XMPP Status

Well… I didn’t get the perfectly universal option I wanted, but I did find where Google hides their status information. Google uses the Google Talk Badge to convey status, and also provide a guest access to the system for chatting.

 

For anyone else doing this, if you are a Google normal user, you will visit the following for your badge:
http://www.google.com/talk/service/badge/New

For users of Google Apps, your badge will be available at:
http://www.google.com/talk/service/a/yourdomain.com/badge/New

 

I can’t believe I didn’t run across this last night. I guess I wasn’t using the right terms in the Google search engine to make it spit out what I wanted.

XMPP PITA

Last night I started playing with the idea of setting up a status page for myself, like I have considered many times. This time I took a different approach though, I started designing as a non-functional sample page, something I could build from. I started laying out a variety of ways I could provide information, including last GITI login, XMPP (Instant Messenger) status, if there were assignments due, and a direct statement of status from me. Everything seemed easy enough so I started looking for ways to do the friendliest part first (anything not touching GITI). I went out in search of a simple status component for XMPP. I came up blank for something universal, although, some XMPP servers have an HTTP component built in that will serve such information upon request. I then targeted Google Talk, my primary XMPP service. Nothing really came up… a  few mechanisms to call the information from the server on XMPP itself, but that would imply an active XMPP client is checking for it. I feel as though the functionality I am wanting is something that has to exist in Google, but is just buried deep in the API.

I still haven’t found it, I guess I will keep digging.

Installing Visual Studio 2008

I have installed Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 Professional on both my desktop as well as on my laptop. I am preparing for my C# class that will begin on Monday. I find myself being amazed at the simplicity of such a massive application. On my desktop it is about 4.5GB installed, while on my laptop I installed it to take only about 1.7GB (just C#, nothing special).

I received my C# textbook today and read over the requirements for software. In addition to requiring an installation of the Microsoft C# IDE, I also have to have a SQL server. For now I am going with MS SQL Server 2005 Express, but I am likely to select something more robust for working with during the semester.

While I have taken many programming courses before, this is the first that has used the Microsoft IDE for anything. I am excited about working with it, and maybe learning how to make some things a little more graphical. Everything I have read relating to learning C# seems to be directed at reassuring me that it is an exciting programming language.

Feeling More Like A Ceramic Artist

Looking back on the last two weeks I feel more like a ceramic artist now than I have in a while. I like everything I have made and have been proud to send it through the kiln. I have also made more work and spent more time working on ceramics than I think I have in this period of time before. A lot of my throwing in the past, outside of an academic environment, has been very random and almost spastic. I have been making whatever came off the wheel, but in the last few weeks I have been declaring things that I was going to do, or at least attempt. I dared to try a rolled lip, it worked out. I tested the limits of "squared" bowls (bowls with a harsh angle and not a curve) and they fought back, but I still got some good examples from it. I held my breath and put my weakest bottle on its head to trim, they were resilient. I have had more kiln loads running in the last few weeks than I used to do in a month. Doing all of this makes me feel good, it makes me feel like a ceramic artist, or at the very least, a potter.

Picking a new clay body (Standard 563) was very important to this happening, it has made me feel like I am starting again with things, and taking off in a more positive direction. I am also working with a stoneware body again, not falling back to earthenware, so it is like I am growing up ceramically.

I feel like I am getting a lot done lately, but I look over at my bisque shelves and see lots of very white pieces that really need to be glazed. I really hate glazing, I must be a potter.

Back to Herbs

Last night I transplanted out my AeroGarden chili peppers to some outdoor pots. This is my second AeroGarden to reach the end of its cycle, the first was the herb garden which finished up earlier this year. Somehow my gardens have gone from needing my attention every other Saturday to every other Tuesday, which seems a little strange for a nutrient schedule. Now I have a tomato garden still running and some fresh herbs waiting to sprout. I have about a month left to decide what to replace the tomatoes with. I have many options, but nothing seems really appealing to me.

Realizing the Obvious

In several days I will start my first ceramics class without Tweedy. I have grown quite attached to Tweedy’s ways of doing things, and the ways of the UNCC ceramics studio.  I  will be in a new studio and under a new instructor. I am terrified.

GoDaddy DNS Rocks!

I have never been one to compliment GoDaddy Software on anything, but I now believe that all of my negative feelings towards them are due to their previous status… a cheap domain registrar. One of my domains, Kularski.org, was registered through GoDaddy because of an arrangement with Google Apps. Now I am starting to wonder if letting the Enomitron manage my domain portfolio is such a wise idea.

This evening I was making arrangements to make Kularski.org have a function for myself similar to that of all of my  other Kularski.x domains… to have a separate email functionality for myself under it (not for actual use, just to catch stray mail). Upon trying to enter the information from Google into the DNS records for the domain in the custom DNS panel of GoDaddy I noticed an "import" button, with no context or instruction. I clicked the button, was presented with a generic file upload box, and I thought to myself, "what could they want here?". The only thing that made sense to me was a BIND DNS configuration file… or at least a pseudo-BIND file, using the BIND line syntax. 

CURTIS IN MX 10 ASPMX.L.GOOGLE.COM.
CURTIS IN MX 20 ALT1.ASPMX.L.GOOGLE.COM.
CURTIS IN MX 20 ALT2.ASPMX.L.GOOGLE.COM.
CURTIS IN MX 30 ASPMX2.GOOGLEMAIL.COM.
CURTIS IN MX 30 ASPMX3.GOOGLEMAIL.COM.
CURTIS IN MX 30 ASPMX4.GOOGLEMAIL.COM.
CURTIS IN MX 30 ASPMX5.GOOGLEMAIL.COM.

Thats all it took to get all of that in there. I didn’t have to click "Add MX Record" 8 times or anything. smile_nerd

Legacy DNS Configurations lives on!