Frank, nice one but what the hell is skyping? Do I need to know?

John, you definitely need to know about Skype. With Skype, you can use your computer and internet connection to have face to face, video conversations with people throughout the world. It is entirely free, too. All you need is a high-speed internet connection, which I guess you already have, and a webcam, which you may already have built into a laptop since it's pretty standard these days. If you don't, you can buy one rather inexpensively and plug it into your USB port, and you're good to go once you download the free Skype software.