My transatlantic call with my little sister at Smith College in Northampton, MA, starts with her recurring complaint about the campus food. This week, it seems, there's a shortage of fresh fruit. Normally, as the long-distance seconds tick by, I'd be tempted to ask her about more serious issues. But this time I'm happy to listen: our hour-long call, placed over the Internet from my computer in Riga, Latvia, to her computer in Northampton, is using a free program called Skype and is costing us nothing.

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