Just got done testing the Jabber server against Danny’s jabber account. Figured I’d just take a second to explain, exactly why I think Jabber is cool. I realize I’ve probably left some people in the dark on it.

As it stands, most people are using 1 of the 3 big “protocols” for IM use. I quote it because it’s not so much about using a protocol, as it is being locked in to the service providers network. If you want to talk to somebody on AIM, you need to have an AIM account, and so do they. Extend that to Yahoo, MSN, and so on. This is like email in the old days. For those of you that can remember the pre-internet days, there was a time where a lot of people had CompuServ accounts, and a lot of people had Prodigy accounts. They could email to other users of the service, but users of either service couldn’t email users of other services. How antequated does that seem? It would be like needing a hotmail email account to talk to somebody on hotmail, and a yahoo.com account to email your buddy that uses yahoo. That’s lame.

So along comes Jabber. In many regards, it functions much more like email does now. A very brief lesson in how email works:

• You compose an email to a buddy in your outlook client (shiver)
• You click send, and your client shuttles the message off to the smtp server you have designated it to use.
• The smtp server queues the message (assuming you are allowed to relay) and the decides where to send the message to. It does this by checking the MX dns records for the recipient domain.
• If proper DNS records are found, the smtp server sends the message on to the host listed with the most preferred MX record (the lowest number).

Here’s how something like AIM works now:

• Your client authenticates with an AOL server, and receives buddy list information.
• When you message a buddy, the message goes from your client, to the connected server, then on to your friend.

Here’s how jabber works:

• Your client connects to a jabber server in your domain, or a domain of a public jabber server.
• You send a message to a friend, joe@jabber.otherdomain.com.
• Message leaves your client and is sent to your jabber server
• Your jabber server performs dns lookups to find the jabber host for the domain in the jabber identifier (in this case, jabber.otherdomain.com).
• Your jabber server then sends the message to the jabber service it located via the dns resolution.
• The remote service forwards the message onto the client, assuming they are connected. If not, it queues the message and will deliver when they log on next.

Hopefully this makes sense. In a nutshell, it’s decentralized, and it’s great. Not to mention, all the communications are valid XML.

…that says “I don’t understand how the internet works”.

This stamp will be applied to the forehead of clueless admins who don’t bother to understand the traffic their systems are passing. Nor do they bother to understand how their security systems work.

Case in point, everybody and their mom that runs a firewall or intrusion detection system that watches for port scans, and has this stamped on their forehead, believes their ISP hosts dns resolvers that are attacking them.

Go read some documentation, figure out how port scan detection works, and sniff some dns resolution traffic. Then get back to me.

Over time, I’ve managed to completely hose my linux box at work. There were two, really really bad things I’ve done in the past 6 months. First, I broke my rpm database beyond repair. Then, I broke some of the perl libraries. I’ve been trying to install BloGTK, but that’s a no go because I can’t get the new pygtk binding working. So, I figured I’d do a remote connection to a windows box at work to use w.bloggar. Since I have w2k and not XP, I can’t use the excellent and fast rdesktop client, which I already have working. So I decided to give a run at a VNC client to setup like Danny does. I just spent 30 minutes compiling X libraries, and finally broke down on an error in libXaw that I’m not going to make it past.

So, I guess I’ll have to resort to either not spell checking my posts and using a browser, pasting, or turning and using my beatup NT box at work. Argh.

Now if I could just find a free 10GB drive around here. I’m not kidding, all drives at work are scarce.

In front of our office building there is a fountain. That fountain attracts a family of ducks. Most people love the ducks, they aren’t annoying and don’t get in anybodies way. Yearly, the ducks enter an especially cute stage as they give birth to ducklings. It’s something of an event watching the little things trot around in a line.

So today, I’m walking up to the building and see a group of people gawking at something I can’t yet see from my vantage point. I knew right away though, only something involving the ducks could bring that response. They didn’t look happy either. Finally, I could see one duck dead near the window. It looked like some blood was coming from it’s head, I assume it bashed in while flying out of some panic.

Not a fun way to start your work week.

Some ultranationalist white supramicist that the ADL has record of keeps calling me at work. He’s probably called different people 15 times in the past 2 days. Through screening calls, I have managed not to talk to him yet. To top it off, the guy claims to be an attorney. Still more reason not to talk to him. Oh the joys…sometimes I love my job.

Somebody finally set up the Wheel O’ Yum at work. Now they can let destiny decide their lunchtime fate.

I say “they” because I usually don’t eat out. Good for a laugh though.