Skype is a software program known as a softphone - a computer program that enables one to make calls on a computer over the Internet. Skype is one of many soft phones that makes use of VoIP (voice over Internet protocol). However, Skype is showing itself to be the most popular choice (more than 70 million users worldwide), and about 90 percent of Skype's users are using it on PCs. (By contrast, Vonage, which is different in that it requires hardware in addition to your computer, boasts only one million subscribers as of December 5, 2005). "The Complete Idiot's Guide[registered] to Skype for PCs" shows what you need, how to download and install the program, and how to make the most of Skype's offerings - both free and paid. Readers will find: how to install and configure Skype; how to use Skype's advanced services, such as video; how to maximize your money using Skype; and how to manage your security and troubleshoot.
Andrew Sheppard has been fascinated by technology and science since childhood, and it's an indulgence that has continued to this day.
Since discovering Skype in 2004, Andrew has been using and hacking Skype in all sorts of weird and wonderful ways - if Skype came with any sort of warranty, he voided it long ago! Although his initial foray into using Skype was to find ways to save money on his phone bill, the true potential of Skype's ability to do things that no regular phone system can do soon overtook that initial interest and replaced it with a fascination and desire to see "how deep the rabbit hole goes" (to borrow some words from the movie The Matrix). He's still burrowing!
Andrew is the publisher of a couple of online electronic magazines about Skype: Elpis's Skype Power User Magazine (ISSN 1747-8421) and Elpis's Skype API Developer Magazine (ISSN 1747-843X). The concept behind Elpis (http://www.elpispublishing.com/) is that knowledge, without the tools to take advantage of that knowledge, is rather powerless, while the converse is a path to empowerment. Elpis Publishing's aim is to provide its readers with both the knowledge and the software needed to best use that knowledge: Knowledge + Tools = Empowerment.
After earning a first-class honors degree in astrophysics, Andrew made the mistake of going on to earn higher degrees: a masters in astronomical technology at Edinburgh University (UK) and a masters in business administration at the London Business School (UK). This period of time and that which followed was punctuated with work as a scientific researcher at Oxford University, as a software developer, and later, as a "Rocket Scientist" at Bankers Trust Company in the financial square mile of the city of London, as well as in New York and Tokyo. A lot of heartache and financial anguish could have been avoided throughout had he become what is clearly the optimal career choice for anyone anywhere: a master plumber. Nowhere on the planet is there a poor or unemployed master plumber! Too late to correct past follies, Andrew now makes his living writing software, and writing books and magazine articles.
