Jabber

I finally got around to getting Jabber up and running. I'm very impressed by it so far, it's come on in leaps and bounds since I last used it, and I can seamlessly talk to people on my MSN list.

Of course, that's a bit pointless when nobody else I know is actually using Jabber. If anyone I know _is_ using Jabber, I'm available at andrewducker@myjabber.net

Oh, and I've reactivated my ancient ICQ account, so you may suddenly find yourself receiving requests from me to be your bestest friend, as Jabber can act as an ICQ proxy too, so I can chat to everyone at once.

Jabber's in mid-process of being ratified by the EITF, so hopefully it'll really catch on and then I'll be able to use all the cool Jabber functionality. For a client I recommend Exodus, but if anyone has a better suggestion I'm happy to hear it.

Things may be a bit iffy for a while, as different Jabber servers provide different services. MyJabber is the first reliable one I've found so far that provides MSN and ICQ, but doesn't seem to support the main user directory. If any Jabber experts out there want to give me advice on a better server, go for it.

(no subject)

Good God. I always though TerraServer was pretty cool, but EarthViewer takes the biscuit.

It's not enough that you can use their web page to zoom in on different bits of the world, but you can also do it in real time. When I started it up it gave me a globe and I then zoomed in on London. I then zoomed back out again and picked New York off of the "high res" links and it gave me a long zoom all the way in, filling it detail as it went. If it wasn't so expensive I'd buy a subscription. As it is I'm going to enjoy my 30 days.

Write for your life

I'm intrigued by National Novel Writing Month. It's not a month dedicated to persuading people to write novels, it's a site dedicated to the idea that everyone should write a novel. In a month. 50,000 words in 30 days. That's less than 2000 words a day, surely that's feasible?

I'm feeling strangely tempted.