Thursday 3 March 2005

Pic of the day: Big headphones, almost invisible microphone. That's just the kind of guy I am now. You wouldn't have thought this when I was small.

Thinking of SKYPE

I have looked into this Skype thing, the quick Internet telephony. If you already have headphones and a microphone, you only need to download the program. You can then "phone" to other people who also use Skype. If you want to phone to ordinary telephones, you have to pay. So it is not a replacement if you want to call over to the neighbor, especially not for those who have free local calls. But since the Internet is present more or less equally all over the civilized world, the price for calling to telephones is also the same (and quite reasonable). So if you have friends in other countries, and you don't have a very very generous employer, you want Skype.

(Note to my Norwegian readers: Installasjon og klargjering av Skype brukar norske hjelpetekstar. Du treng ikkje snakke engelsk i Skype. ^^)

I would have used it myself if I had anyone to talk to. But I don't particularly like talking. I like listening, but I prefer writing over talking. It is partly a matter of habit, but it is a good habit: To think about what I try to say, rather than just spill my thoughts. So telephony is really best for speaking with talkative friends. I am not aware that I have any such friends anymore. If I do, by all means contact me, and I will call you back. ^_^

The headset I have now doesn't have a very good microphone. The two previous ones has really good mikes except that they lasted less than two months! That model is now withdrawn. Tomorrow I will buy a more expensive model from the same company (Plantronics). It has a two-year warranty, so I don't mind if it breaks every two months as well. This will allow me to dictate some of my journals again. With the current level of speech-recognition technology, high-quality audio input is crucial. Perhaps advances in artificial intelligence will one day make it possible for the software to filter out random noise more easily and recognize valid speech patterns. In a decade or two it is even conceivable that the computer can pick out one voice in a crowded room, the way a small child or a dog can. But I am not holding my breath -- only my tongue!

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In other cheerful news, I am completely recovered from the chest pain that I felt after I had lugged the heavy computer across half the town. Perhaps it was just a coincidence. There were no other cardiovascular symptoms, so that was probably not it. I am sure there will be new opportunities to move heavy objects in the future, if any.