If you have any doubts about the impact of VOIP (see July 23 BlowBack "A Heads Up From DC") and you have a decent DSL hook-up as we do, you merely have to download the latest version of Skype (1.0), then fire it up. For less than 2 pennies a minute --you do need to open an account-- using a standard PC microphone and speakers, the folks we dialed up in France and Italy (on their regular phones) were unable to detect any difference between our Skype call and our usual plain old calls. Skype is available for PC's and Linux (Beta) and has announced plans to soon have a MAC version. Our advice: if you're making any bets on companies that are basing their futures on the status quo in long distance telephony, short them!