Tsk, tsk, all this typing. It's not really necessary anymore. Download
Skype 3.0 Beta from:
http://skype.com/download/skype/wind...ding_beta.html

You MUST be running Win2000 or WinXP on some kind of broadband, not
dialup, internet. Wifi works fine from the boat. The instructions, if
this is your first Skype install, are on the webpage. For those who have
Skype 1 or 2, simply turn them off and follow the directions to install
3.0b. I can find no bugs at all.

Now the good news.....

Skype 3 has "LIVE", a Live Chat mode! Just like a live typing chatroom,
except it's live VOICE! How cool is that? Click the LIVE tab on Skype
3.0b and it will download the current menu of open chats. Chatrooms are
listed for 5 hours, then disappear off the server, even if the chatroom
stays open for 10. It's the way they clear the server if the net gets
hosed. To pick a room to open, simply click the TALK/LISTEN green phone
on the right side of the room's line. Click "more info" to see what the
room is about, typed by the moderator who started it. ANYONE can be a
moderator, not just the chosen few. To be a moderator, you simply open a
new room and YOU'RE IT! The moderator can open the room up so that when
you logon everyone already can talk, but most rooms are setup so you must
click the request button (upper right corner) which switches you from a
LISTENER to AWAITING the moderator's click. The moderator simply kicks
off any troublemakers, temporarily or permanently. It's his chatroom,
after all.

Everyone who is a TALKER can all talk, in full duplex, at once...just as
if you were sitting around a table at your favorite bar. There is no
passing it around, different from what goes on at the table. Everyone
can hear everyone else...unless you press the MUTE button, a little
button at the lower left with a slash through a microphone....in case you
have to yell at the wife for more beer...or she starts yelling at you to
get off the damned computer and take out the garbage. The headphone
button allows you to adjust headphone volume, and take Skype off
automatic gain control on the mic to reduce background noise. EVERYONE
on a chat room like this should be running HEADPHONES, not speakers, to
make sure there are no echos.

Last night, I checked into a chat moderated by the guy who runs
911blog.org, which also had online (until almost 3AM) the last guy who
escaped the WTC, a couple of former firemen who are now not afraid of
being fired for talking about it, a couple of other 911 website operators
and quite a few interested parties. It was a very interesting chat with
the people who were really there with first-hand information about molten
column supports where metal was running like water and internal
explosions going off BELOW them.

Now, wouldn't it be interesting to have a BOATER live chat so we can all
hear how odd each other really sound....say, TONIGHT at 8PM? Get Skype
today and let's see how it goes.......Bring your own beverages, though...
(c;

Larry
--
Halloween candy sure has dropped in price, lately!