I’ve been a big fan of Adium for some time now (ever since its very first release so long ago). It was the first and only Instant Message client to properly use the dock. With a quick glance, you could tell who just signed on or off, who was messaging. Because it was in the dock, you didn’t need to switch out of your current application to see notifications. The effect was also minimal, causing little distraction or taking up any screen space.
Alas, it was not without its failings, most prominently its lack of file transfer support and the ability to read away messages. The latter was nearly impossible to go without. It was an unfortunate side effect of the protocol being used. I was forced to move to iChat until this was addressed.
That brings us to Adium 2 (whose current number is less than 1, which I agree is confusing in many ways). Adam Iser, the author of the original program, made Adium into a Sourceforge project. This doesn’t work for all projects, as some just get neglected. However, after a slow start, their team started making headway, allowing users to download and compile their own copy off the development CVS. They now churn out regular milestone builds like any good open source project.
The most recent milestone (0.7) which is available at their website has some impressive features and though they may not agree, I think is ready for primetime and general use. The level of customization is unparalleled in any other product and save for audio/video and file transfers, is feature complete.
To go along with this customization, Adium has an excellent “Xtras” site to host them all. I personally have my own preferences, which I will post screenshots of once I get home.
These customizations include: * Dock Icons * Emoticons (Smileys) * Contact (Buddy) List Styles * Message View (Chat Window) Styles * Sound Sets * Of course, AppleScripts
Adium isn’t just an AOL Instant Message client either. It also supports: * MSN Messenger * Yahoo Messenger * Jabber (which according to rumor will be added to iChat) * Gadu-Gadu * Rendezvous * .Mac * and more
It also supports plugins, including one for the previously mentioned Growl. The possibilities are truly endless.
Honestly, this is the single project I’d like most to get involved with if I could only motivate myself enough to get Cocoa and Objective-C down pat.
Keep reading for pictures.
I’ve been preaching about Firefox for some time now. Most everyone I know has switched from Internet Explorer and loved the change.
With the Firefox 1.0 release fast approaching, Spreadfirefox.com (caution, it’s currently being slashdotted, so you may not be able to get the page) is raising money for a full page advertisement in the New York Times to gain even more users. $30 will get your name in the ad (only $10 for students; I’m looking at you Dana, Katie, and Scott). Donate here.
I know you’re all very excited boys and girls. Apple has bumped their iBook computers.
We now have: * A 1.2GHz 12″ iBook with 30GB hard drive and a combo drive * A 1.33GHz 14″ iBook with 60GB hard drive and your choice of combo or super drive
All three models sport: * 512KB of Level 2 Cache * 133MHz system bus * 256MB of PC2100 RAM built-in (with a single slot free, allowing for 1.25GB total) * ATI Mobility Radeon 9200 with 32MB of SDRAM * One Firewire 400 port * Two USB 2.0 ports * Video mirroring (no spanning) * V.92 56Kbps modem * 10/100Base-T Ethernet port * Airport Extreme on all models * Optional Bluetooth * Display supporting 1024×768 resolution
I figure I might as well take my lumps now while I’m riding high on this past weekends picks.
I had the horrible misfortune of have a 6-8 record during week five. Sad. Week six thus far has been much better. So far, it’s 11-2. Houston always surprises me and I’m glad to see Green Bay on the road to recovery.
I now have a 37-18 record for the season.
In what is becoming a bi-weekly tradition for this site, I’ve gotten my website fixed again.
The real question is how long will it hold up. It’s rather frustrating for me as this website has become my main hobby and any time I think I’m beginning to make headway in some kind of readership, the site goes down. What’s worse is that I’m paying for this service. This is the first time that I actually went out and bought hosting for this purpose and I’m getting worse results than I got on free hosts. It’s unacceptable.
I give up.
I tried to check my football picks to see how I’m doing this week, only to be greeted with the “No data” error. Super.
I tried to get my host to do what they did last time to fix it and instead, I got the brilliant response that my website was working and that pinging it worked. This is after I referenced the old incident number where they actually figured out the problem.
Jon Stewart recently appeared on CNN‘s Crossfire. As someone who’s been disgusted with essentially all of this year’s presidential campaign season, it was the single most refreshing appearance on TV. He challenges the hosts to answer why they are “hurting America”. They naturally dodged the question (political commentating hosts are politicians too apparently).
If you want to see it for yourself, you’ll need a BitTorrent client such as my personal favorite Azureus. Once you have one, you can download it in either WMV or AVI formats at bitflood.
I’m not going to comment upon my picks from last week. They were bad.
This week’s picks:
San Diego vs. Atlanta Miami vs. Buffalo Washinton vs. Chicago Cincinnati vs. Cleveland Green Bay vs. Detroit Kansas City vs. Jacksonville Seattle vs. New England San Francisco vs. NY Jets Carolina vs. Philadelphia Houston vs. Tennessee Denver vs. Oakland Pittsburgh vs. Dallas Minnesota vs. New Orleans Tampa Bay vs. St. Louis I’ll update my record next week.
I was recently told this lately by someone I knew in high school. Let’s for a moment, ignore the fact they couldn’t be bothered to capitalize “i”, spell out “u”, or use an apostrophe. The complete and utter arrogance in this statement infuriated me to levels that I should have let it. It’s not worth getting my blood pressure up over. Still, I feel the need to vent on why I got so angry.