Skype can do various things, but the two main things it does are real time text chat and voice chat if you have a microphone.
I used both when skype three was working correctly, though generally i found skype most useful as a voice chat client, and was able to talk to a friend of mine in hungary and another couple of people in the us, including one friend of mine I met in my first year of uni who went back to chicago and is now a doctor of physics over there.
I was also able to have conference calls as well, with three or four people at once from various parts of the planet, which was a hugely useful thing.
The text chat bit i didn't find quite as good as something like m irc, or chat in muds etc, but I can recommend the voice chat.
You can also use skype to directly send files to other people over the net while chatting, and (i'm told, though have never done this), also allow someone else remote access to your computer if you wish, ---- a friend of mine once talked about it as an option for fixing some teck problems I was having (though bare in mind this takes some setting up and tinkering to do, and certainly couldn't be used without your permission).
the only bad thing is skype 4 seems less accessible than skype 3 (when i tried it I had problems finding the answer call button), though I'm not certain whether the problems I was having with it were because my usb microphone has died or because of the program itself.
I'll need to test another recording program with the mike I think, though being as it's not a program I use especially often it's not a major priority.
With our dreaming and singing, Ceaseless and sorrowless we! The glory about us clinging Of the glorious futures we see,
Our souls with high music ringing; O men! It must ever be
That we dwell in our dreaming and singing, A little apart from ye. (Arthur O'Shaughnessy 1873.)
any ideas?