Back to school.

It has been a few years, but I've returned to the University of Minnesota as a graduate student in the Master of Science & Software Engineering (MSSE) program.

GAIM (a.k.a. Pidgin) with spell-check

(July 27, 2010):  These instructions apply to Pidgin versions 2.6.6 and older.  Instructions for Pidgin 2.7 and newer can be found here.

After running GAIM (a.k.a. Pidgin) for over a year, I decided I needed to get the spell checker working. Remarkably, there is very little documentation on how to do this. Even worse, search results from google, live and ask aren't very helpful either. Maybe getting spell-check setup is painfully obvious to others, but it wasn't to me!

• Download GAIMPortable (PidginPortable) from portableapps.com
• Download the ASpell win32 installer from aspell.net
• Download the appropriate precompiled dictionary from aspell.net
• Install GaimPortable (PidginPortable)
• Install ASpell. (It will default to c:\program files\aspell)
• Install the precompiled ASpell dictionary.
• Copy c:\program files\aspell to App\aspell
• Start GAIM and keep your fingers crossed!
  

Magic!

And just like magic the Google index is fixed. Searching on the words "MS press C# for java developers" no longer points to http://thesource.ofallevil.com/MSPress/books/6173.aspx.

Oh well, it was fun while it lasted.

Microsoft is the source of all evil?

I was searching Google for a C# book aimed at Java developers (a Microsoft Press title "C# for Java developers") Much to my surprise, the highest ranked result returned for my query(MS Press C# for Java developers):

http://thesource.ofallevil.com/MSPress/books/6173.aspx

Clever gaming of the Google index or subtle humor on the part of Google's engineers?

Try it out for yourself (before Google "fixes" their index) just search for keywords:
MS press C# for Java Developers

Free eBooks

Microsoft has published a collection of ~1500 free eBooks. Unfortunately it seems there are no MS eBook readers for OS X or Linux, but the Windows based reader can be downloaded for free.

The Java Posse

The Java Posse is a podcast that picks up where the JavaCast left off. If you're looking for a podcast that talks about all things Java, check it out.

It's a boy!

Baby Braucht was born this AM at 7:15. He weighed in at 7lbs 3oz and was 19in long.

Happy Birthday!

Like a lemming...

I guess this counts as my "first" entry on my blog. Despite having a (very static) web-page since ~1995 this feels to me like the direction personal web pages are heading.