I was just reading on Slashdot about the new Google IM service, called Google Talk which is due to be announced tomorrow. They’re using the open source Jabber protocol, which is fantastic because this means that anyone on any system can use it on any client the supports Jabber! You rock Google!

How to get on:
Username: your gmail username (everything before the @gmail.com bit)
Password: your gmail password
Server: talk.google.com

That should be all you need. Just make sure that you don’t have encryption or any other fancy stuff turned on.

UPDATE: I have just been logged off, with the error “Not Allowed”, and I can’t log back in

Also, Shane has just put up a pic I took of him on the Segway and a short video of me too.

Earlier this week, we got a Segway at work. Here is an action shot:

Andy on the Segway

These things are amazing to ride. They have some incredible gyroscopic electronics which keep this thing upright… and they also go at about 20 km/h, which doesn’t sound like much, but feels very quick. It comes with three electronic keys, a black, a yellow and a red. Each one with a different profile on maximum driving and turning speed. I can’t wait until we belt this thing around Telstra dome late one night

We had our second housewarming for Stretch and Jizzle’s (Jay) crew. Stretch cooked a delicious BBQ for some select guests, and got stuck into a few brews. The highlight of the night would definately have been at the Castle Hotel.

Brizzy and I were lagging behind the rest, but once we walked in the door, Stretch told us that there was a 21st upstairs. About 2 minutes later, we were gatecrashing a 21st. It seemed that nobody noticed to begin with, but later on I started getting some funny looks. We were having a great time, busting some moves on the dance floor, until Brizzy was approached by a woman claiming to be the stripper

The party turned out to be a 21st for twin brothers which I found amusing, but the funniest part was after the stripper had taken off all her clothes and taken the belt out of one of the boys pants and smacked both of them on the ass with it. One of the boys grabbed the belt, and the stripper bent over so he could whip her, but he smacked her really hard on her bare ass. The look on her face was priceless!

Jizzle took some photos, but they wern’t very good, so unfortunately, no shots

The guys at Canon kindly donated a couple of digital cameras to the centre. So here’s a pick of me and the guys I work with, amongst all the mess

Michael, Rob and Andy @ the Innovation Centre

I haven’t blogged in about three weeks, which is pretty slack. The major thing to happen within that time is that I have moved to another group at work. I’m now working at the Big-T Innovation Centre, down at Docklands. Coolest place i’ve ever worked

What this post is really about is GNOME 2.12. Davyd Madeley has created a summary of all the new stuff in GNOME 2.12 here.

From just reading this stuff, it reminds me how much GNOME rocks! I’m really glad that they seem to be switching to the new ClearLooks theme too. It’s a very snappy looking theme.

I have found blogs of two seperate people making ebuilds for it. Albert Hopkins and Raphaël Slinckx. It looks like Raphaël’s are much more complete.. but I think I might wait until it hits hardmasked in portage.