I’m up quite a bit later than I wanted to be tonight. I’ve been packing some things up in preparation to move on Saturday, and it’s taking forever. Plus, there’s just a lot I can’t take down yet, like the computers, bed, TV, etc. I’ve done about all I’m going to do tonight, so now I’m just in hacking and laundry mode.

I’m finally getting around to some of the cleanup work I’ve wanted to do in Galago, API-wise. There’s some work that I need to get to, but since I may be without Internet for awhile at the apartment, I’m not so sure I should start it just yet. I don’t want to break things too much.

One thing I plan to do at some point in the near future is get a little computer set up for my 4 year old sister, so that she can play her games (Tux Paint, Tux Typing, and a few others) and see me through webcam. For this, I decided I would create a custom menu program thingie for her, and then realized it could be used for kids in general. It would feature a nice, happy little interface for running the programs that the parents have set up. I would eventually include some Galago support so that little indicators could appear at the top of the screen (optional, and probably for older kids) with drop-down menus letting the kid IM, e-mail, send pictures/files, or initiate a video conference with the person. I don’t know when I would find the time for this, though.

Ah, my blanket is finally washed. Back to that.

I found out last night that the game Peasant’s Quest was finally released. A demo was out for a little while showing off this game, which boasts an impressive 16 colors and 2 channels of sound. It’s from the creators of the Trogdor game, also on Homestar Runner.

The game is like the old Kings Quest and other games of the time. You are Rather Dashing, a peasant who seeks revenge on Trogdor the Burninator, who burninated your tiny, puny little cottage. To reach Trogdor, you must solve a series of puzzles, many of which make you think and hunt around for a bit. The game is hilarious, full of comments and hidden actions. And Naked Ned, who I still can’t figure out.

For a comedic flash game, Peasant’s Quest is actually fairly challenging. Sure you can beat the game without trouble, but you really have to think about some things, and getting those last couple of points can be difficult. All in all, it’s a great way to waste a couple hours of your life.

I’ve been a bit quiet lately on this blog, but that’s because I’ve been in interviews for a new job, apartment hunting, and preparing to move. I will soon be working at VMware. It seems to be a very cool job, and everybody I’ve met there were great.

I went apartment hunting the other day and found a really nice, comfortable area close to work. The prices were good too. For only a small amount more than some other apartments I looked at, I was able to get a 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom. I figure I’ll make one bedroom into an office.

Mid-August, I’ll move and start my job. It’s going to be hard to leave my family (especially my little sister, who’s trying to grasp why her big brother is leaving her) and my friends, but it’s only a few hours away, so we’ll all see each other.

Galago updates soon. Just got to get some stuff working first.

Yahoo has blocked third party clients again. This is part of their master plan to drive away users, I mean, fix the spam issue. Not that I’ve experienced a spam issue yet, but I’m probably just lucky. Most third party clients use the same authentication code to connect, and Yahoo just exploited a bug or lack of something in the code.

This is all great timing, because we’re releasing Gaim 0.79 tomorrow. For now, we are using the web method to connect, but this has a number of disadvantages. For example, you can’t add or remove buddies.

Despite Yahoo’s attempts, I’m sure they realize this is only going to keep third party clients off temporarily. Sure, they’ll change it again. So will we. Yahoo, some people don’t want to use your client, and your Linux version quite frankly sucks. Don’t push us away. Share the love!

We got our phone bill this month, and my parents noticed a charge from a company called Galacy Web Hosting. Looking back, it seems we’ve had this charge for awhile, but never noticed it (don’t ask me why). Anyhow, they called up ILD Teleservices, who Galacy was going through for the charge it seems. They were put through to Galacy web hosting, and the guy there played back a recording from January of me agreeing to sign up for web hosting and to the fee.

I remember the conversation. I did agree to do the survey, but never to web hosting. Why would I need web hosting? I do it myself, and if I grew tired of that, I know people at places who can host me for free. I am pretty confident they have digitally altered the conversation, rearranging parts of it to make me sound like I was agreeing.

I’m not the only person this has happened to. There’s a whole list of complaints about them and Integratel (they appear to be related).

My mom got the service removed, but apparently, we couldn’t get the account creditted. So I called them back. I started by calling ILD. When I mentioned Galacy, the girl on the phone just kind of sighed, and said they get this a lot about this company. They said they’ll make sure it’s off our account, and to call up Galacy. I called up Galacy and got the same person my mom got this morning in the billing department. He recognized our number immediately, and quickly said he would credit all past bills. I made him confirm this. It’s a shame I didn’t get it on tape though.

We’ll see what happens here, but if anybody gets a call from Integratel or Galacy Web Hosting, hang up immediately. Even if you don’t agree to anything, you may be agreeing to everything.

I headed to Best Buy today to look at new monitors. I wanted a second head for my computer, but it was going to require a DVI-to-VGA adapter. After looking at the very crappy selection of CRT monitors, and realizing that I didn’t really have enough room to fit another CRT on this desk, I bit the bullet and bought an LCD monitor. It’s really nice, though a bit on the expensive side. It took quite some time for my eyes to adjust to the text on the screen, but now it’s just beautiful. Excellent purchase 🙂

Oh, and I just put up the latest weekly Galago status report. The past week was productive 🙂

Video Card

My new ATI Radeon 9600 dual head video card came in the mail today! Although I must say, there’s nothing more frustrating than getting a new toy like this and realizing that the DVI-to-VGA adapter you thought was coming with it actually doesn’t come with it. One more day…

A second monitor is going to really help with things. I find too often that I have a few desktops full of terminals, another couple desktops of documentation and web pages, and so on. Sticking the documentation and IRC on a second monitor will really help with the clutter and constant desktop switching.

Planet Jabber

Ralph Meijer just announced the creation of Planet Jabber. As Ralph said, Jabber is more than just IM, and this Planet should be very interesting to watch.

Mmmm Bandwidth

It was pointed out to me a few days ago on IRC that SBC’s Business DSL service, which we’re on, now has faster speeds. Our service was capped at 1.5Mbps down, 128Kbps up (although we ended up getting close to 160Kbps). The new service (same price as our old) is capped at 3Mbps down, 384Kbps up. Of course, they didn’t automatically switch us over to the new speed caps, so I called them up today. By next week, we should be at the new speeds 😀 (“should” being the keyword, from my experience with DSL companies).