04-14-2004, 02:00 AM
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Swami
Join Date: Feb 2004
Posts: 4,303
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Microsoft Seeing Skype on the Side?
We've talked a lot about Skype recently. Well the Inquirer has a brief article up speculating that Skype may be about to sell out to Microsoft. They point to this article giving more thoughts on the matter: "You'll have noticed that Microsoft has toned down the hype on its Smartphone recently. No, it hasn't canned the project! - but the enthusiasm... what happened to that? The answer may lie in one word: Skype."
"A clue, say the gossips: ask where Skype's UK operation is based. The answer: Thames Valley Park. Is that the same TVP where Microsoft UK has its headquarters?" Rumours, pure rumours of course. But what if they were true? Is it a good thing that MS often buys the best technologies & companies and builds them into their next OSs? It's certainly true that VoIP has gathered a lot of support recently, even building some excitement amongst consumers. How would you like to see MS include VoIP in the next desktop and PPC release? Thoughts?
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04-14-2004, 02:49 AM
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Thinker
Join Date: Dec 2005
Posts: 449
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I don't know if this is a good thing for Skype. When MS goes and buys a software company so that it can incorparate its products into Windows, sometimes it works, other times not. You also hav to wonder, if they buy Skype, is it really because they are interested in used the program, or because they are trying to eliminate a competitor to MSN Messenger. If they just took the Skype backend stuff and combined that with MSN messenger to improve its voice ability, that would be awful. I hate MSN messenger, the only reason I have an account is because Gaim can access MSN. I like seeing Skype as an independent company, especially with the innovative and talented guys that made it.
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04-14-2004, 03:14 AM
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Ponderer
Join Date: Aug 2003
Posts: 57
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Skype
Skype is made by the people behind Kazaa and uses your pc as a "supernode", drawing down your system's capacity to maintain their network. Anything linked to Kazaa is risky to me - spyware, viruses - you never know what else. I am not comfortable with having that on my pc or ppc under it's current form and ownership.....maybe MS could bring out something equivalent.
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04-14-2004, 03:32 AM
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Pontificator
Join Date: Mar 2004
Posts: 1,055
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Re: Skype
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Originally Posted by carrigaline
Skype is made by the people behind Kazaa and uses your pc as a "supernode", drawing down your system's capacity to maintain their network. Anything linked to Kazaa is risky to me - spyware, viruses - you never know what else. I am not comfortable with having that on my pc or ppc under it's current form and ownership.....maybe MS could bring out something equivalent.
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Really? Interesting? Do you have a link to an article or anything?
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04-14-2004, 03:38 AM
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Philosopher
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 578
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The last discussion about Skype had me scratching my head and wondering, what in the world is Skype? As I read through that previous thread, it seemed everyone on PPPT except me knew what Skype was, but I'd never heard of it. Eventually I figured it out.
This will be interesting to watch.
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04-14-2004, 03:40 AM
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Intellectual
Join Date: May 2006
Posts: 165
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Voice over IP (VoIP) is great... But it has some technological hurdles...
Firstly, the phone is much easier to use than a computer based VoIP solution. Pick it up, dial a number, and you're connected (maybe just to voicemail, but connected nonetheless). Solution? A Vonage-esque melding of the two: easy of POTS use, power of VoIP.
Secondly, in a word: bandwidth. For a "good" VoIP connection you really need at least 128kbps (256 prefered) syncronous (per two-sided conversation). That's not really a big deal for homes (cable, DSL, fixed wireless, etc.), where it is a big deal is with latency. You need a snappy response time in addition to a fat pipe, as it were. This is more difficult in mobile deployments due simply to the nature of coverage. You're 90%(-ish) covered on University Campuses (campi?), at home, and at work, maybe at the city park, if you're lucky. But you're out of luck in your car, or hiking, or at the cafe', or... etc. Even if you've got the pipe, you may not have the low-latencies needed for VoIP.
How do you resolve that? Well, one way is how Skype is approaching it, inovative CODECs. Unfortunately, they're proprietary.
Proprietary, for practical purposes, means they're either narrowly deployed or drive the cost of implimentation/usage up (not good). Additionally, proprietary also means no (or very limited) peer review of the source, which results in poor security.
Vonage uses standard voice CODECs. That's the good news. The bad news? They're old and terribly out of date compared to the compression and quality of modern CODECs.
What we really need is a W3C of sound technologies, broken into workgroups that focus on specific areas (local storage based music, Voice, etc., in both streaming and non-streaming flavors). These, in turn should tie in with the video folks who have local-based video clip, TV, DVD, HD, etc., with streaming and non-streaming flavors), and, ideally, the two groups would collaborate for use of the other groups standards (to tackle stuff like music videos, video conferencing, etc. (using local or streamed combinations of the complimentary audio & video CODECs).
Unfortunately, I haven't seen this collaboration. Sure the JPEG guys (and gals) are working on pics and motion, and whoever is in the MPEG (is there such a thing) are working on theirs... But what of a group for audio... Is it just a hodgepodge of disassociated circus acts?
Imagine if the folks at Microsoft, Pioneer, Maxell, Skype, Vonage, AT&T, Ogg Vorbis, etc. all joined an audio special interest group (A-SIG) (similar to what we've got with Bluetooth?) to produce open-source, freely licensed audio CODEC... Then imagine that their work plugged in seamlessly with a V-SIG (Video SIG), and vice versa... No more worries about Real Player, Windows Media 9, QuickTime, Divx, Xvid, etc... We'd just have a family of CODECs which would be used by the author for his/her various audience configurations....
Nirvana?
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04-14-2004, 03:42 AM
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Pontificator
Join Date: Mar 2002
Posts: 1,329
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Microsoft is like a 10 year old kid with a severe case of A.D.D. They can�t focus on one thing for more then 2 years before they jump to something else. Thankfully so far they haven't lost interest in the Pocket PC yet. I'm wondering if/when they will lose interest in the Tablet PC?? :?:
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04-14-2004, 03:48 AM
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Ponderer
Join Date: Aug 2003
Posts: 57
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Re: Skype
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Originally Posted by zkmusa
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Originally Posted by carrigaline
Skype is made by the people behind Kazaa and uses your pc as a "supernode", drawing down your system's capacity to maintain their network. Anything linked to Kazaa is risky to me - spyware, viruses - you never know what else. I am not comfortable with having that on my pc or ppc under it's current form and ownership.....maybe MS could bring out something equivalent.
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Really? Interesting? Do you have a link to an article or anything? |
From the website privacy policy:
"From time-to-time your computer may become a Supernode. A Supernode is a computer running Skype Software that has been automatically elevated to act as a hub. Supernodes may assist in helping other users to communicate or use the Skype software efficiently. This may include the ability for your computer to help anonymously and securely facilitate communications between other users of the Skype Software who, due to network and firewall constraints, cannot establish direct connections."
http://www.skype.com/privacy.html
The site also has details on it's creator Kazaa under "The Company" link.
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04-14-2004, 05:19 AM
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Theorist
Join Date: Jun 2002
Posts: 301
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by JoeLevi
What we really need is a W3C of sound technologies...
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This is a really valid point. It seems like there is some progress in making Ogg Vorbis more of a standard. I think it's growth will come not so much from existing or new standards-bodies pushing it, but just from users demanding it be supported in the products they buy.
I've made it a point at the last few Comdex shows to ask the MP3 player guys if their devices supported Vorbis. The first year I got nothing but blank stares. The second year some of them had heard of it. This year you can go out and buy the Rio Karma today (20gb) and play back your Vorbis files on it if you want to. It's one of a small handful of players, but it's progress. It makes sense that manufacturers would be WILLING to support it since they have no license penalty, but they need a bit of a push.
If a lot of people keep looking for (and asking for) open-source codec support in the hardware and software products they buy we'll win this fight in the long run. Vote with your dollars: buy the Rio Karma instead of that iPod you were thinking about. (Of course if these guys succeed in getting Linux running on the iPod I'll be running out to buy one the same day since Vorbis would work then! http://ipodlinux.sourceforge.net)
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04-14-2004, 06:21 AM
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Ponderer
Join Date: Feb 2002
Posts: 57
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I would LOVE to see VoIP integrated into Windows; the real question is, how long till the anti-monopoly lawsuits get filed?
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