followup
Skype has finally resolved the "outage" that the eBay-owned Internet telephony service experiences last week. The
explanation provided: It's all Microsoft's fault. The software company has a regular schedule for downloading updates to its Windows operating system. Skype engineers claim that a large number of reboots following Microsoft's "Patch Tuesday" disrupted its network. Microsoft makes for a convenient scapegoat — especially considering the fact that it offers a competing VOIP service, Windows Live Messenger — but this excuse doesn't hold water.
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followup
After an outage that's starting on its second day, Skype, the eBay-owned Internet calling service, continues to reassure its users through its
Heartbeat status blog that, although significant login problems persist, Skype's programmers are making progress and that many Asian and European users are now able to use, once again, their computers as telephones. However, the periodic updates do little to clarify the situation.
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breakdowns
Skype, the Internet calling service, is experiencing major issues preventing users from logging in. The "outage" began yesterday evening and is likely to go unresolved for the next 12 to 24 hours. In the meantime, Skype would "like
to thank everyone who has taken the time to send us their thoughts, concerns and good wishes. It means the world to those working so hard to resolve this thing." Little consolation to anyone who has become dependent on the peer-to-peer VOIP service as a telephone substitute. Skype's provided little details, calling it a "
software issue" — Skype
is software! That's like calling a hurricane a weather problem. Sounds like someone is covering for a drunken ... oh, never mind.
Valleywag
Josh Silverman, president of eBay's Skype Internet-calling service, has issued a mea culpa blog post. The short version: Tom Online, Skype's Chinese partner, is storing instant messages sent over the service — and storing them insecurely, to boot. [Skype Blogs]
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