This may not be a huge deal, but it’s an interesting little tidbit of news from today. You may have heard of Skype. It’s a piece of software for Mac, Linux, and Windows that allows you to do voice chat (and text chat, and video chat in some cases) over the internet for free, worldwide. The sound quality is pretty good (better than a normal phone), the software is easy to use, and it’s totally free. I’m “josh78” on there. Look me up.

Today Skype announced that for the rest of 2006, they’re going to allow free PC-to-phone voice chat for everyone in the USA and Canada. So if your computer (again Mac, Linux, or Windows) has some speakers and a microphone, it just became a free phone. A free phone that can dial anywhere in the USA or Canada for absolutely no money whatsoever. The other party doesn’t need a Skype account, they just need a phone number. I suppose if you’ve got a laptop, it’s now a mobile phone. (Hehehe…) Download and enjoy!

I swear I’m not trying to turn this into YouTube Central, but this is some pretty sweet technology. Looks like a ton of fun. Check it out here or over at YouTube. The guy in the video is Phillip Torrone, senior editor of MAKE magazine.

Steph and I went to the Maker Faire today, which was really interesting. I picked up a packet of LED Throwies from the peeps at Graffiti Research Lab, and when I got home I couldn’t resist making a how-to video (even though I doubt one is necessary). It’s pretty brain-dead simple, really; probably one of the simplest things at the faire to make. All the same, I think they’re beautiful and fun. Enjoy!

(I’d recommend letting the whole video load before watching it. Otherwise it’s kinda choppy.)

I installed Boot Camp yesterday, and things went well, but I’ve got a few things to say about Windows XP.

Before we start that, though, does anyone have a copy of Half-Life 2 that they’d like to get rid of nice and cheap? I mean, you’re already done playing it, right? And you’d sell it to me for like $10, right?

I sure hope so.