Skype: gateway to the world

From the age of 19 when I started to work for Massey Ferguson Holland, I have been fascinated by languages.
They open up a different world. You get access to people with different cultures, believes, food and much more.
I can’t stand it when I visit a country where I can not understand the people. I feel like an alien.
Because I prefer the Northern countries (I have visited warm countries though!!), I learned Swedish, German and English besides my own language Dutch, to be able to learn more about the county and its people.

Being a tourist is nice, but you do miss out acting like a tourist with a host who translates everything to you and who guides you to tourist attractions.

Since the age of 17 when I went abroad all on my own (a very uncommon thing to do for a teenage girl in the early 70’s) I love to wander around on my own in different places.
Being on your own you can choose to talk to people or to be left alone, depending of your facial expression.
Not smiling: people leave you. Smiling: they talk to you.

Being an international telephonist and receptionist has always been a red lead throughout my working life and I enjoye it. Of course I have also been working for local or national companies but missed the international part tremendously.

Skype is for me the gateway to “international” and working with Skype for my international clients is a wonderful part of my life.
I spend many hours in the office and to me, with Varras Consultancy I have definitely chosen the best way to do that.

Would I like to be back with a local or national company again? No, I won’t. My world would feel smaller although I will still talk to my international friends but that is different.

I know that many people feel comfortable living in the area they were born, close to their family and friends, the same job since they left school, being happy. In a way I admire them. Still I love to learn about the rest of the word.

I know I called my self a modern hermit in an earlier blog post (one with an internet connection, telephone and a car) and I still feel like one. Maybe I am an International Modern Hermit ?

Never give out your password on Skype

Unfortunately there are people who pretend to be a Skype Employee organizing a Skypecast called Skype Tech Help asking the users for their passwords.

One of them assured me in a Skype chat that they do this for fun. They are with a couple of friends who pretend to be users with technical issues giving out their (of course) fake passwords.

He/she also assured me if someone was giving a password, they were not going to use it. Plus they informed that they keep organizing these Skypecasts so be warned!

Fortunately Skypecasts like these can be reported as inappropriate and Skype will take immediate action.

I don’t think it is funny and I don’t think I am born stupid so don’t believe people who do things like this for fun.
But there are still people out there who trust others and can’t tell the difference between good and bad people.
Therefore a blog post about NEVER giving out your password when someone is asking for it. NEVER.

We have put up the following warning at the forum which says it all:

This is a general warning. Never give out your password when you are asked for it. If you forgot your password only use the password recovery feature at the official Skype page.Support people never need your password to solve your problems or to look into your account.

Skype Support for example will NEVER ask for your password. Just your username is sufficient to find you in the database and look into your issue.We are aware that there are fake Skypecasts and (Public) Chats where users pretending to be “Skype Tech Support” or“Skype Employee” are asking for your login details.

Never give out your password on any communication channel (Skype call, Skypecast, Chat, E-Mail...) to live people!

Read and practice, I hate to see someone being a victim of dishonest people.

Is it possible to fall in love with a Skype Phone?

Just a few hours ago I bogged about the Nikko Star Wars Lightsaber Skype Phone
But now I stumbled upon an article about a phone my taste.
Slim, modern, shiny, appealing, beautiful. I think I fell in love with Futiro’s new line of Skype phones.

The Futiroluna raises the bar in VoIP phone design. With a full telephone keypad, the Luna effortlessly integrates with Skype and its hands-free feature enables you to use your keyboard while you talk. Priced 75 USD.

The Futiroterra with it’s strong clean lines and simple four-button
design of the keypad make for intuitive interaction with Skype. Priced 55 USD.

The Futiro Solo is a palm-sized portable VoIP phone with its
own attractive carry-case which pops easily into a laptop case or your inside pocket. Priced 65 USD.




The only disadvantage is the USB cable. Someone commented “so yesterday”. Still the design is beautiful.
Hopefully Futiro will add a wireless phone with a similar design to their product line soon.

Nikko Star Wars Lightsaber Skype Phone
It'll force you to stay in touch.

Not a Star Wars fan myself but I know millions of others here on earth are.
Also Skype has millions of fans and there fore I couldn’t resist introducing the Star Wars Skype Phone through the article of Gerry Block.

“After watching a movie with a lot of sword swinging action it's hard to resist the urge to grab a blade of your own and flail around the house. Though it's relatively easy to get your hands on a katana to play with while enjoying Kill Bill, Lightsabers are a bit harder to come by in our uncivilized age, and unless you're the Star Wars Kid of internet fame, a broom handle isn't quite as satisfying as gripping the real thing.

Happily, Nikko has a solution for the Star Wars fans that need to stay connected while gripping a weapon of Jedi justice. The company's Lightsaber USB phone compliments the R2D2 projector we covered back at CES. The handset features a full keypad hidden under the rotating rubberized hand grip. The business end of the lightsaber glows blue when powered on and turns red when a call is made, apparently in tune with the likely sinister nature of your communiqué.

Since it's USB the Lightsaber phone is designed for Skype and similar IP-telephony applications. When you're not yammering into the handset the lightsaber handle sits upon the illuminated display stand (which doubles as the base station), which makes the whole apparatus easy to disguise as mere fanboy memorabilia instead of the deadly Jedi internet phone that it really is. Pricing and availability is yet to be announced. We took at shot at the old Jedi mind trick, "Give us this phone, you will…" but the Nikko reps weren't falling for it. Week minded fools they were not..”

Reading Skype and Skype’s website

What does Wikipedia say about 'reading': “Reading (activity), an activity performed by a human”
Not a too difficult to understand explanation. Or??

Replying to posts on the forum I changed my mind about the easy grade of this activity.
Or maybe the skill of reading is an old fashioned activity, I don’t know anymore.

Reading seems extremely difficult now a days. Maybe caused by stress, overloaded minds or agenda’s but people seem not to read anymore.
You can create an excellent manual and knowledge base but people ask the odd questions.
We read them from “how do I call another Skype contact on Skype” or even “What happens when I click the green button with the telephone icon?” to more important questions like “How do I get an invoice”.

This is a question I replied to over the past few days.
A business owner and administrator of the control panel (Skype for business) sent a support ticket to Skype because he wanted to know how to get an invoice his purchases. True, he received a confusing reply to his personal account: “Thank you for contacting Skype Support.These are allocations from Skype for Business Control panel - not your own purchases accordingly you cannot see the invoice as these are allocations.”

This should ring a bell with most users who would have logged on to their control panel to find out where the invoice was.
No, not with this user. He found the forum and asked for help. At first I understood his question wrong but soon I figured out what the real problem was and guided him through the process to find his invoices “Please go to your account page, click "view administration page" (if you are the administrator of the control panel), then click "company settings" (top tab), then click in the left hand menu "order list". Look for the month in which you purchased credits of from which you need an invoice. Right to the order you will find "get invoice"

His reply amused me and made me smile. This user reminds me of my dog who has a similar stubborn character and who loves to have the last say. The reply was “again - its easier to just send this link to the client https://secure.skype.com/business/orders/list.html”

I couldn’t refuse to post “And it is definitely less time consuming to browse the possibilities of your control panel before sending tickets and posting on the forum ”

I am a true believer of reading manuals. It takes time and maybe you are not always in the mood for it but in the long term it is definitely time saving.

Reading, I started doing this when I was 5 and learned how to spell. Sitting on my knees on the floor, I tried to spell the newspaper. My little finger followed every word.
The zest for reading never ended, I still read many books and articles. Books are all over the house so I can read when ever I like.

To me reading is a blessing and not a burden. And to all who seldom read: don’t make it a burden.
Reading makes your world a more relaxed one, and not only when it comes to understanding the full use of Skype and its features!

Of course if your reading is not successful, you are welcome to the forum where other readers will help you out. But please, read the forum rules and explore the forum sections first!! And (I almost forgot to mention) search before posting your problem. Most questions have been asked before.

You see it all comes down to reading…

Skype’s new pricing structure, what's next, and what to make of it all

A week ago, Skype announced it’s new pricing plan followed by a lot of publicity on the Internet.
Numerous articles arrived in my inbox and I could have published on my blog too.
Though I have chosen to wait until Skype’s official announcement today.

Apart from reading all the articles, I have also participated in several Skype chats and read every post on the forum about it.
People were on forehand extremely disappointed about the connection fee of € 0,039. This is as much as two calling minutes on top of the usual SkypeOut rates. (Not within the US and Canada).
I agree with everyone that this makes SkypeOut far more expensive. Place 20 calls per week and you “lost” € 0,78 (or 40 calling minutes). For now, I am far from happy with it

But Skype says it is all part of a new calling plan structure . Soon we will be able to sign up for SkypePro and I am very curious if this makes my calls cheaper as I understand that only calling in your own country will cost a connection fee but no calling minutes.

Unfortunately I do not use Skype for calling within Holland. I have a mobile subscription of € 2,50 per month with 500 free calling minutes (and that is an awful lot!!) and NO connection fee.
Perhaps I am going to use Skype more often with Skype Pro but then again, with 100 calls per month, I already paid more then my mobile subscription costs.

I would love to drop my landline for Skype but unfortunately I need it for faxing and there are no Dutch SkypeIn numbers. Right now it feels that I am going to spend more money instead of saving it like in the past.
I still trust Skype to come up with a really good money saving plan and I will be patient but for now I am a bit worried…….

Jaanus explains more on Skype’s Blog.

(Re)building an office

Those who visit my blog regularly, know I am moving rooms in my little house. Originally built for elderly people, it has one bedroom downstairs.The huge empty attic was for storage and big enough to use half of it for a bedroom.
My office was in my living room which wasn’t too bad at first but I noticed I spent too much time behind my laptops on top of all the hours I spent to real work. Also the noise of both laptops was at time annoying.
After weeks of hard work, my bedroom is now upstairs and my office moved to the bedroom downstairs. I am extremely happy with all the extra space plus the fact that I can close the door behind me when I “finish” work.

Still I miss being busy and I miss decorating and I have tons of ideas for my office. Being a lover of antiques and old English cottages and Halls, I started thinking of decorating my office the more classic way: dark brown wooden bookcases, desks, a chest of drawers, etc. Of course it is way beyond my budget to buy antiques.
But decorating is not all about copying a style with the exact right items. And of course with all modern devices like laptop’s, printers, phones etc. it isn’t easy to “live the antique way”. For me decorating is all about feeling comfortable with your own style and enjoying the effort and energy to create it your way.

Whilst sitting behind my desk, very slowly the idea of Victorian Ruby Red walls, copper decorating items and a 'golden’ touch here and there, sneaked into my brains. Right now the wall and sealing are magnolia. A nice colour but not what I have in mind for an office “my way”.

I inherited some office items from my grand father which is a start for what I want.
“Marktplaats” is similar to e-Bay and has been of excellent use in the past to find what I am looking for. I am very patient and love RSS feed to be No.1 if the item I am looking for, is on line. I have a low budget to spend which makes it even greater to browse and when I finally can buy what I need and want, I feel happy.
I don’t need everything at once, I can wait for weeks, months and if necessary, years.I do not buy something which doesn’t match what I have in mind. I am quite stubborn in that respect.

Back to Victorian Ruby Red. My brother and his family recently moved to Germany and I visited them last Saturday. The corridor of their new house is decorated with this bold red colour, exactly how I like it. They gave me the number and this morning I called a painter who can create every colour. We discussed what I want and for half the price it usually costs (he had some great ideas for an “in between colour” so I don’t need buckets full of the definite colour). Hopefully I can start painting at the end of this week or early next week.

I already found and bought one piece of furniture; a site table. Handmade of Oak and exactly the look I want and for only € 20. It needed quite some wax to get it back alive but now it is a beauty and it makes a great desk.
I also found the perfect curtains on the internet and are going to collect them tonight plus a tin of gold paint to give my existing colour paintings from Sweden the correct look. Or maybe I copy (with her permission :-)) the great idea of my niece Mirjam. She bought two simple serving trays, painted them gold and fitted existing frames + painting on top of it.

The next item on my wanting list is a book case which will fill one corner from floor to ceiling. I know it is probably not for sale in this size but I already have a plan to make it myself from used wood.

It might take a few months but at the end the office will be “mine”; my taste, my look, for almost nothing.

Living a boring life? No, definitely not. Because when the office is finished, my living room needs a redo (it shouldn’t come as a surprise that my brains are working on that one already… bold Victorian yellow and white….)