus I am a bitt high on nerves and word myself badly.. Please forgive me)

  7. Re:My poor Linux by OzRoy · · Score: 4, Informative

    From the FAQ
    http://www.skype.com/help/faq/index.html

    Does Skype contain any advertising or spyware?
    No.

  8. The Ericsson exchanges have redundancy built in by 3770 · · Score: 2, Informative


    I've worked for Ericsson and the exchanges they had 20 years ago had redundancy built in and their own powersource.

    If you took out the whole building (flood, tornado, bomb) you'd lose your line. But it was still pretty resilient.

    --
    The Internet is full. Go Away!!!
  9. Re:200+ countries ? by blether · · Score: 3, Informative

    There are 247 countries as far as internet domains are concerned. It all depends on who's counting.

  10. Re:What I dont get... by Wesley+Felter · · Score: 2, Informative

    Skype has several cool features: a distributed directory, bulletproof NAT/firewall traversal, hard crypto, etc. All of these things are understood in theory and may have even been demonstrated, but actually making it all work is obviously not easy.

  11. Huge problems with SkypeOut by PhiRatE · · Score: 2, Informative

    They've had enormous issues with SkypeOut, related to people being able to pay. Check the forums, there's no end of bitching about their CC clearing company. I never even managed to get so much as $10 worth of credit, despite correct CCV and everything, it just decided to decline to serve me.

    The support leaves a great deal to be desired as well, they seem badly informed about this issue in particular and utterly unable to provide any kind of solution to the problem short of hoping your get bored and go away. I suspect that until they put some serious pressure on the people validating the credit cards for them, it will be more of the same.

    I can use my CC to purchase stuff all over the 'net, but not 10 measly dollars of SkypeOut credit.

    --
    You can't win a fight.
  12. Re:Bloated by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    They don't, If you paid any attention at all, you would have realized that the application relies on a fast track network infastructure not Kaza, nor is it in anyway associate with kaza, the fast track network software and kaza are 2 seperate programs.

  13. Re:I'd use Skype if by brentl · · Score: 2, Informative

    They (or somebody) sold a cordless handset.

    VPT1000

    You still have to plug it into a computer, but you can make (and recieve) calls with the handset. There's more skype realted stuff on pcphoneline.com.

  14. Re:Skype = today's Ham Radio for everybody :-) by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    http://www.asterisk.org

    YOU. DO. NOT. WANT. SKYPE. For internal use. Asterisk is a full featured softswitch/pbx and can use *ANY* SIP client device (dozens of softphones out there, and tons of hardware).

    FYI iirc skype uses the speex codec, which asterisk supports (and so do many softphones).