The Skype at night
Last night, my laptop was connected to Skype "super nodes" in the Netherlands and Spain. The night before, I'd been connected to a "super node" in Norway. I wondered was this because Skype is more likely to issue me "super nodes" in areas where it is night-time (less network traffic to compete with), or was I getting European "super nodes" because most of my Skype contacts are in Europe. But, looking at my "super node" connection in the cold light of the Boston morning, I notice that I'm connected to a "super node" at a uiniversity in Taiwan, where it is after midnight.
I wonder is this situation self-selecting because only computers where it is nighttime will have sufficient bandwidth to qualify as "super nodes". Or is a design feature to take advantage of unused CPU power at night? It is certainly interesting to think that the power behind my Skype calls from Boston to Dublin today was probably supplied by a computer sitting in a university in Taiwan, donating its unused CPU cycles.
11:43:18 AM 
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