TechCrunch is reporting that Cisco may be interesting in picking up Skype.

Cisco has made an offer to acquire Skype before they complete their IPO process, says one of our more reliable sources. We have not been able to confirm this rumor one way or another via other sources, which isn’t surprising. A company in lock down during the IPO process is usually even more tight lipped than normal.

But if true this would be one very big acquisition. Skype insiders are hoping for an out of the gate valuation of $5 billion or so, we’ve heard. Presumably Cisco would have to bidding in that range to make it interesting.

Google was also rumored to be sniffing around Skype, but antitrust concerns may have persuaded them not to make an actual offer.

More as this develops.

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I can see this as a possibility as Cisco is making a run to try to be THE go to company for teleconferencing services. You may recall that they purchased Tandberg a few months back and that they offer Cisco TelePresence  as a service. So adding Skype does make sense.

But you may also think that Cisco is a networking company and may be puzzled as to why they would want to get into this space.  The simple fact is that these bits travel over Cisco network devices and these services demand more bandwidth and ISPs will have to upgrade their network equipment to handle this increase. This was probably the motivation for the Pure Digital Technologies(Flip Cameras) acquire as well.

Now this could be a good and/or a bad thing if this does happen. Cisco could shut it all down and make us pay for everything or they could put some smart people on the project to help it grow, time will tell.

Microsoft’s Fix it Center is a beta troubleshooting program that tweaks common Windows issues—sort of like previously mentioned FixWin—but it comes straight from Microsoft. It’s average-Joe friendly, and addresses everything from network glitches to media player issues.

Read More About It On Lifehacker

Great Article On DownloadSquad about some really cool Keyboard Shortcuts.

Ctrl+T — opens a new tab in all major Web browsers.
Alt+Tab — cycles through currently-open programs. If you also hold down Shift, it cycles backwards.
Ctrl+Tab — cycles through Web browser tabs (you can use Shift to go backwards too).
Ctrl+W — closes the current window or tab. Some applications can be closed with Ctrl+W, but Alt+F4 is universal.
Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V — copies selected text (you can use Shift and arrow keys to select text!), and then paste it. Use Alt-Tab to switch between source and destination for bonus points.
Ctrl+Z — undoes your last action. This works in almost everything except Web browsers. ‘Redo’ varies from program to program (check the ‘Edit’ menu to find out!)
Ctrl+Mouse scroll wheel — zoom in, zoom out. This works in almost every kind of app, including Web browsers. Great for increasing the size of tiny ‘aesthetic’ text on normal websites… or tiny thumbnails on nefarious ones. Also scales the size of icons on your desktop, if they’re too small for you!
F5 — refreshes your current folder/directory or Web page. Yes, you can hammer a button on your keyboard rather than foolishly clicking a button over and over!
Alt+D — selects the address bar in your Web browser or folder/directory view! Yes, I know — how awesome is that?

Copying alot of files at once can be a pain and take a long time to do with the Windows built in file copy function. The worst part is that if there is a problem with one of the files the whole copy stops and you have to restart it.

Enter Teracopy:

Teracopy not only speeds up the copying of files on your Windows machine but it also has options to ignore problems when they arise.

You can find Teracopy here: http://www.codesector.com/teracopy.php

Posting stuff on people’s wall in Facebook is soo outdated but no one seems to know that.  In the past when you wanted to post something on someone’s wall you used to have to go to their profile and post your comment, video, or photo there.  But for about a year now we have been able to “tag” people in our status updates and doing this will also post the update to their wall. Best off all this can all be done without leaving your home page.

Here are the steps:

1. In your status box you just type the @ symbol and then start typing the name of the friend that you want to tag.
2. You will then be presented with a list of friends that narrows as you spell out your friends name.
3. Click on the friend that you want to tag.
4. Finish composing your update.
5. Click Share.
6. The post will now be visible on their wall as well as in your stream

I often do this when I want to send a video to someone or just want to say something about or to them.

Give it a try and let me know how you like it.

Today Rob and Shane talked about auditing your computer as well as had some great software picks for you.

Software Picks:

Revo Uninstaller

Picasa

Today we talked about or favorite Google products. Check them all out when you get a chance.

What is a pizza tech?

We have all seen them on craigslist offering computer repair for $25 and sometimes $10. A good deal is a good deal but you may want to think twice about using them just based on their price.

What are you getting when you call these guys?

More often than not you are getting an inexperienced technician that is trying to break into the business. This means that they are practicing on your computer with your family’s data and, trust me, you don’t want this. We have had to bail these guys out way too many times. They probably mean well but they are just inexperienced.

So before you call one of these “pizza techs” think about this article and also think about what would happen if they did damage your computer more because of their inexperience. That $25 service can end up costing you alot more in the end.

Should you need computer service in Metro Detroit click this link, we can help.

In this episode Rob and I (Shane) discuss facebook viruses and car tech. We also answer some questions from our listeners and share our favorite programs/websites/video of the week.

Program Picks:

Launchy

Ninite

Down for everyone or just me?

If you are invited to use a program that shows you who has seen your profile, do not fall for it.

The one I got an invite for asks that you install a toolbar. This means that you will only be able to get notified when someone who has this toolbar installed visits your site. Their goal is to have everyone in the world install this toolbar.

Why would they want that? Well they will be tracking all websites that you visit and will advertise to you. Many companies get $2 – $3 per install of a tool bar for advertising purposes.

So like everything else, this is a money making scam that will invite spyware into your computer so don’t use it. The simple fact is that until Facebook implements this feature, you can not trust anyone that claims to be able to show you who views your profile.