I’ll be traveling overseas for half of March and have been spending quite a bit of time the past couple of weeks preparing for it: lining up alpaca care, setting up appointments for when I get back, moving as much as I can online for easy access, and all the nasty but necessary logistics that go with crossing borders.
This week I set up a Skype account. To teenagers, quarter lifes and the technically cool and savvy, this will seem really naive and behind the times, but I’ve been eyeballing Skype and VOIP (Voice over IP) for a while but never took the final steps to try it out. But with the exorbitant international roaming rates for cell phones ($2.99/minute with T-Mobile!!), I decided to take the plunge, buying a very portable but high quality webcam that clips neatly onto the top of my laptop.
Logitech C905 webcam 2.5" high x 1.25" wide
Skype is famous for free video calling anywhere around the world as long as you both have a high speed internet connection and a webcam. That’s the primary reason I got it – so I could call home. But it also offers free VOIP calling between Skype members, meaning I can make audio calls to landline and mobile numbers. If they’re not Skype members then there’s a charge, but at much cheaper rates. The most well-known supplier of VOIP calling is probably Vonage. I’m still wary of going 100% VOIP due to audio lags but it’s a handy extra with Skype.
So now I have my Skype account up and running and have tested the audio and video on my little webcam. It’s pretty amazing. I can already think of lots of applications for my alpacas if others join up as well. As we try to reach more and more remote customers, the ability to do live video streaming could be a huge benefit – the next best thing to having someone visit your farm.
Which makes Skype one of the techie advances that fall under Things We Love.
Skype me!
