Why not give it a go? Or perhaps, here or here. Or even, here.
AOL has published the protocol powering both AIM and ICQ (code-named OSCAR). Although the protocol was already well known through reverse engineering, even if it’s significantly more complex and chatty than MSN’s or YMSG, this is really good news since it formalizes AOL supporting third party clients, including Yamigo. Additionally, besides publishing the protocol documentation, AOL has released an AIM SDK for C/C++ and Java, and the ability for creating protocol plugins that can even be monetized through revenue-sharing with AOL. Altogether, a good move from AOL.
Once every year I like to spend some time revisiting a personal itch of mine: is Java ready for web prime-time? Sadly, although Java has clearly proven its place in the server-side, it has failed in the frontend, last bit of the server-side, the thin layer that transforms business data into rendered HTML. This is what Rasmus Lerdorf calls the “glue” (PHP is the glue), basically a thin layer of presentational representation that links your server pre-assembled data.
We, as engineers, are frequently faced with solving business problems, or sometimes technology problems, that really move the needle. We, as engineers, are usually never happy with any of the technologies in our tool chest. There is a place for every technology, but it always seems like our favorite technologies fall behind the cool kids in the block.
We got a new au pair in January from Spain, Andrea Ayuso Morillo, for our daughter. Our previous au pair had been Finnish, and Anaïs did learn pretty good language skills from her. We now wanted a Spanish girl to take care of our daughter Anaïs, to ensure her Spanish would improve. We found Andrea on a specialized site, au-pair world, and after a few calls and email exchanges she seemed like a really nice girl.