Paul L. McCord Jr. » Skype

ooVoo

Paul — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 02:08:45 +0000

Wow! This weekend I was watching This Week in Tech (TWiT) online and they were talking about a communications program called ooVoo and I had never heard of it. As usual, I had to find out about this program. To be honest I was not expecting much as there are so many programs like this out there. I installed it on two of our computers so I could call each other. I was pretty amazed at the ability to call more than one person at a time with video. I could not believe how clear the video and audio was. The amazing thing was when I later connected three people and set the video quality to high while streaming an HD podcast on my wife’s computer. Another person in our conversation also connected his computer up to the same HD podcast ensuring his bandwidth was being taxed.

In addition to all this was that we were running the Internet Radio Linking Project (IRLP) streaming audio on our Linux computer. With all this going on simultaneously we maintained a three way conversation for more than an hour with out a single choppy moment in the video and audio. It was pretty impressive and I am convinced this will be a keeper. The audio quality was every bit as good as Skype and that is saying something. This ooVoo also had chat and file sending capability built in. I have decided that I will keep this program though I am sure it will be hard to get people to try it. There have been so many instant messaging programs available that it is difficult to get people to try out new programs. I even had a difficult time trying to get people to try Skype and you know how good that is. The laptop has a camera built in while my desktop has a Microsoft LifeCam VX-6000 that cost me $39.99 at Best Buy.

I heard on TWiT that the ooVoo logo is supposed to represent two sets of eyes connected by the “V” representing video. It is a cute way to symbolize the video communications. If you have not tried this program lately you would be surprised at the quality of service and it is free. You have nothing to lose when the program is free. If you do not like it you can always open the Windows control panel and run the Add/Remove programs function. I know I am always anxious to try new things but I can get tell you that this is an amazing program. Give it a try.

I’m a TWiT!

Paul — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 03:54:14 +0000

As many of you know, I am a big fan of Leo Laporte and his podcast This Week in Tech, or TWiT. As with most podcasts, this one is not only in audio but also streams video via twitlive.tv. If you are not familiar with this program or who Leo is, I have to give you a little history. In the early 2000′s and late 1990′s there was a satellite television channel that was called ZDTV that later became TechTV. This channel was very popular among computer enthusiasts like myself. This channel had several people that were on various programs and Leo Laporte was one of them. Some of these shows were Call For Help, The Screen Savers, and Silicon Spin among others. When TechTV was taken over by G4, a gaming company, they shut down TechTV and all its programming. Many were devastated to lose the computer programs and were left with a void. Leo and many other personalities from TechTV joined together and put together a podcast called Revenge of the Screen Savers. I heard that G4 told them they were not allowed to use the name because they had the rights to The Screen Savers name. Since many of the TechTV’s personalities are from the same location, they often do there podcasts via Skype. After several renditions, Leo eventually settled on TWiT and that became the main podcast on the website. Later, he and other former TechTV personalities put together other podcasts that are on the same page.

Now TWiT has nearly a quarter of a million listeners to the podcast each week. Leo Laporte has enjoyed a tremendous success with radio shows such as The Tech Guy that syndicates nation wide on weekends. With all the success of TWiT, Geoff Smith put together the video above. It is a very good representation of the podcast. I ran across it and thought it would be worth posting on my blog. Although TWiT is supposed to be a technology related podcast, they often discuss politics with a liberal slant. If that does not bother you, it is likely you will love listening to the podcast. If you have never listened to it, go to http://www.twit.tv to listen or you can catch them on video during the recording on Sunday afternoons at http://www.twitlive.tv. I think you will enjoy listening to them.

Back From San Antonio

Paul — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 02:52:42 +0000

We arrived back home on Thursday evening from our short trip to San Antonio. In the above photo you can see my wife and I in front of the Alamo. Between my son and I we took nearly 400 pictures. Below is a picture of my son standing in front of the Hard Rock Cafe. I think he had a good time as well and we were glad he was able to come with us.

We went on a temporary duty (TDY) for my work to work out some wrinkles with a contractor down there. We had a good time but it was a bit warm. We stayed in a hotel downtown so virtually everything was walking distance. It was a pretty good trip and not likely to be the last.

This evening my wife and I went for a three and a half mile walk and it was nice to enjoy the evening air. I love the cool air in the fall. It was nice to be able to spend some quality time with my wife. I have had a lot of people giving me advice on how to handle the family issues and I appreciate it. I think everyone is right about spending more time in prayer. I think that is good advice to follow so thank you all for.

This weekend I downloaded the new Windows Live Messenger Beta and I have really been impressed with the performance. This new version has some amazing video and audio quality. I am just amazed at how good it works. It is every bit as good as Skype and that is really saying something. I was able to do video conferencing on a full screen for more than two hours and it was incredibly clear and real time. I think I found a new toy to play with. This is great news because many of my friends and family refuse to use anything else. I think Microsoft has really come a long way with voice over internet protocol (VoIP).

CUPhone is Pretty Cool!

Paul — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 18:06:19 +0000

In the last week I purchased a CUPhone RJ11 to USB Phone Adaptor-Combo so that I can use my cordless telephone on Skype, Yahoo Messenger, Windows Live Messenger, etc. This device only cost $49.95 and allows me to connect my regular house phone, and any computer voice over IP (VoIP) program. I can three way call with one person on Skype, and the other person on the home phone. I am amazed at the clarity. This device also comes with two pieces of software allowing me to use it to do two things, connect my voice over IP programs using my cordless phone, and call out from my home phone while on my laptop at a remote location.

One of the accompanying pieces of software is called IP Phone Center and it is what makes the cordless telephone be usable on Skype with the touch tones. With this I can dial a home number, or a Skype contact using the touch tones on the cordless phone. It is amazing! It is hard to put a price on this because Skype has the most amazing sound quality of any VoIP program out there. If you are a Skype Pro account holder, you can pay $36.00 a YEAR and have unlimited calling to any regular or mobile phone in the United States or Canada. You just cannot beat this anywhere. The only negative that I have found is that if you are not a Skype In customer, your caller ID on Skype will show up as 0000123456 and will show up as caller unknown. If you call someone that blocks unknown callers then you will not be able to get through. Skype In allows you to purchase an additional telephone number for $60.00 per year and then regular phones can call you at your own number. You can make this number a local call for another city or country and those people will be able to call you unlimited for free.

The second piece of software is called Personal Phone Gateway. It allows you to add your device or someone else’s if you know their information. You can be at a remote location and call a regular telephone using your home telephone over the Internet. You can be 5,000 miles from home and call through your own home phone for free. Secondly, when you make one of these calls it shows up on the receiver’s caller ID as being from your home. The person on the other end does not even know you are away from home.

A family member bought one of these a while back and just loves it. I just bought mine this week and have been very pleased. Previously I had purchased a D-Link DPH-50U Skype phone device and it was not even close to being as useful as this CUPhone device. On the D-Link adapter, it would only work on Skype. The CUPhone works on ANY VoIP program, even Google Talk, AOL Instant Messenger, and ICQ. I can be walking around the backyard or front while talking to someone on the computer and they never know the difference. I would strongly recommend buying one of these devices if you use voice over IP. It frees you from the headset and lets you do housework while talking on the computer. Absolutely amazing!

Technorati Tags: Skype,CUPhone,Yahoo Messenger,Windows Live Messenger,AOL Instant Messenger,AIM,ICQ,VoIP,telephone,D-Link

Beautiful Sunset

Paul — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 04:54:42 +0000

This evening as the sun was going down, I was driving West on N.E. 8th Street when I came up to Stiles Park near downtown Oklahoma City. I pulled over and took this picture with the church steeple in the middle of the sunset. This view is very deceiving since the temperature was 26 degrees at the time. It is suppose to drop into the teens tonight so I am expecting a cold night. Well it is back to school time. Today I did one paper and tomorrow I will do another. It was really hard for me to get back in the mood after taking a break over Christmas.

I ordered the CUphone last night so I can use my cordless phone on Skype as well as other voice over IP clients such as Yahoo Messenger. I already have the D Link DPH-50U but it only works on Skype. By the way, my Skype ID is k5glh_okc. Right now I am listening to commercial aircraft flying over the Pacific ocean on 8.843 MHz USB and it is quite interesting. I was going to get on the ham radio on HF but all they were having was contests. I really do not like contesting because all you hear on every frequency is “CQ contest CQ contest” day and night. This is a three day weekend with Martin Luther King holiday on Monday. This is really great getting a day off. Hopefully it will warm up soon so we can do things outside. I am going to be tied up until May with school so my time will be limited. I will update more later.

Technorati Tags: cuphone,Skype,Yahoo Messenger,Oklahoma City,Stiles Park,Martin Luther King

Finally Skype is getting some recognition

Paul — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 16:44:42 +0000

My friends and I have used Skype for a couple of years now but have had a hard time getting others to use it. The problem is that people have so many instant messengers that no one thinks there is a need for another one. These people use either MSN, AOL, or Yahoo, or ICQ to Instant Message. To me there is no comparison. Those programs are just that… Instant Messengers with voice capability added on. I have been on the Internet for 12 or 13 years and have used them all.

Skype is designed for voice with Instant messaging as an added feature. In fact, the only reason I even use the messaging feature is to ask the person if they are available. Then I connect by voice. If it is just me and someone else, I turn the camera on as well. Those Instant Messaging clients cannot even compare with the quality of Skype. Not even close. In fact, I often listen to the TWiT podcast by Leo Laporte, and the do many podcasts using Skype. If it is good enough for a regular program, just think of what you can do with it. Best of all it is free.

I have friends that insist on MSN. I think MSN has some cool features and even looks attractive but it is not even close to Skype when it comes to voice and video. I stumbled upon a news story on the Internet where someone is using it to call their friends in China. Watch the vido below…

Technorati tags: Skype, News, MSN Messenger, Yahoo, AOL, ICQ, VoIP, video

Update for March 20, 2007

Paul — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 16:06:59 +0000

Well I am off work today because my oldest son is having his wisdom teeth removed by surgery. They are compacted and cannot be removed through traditional means. I hope everything goes well for him. We are letting him sleep in because he is not suppose to eat anything for eight hours before the surgery at 2:00 pm. That would put us at 6:00 am. We let him stay up late and eat all he wanted before going to bed so he can sleep late. This week is Spring vacation for the kids so they are off all week. So much for sleeping in this morning. He just came around the corner.

I am just aching all over. Yesterday at work we were moving my work and the entire shop from an upstairs location to a downstairs area. We have a new second level supervisor that is pretty much a control freak and he wants to keep an eye on us. His office is downstairs. I moved desks, and heavy machinery all day and I sometimes forget that I am not 20 years old anymore. In fact I will be 41 on the 28th of March.

I have too many methods of communication. I maintain this blog, and my Del City Amateur Radio Club blog, and my Facebook, and Skype. I really enjoy all of them. We are expected to get rain this week. At least they say we are suppose to get 6 inches of rain. Lets hope this is not a repeat of that 10 inches of snow forecast we had a couple of months ago where it did not snow at all. We really do need some rain. It has been really dry. I’ll update more later.

Paul

Technorati tags: Skype, Facebook, blog, Del City Amateur Radio Club

Skype conferencing

Paul — Tue, 09 Jan 2007 01:03:51 +0000

I know I have spoken of this before but I am just so impressed with Skype’s conferencing capabilities. It is such a cool program if you would like to talk one on one or as a group in complete privacy. A couple of nights ago there were a few amateur radio operators in our Del City Amateur Radio Club that joined together on Skype for several hours. You may ask why ham radio operators would talk on the computer when they could talk over the radio.

This is a good question that can be answered easily. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has certain rules about what kind of activity can be done over the radio. In some cases we want to talk about things club related that are not appropriate for broadcast over the radio. We had five of us in a conference with such amazing clarity and never once broke up. With older Voice over IP programs packet loss was almost certain.

The new Skype 3.0 has incredible video as well if you are just talking one on one. And now they have a new feature that is also pretty cool. The video can be very large with real time motion where your mouth moves right with the audio. Now you can have public chats where others can join in. You can even go to our club website and click on Skype chat and join right in any time. One thing I like about that is that I can see what others were talking about last night when I was in bed.

There were many including me that worried about the future of Skype when they were purchased by ebay last year. I guess now we can all say with a sigh of relief that those worries were unfounded. Since ebay has taken over them, they have only improved. What is amazing is that I still have family and friends that refuse to even try Skype. There is no program around that can hold a candle to Skype on voice. If people would just try it, Skype would explode in popularity. If you have not tried it, you must download it now! Stop what you are doing and download it now.

Technorati tags: Skype, Voice over IP, conferencing, ebay