David McNett (Nugget)

Our very own karl broke out his keyboard (and video editing skills) for the latest release from Virtual Zeppelin. These guys are a Led Zeppelin cover band from all over the planet who join forces virtually over the internet. From Japan, the US, and Canada:

Virtual Zeppelin - Over the Hills and Far Away

For the past month or so, hints and clues about Google Talk opening up have been flying back and forth. People spotted DNS SRV records for the gmail xmpp servers and there's been a lot of frenzied speculation about what and when Google is planning. (You may recall I discussed this previously)

Today it looks like things have opened up considerably more. The Google Talk servers are now doing successful outbound traffic to the wider world of the XMPP/Jabber network. Google Talk users are able to add non-gtalk Jabber address to their contact lists, and in many cases it's working great. Some friends report successful invite and message passing between the Google Talk servers and their own, personal Jabber servers.

I'm having less luck on my end, though, and I can't quite tell if the problem is local or systemic. I'm receiving traffic from the Google servers without any problem, but any time my jabberd server (release 2.0s10) tries to send messages back the connection breaks. The logs aren't all that useful, but I'm encouraged. dbaker's jabberd v1.4 server is failing in a similar way, but one particular server that is working is also a 1.4.3-3 server, so I don't think it's a fundamental jabberd problem.


Update 7pm CST: I gave up on jabberd and migrated to ejabberd. Connectivity with Google's servers is working for me now. Curiously, it appears as if Google has chosen to not (yet?) implement s2s encryption. The google servers appear to only do callback verification on s2s traffic. Don't get me wrong, though, I'll take what I can get. This is a huge win for instant messaging consolidation. Way to go, Google!

What this means for us is that there's now a viable, well-supported, mainstream IM solution for end users. There's a Jabber solution now that you can recommend to your mom, or your boss, or your kid sister. Heck, most of them are already signed up to use it as a byproduct of their Google Mail account. They can connect to their Google Talk accounts and chat freely with the bearded suspender-wearing unix fossil community who are running their own private Jabber servers. They can connect to the thousands of businesses and organizations in the world that run their own internal-chat Jabber servers. They can connect to me, and you, and anyone else who has embraced open instant messaging. This is going to be big. Just wait until AIM gets absorbed next.

Update 9pm CST: If you're seeing the same dropped connections that I was getting with jabberd2, you might want to take a look at this bugzilla entry which claims to have a (simple) solution to the problem. Apparently Google's servers are particularly strict regarding the xml namespace of messages and jabberd is particularly loose. Worth a shot.

(Updated 29-Nov-2006 -- I replaced all references to my old domain, slacker.com, with my new domain, macnugget.org)

I've been quite a chore to be around today and the root cause of my anxiety is Google's recent announcement of their Google Talk service. Everyone in my geek circle of friends seems to be all lathered up in excitement over Google's decision to enter the mess that is the Instant Messaging world. Much of it being speculation about how Google intends to do to IM and VoIP what they did with webmail in April 2004 with their launch of Google Mail.

( It's a tempting vision, but I have my doubts )

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Addendum 4:51p CDT:
Both Roland Dobbins and Peter Saint-Andre have informed me that I've quite understated the widespread use of IM in the commercial world, particularly within the financial sector. If anything I think that this usage of private Jabber server only serves to underscore the underlying importance for Google to properly open up their servers for s2s communications. That the current Jabber network is even more entrenched than I'd thought only makes my main point more germane.

I've also been told that I sadly neglected to mention UUCP when discussing the state of email past. for!that!ommission!i!am!truly!sorry.

Addendum 29-Aug:
Where I've focused on the impact to users, Drunken Batman has tossed in his thoughts on what the other IM providers think of Google's release. As always, his rumor network is serving him well.

Update 31-Aug:
Google seems to have capitulated (or at least clarified their position). Gary Burd posted to the Jabber developers list clearly stating that Google now intends to support "open server-to-server federation". He also mentions that they've updated the developer page, which they have. It no longer refers only to "any service provider" and now states a goal of "open server-to-server federation." Hooray!

Original text: "We look forward to federating with any service provider who shares our belief in enabling user choice and open communications. We do believe, however, that it is important to balance openness with ensuring that we maintain a safe and reliable service that protects user privacy and blocks spam and other abuses."

New text: "We plan to support open server-to-server federation. We do believe, however, that it is important to have the safeguards in place to ensure
that we maintain a safe and reliable service that protects user privacy and blocks spam and other abuses."

It has probably been going on forever, but I've only just recently noticed a particularly bizzare grammar misfire where people mis-conjugate a verb after the word "needs." I first recall seeing a friend of mine type online that something "needs cleaned" and the phrase has been causing annoyance in my head ever since, like a little mental loose tooth.

I grepped through my irc and instant messaging logs and the particular turn of phrase isn't nearly as rare as I'd have guessed. Somehow I managed to avoid noticing it until recently, but there it is... Here are a handful of quotes I found made by my friends who are not nameless but shall nonetheless remain herein unnamed:

"...as in what shit needs turned off."
"this keyboard needs cleaned"
"Well, there was a ditch that needs cleaned out also, but not today"
"bah, that needs resolved then, that makes 2 things I have to write today."
"just wondering who needs whacked with it"
"[the website] needs updated badly"
"The code needs changed anyway"
"yup.. definitely needs renamed then"
"brazil needs kicked in the face"

It doesn't even look like some sort of regional malfunction, judging from the mixture of people who have been quoted above. Did I sleep through the day in grammar class where we learned that this was valid, or have I just been asleep at the wheel for the past two decades, not fulfilling my Grammar Police duties?

What triggered this rant today, as opposed to any day prior, is that I encountered the weirdness today in writing as part of some legal documents I received. I'm paying out the loan on my car, since the "lease" is up in August and I've decided to keep it. (vroom vroom!). The bank fedexed a bunch of papers to me to be signed and sent back, and this helpful little post-it note was on top:



What. The. Fuck?

hackard? gramophone? Am I losing my mind or is this completely ridiculous?