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2006-09-28

Adoption

On the road to world domination...

BTW, I keep hearing about more big XMPP deployments, including Nimbuzz, Meebo Me, Meetro (Jabber support added about six weeks ago), and most recently GMX -- a huge ISP in Germany that has millions of users (screenshot here). The Jabber Juggernaut rolls on!

Posted on 2006-09-28 at 13:49. File under jabber.

~ link ~

XMPP Updates

Hunkered down and moving along.

Next Wednesday is the second anniversary of the publication of RFC 3920 and RFC 3921. To celebrate I plan to submit the initial Internet-Drafts defining the next versions of these specs. Mostly this involves wording changes to make the specs more developer-friendly, fixes to track updated RFCs for TLS and SASL (etc.), and other corrections and clarifications. The only substantive modifications are the result of interoperability testing and implementation experience over the last two years. Understand that publication of the -00 versions of these Internet-Drafts will be the start of the revision process, not the end. However, hopefully we've talked about these potential changes enough that the scope of modifications after the -00 drafts will be fairly minor.

At the same time, I'm working on an updated website for xmpp.org, including a move of the JSF-published XMPP extensions (a.k.a. JEPs) from jabber.org to xmpp.org, in line with the protocol branding proposal overwhelmingly approved by the membership of the Jabber Software Foundation in our annual meeting held on September 20.

Just so you know!

Posted on 2006-09-28 at 11:49. File under jabber.

~ link ~

2006-09-26

Be Open

Linus Torvalds on committees.

Linux.com talked with Linus Torvalds about GPLv3, resulting in the following reflections:

At any rate, Torvalds says that he would probably decline to participate because of his dislike of committees. "I don't think committees ever make any sense at all, and I hate meetings. I have a belief that committees tend to get formed when you want to avoid responsibility, and particularly when you know what you want to get and you want to be able to say it was 'consensus.' I work over email, and I do so for a reason."

Moreover, Torvalds suggests that the GPLv3 committees "were actually set up to be more insidious than they sometimes are." He suggests that the committees are largely window dressing, organized so that "The FSF could claim it was all done in the open. The process wasn't open at all. The committees were not allowed to talk about the drafts before they were released, and none of the notes or discussions were ever released afterwards. If you want to have an open process, you put the cards on the table, and you allow open and free discussion in public.

Emphasis in original: open and free discussion in public. That's how we try to do things in the Jabber world, too. Why do so many projects and standards development organizations find openness so hard?

Posted on 2006-09-26 at 13:41. File under jabber.

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2006-09-18

Programming Jabber

Let's edit!

Mike Hendrickson of O'Reilly Media just passed along that O'Reilly has posted Programming Jabber by DJ Adams as open content over at WikiContent. DJ's book is a great introduction to Jabber technologies, but it's somewhat out of date since it was published in January 2002. Now we in the Jabber community will be able to update the book ourselves, which is really cool. So let's go forth and edit the online version. Thanks, O'Reilly!

Posted on 2006-09-18 at 10:51. File under jabber.

~ link ~

Atlas Has Shrugged

Email server down for the moment.

No, not that Atlas, but the machine named atlas that is part of the JSF infrastructure. As a result there's no email going in or out of jabber.org right now. Yes, we're working to bring atlas back online as soon as possible. But in the meantime, use Jabber. :-)

Update: it's back up.

Posted on 2006-09-18 at 08:46. File under jabber.

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EuroOSCON I

BootCamp+.

Ralph Meijer and I presented our Jabber BootCamp this morning. I think it went fairly well -- we got some good questions during and afterward, which to me always indicates that people are thinking about what they can do with Jabber. BTW, our slides are online here. (Update: Dries Buytaert has posted a picture of Ralph and me here.)

Posted on 2006-09-18 at 06:29. File under jabber.

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2006-09-15

Brussels Run-Up

Podcast on the way.

I had a chat with Ewan Spence this morning about Jabber/XMPP and my upcoming talks at Euro OSCON (that would be the Jabber Boot Camp with Ralph Meijer on Monday at 08:30 and The State of the Bulb on Wednesday at 10:00. Expect our chat to appear sometime soon as a podcast at The Tech Conference Show.

Posted on 2006-09-15 at 15:33. File under jabber.

~ link ~

2006-09-14

Dawn For Governor

Why I'm voting libertarian.

Boy, is the race for governor of Colorado depressing. On the right we have Bob Beauprez, an anti-choice, big-government Republican. On the left we have Bill Ritter, an anti-choice, big-government Democrat. That's right, the Democrats and Republicans have given us two anti-choice, big-government candidates!

But all is not lost, because over here in the radical center we have Dawn Winkler, the only candidate who reflects the Western heritage of smaller government, individual choice, and personal responsibility. And the people of Colorado are starting to pay attention, because with almost no media coverage she is running around 8% in the polls. Plus she's blogging and speaking in her own voice, not that of some PR agency.

If you ask me, it's time for a new Dawn in Colorado politics. :-)

Posted on 2006-09-14 at 21:37. File under politics.

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Manufacturism

Yet another form of so-called art.

In the latest issue of my favorite newspaper, the Washington Park Profile, we learn of "Manufacturism", a new movement in conceptual "art":

Manufacturism is conceptual art that manufests products and services as the byproduct of a creative idea.

Anthony Harper and Manufacturistic colleagues create a glaring statement about racism in the 21st Century, with a new piece called Unwanted Hair, a three-piece body of conceptual art consisting of a sculpture made of human hair, a donation bank, and a book of photographs with creative commentary from fellow artists. Conceptually, this piece of work is rooted in the fact that, this year a donation of African-American locked hair was deemed "inappropriate," and rejected by the national non-profit cancer organization, Locks of Love.

Harper and Nonthaveth have taken homeless signs off the streets and into an artistic body of work called Dollar$igns. Homelessness is branded by the all-to-familiar exploitive imagery of an individual holding a brown cardboard sign on a street corner asking for help. Dollar$igns removes this element of exploitation by presenting "help" signs as art.

Oy vey. I'm all in favor of protest and questioning authority. But I'm also in favor of art, not so-called art that requires no craft or talent. And no, don't submit a request that I add "manufacturism" to The Ism Book.

Posted on 2006-09-14 at 19:43. File under society.

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New WoT

CA + WoT = Strong Digital Identity?

Some folks who are associated in one way or another with the StartCom CA (first noted here) are talking about starting a web of trust project that would help build a stronger sense of digital identity. Check out their blog here. Though I like the general idea (since I like webs of trust) and I've left a few comments at the blog, I haven't yet had a chance to grok the idea in fullness. Expect more posts about this in the future...

Posted on 2006-09-14 at 12:57. File under identity.

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2006-09-13

Broccoli Redux

Binary XMPP yet again.

Why is it that every so often someone decides to resurrect the idea of a binary encoding for XMPP? The latest such plea is here.

In the past I've likened the idea of "binary XMPP" to broccoli ice cream -- an oddball combination that's not very tasty. And yes, I'm aware of Efficient XML, but I still have my doubts. In any case, XMPP is simply a streaming application of XML, so any effort to define "efficient XMPP" would depend directly on the success of efforts to define "efficient XML" in the W3C. Working on this at the XMPP level is the wrong way to go about it. If you really care about "efficient XML", talk to the W3C.

BTW, I still think the idea of "binary XML" is oxymoronic and just plain wrong. If you want a binary format, don't beat around the bush -- go ahead and define a binary format! But don't call it XML.

Posted on 2006-09-13 at 12:07. File under jabber.

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Mango!

Jabber on Mozilla!

An alpha of Mango is out for Windows and Linux! It's fresh! It's juicy! It's open source! It's an instant messenger for Jabber/XMPP built on Mozilla!

And yes, those are all exclamation points! :-)

Go Mango!

Posted on 2006-09-13 at 11:27. File under jabber.

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2006-09-12

Randian Notes

More essays published and on the way.

Herewith an update about various further essays of mine on Ayn Rand:

Now I just need to write my projected essay on Aristotle and Rand, which I think will be my last rung on the ladder.

Posted on 2006-09-12 at 21:09. File under literature.

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Kudos, Rimu!

A service to rave about.

(Note: updated with corrected Jabber info!)

A while back, Dizzy and I decided to split a virtual private server (running Debian) from RimuHosting. While setting up yet another domain just now, I realized that I've forgotten to post about them, so herewith I correct the oversight. In short, they are great! Rock solid hosting, timely and knowledgeable service, datacenters around the Anglosphere, and great prices made even better by discounts for folks who contribute to open-source projects. My only complaint is that you can't IM them via Jabber, only AIM, MSN, and Yahoo (c'mon guys, get with open source and open standards!). And you can contact them via Jabber, too! (Their JabberIDs are of the form <friendlyrimupersonsfirstname@jabber.rimuhosting.com>.) If you are a looking for a hosting service, I cannot recommend RimuHosting highly enough. Kudos, Rimu!

Posted on 2006-09-12 at 19:59. File under technology.

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2006-09-11

Sapere Aude

Freedom and enlightenment.

In yesterday's post Five Years On, I extolled the values of freedom and enlightenment. But what is freedom, and what is enlightenment? These are big concepts and they are not always well defined. Perhaps over time I'll work to explain them (or at least explain my understanding of them). Let us begin with enlightenment. One of the classic statements of the nature of enlightenment comes from Immanuel Kant's essay Was Ist Aufklärung? (translation), written on September 30, 1784:

Enlightenment is man's emergence from his self-imposed immaturity. Immaturity is the inability to use one's intelligence without direction from another. This immaturity is self-imposed when its cause lies not in lack of intelligence, but in lack of resolve and courage to use it without direction from another. Sapere Aude! Have courage to use your own intelligence! That is the motto of enlightenment.

A few points to note:

  1. By 'intelligence' here is not meant raw smarts, but your reason, i.e., your native intellectual powers however strong they may be. You don't have to be a genius to be intellectually curious or to seek a deeper understanding of yourself and the world. (At least that's how I see it, and I think this use of the word 'intelligence' is consistent with the German Verstand in Kant's essay.)

  2. The Latin motto sapere aude comes originally from Epistle I.ii of the Roman poet Horace, in which Horace urged his interlocutor to seek out the wisdom of philosophical study. Although sapere aude is often catchily translated as "dare to know", at root the Latin verb sapio means to have taste or discernment, to be wise, not merely to have dry knowledge of facts (I see a connection here to "la gaya scienza" of Nietzsche). So yes, venture forth in search of knowledge, but while you're at it don't neglect the pursuit of wisdom.

Posted on 2006-09-11 at 21:17. File under philosophy.

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Jabber-ID Header Redux

An updated draft.

While riding the train home this evening, I got a chance to re-read my Jabber-ID header draft and to make sure it adhered to the guidelines set forth in RFC 3864. It didn't, so I've fixed a few things and submitted draft-saintandre-jabberid-03 to the IETF Secretariat. I think this version is good to go, so as soon as it's published I'll ask for feedback on the ietf-message-headers list.

Posted on 2006-09-11 at 19:41. File under jabber.

~ link ~

2006-09-10

☎ ETel 2007 ☎

Yet Another Conference Proposal.

I just submitted the following proposal for ETel 2007:

Look Ma, No Bell! Routing Around the Telcos with Jabber and Jingle

Since 1999, the Jabber community has been building a decentralized technology for presence and real-time messaging. In 2004, the core Jabber protocols were standardized by the Internet Engineering Task Force under the name XMPP. In 2005, Google released Google Talk, which uses XMPP for instant messaging and some XMPP extensions as the signalling channel for negotiating free voice chats over the Internet. In 2006, the Jabber Software Foundation began standardizing these extensions under the name Jingle. Jingle enables decentralized voice communications (no single provider such as Skype), including inter-domain federation of Asterisk and other open-source technologies (OpenPBX, FreeSWITCH, etc.). The result is yet another way to route around the telcos, coming soon to a Jabber client, phone, or handheld device near you. Find out how it works and what it may mean for you in this talk by Peter Saint-Andre, longtime Jabberite and co-author of the Jingle specifications.

Posted on 2006-09-10 at 21:51. File under jabber.

~ link ~

Five Years On

9/11/06.

Five years ago this evening we Americans, and more broadly we Westerners, went to sleep comfortable and complacent. Five years ago tomorrow morning we were rudely awoken; we found our land attacked and our people violated; and we came face to face with the manifest existence of evildoers who wished to destroy us.

Then arose the refrain: "Why do they hate us?" "Is not Islam a religion of peace?" "We must have done something horrible to bring this on." "It must be our foreign policy, or our spiritual decadence, or our cultural imperialism, or even our very success in commerce, production, science, and technology."

I, too, wondered. I began a program of reading and research to understand the nature of the West and the nature of Islam. I still have much to learn. But I know now much more than I knew on September 11, 2001.

I know that the jihad of Islam against the West is not solely a battle of Muslims against Christians (or, in the case of most Europeans, the heirs to Christendom). I know that Islam has waged its so-called holy war against Zoroastrians in Persia, against animists in Africa, against Hindus and Buddhists in India and Southeast Asia, against Taoists and Confucianists in China, against Berbers in the Maghreb, against Jews in Palestine -- as much if not more than against Christians in ancient Syria, Asia Minor, the Balkans, Hungary, Iberia, Armenia, Sicily, Crete, Lebanon, and beyond.

I know that Islam is not a religion of peace. I know that Islam means submission -- submission to the arbitrary will of Allah in heaven, submission to the arbitrary edicts of authoritarian strongmen on earth. I know that the Koran enjoins Muslims to not make friends with those who do not believe in Allah, and even says to "seize them and kill them wherever you find them" (sura 4.89).

I know that Islam is opposed to science, technology, and progress. As one of the hadiths says, "Verily the most truthful communication is the Book of Allah, the best guidance is from Muhammad, and the worst of all things are innovations; every innovation is heresy, every heresy is error, and every error leads to hell."

I know that Islam endorses slavery, oppresses non-Muslims, and is opposed to human dignity, especially the dignity of women. For example, under the sharia (the Islamic law), the testimony of a woman is worth half that of a man. A woman is not to seek her own fulfillment, but exists only to please a man.

I know that the West's struggle against communism in the twentieth century was merely a blip on the historical radar, whereas the struggle of Islam against all other cultures has been a constant of human history for almost 1400 years.

I know that many Muslims believe it is inevitable that all of humanity must eventually believe in Allah, his Prophet Mohammed, his holy book the Koran as the only source of human wisdom, his law the sharia as the only law; and that all other cultures must submit to the will of Allah, whether willingly or by the sword.

I know that many Muslims are not violent; but at the same time I know that the term "Islamic fundamentalism" is redundant, because to be a Muslim is to believe that the Koran holds all truth, that nothing new can be discovered because it was all discovered by Mohammed, that anyone but a Muslim is in error and shall roast in Hell for all eternity.

I know that it is claimed that many Muslims are moderates, not radicals; but at the same time I see no evidence of this so-called moderate Muslim majority rising up in protest against their extremist, terrorist, jihadist brethren, because in their hearts they know that the Koran condones and excuses and encourages all believers to slay the unbelievers wherever they may be found.

I know that we -- the peoples of the West, the peoples of Europe and America, indeed also the peoples of India and Russia and China and Africa -- live in what Muslims consider the lands of war (Dar al-Harb). I know that we are being warred upon and that we have been warred upon on and off for almost 1400 years. I know that this war will not end as long as there are people who believe in the Koran as the literal word of God, whose minds will never be open to innovation or science, who consider a woman to be half of a man, who consider the life of one who does not believe in Allah to be worth less than nothing.

I know that we must stop trading with those who want to kill us (or those who, directly or indirectly, fund those who want to kill us), that we must not tolerate them, not support them, not grant them recognition, not collaborate or negotiate with them in any way, shape, or form.

I know that there are many enemies of freedom and enlightenment, and that even the West contains such enemies. But I know that there is no greater enemy of freedom and enlightenment than Islam.

I know that there will be no peace until freedom and enlightenment reach the lands of submission (the Dar al-Islam). Yet I know that speading freedom and enlightenment is perhaps the hardest and subtlest struggle of any civilization, especially when the soil in which the seeds must be sowed is so virulently opposed to precisely freedom and enlightenment.

I know that it will be supremely difficult for the peoples of the West to maintain and expand their traditions of freedom and enlightenment while resisting those who would have us submit to Allah, Mohammed, sharia, fatalism, and authoritarianism. I know that it will be even harder for the peoples of India, Russia, China, and Africa, who lack the strong and deep traditions of freedom and enlightenment we take for granted in the West.

I know that the peoples of the Anglosphere -- the Americans, the Canadians, the Australians, the New Zealanders, the British, etc. -- are the greatest targets for the forces of submission, because our traditions of freedom and enlightenment are more deeply engrained and more fully developed than those of any other peoples on earth.

I know that, despite its faults, Western civilization is the greatest, freest, most enlightened, most open, most advanced, most peaceful, most ethical civilization in the history of humanity. I know that the West is the last, best hope of earth. I know that freedom and enlightenment must be defended, articulated, and indeed actively and confidently spread to every far corner of the earth if humanity is to survive and advance, as individuals and as a species.

I wish that it were not so, but I know that we live in difficult, challenging times, and that in all likelihood the times will become harder before they become easier.

I know that one small voice cannot have much influence on the course of history, but I know that each of us must do what we can to defend, articulate, and spread freedom and enlightenment. And I know that I will strive to do so every day of my life, because to do anything less would be to submit to the forces of slavery and darkness.

Posted on 2006-09-10 at 21:12. File under society.

~ link ~

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