This image was lost some time after publication.

After an outage that's starting on its second day, Skype, the eBay-owned Internet calling service, continues to reassure its users through its Heartbeat status blog that, although significant login problems persist, Skype's programmers are making progress and that many Asian and European users are now able to use, once again, their computers as telephones. However, the periodic updates do little to clarify the situation.

While Skype has dispelled rumors of a system crash, a cyberattack, and problems with a planned billing upgrade ("We love our customers too much to let that happen, " Skype claims), what was initially defined as a "software issue" has only been clarified as "a deficiency in an algorithm within Skype networking software." How a "deficient algorithm" disrupts a service that was working fine two days ago or how they can identify the problem but only make it "slightly better" remains a mystery.

Why is it that Skype loves its users enough to protect them from outside attackers and acts of God, but not their own "deficient" software? And why would its loved ones ever accept such a lame excuse? Shareholders have already shaved $1 billion off of eBay's market cap, apparently as punishment. Now that's the kind of tough love Skype needs to see.