Skyperfox

Clickable Numbers = Easy Skype Calls

Larry Wall says, "The three chief virtues of a programmer are: Laziness, Impatience, and Hubris."

Every good aphorism can be turned into a programming methodology. (Okay, make that "every aphorism, good or bad.")

I ran into Jeremy Hinegardner at Caffe Sole, this afternoon.

"Now that SkypeOut calls are free in the US and Canada, there should be a Firefox extension that lets you click on phone numbers within web pages to launch a Skype call," I said.

"Yup. Sure should," said Jeremy.

"Only thing is," I said, "I'm not sure I know enough to do one."

"Well," he said, "I think you can say things like 'skype://+15551212' in some browsers, and it'll just dial."

"Hmm. I'll try Google."

"Yeah," he said, "here it is. Try googling 'skype phone uri safari.' Looks like it works in Firefox, too."

"Okay, let me see. 'skype phone uri firefox.' Ooh. I got a different result. Check it out -- there's a Greasemonkey extension."

Two minutes of talking, following links, and installing Greasemonkey and Skypelinkify, and I have something that lets me click on phone numbers within web pages to launch a Skype call.

If you've heard of "pair programming," this is even better: "pair laziness."

Follow the link in the title of the post to get it yourself.