Pidgin is my instant messaging client of choice. It means my MSN, Gtalk, Yahoo, ICQ and other contacts are all in one place. Today I have taken that to the next level with three new plugins.
I need to have skype installed and running, but now I can send / receive messages from within pidgin. On linux, this is a big deal. The skype interface sucks. It lacks spell check, among other things. Now I can even send encrypted, deniable messages through Skype with the Off The Record plugin. All my other pidgin plugins work with Skype. Fantastic. Get the plugin here. (It works for poor people on Windows also).
More and more people have started talking to me on Facebook chat. The interface was a little ropey, I much prefer talking to people in Pidgin. For example, when somebody sends me a message, a web site has no way of letting me know. So if Facebook is open but not on the screen (say on another tab) I miss the messages. Pidgin on the other hand is great for that. Now pidgin supports facebook chat.
I haven’t actually activated this plugin yet, but I have installed it. I believe it allows you to set / get Twitter messages via Pidgin. I like that idea a lot. I really liked Twitter’s IM service (before it died). But now I’m using ping.fm (invite code vivalaping) to update all my statuses in one go. So Twitter only via IM might be a bit weird. I can post to ping.fm through IM no problems, they have a Jabber interface.
Plugin Pack
Before I forget, I recently installed the available plugins from the Ubuntu repository. I grabbed all the pidgin related plugin packs that looked good. That made a big difference. Added Extra Prefs and Off The Record Messaging which were the biggest changes I think.
Pidgin is on a new level today. Here’s a pretty picture for all you visual / non techy types out there.
I thought I’d take this opportunity to share the message with YOU. When did you last backup? Do you have an automated backup plan? Have you tested it? Do you know you can actually recover your data, or do you just hope? Do you keep your backup drive next to your computer? How would you be affected by fire or theft?
Backup is a little bit like insurance. It’s tempting to drive without insurance, until you have a crash that is. Then, of course, the insurance seems like a bargain. Why not decide today is a good day to check over your backup procedure? Maybe even run a little test restore just to be sure.
Here’s a picture from amanky completely unrelated to backup which appeared in a flickr search for backup all the same.
I’m starting a business. It’s a purely online business. We’re going to manage WordPress sites. Customers will be global. A grandma in Detroit, a professional blogger in Sydney, or a teenager in Bangkok. As the principal owner of the business, I will be nomadic for a few more years. I’m trying to decide where to incorporate said business.
I might eventually sell the business, most likely in the USA.
I don’t mind paying tax, but I want to stay “international”.
We’ll most likely take payment by PayPal.
I believe in transparency, the ownership structure will be visible for all the world to see.
I’ve considered a few options:
Incorporate in Vanuatu. Tax haven, minimal red tape. Can I get PayPal linked to my Vanuatian bank account?
Incorporate in Vanuatu, establish subsidiary in Scotland. Gives me long term international ownership. Might add legal complexity.
Incorporate in Scotland. Administration of the business has a cost. Would I need a director physically in Scotland?
Incorporate in the USA. Not sure how to do that from overseas. Is it costly? Worth the effort? Bureaucratic red tape?
What do you think? Can you share any experience? Do you know any experts in this area I could speak to?
Here’s a picture from Jennoit on flickr which came up on a search for incorporate!
Seth posts this. Inspirational. It’s inspiring to see somebody at the point in their life/career where they can be true to their principles. I think it’s harder to remain true to one’s ideals at the earlier stages of a career. When you’re earning less, have less exposure, less influence, and so on. However, ironically, I think remaining true to principle is probably key to gaining that later success.
In my personal experience, the “truer” I am to my principles, my values, myself, the easier, happier, more successful I am. I’ve noticied this is especially true commercially. For example, when I only get involved in projects or work which I really believe in, things work out great. By figuring out what a great job looks like for me, I have a great job.
To my amazement, when I called my bro at 11pm on Saturday night he was sleeping. Aghast, I decided I’d have to party on alone. What a night.
There was Thai on Thai fighting. Two guys who both work for the same bar apparently! Some farrang (foreigner) girl on guy fighting. Then lots of drinking buckets, dancing, and general debauchery.
I was last on Koh Pha Ngan for the new year party 2006/7. It was much, much busier, the beach was absolutely packed. The vibe this time was a lot better. Fewer people, but enough to make a good party. It had less of a thugs out on the town feeling.
Here’s a short clip of the fire skipping to give you an idea of what it was like.
I’m staying at Delight Resort on Koh Pha Ngan with my brother. Ferg paid 700 baht (~$20 USD) for a week of internet. I spent some time time working out how best to share the connection. Here’s my solution.
I connect to the internet on my laptop. Then I add a second IP on my wireless card and enable IP forwarding from that IP to the internet. Other machines on the network then connect to the internet via my laptop. This relies on a couple of things. Firstly, you need to be able to run 2 IPs on the same card. Secondly, the wireless network needs to allow machines to talk to each other.
Here’s the commands to set it up.
Add a second IP on the wlan0 connection with the command:
$ sudo ifconfig wlan0:1 192.168.7.1
Enable ip forwarding:
$ echo 1 | sudo tee /proc/sys/net/ipv4/ip_forward
Add the iptables rule to masquerade (network address translate) traffic:
$ sudo iptables -t nat -A POSTROUTING -o wlan0 -s 192.168.7.0/24 -j MASQUERADE
Now connect the other machines to the network, then change their IPs to 192.167.7.2-255, their default gateway to 192.168.7.1. Leave the DNS server as the one supplied by the wifi access point, or if you have dnsmasq (or another dns server installed) set it to 192.168.7.1.
The first command `ipconfig wlan0:1 192.168.7.1` adds a new virtual ethernet device called wlan0:1 and sets the IP of that device to 192.168.7.1. This means you now have two IPs on the same NIC.
The second command enables ip forwarding in the kernel.
The third command adds the iptables magic. The command `iptables`. Modify the routing table called nat `-t nat`. Append a rule to the POSTROUTING chain `-A POSTROUTING`. On the wlan0 interface `-o wlan0`. Iptables doesn’t recognise virtual devices, so it’s not possible to specify `-o wlan0:1` here. Instead, we specify the source IP range `-s 192.168.7.0/24`. Then tell the rule to masquerade the IPs `-j MASQERADE`.
Somebody might find this useful. It took me a while to figure out. I was firstly using my wireless router as a second wireless card on my machine and sharing the connection that way. This seems much simpler.
For my non-technical readers, here’s a picture of me geeking out by the pool.
In a suitably javascriptly enabled browser, double click any word on this site to see an explanation of the word. Then double click any word in the explanation for more. Oh the things that are lexically possible... :)
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Is the Apple and Mango juice in the communal fridge mine? I think drink it anyway, and replace it if anyone complains. :) #16 hours ago
Just switched my primary MX to TuffMail. Their level of spam control is astounding. I'm impressed already. #17 hours ago
Back from a weekend of campervan road tripping. Happy days. :) #2008/10/06
Heading into town for drinks then off on the road for 3 days. Yeehaa. It's gonna be a great weekend. :) #2008/10/03
@narnua I use ping.fm primarily to post. Twitter really has the early mover advantage in terms of numbers though. Everyone's here... #2008/10/03
@twitter I can no longer set device update preferences for people I follow because IM is offline and SMS is not in Aus. WTF? Come on people. #2008/10/02
End of my financial week has arrived. Another week of prudence. Excess at the weekend, frugality through the week, on budget. Kebab time! :) #2008/10/02
Here’s a pretty picture for all you visual / non techy types out there.
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