Many users of the Skype messaging and VoIP service found themselves incommunicado today after the service went down for many users, with the outage in many cases causing the Skype software to crash. The company has published a workaround that should allow crashing clients to get back online, and plans to have an easier solution "soon," but as yet has no explanation for the problems. Many users are continuing to complain of difficulties on Twitter, with occasional reports of problems even

(Reuters) - Microsoft Corp showed off a version of its next operating system at technology conferences in the United States and Taipei, as some PC makers grumbled over restrictions on their involvement in the development of the system. The world's largest software company is expected to launch the new system, code-named Windows 8 and highlighting touchscreen features optimized for tablet computers, in the next 18 months, as it races to catch up with Apple Inc. But Microsoft has tol