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I'm (obviously) not the only one following the Google Talk scene. There was a Slashdot story today linking to a blog post in which someone doubts that Google is going be as open when it comes to federation as they'd have you believe. The gist of the comments on that post, which I tend to agree with, is that Google just introduced their service last week and would be making a mistake if they just left the door open for any old Jabber server to federate with them. They have a process for other Jabber servers to federate with their @gmail.com server, and presumably as the weeks pass we'll see some announcements about that. IM spam ("spim") is nowhere near the problem that email spam is (my old AIM screen name would get one or two messages a year), but the downside of a completely open federation model is that there's nothing stopping someone from setting up their own Jabber server and hammering Google Talk users with spim. More interesting is this post on Dru...

In an attempt to explain what Google Talk is all about, and why it's something that people should at least care about if not understand, taking a look at what happened with email over the past ten years or so is informative. Everyone uses email now, and everyone takes for granted that they can send email to anyone else if they know their email address. It doesn't matter whether it's an @aol.com address, an @gmail.com, an @columbia.edu, or anything like that–there's (for all but the few degenerative edge cases) universal addressing for email. Back in 1994 when I first started connecting to online networks, I had an AOL account (and I kept that AOL account until a few months ago, which necessitated my change in screen name). At that time there's wasn't much going on of interest on the Internet Internet, but AOL had it's own online community, with proto-web pages full of content and files to download only available to AOL customers. AOL also had it's own ...

Well, I'm glad I'm not the only one a little wary of Google . Information is everything, and the trajectory that Google is on places it in charge of all information everywhere by, say, next Tuesday. Even if Google holds fast to their motto, "Don't be evil," I'm not sure I want a single friendly company being the clearing house for the bulk of the information I deal with everyday. That, of course, didn't stop me from logging in to Google's new Jabber server , which is the backend to their Google Talk thingy. Unlike with all my posts about metaphysics or economics, I actually know something about the collaborative software space (this is what I do all day at work, for those who think I still deal in faxes), and I'll probably get around to writing up my thoughts on Google Talk at some point. In the meantime, you can now contact me from a Jabber client (I recommend Adium X on the Mac, and I guess you could try the official Google Talk client on Windo...

Ryan and Sarahs's had their we're-moving-to-Boston-because-we-are-so-fancy going away thing tonight. One of Sarahs's friends from Ireland is in a bluegrass band that has been doing a string of gigs in the American northeast for the past few weeks, and tonight coincided with their last show before heading back to Ireland. They played at The Living Room on the Lower East Side, which turns out to be a very chill bar/stage, so that's where we coalesced for the goings-away. The band we came to see was Prison Love (which, believe me, it took some careful Googling before I found the right link), and they were great, except they only played three songs. I asked one of the band members why and he alluded to some scheduling problems or something. When they finished their third song (the second being a cover of Phil Collins's ""Sussudio"), we were planning on heading out to grab some gluten-free pizza and risotto. But the band got word that the reason they wer...

Well, Adam covered the whole trashcan-cum-art incident in his own damn blog , though sensitive readers should be forewarned that the post contains mention of anal penetration, (brownstone) voyeurism, bare-naked ladies, and non-consentual dumping. My roommate and I have slightly different blogging styles. I think the picture's going to look great on my wall–I'm going to have to move Sarahs's over to a smaller wall, but that will look great there too. You can play along with the painting restoration photostream , and be sure to post a comment on Flickr letting me know what you think. I'll have some pictures of it up on the wall tomorrow.

I was growing a bunch of basil, oregano, and dill on my windowsill. The dill died young, but while the oregano is just hanging in there, the basil has been flourishing. I guess it's the sunlight, because I've never been able to keep it alive before. When you've got bushels of basil you've got to do something with them, so I've been on a pesto kick. There's not much to pesto–fresh basil, good olive oil, grated cheese, garlic, and pine nuts–but the key is getting it to a good consistency. My immersion blender , previously used solely for evil (read: whipped cream), does a good job of turning that all into a delicious goop. Then you serve it with whatever one wants.

An anonymous KTA writes: Because by the end of the ballgame, all three Jewish Sox were on the field. I don't know if any of them ate reclining, but they were definitely playing baseball. This is definitely a blog-worthy event--the Sox led the majors in Jewish players with two last year (Gabe Kapler and Kevin Youkilis), and with the addition of Adam Stern (who's also Canadian), they have what must be a league-leading and impossible-to-top THREE Jews. Big news if you ask me! I look forward to reading what 34 has to say. KTA KTA's mail refers to August 8th's game . 34 has the following to say: Jews or no Jews, the Red Sox sweeping the Rangers is not cool.

I spent this past weekend up in Ancram, NY at Sarahs's folks place for Sarahs's birthday bonanza. I highly recommend Ancram and birthday bonanzas in general. The photos are up on Flickr ; I didn't post the 20 shots of Sarahs opening her many presents, but rest assured that she was wearing a collapsable dog's water bowl as a hat.

All Day I Dream About (Market) Share The Most Evil COO, Ever I Am A Communist

I never really understood Lerner Hall (I think Shawn Choy created that captioned image originally, no?) until this night's Stella , when I realized that it makes a decent airport. (They shot an airport scene on the top floor.) It was as if Bernard Tschumi was trying to design an airport, missed, and decided to call it a student center. Putting STA Travel in the basement for a couple of years should have been a giveaway.

Whilst moving Ryan & Sarahs's ("Sarahs" not being plural, of course) furniture first onto East 94th Street and then into a logistics van for transport to Cambridge, Dave and I decided that we were going to co-author a fashion blog. I forget why. We thought it a very funny idea at the time, and I still think it is, but Dave appears to be reluctant to actually go ahead with blogging. I am hereby gauging public support for such an undertaking. I don't know whether Dave is more or less likely to go ahead with it if there is public support, as his primary concern seems to be that people will actually read it.

Alice sends the following, which I will dutifully blog: for your blog ( mine 's too classy for this item...btw, we're starting it up again soon): one of those bizarre occasions when the spam-generated subject heading fits (so to speak) with the spam, which is, in and of itself, funny *for everyone involved* ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Mon, 01 Aug 2005 13:55:08 -0800 From: Joan Henley To: alice's email Subject: machismo ethology You know you need it. The longer and thicker you are, the better everyone involved will be. Don't delay on the world's best solution for your problem. Make "it" work like a king today. Up-size it. http://somedicksite.com/ Not for you now then continue. http://someotherdicksite.com/