I'd like to share a recent... revelation? New insight? Sudden outbreak of common sense? Whatever you want to call it, I have recently decided that I shall no longer identify myself as an atheist. To anyone that has ever asked me about my religious inclinations, that has been my response, but I have realized that it does not truly fit my beliefs and what I think is right.

I was talking about the subject of laptop security with a friend the other week and I presented an alternative model to the current trend that security-minded folk are taking now, which I wanted to share here as well.

I think I'm long past due replacing my current web server with something more capable and powerful. While my current server does its job well, I'd like to expand it's roles and for that, I need beefier hardware. Currently, I am considering using virtualization to provide virtual servers for everything I need, rather than exposing the "bare-metal" to the internet. Right now I'm not completely sure on what hypervisor/virtualization software to use, but will most likely use something from VMware, specifically, VMware Server or VMware ESXi, both of which are free. There's also Xen and KVM to consider.

I'll post here again someday soon, life's a little crazy at the moment.

I work night shift now, 4-5 nights a week. My shift runs from 10pm, until 6am, with three breaks: two half-hour breaks at 12:00 and 2:00, and a 15-minute break at 4:00.

I don' think I've ever slept so soundly since I was young a kid (guess I still am young), this job leaves me completely drained by the end of the night. Unfortunately, it's taking away time from a lot of other things I enjoy, like hanging out with my girlfriend and other friends, writing on this blog, coding up silly little projects for the hell of it, staying up until the early hours of the morning playing games. You get the picture.

Ah well, college doesn't pay for itself, and I don't want to take out any student loans. Oh, speaking of money... my first paycheck couldn't possibly come soon enough... I've accrued quite a list of things i basically have to buy, like a new cellphone to replace the one that got washed with my clothes, or a new pair of headphones so I don't go crazy listening to that elevator music crap they play at work. Fun times, I tell ya...

This is why I don't get any work done ;)

Get red and blue team variants in different sizes here. (source)

6 hours or so to go... Normally I don't make a big deal of my birthdays, not since I was about 12 or so anyway. But, this is my 19th one, which here in Canada means I'm of legal age to drink. And it's pretty much a defacto Canadian tradition to get so hammered you forget your own name on this special day. With that in mind, some friends of mine have volunteered to ensure that I get suitably drunk tomorrow, starting in the afternoon and ending sometime in the early morning. :) Thanks guys! I can hardly wait. :P

Ohhh man, it's 2:12 in the morning and I'm laughing my ass off and probably waking people up...

Why? Was it the video? Something else? I really don't know for sure. Is this video as hilarious as I seem to think it is?

(read more for video)

I don't know how many times I've seen people writing articles about Linux not being "ready for the desktop" and just wanted to bury my face in the palm of my hand. It's certainly ready for my desktop, it's ready for my father's desktop, my grandmother's desktop, your desktop too.

So when I read this "review" of Windows by an old associate from my Automatix days, I had a bit of a laugh, because this one is actually quite true. Go read it and get an idea what you'd have to go through if your laptop/desktop didn't come with any OS pre-installed and you had to install Windows yourself. And while you're at it, Digg it.

I know this news is a little late, but I've been busy :) Funpidgin is now known as Carrier Instant Messenger. This name was suggested by Peter Nikolaidis of the Fresh Ubuntu podcast and the rest of the devs and users we talked to all agreed that it was perfect. We're still working on a final logo, but at least we have a name! And soon we'll also have a new website.

Development-wise, we just recently released version 2.4.2, merging changes from Pidgin upstream and packaging our new features from SVN like webkit-integration for Adium conversation styles, or the old Gaim-style protocol icons. Read the features page and the release announcement for more details, or just go and download it now :P