IP's world domination is growing at a great pace. I just talked to my friend Tom Van Horn on Skype while he was travelling back from India via Europe on a Lufthansa flight. I'm sure this type of thing has been done already but it was a first for me.
Tom had emailed me from the plane and explained in the email that he was using the Connexion service from Boeing. I emailed him back-and-forth a couple of times (at one point mentioning that IONA's Orbix was an enabler of the Connexion solution), and then decided I'd IM (instant message) him using Skype.
After some more back-and-forth instant messages I decided it would be cooler to just ring him using Skype. But I was afraid Tom might not have headphones or other equipment on the plane. I asked him over IM and he replied that he did not have a microphopne but he did have headphones. We decided that I would just talk and that Tom could IM back; telling me if the sound quality was good or bad. So I called him and when the ringing stopped I just started to talk. Tom replied over IM, "It's great quality". Of course it wasn't really a two-way conversation and maybe the quality wouldn't be so good if it were two-way. We'll test that the next time.
After we hung up my friend Dave Keller called me on Skype. I told him about Tom's and my experiment. He was impressed too and asked "I wonder how much that costs?" I said I didn't know but I'd ask Tom the next time .... "wait a minute. I'll just ask Tom now." I sent an instant message to Tom and he replied with the cost. "Talk about real-time", Dave said to me.
Pretty neat! What's cool too is that I'm going to IM Tom the link to this article so he can read this story before he lands!
(BTW according to Tom the cost is $26.95 for 24 hours that can be used across multiple flights. Or $9.99 per hour. )
Older article on Skype here.
IP Babble is the personal blog of William Henry.
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