walkah: skype

I spend a fair bit of time talking on Skype (whether I like it or not). I am also a big fan and heavy user of quicksilver (the ultimate launcher and more for mac os x). Now, I generally keep skype contact list hidden to keep my desktop clean - and was thinking "Gee, it'd be great if skype was integrated with Quicksilver". But.. it's not... directly

However, I found this tip and can now initiate skype-to-skype calls directly from quicksilver:

Here's what I did:

1. In quicksilver's preferences - I enabled the "Services Menu Module" plug-in
2. In Address Book, I added a 'custom' phone field with the label 'skype' where I can keep skype contact names (It would be really awesome if Skype did this for me...
3. Now, I can do the following: invoke quicksilver, type a contact's name, hit '/', find their skype name (down arrow), hit tab, type 'sk' (to get the 'Skype/Call' action) and hit Enter. Skype will then make the call to that user.

Ok... so typing quicksilver commands doesn't *look* pretty... but it's one less thing I need to switch my right hand to the mouse for, and I like that. :-)

(I should probably post more tricks like this)

man. looks like skype has announced today a new beta version (for windows only) that supports video conferencing.

*sigh* yup, windows only. *sigh* yup, still all proprietary.

but, dammit. free, and probably just works. man, i hope there's an xmpp-based free alternative that can catch 'em. until then, now i'm really tempted to rebuild a windows box. *or* i could just wait for the os x release ;)