Finally, some peace and quiet again. The past few days have not been entirely representative of the usual winding down we get before Xmas (and I was tied up in office work until 9PM), but they're closer to what I would consider a "normal" working pace.
Plus there have been some fun moments. A vendor sent us a few Xmas gifts (a tradition over here, although I am not really into it and am more in favor of the US "gift ethics"), and somehow I got two paper cutters in my envelope.
For some reason, the first thing that came to my mind (and blurted out of my mouth) was "Gee! Throwing knives!"
Maybe that's what comes of spending a whole year on edge.
Anyway, the major news today was, of course, Jingle and the first public drafts of VoIP over XMPP (via Melo). I'm curious to see how long it will take for Adium (for instance) to interoperate with Google Talk, but my current bet is for six months (on the outside).
There were, however, other interesting things out there. For instance:
- Microsoft has finally come to their senses in terms of OS architecture and is pulling graphics out of the Vista kernel (the biggest mistake they ever made when transitioning to NT 4.0 - not that anyone cares about that anymore).
- Gmail has gone mobile. Not that I use it via any sort of browser, but it's nice to see them catering to mobile devices.
- For all the fuss NTP (and now Visto) have been making regarding RIM (and now Microsoft), they keep getting their patents rejected.
- DarwinPorts has reached version 1.2. I'm happy with Fink, but I've used it on occasion on other Macs and might give it a whirl some day.
- If you care about Yonah, you would do well to take a look at this piece on Napa, the Centrino reference design update.
- Oooookay, so Wookies also have online encyclopedias. But why isn't it written in Shyriiwook?