Yea, its so much more cost effective than buying a phantom power source and a preamp or whatever. I realised skype was pissing about with the gain level, so its a bit better now. It really does pick up on everything in the room, its amazing (although annoying)
If I had known about what was coming up, I would have waited for the Yeti ― good quality AND good looking design http://www.bluemic.com/yeti/
Oh well... trying not to focus on the big white ball... ;-)