Skype outage disables millions of users

Skype is experiencing software problems that have disconnected service for millions of users.

“Some of you may be having problems logging into Skype,” the notice states. “Our engineering team has determined that it’s a software issue. We expect this to be resolved within 12 to 24 hours. Meanwhile, you can simply leave your Skype client running and as soon as the issue is resolved, you will be logged in. We apologize for the inconvenience.”

Downloads of Skype software have been temporarily disabled as well, the notice states, which added that Skype will make downloads available again “as quickly as possible.”

At the time of eBay’s $2.6 billion purchase of the company in October 2005, Skype had 54 million members in 225 countries and territories, and was signing up 150,000 new users each day.

The New York Times reported that Skype users in Colombia, Brazil, Germany, Finland and the United States reported difficulties logging on, and there were 29 posts on the Skype blog lamenting the lack of connections.

Network World could not access the blog, which had 61 reactions on it, at the time of this report – attempts produced a “Sorry, this isn’t working right now. Please try again” notification.

Skype uses peer-to-peer technology to connect phone calls, instant messages and videos among its users, and supports the Windows, Mac OS X, PocketPC and Linux operating systems. The service is popular with consumers and some small- to medium-size businesses, but Skype is also trying to crack the large corporate market.

Skype net revenues totaled a record $90 million in Q2 2007, a growth rate of 103% over the $44 million reported in Q2 2006.

Skype had 220 million registered user accounts at the end of Q2 2007, representing a 94% increase from the 113 million registered user accounts at the end of Q2 2006.

The CD turns 25 and I'm getting old

Gather 'round kids cuz Grandpa Buzzblog is gonna tell a story.

Remember how your jaws all dropped the first time you saw HD-TV and realized how much better it was than crappy ol' regular TV?

Well, your Gramps and his homies had a similar epiphany 25 years ago when the compact disc first emerged as an alternative to records.

What's a record? … Another story for another day, kids, lemme go on here while I still have the wind.

You see it was 25 years ago tomorrow to the day, Aug. 17, 1982, when Philips made the first CD in Germany. I'm gonna read to you from a press release now:

Exactly 25 years ago tomorrow, on August 17, 1982, Royal Philips Electronics manufactured the world's first compact disc at a Philips factory in Langenhagen, just outside of Hanover, Germany. The invention of the CD ushered in a technological revolution in the music industry as CDs — with their superior sound quality and scratch free durability — marked the beginning of the shift from analog to digital music technology. The CD became a catalyst for further innovation in digital entertainment, helping pave the way for the launch of DVD and the current introduction of Blu-ray optical media.

Since that day Philips estimates that more than 200 billion -- that's billion with a "B" -- have been sold worldwide, although I know that none of you young whippersnappers have bought any lately what with those iPod buds stuck in your ears all the time.

Anyway, I'm not going to drone on here much longer cuz I see you're getting fidgety, but I want you to believe your Grandpa Buzzblog when he tells you he can remember hearing a CD for the first time as clearly as the first time he kissed your Grandma Buzzblog -- not as fondly, mind you.

And lastly -- hey, hey, hey, wait just another second, those video games aren't going anywhere … And lastly, I want you to know exactly how close the manufacturing of that very first CD came to killing -- and I mean killing deader than Elvis -- the entire music industry.

How so, you say?

The artist on that first disc: ABBA.

Kids, be glad you're too young.