I have a theory

Because of the whole sleep deprivation that’s been going on in my life recently (a 4 month old baby and a nearly 2 year old with chicken pox), I have developed a theory…

A theory you say?

Yes, the theory is that the need for sleep is not really required (or maybe it is), sleep on an evolutionary side has allowed:

1. The development of community and hence civilization
2. something else that’s good
3. oh yeah…  our survival

Ok, stay with me here (it may be lack of sleep driving this theory and the wandering nature of my writing).  If we did not need sleep way back in our past (when trying to survive against animals that were bigger and scarier than us) on the surface sleep is not a good thing (can you imagine a big scary creature with lots of teeth coming at you while you’re sleeping? I can)..  So how did we survive that?

We banded together, that’s how…  We worked together “You stand watch while I sleep”, “Ok”.  Allowing us to survive the dangers of the night (well, some of us)…  While our compatriots who didn’t need sleep continued to wander around by themselves (why did they need others if they never slept, plus they were always grumpy), we started living with larger and larger groups, able to not only survive the night, but also to take the night back (capturing and taming some of those animals)..

So when next you hear someone say “Ha! Sleep is for the dead” you can respond “No! Sleep is for the living, if I didn’t sleep I would be dead!”

-- Feel free to repost with your own and better words, I merely ask that you keep the ‘I have a theory’ reference

Skype = Bad

Just found out something today, kinda my fault (debatable though), but also makes me not like Skype very much at the moment.

A while back (September 27, 2006 to be exact), I purchased some Skype credit so that I could make some cheap calls from South America... Very useful, loved the facility.

Fast forward a bit, now we're in Australia, so happens that I don't have a complete Skype setup, missing a fairly crucial component of a microphone, so while Skype would be fantastic and cheap, I can't use it (my own slackness for not getting a mike, but it's not too long till we'll be back in the UK where I have all that stuff).

Add to this, I have a bunch of email addresses that I very infrequently check, basically they're spam catchers. So whenever I sign up to stuff on the web, or can possibly expose my email address, I use one of those addresses. This is what I did with Skype.

Now we get into the why I think Skype = Bad. I found out today that the €9.59 That I had left on my account, is no longer there, searching around all over the place, I just find obscure references to 'Balance Expiration'. Hmmm... what does that mean? More searching, and I find in the help page (about 20 or so items down) a page titled 'Why does My Account page show an expiration date?' (I don't check my account page often, and don't recall seeing an expiration date on the skype window..) which refers to:

The Skype credit balance expires after 180 days of inactivity. As soon you succesfully connect a SkypeOut call your expiration date will reset to 180 days. It can take up to 10 days for your expiration date to reset after placing a call.

30 days before your expiry date Skype will send an email to your registered email address to remind you to place a call so that you do not loose your Skype credits.

oh! I must of missed/forgot a term, and 'cause I don't check that email address... feck! So login, and sure enough there's 4 emails:

• You're going to lose your credit in 30 days
• 7 days
  
• 3 days
• You've lost it

Feck! Ok, Skype tried to notify me, but goddamn it, that's my credit, my money, it pisses me off that they've now taken it and not allowed me to continue to use it! If they want to remove it, fine allow me to claim it back. Oh and 180 days is NOT enough time, here in Aus at least statue of limitations is 7 years, not half a year.

I will contact Skype and there's probably a good chance they'll refund or reinstate my credit, but to be honest it'll still leave a bad taste in my mouth. I think I'll start looking at other voip providers, one's who don't steal my money without delivering.

B