Requiring connection references?Jabber I was seriously considering changing the Jabber verbs to use the first connection reference by default, and allow people to specify a connection reference if they want, instead of requiring it. But as I was writing this post, I realized that I couldn't then guarentee that the 'preferred connection' would not change in mid-script, depending on what other threads may be doing. Design exploration through documentation.

John Robb's commentJabber 'Jeremy Bowers (author of iRights) is doing great work on connecting Jabber to Radio. Lots of mind bombs here. Most of the IM crowd can't see beyond simple chat etc., but the real gold is in making connections possible. Connecting desktop Web apps is the future of Jabber.' The funny thing is, I don't even like IM. (Sorry, Jabber people!) Same reason I dread the day I have to get a cell phone.

Jabber presenceJabber I think I've got Jabber presence tracking in... now I need to think about the API for registering for messages and such. I think I'm going to take a permissive approach... rather then try to ensure that a given Jabber event goes to just one place, I'll allow multiple things to subscribe to Jabber events. Also, no matter how I slice it, there are several distinct kinds of events an entity may wish to subscribe to.

Jabber Framework InfoJabber This is a new category for the tracking of my development of the Jabber framework for Radio Userland. I will describe new features and tell about my progress as I go. There is an RSS file for just this channel: http://www.jerf.org/irights/categories/jabber/rss.xml  

I'm coming back... slowlyAdministrative One of the importent lessons I've learned is the importent of not burning out on something. Near the end of last year, iRights became a chore for me. So, rather then burn out, I decided to leave iRights be until such time as I could no longer resist the urge to write again. That time has finally arrived. I've got a backlog of stuff to write about now, which could become it's own source of burnout, but hey, only if I let it.

Goner Virus Authors Teens 'The teens [who created the Goner virus], ages 15 and 16, are high school students in the northern city of Nahariya, said Meir Zohar, head of the police computer crime squad.' People really take the wrong thing away from this information. It doesn't mean these teenagers are extra smart somehow... the law of mediocrity applies. (Hmmmm... must write that one up.) If teens can create such a devastating email virus, that means serious holes in our system that even people who are almost children can exploit, not that today's teens are any smarter then before.

Countdown to Detonation Deconnection... Misc. Well, if I go offline for an indeterminate amount of time, I lost my @Home connection. About all I can say is I don't expect to pay for downtime. See you on the flip side!  

Slashdot | Apple Cease-And-Desists Stupidity Leak Misc. 'Remember Apple's "free, plus $19.95 shipping" updater CD for Mac OS X 10.1? Turns out it's actually a full version of the operating system (which helps explain why it's so large) but it adds an extra little package called "CheckForOSX." Remove that and you can install 10.1 on any disk -- or at least, that's the secondhand version I got of what used to be at MacFixIt's Nov.

Routes of Least Surveillance Privacy from Companies, Surveillance and Privacy from Government 'The interactive, Web-based map catalogs most of the 2,400 cameras filming public space in the city, including cameras on buildings, ATMs and traffic lights. Users log on to the iSee website, select a point of departure and a destination, and a dotted line sketches a route around closed-circuit cameras marked as red boxes. Camera coverage is so dense that the island of Manhattan looks like a red chili pepper.

DOJ's Already Monitoring Modems Surveillance and Privacy from Government 'The Department of Justice already is using its new anti-terrorism powers to monitor cable modem users without obtaining a judge's permission first.' I feel so much safer now.