Last night, I made my first direct contibution to an major open-source project. It was the smallest of small contibutions, but I can look at it and feel proud.

Basically, on the front page of jabber.org, links were being made to articles in the Journal, but each time, to www.jabber.org/journal/. Which is fine for when the article is published, since that’s where it goes, but as soon as a new one gets published, the links on the front page all pointed to that one, instead of the archieved (ie stable) version. So what did I do? Joined in a jabber groupchat (jdev@conference.jabber.org – you do grok jabber, don’t you? You understand that jdev is a chatroom, not an email address? Good.) where I know stpeter hangs around, and pointed it out. Ten seconds later, it was fixed. Next time, I’ll try for a bit more of a monumental benefit to the project…

What went on in jdev afterwards was a bit more interesting; basically, a bit of a discussion about the importance of Transports, and active development of them. Jabber Transports are server-side shenanigans that let Jabber users like me chat to MSN, AOL, ICQ, Yahoo etc. networks. They’re very handy for interoperability (an often-bandied around term), but not really what Jabber is in aid of – if all you want is to talk to the other IMs, then you may as well use Trillian. But then you rely on proprietry, commercial, shitty IM systems just as heavily as you did before, but with only one client. Jabber is much more groovy, where anyone can run a server (if they want to), there’s loads of clients for every operating system, you can use it to do all sorts of other message-based stuff (status alerts for dedicated systems, controlling nuclear power stations and the like), and is of course open-source, which is why folks like IBM are keen on plowing money into it. So there were two people – one saying that if the transports rocked harder, then more people would be inclined to migrate to Jabber, but another developer saying that he wasn’t interested in development effort going into the transports, since they aren’t really the point of Jabber – if people use Jabber, that’s cool, but he’s more interested in making Jabber better than pandering to proprietry IM systems. And when everyone uses Jabber, there’ll be no point in transports. Of course, the best thing about the discussion is that both of them are right.

I should really do a little speil on Jabber sometime, and try and wean all my mates off of MSN. But not today.

Well, thanks to Fireburst and Urbex, Gravitystorm is now on the Google index. Which is cool. And on the first day, I’m second on the list for "gravitystorm", second (behind the Motor Club Forums) for "andrewjrallan", and first for "andythescot". Mission accomplished!

On a side note, can you guess how much work I’m getting done today?

Not only do people read this (and, quite amazingly, I’ve already had an email saying “Yayyy” to more weblog), but they actually listen to what I’m saying. Which makes me a teeny bit uneasy, since I spend most of my life accepting that nobody listens to anything I say…

So congratulations Sam, I’m well impressed that Fireburst Validates. You were right on two counts – I pick holes because I can’t help myself, but mainly because I’m a git. But by fixing your website, you’re just conspiring to remove sources of joy in my life – and not only does it validate, but there’s no tables, and it works in Mozilla (after you set a minimum font size though!). So, in short Sam, you’re a bastard, you’ve taken all the fun away from poking holes at your site.

You’re as bad as me at checking that your links work though – gravitystorm.so.uk??

Here’s a letter that I sent to a fair few people in the Union today, which I will record here for prosperity. Now, if you’re reading this, then a) I probably sent you the email anyway and b) you’d have been able to guess what I was going to say by reading the last few entries.

As far as I’m concerned, I want this to be the end of the matter. There’s plenty of other people though, who I don’t think will let it go quite so easily. Urban Exploration types have even picked up on it (30th November – notice how I strained to link to that site using those two words!). Anyway, here’s the letter:

Dear All,

Over the past few days, I’ve been considering what course of action to
take with regards to the DramSoc Chemicals Saga, and more specifically,
whether to appeal against the result of the Disciplinary held against me
last Tuesday.

It was judged that I knew of the Exec decision forbidding me from
removing the chemicals, and I have been fined and reprimanded for my
actions. I strongly dispute this verdict, since neither I, nor anyone I
talked to about the matter, knew of this decision prior to the chemicals
being removed. I was found to have done wrong, with neither any evidence
nor motive offered, which I believe is unfair.

But to be honest, I’m sick of this matter. It has really got me, and
those closest to me, quite depressed over the last fortnight. It seems
plain to me, and many others around me, that I have done no wrong, and
that actions of the ICU President must be closely scrutinised. But I’m
not going to appeal; I’m not going to bring the matter up at Council;
I’m not going to make a complaint about a prejudicial Felix article; I’m
not going investigate the many allegations of misconduct by the ICU
President of which I have been informed. These things should be done,
but I’m unwilling to prolong my misery, or waste any more of my time.

So have your twenty pounds; I hope it does someone some good.

Andy Allan.

It’s come to my attention that some people actually read this nonsense, and indeed, it was commented on that I didn’t update my blog yesterday. So to satisfy my audience (all two of you), I might start making this a regular occurence. Woe betide you all.