Der Bioinformatiker

And no, I do not refer something innovative… it seems like the company has run out of clever new ideas and started milking the cash-cow with rising of fees…

It also seems like Skype reads the systems BIOS when starting up… now why would they do that? I will try to keep up with information on that. Not enough that they can use your computer as super-node at will, without you being able to disable this…

Update: it seems it was linked to some new DRM stuff. They promised to remove it. Source

 It has been some time since I last posted about IP telephony. Many things have changed, Skype is widely used (even normal devices support the protocol now in hardware, making nice things like mobile-phone-like gadgets that can use public hotspots possible).

I ranted a lot about VoipBuster and similar offers, but it seems my fears were unfounded. Voipbuster now offers free landline calls to Austria and Switzerland, and cheap (1cent/min) to Germany not to mention free landline calls to exotic countries (Guam, Estonia, Iceland, USA (+mobile!)) and SMS text messaging.

Gizmo Project is another provider, and they now offer free (5min/day or 10 if you register) calls via a normal browser (plugin required).

edit: I forgot to mention Jajah. I had heard a report about this company some time ago. They also offer free or cheap calls, but you only have to enter the numbers into the webform, and they call you and the recipient and connect you. The special thing about this company is that it was founded by two Austrians!

As mentioned earlier, I promised to post if BetaMax offers another Voip client. Here goes: VoipDiscount. The client even comes in a pretty blue. Can anyone give me a hint why they are doing this?

I just recieved news that there is again a new provider around: Internetcalls. Well, not an entirely new provider. VoIPStunt, VoIPBuster and Internetcalls are all a “service by Betamax” and use the same client, only with different color schemes and different countries to phone free to. I’m beginning to wonder if they are somewhat untrustworthy. I had paid VoIPBuster 1 Euro and recieved a free call-in number as well as a unlimited time to call free to certain countries. All was fine, except suddenly calls to Germany weren’t free anymore. And also suddenly, the minimum amount to pay to subscribe was raised to 10 Euro. It looks like the “free calls to Germany” thingy is just a teaser…

I’ll keep you informed if more of these clones pop up.