Scott Hanselman

I'm digging Skype more and more. I'm GlucoPilot (note the custom URL handlers). The new Skype 1.1, while it apparently has some installer issues (I haven't faced) is a great improvement over 1.0.

The best new addition is conference calling. It seems to only be as good as the worst connection in the conference. I spoke with Omar in California and Adam in Brazil (this week), and it seemed a little dodgy due to Adam's connection.

Skype is great but I have to problems. One is simple, the other is unforgivable.

1. It's yet another identity. As far as I'm concerned my email address is the closest thing to "who" I am online that I can get. I'd rather not have ANOTHER 'nick.' But, I can live with this.

2. The real issue is that I have three computers and (unless I'm nuts) Skype doesn't allow storing your Skype Contacts remotely and don't even have an export function.

This is nuts. But, I figured I could look in Applicationdata\skype, etc and manually merge XML files, right?

GASP. This is the first time in recent memory that I looked at a settings file for a NEW application (especially a 'viral marketing' one like Skype) and didn't find XML config underlying. Skype uses a binary format to store your contacts list locally. Frankly - SHOCKING.

However, someone pointed me to www.jyve.com which purports to offer another abstraction layer on top of Skype and manage contacts. We shall see.

For now, there's a lot of Me's out there.

About Scott

Scott Hanselman is a former professor, former Chief Architect in finance, now speaker, consultant, father, diabetic, and Microsoft employee. He is a failed stand-up comic, a cornrower, and a book author.

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