mikebdotorg, gizmo, gtalk, and work
So I have used "mikebv2" for AOL Instant Messenger (AIM), and Yahoo! Instant Messenger for 4+ years now. Now, I've signed up and added "mikebdotorg" on both services for personal use specifically. I also signed up for gtalk (Google talk) and Gizmo (more on that in a minute) with the same name. So, mikebdotorg is the username to find me on when I'm at home. Write it down, remember it, use it.
So what is Gizmo you might ask? It's a freeware, distributed SIP-based VoIP program for your computer. Many of you have heard of Skype (which just got bought by eBay last week), which is a similar program, but not SIP based. SIP is an open standard for VoIP signaling. Skype uses a closed standard, so it doesn't have the possibility of interoperating with any other program. Gizmo uses the open standard so it will work with other programs. Use Gizmo, it's your friend. You can get it at; http://www.gizmoproject.com/. And give me a call, just dial mikebdotorg.
Gtalk is also your friend. Gtalk is Google's new chat program. But, gtalk is also an open standard. Ever heard of Jabber? No? Jabber is an XML based Instant Messaging standard. It can be encrypted (SSL), and of course since it's an open standard, anyone can implement the protocol. Google's gtalk is simply Jabber. So, any existing client that supports Jabber can use it. Just connect to talk.google.com with your gmail (Google mail) address (for instance joebob@gmail.com), and your gmail password. Make sure you enable SSL as well. Or, you can download the gtalk client at; http://www.google.com/talk/. Of course, you can hit me up at mikebdotorg@gmail.com on gtalk. If anyone needs an invite to gmail, just let me know.
Work work work. This has been a busy week at the office. I have been busy lately, but now one of the guys in my department is leaving the group. Guess who gets to pick up 80% of his work? Me! Along with that, rumor has it a new department is going to be created where my boss wil probably end up. Maybe even another person from our department. That would take us from an overall group of six down to three or four in a matter of weeks. Not sure how that's going to work or not.. It should be interesting to see how things pan out in the next few weeks.
This Dilbert may be hitting close to home;
