Ok, there's something around 9 million IM addresses floating around the Internet.  Being a professional tech-head, I have to become familiar with all of them.  This is draining away my sanity...and not very slowly either. This whole curse of proprietary protocols REALLY gets on my nerves; it's just that IM happens to be the worst offender right now.

You have ICQ, the one that "started it all" basically. Then you have AOL IM, the kings of dial-up.  Then Microsoft throws in their attempt to conquer the world with MSN, and then Yahoo comes yodeling in.  Notice this isn't counting all those small-time, short-lived players like Pow-Wow and such.

Anyway, the ONLY major change to this situation is that AOL bought ICQ.  THen they rigged them to interconnect, but they're still completely seperate services; the consequence is that ICQ, which was really the FIRST IM service to offer things like voice and video (through NetMeeting, but still), now is no longer compatible with ANYONE'S voice/video, including AOL's!  MSN and Yahoo all have voice/video chat too...but they're not compatible with each other.  At all.  So I get to run 4 IM clients. Ugh.

Joy of joys, along come some happy hackers, writing products like GAIM, Kopete, and Trillian.  For those not "in the know," Trillian is a Windows multi-messenger, Kopete is a Linux one, and GAIM runs on both platforms (and is the most popular of the 3...if you haven't heard about it somewhere you're under some sort of rock).  These programs "cross the gap" allowing one to log onto as many IM services as necessary, all integrated into one client. Yay!

2 problems though.  One: you loose all the cool multimedia stuff (except in the paid version of Trillian, but even there it doesn't work that well mostly). Two: The IM services do NOT like the guys who write GAIM, Trillian, Kopete, etc. They have a tendency to "tweak" their logon gateways, breaking compatibility with these third-party tools.  This usually coincides with a new "software release."  Any time one of these clients alerts you with a message saying you HAVE to download a new client version to connect, because of some critical update...well, that's what they consider "critical." Now you know. ;)

So now we have a war going on between the IM providers and 3rd party providers, everyone fighting and scraping.  Then along comes Jabber, an open chat protocol.  Open? Uh oh, the enemy of big proprietary buisness rears it's ugly head!  Even worse, they provide that Yahoo/AIM/MSN connectivity on the server side.  Thanks to it being open, Jabber instantly becomes Warrior #4 in World War IM. (Yes, it's also a 999 in Roman numerals; it's a joke. Laugh) This despite the fact that is has NO access ot any sort of voice, video, or other fanciness. Such is the power that Richard Stallman and company want to forcibly harness...but more on FSF/FLOSS in another entry. ;)

Oh...I forgot, IBM's got Lotus Sametime still floating around somewhere, and Novell also has some sort of thing, but I think both might be cutting over to Jabber anyway.

So what would I like to see? Well, I'd like to be able to see someone on webcam or do voice chat no matter what IM system they're on.  I'd like all chat systems to become interoperable.  I'd also like a million dollars, but that isn't going to happen either.  Even the open Jabber protocol isn't a guarantee: Google has implemented it with tacked-on voice, but it currently does NOT interoperate with other Jabber servers, and the voice part isn't an open protocol (well, yet, anyway).

So what CAN be done?  Well, if Google ends up opening up their voice protocol as an add-on to a Jabber server and connects into the Jabber server net, it would be a start.  If the Jabber guys developed some sort of video protocol for their IM servers it would be a large step forward. But for now, everyone's just dancing in place.

So anyway, if you'd care to dance, you can find me on one of the following million IM setups:

ICQ: 8525092
AIM: ICQ:8525092 (That's how they interoperate)
MSN: npaladin2000@gmail.com
Yahoo: npaladin_2000
GoogleTalk: npaladin2000
Jabber: npaladin2000@jabber.org

And I'm sure I missed one..or two...or 20. ;)   Incidentally, I primarily use GAIM (http://gaim.sourceforge.net) as I hop between Windows and Linux a lot; it's helpful when I can use the same program on both platforms. If you're stuck in multi-IM purgatory as I am, it's worth checking out.

And now, back to your regularly scheduled spam. :)

Ok, this weekend was supposed to be a fairly happy weekend. Bought a new sofa for a really good price, my fantasy football team is working out quite well, the NY Giants won by a lot. Happy time, right? Except for the actions of a few rather overzealous moderators spoiling a popular forum. I frequent several forums, most of the Linux or Notebook PC centric. In all these forums, there are moderators present whose job it is to basically keep things from getting into total war or whatever. I've seen several moderators take several approaches in varying degrees. www.ubuntuforums.org for example, lets a lot by, and tend to be liberal with warning people first. www.fedoraforum.org is a little stricter, sort of nipping things in the bud, but they're usually very good at explaining their reasons for it. However, www.notebookforums.com has recently gone WAY out into uncharted "overzealous" territory. As you might guess, that forum is a place where people go to discuss notebook PC technology, as well as solicit advice and opinions from people on notebook puchases. ALl incredibly well and good, except that several moderators on that forum have taken it upon themselves to wake a holy war against dissenting opinion. Not disagreement with fact, mind you, but opinions that don't agree with theirs...and in many cases, facts that they don't like. These mods appear to have originally come from their Alienware sub-forum. Now, I'm sure Alienware has a loyal following, as does Dell, IBM, and HP when it comes to their products. But there's a difference between loyalty to your brand and becoming insulting towards others and their girlfriends when they disagree with your opinion. And when someone states a pure fact (such as the fact that 99% of all notebooks are made by OEM manufacturers and are customized by the company that brands them) going crazy and launching threats of banishment is really not the proper response. That would be equivalent to being booted for saying the sky is blue. This is why moderators are supposed to MODERATE. Like judges, their personal opinions should matter very little; they must be impartial and fair. Notebookforums.com has cast off the fairness and made it clear that only opinions that agree with theirs are welcome, and any others risk banishment. One member has already been banned for his actions: a guy with the ID of Redmumba. He was bounced with no explanation. He created another account to explain what had happened..several of us chimed in that such an action was unjust, and read the original thread agreeing that he had done nothing banworthy, and in fact the moderator and several "regulars" in the thread had taken actions that would bring on a lecture and/or ban in any other forum. However, said "chime-in" thread was deleted without a trace, and now so is the original thread. Many of us smell the covering of a certain oderous organ, and so a thread titled "Censorship at NBF" was created, where people basically came to state that such a situation was really unfair and intolerable. I myself posted that having to "look over one's shoulder" before giving any advice to a person seeking advice is counterproductive, and such a situation would make sure that the only advice these people would recieve would be what the moderators want them to recieve; likely statements that make their favorite brands look good and other brands look bad. This thread was also deleted with no trace, no warning, and no explanation. However, there is now a sticky-post at the top of their "Dell General" forum, from a moderator, that reads as follows: READ NOW: ZERO TOLERANCE ON TROLLING (especially Alienware board) Greetings Dell peeps. This message is to serve as a strict warning to all of you. Trolling will NOT be tolerated under any circumstance.... and we will now be taking a ZERO TOLERANCE approach to any Dell board regular who purposly goes into the Alienware boards to stir it up. You will receive no warning. Your account will be banned and we will be loathe to allow any secondary account you set up. To users who create a second account just to troll, you will be discovered, and ALL ACCOUNTS you possess WILL BE BANNED. This has gone on long enough, and our warnings and previous actions are obviously not getting through to you all. The Alienware mods will be taking the same approach, if they catch you doing this they will ban you. They also have authority to come to the Dell board, so do not think you can get away with it. Please, abide by the forum rules and do not poke the bees next. Dell mod team It appears someone doesn't like Dells much, and those someones have been given access to the Dell boards to do as they please. If I had the threads available, I could show them and prove that there was no trolling involved; merely a polite exchange of opinion on all sides EXCEPT that of the Alienware mod (Aurora) and one other Alienware regular. Others have read them as well and will agree with me. However in return for this, a rabidly pro-brand moderator has been set loose in a forum where he originally had no authority, and has been given a blank check, so to speak. Hence the deletion of so many threads in an attempt to cover and hide what has happened, and now an atmosphere of fear. I'm sure Aurora will go ballistic when he/she finds this here and probably immediately ban me from notebookforums.com. I don't care; I refuse to participate in such a Hitler-esque situation, and the loss is theirs, not mine. If it's the wish of the owners of notebookforums.com to simply be a group who surround themselves only with yes-men that agree with their opinions, and don't shatter the bubble they choose to live in, that's fine. But I hope that those looking for honest opinions will go somewhere else, as now no one at notebookforums can freely express their opinions. I urge those who are not members there to remain so. Creating a membership to post displeasure there will simply result in the thread being deleted, and likely your e-mail will be permanently banned. They already prevent many e-mail domains from even creating accounts there, notably Yahoo, because it's "free"...well, they might not have such a problem with people using "free" accounts if they acted in a more reasonable fashion. They forget that 99% of Yahoo accounts could hardly be referred to as "disposable." There are other places on the internet where free exchange and individual opinion are more respected, and moderators actually MODERATE, rather than acting like draconian Internet versions of Saddam Hussein or Adolf Hitler. I hope that moderators of other forums will read this and realize what can happen if moderators get out of hand. I hope that those who have frequented forums and had moderators ask them to back off on something realize how good they've got it because their mods didn't get out of hand and go on a deletion/banning spree. And I hope that, possibly, someone with authority at notebookforums.com realizes what their moderators are being allowed to get away with and puts a stop to it. Because if not, sooner or later their membership will dwindle to nothing. To any of the "regular guys" at said forum, I enjoyed discussing and debating with you, even when we had stark disagreement (especially the whole Darwin/ID thing; very intellectually stimulating). I'm sorry I can't post my good-bye there but the fact is, it was already deleted once without a trace. To the owners of notebookforums.com I hope you investigate the situation. And I leave you with some very wise words that obviously your moderators need to learn the meaning of: The hardest freedom to acknowledge is the other guy's freedom to disagree with you.

Ok, this is my first entry. I'm arriving kinda late to the whole blogging thing. I'm used to just sort of talking to myself in my head when I want to vent, but I'm a pretty good writer and maybe my wierd yet complex thoughts at certain times will be interesting and benefit society in some way. Either that or they'll be really laughable and probably fodder for insulting comments, but that's the chance I'll be taking I guess. Anyway, right now I'm just coming off of a heavy work week...I work a lot of hours, mostly overnights. When it's busy, it's real busy. When it's not busy, it leaves me time to study, or to think deep thoughts. I do a LOT of thinking...it's probably my most time-consuming hobby Thinking is a good hobby that not enough people are into. By saying that I don't mean some people don't think as much as they could. What I DO mean is that MANY people seem to have issues with thinking AT ALL in this country. You see, there's too much pressure to think a certain way. Follow a certain religion, adopt a certain political opinion, think this movie is cool because the rest of us do and NO, don;t listen to that guy over there, just listen to me, don't think about it, you know I'm right. The pressure is so strong that most people just throw in the towel unconciously and "go along with the crowd" without truly thinking about what it is they're agreeing with or believing. The next step ends up being defending it with such vehemence and converting others to the same line of thought that the system perpetuates itself. However, when listened to carefully, and actually THINKING about what they say, despite the vehemence, it becomes clear that they're not thinking, nor have they ever thought about their position. This scares them, usually into retreating further into said position, and again, the system perpetuates itself. The situation is such that, rather than intelligently trying to find solutions to problems through cooperation and compromise, instead one side is always vehemently trying to prove the other side wrong, and vice versa. The true thinkers, who might actually be able to bridge the gap, end up taking heat from BOTH sides because, while agreement is taken for granted, dissention must be attacked and destroyed at all costs. Such is the cause of political division, wars, cliques, religious schisms, nationalism, and other sorts of things that split the human race into different camps. This is encouraged by that same system, which becomes more powerful the more disagreement there is. That's where the rest of the thinkers are: at the top, pulling the strings. I refuse to allow my strings to be pulled. This makes me an outcast of society and organizations in most cases. While some will laud me for being willing and strong enough to stand alone, this is mostly lip service and usually breaks down when they realize that I'm not going to follow THEIR lead either. I can live with that. The REASON I can live with that is because I've thought about it. And when you get used to the effort, thinking gets to be fun. A lot of fun. The most fun part is looking around you and realizing that all those people whose acceptance you hungered for are really just sheep following the flock, and you're the only one there who realizes it. Like I said, thinking is a great hobby. I highly recommend you try it sometime I told you this might be interesting.