Tag Archives: Portable software

Wire Mesh and Lost Souls

You have to love the Internet. It brings you into contact with all sorts of unusual people, the likes of which I haven’t encountered since my days of being driven by tuk-tuk around the sois of 1980s Bangkok. Here’s Linda, for example, who just asked to be my buddy on Skype, introducing herself thus: Me!… Read More »

VOX Rocks (Not)

Unless you’re a real masochist, I wouldn’t bother installing the latest add-on for Skype, VoxLib (Windows only, sorry). It’s a nice idea, insofaras I can understand it, but it sure messes up your system. VOX in theory allows you to make Skype (and SkypeOut) calls via any telephone. It gets complicated, and it certainly didn’t… Read More »

A Chip off the Old Flock

Flock, which I wrote about a few months back, is now in public beta (meaning ordinary folks can use it without too much weeping). TechCrunch carries an interview with the folks behind it. What’s so good about it? Well, it’s all about trying to build Web 2.0 into the browser, so the browser isn’t so… Read More »

The Presence Problem

Steve Smith of Lavalife makes a good point about the surge of new products which extend the use of Skype beyond the desktop. Great for mobility and wider access, bad for one of the key benefits that IM-related programs like Skype bring us: presence. (Presence merely means being able to signal whether you’re online, whether… Read More »