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Skype, the Internet calling service, is experiencing major issues preventing users from logging in. The "outage" began yesterday evening and is likely to go unresolved for the next 12 to 24 hours. In the meantime, Skype would "like to thank everyone who has taken the time to send us their thoughts, concerns and good wishes. It means the world to those working so hard to resolve this thing." Little consolation to anyone who has become dependent on the peer-to-peer VOIP service as a telephone substitute. Skype's provided little details, calling it a "software issue" — Skype is software! That's like calling a hurricane a weather problem. Sounds like someone is covering for a drunken ... oh, never mind.