Phone home (Week Notes, 10, 2025)

Skype

Skype has been sunset.

It wasn't the first VoIP product I used, but it was the first that I used that was in any way stable and usable. More importantly, it was the first (and only) one that I could onboard my parents onto, and that they could use with confidence; it became a key way for me to call home.

Phone calls between Guernsey and the UK are weird in that they either cost nothing or they are insanely expensive (it all comes down to how phone carriers decide to treat 01481, which is within the +44 numbers but is sometimes charged internationally and sometimes charged locally). Skype gave me a way to patch that if my phone provider flipped one way when I'd rather they flopped the other, so I carried Skype credit all the time and would call my parents from the Skype app directly to their home phone.

Skype video calls also allowed my parents to see and chat with their grandkids between our trips home and their trips to Birmingham.

Skype's VoIP offer is a weird fit today in a world of FaceTime and WhatsApp ubiquity on the one hand and Slack & Teams productivity on the other. Microsoft dropping Skype to focus on Teams makes sense but maybe leaves a gap out there to support people who just want a simple VoIP app for their computer.

Mum & Dad never had tablets or smart phones, but they reluctantly had a laptop. Setting up the computer required some ceremony on Dad's part; arranging a video call with Guernsey required back channel coordination via the phone and text messages, but Skype was easy for Dad to set up and operate, and easy for me to support from afar.

I'm not sure what I'd use in place of this now. I guess Zoom or Google Meeting? Neither of those feels quite right. I don't have anyone to Skype anymore and yet I can't help but feel something important has been lost. RIP to a real one.

Skype got shouted down by Teams and Zoom. But it revolutionised human connection | John Naughton

The company that pioneered voice communication over the internet has withered to dust in Microsoft’s hands. Still, I for one am grateful for it

The GuardianJohn Naughton

Pancake Day

Dad often said he didn't have a sweet tooth. He'd make an Easter Egg last a month, and if we went out for dinner he'd tend toward a cheese board rather than a sticky toffee pudding. So I was somewhat surprised by how strongly I was thinking about him on Tuesday.

I don't have specific memories about Shrove Tuesday as a kid, but I have a really strong sense of the vibe that comes from an amalgamation of all of those Pancake Days. This is a food memory, so smell is at the forefront. The lovely, buttery, golden smell of frying batter forms the rhythm, as mum cooks, serves, cooks, serves. That bass is punctuated by the zing of lemon as it squirts across plates and across the table. Those smells are here now. It's a different kitchen, a different time, and I'm both here and there. I'm the kid wolfing these down, and I'm the father waiting patiently for my own turn. I'm the father but the son too, and I feel like I can sense Dad in the empty chair next to me. He's wearing his work overalls. In a minute he'll make us all a cup of tea. For the moment he's eating pancakes. He doesn't have a sweet tooth, except when he does.

OK, let's just keep talking about parents, I guess

It was Townes Van Zandt's birthday this week, which is all the excuse I need to share this with you. It's a scene from the show Patriot: John and Tom, father & son, agent and spy master, playing a gorgeous duet of a Townes Van Zandt number.