Skype is worth a cool $8 billion. In cash.

Well, at least in Microsoft's eyes:
http://www.engadget.com/2011/05/10/microsofts-acquisition-of-skype-for-8-5-billion-becomes-offici/
The only problem now is how long until skype on linux will be history.

Multimedia for world+dog

Google might have its issues and there are definitely quite a few haters out there, but it's still one of the very few large-scale corporations with a fair share of good deeds, the latest of which being the open-sourcing of the VP8 video codec as part of the WebM project. What this means for the garage-based developer (like me) is that anyone can now build top-notch multi-media applications "that just work", without needing to dive into that funky world of cosine transforms and the like. As far as the P2P OS project is concerned, this is heavenly-sent.