I participated in the Give-1 Get-1 program last month, and a few weeks ago I got my shiny new OLPC XO-1 laptop. I took a picture of myself using the built-in camera. As you can see, my cat Zahki never misses a photo-op.

After playing around with it for a few days, I have come to a few conclusions about the device. And, for my own amusement, I'm making this post entirely from my XO-1.

I've learned quite a bit over the past year or so that I've been developing darcness, but one lesson stands out above all others: It is just staggering how many ways there are to compromise the security of a dynamic website.

Making a website secure is a surprisingly non-trivial task that requires plenty of thought and discipline. What makes it worse is that it is all too easy to create gaping security holes without realizing it.

A few months ago I made a post telling the world that as of my birthday of this year I would no longer be using AOL Instant Messenger, MSN Messenger, Yahoo Messenger, or ICQ---and use federated IM services (Specifically those using the Jabber protocol) exclusively. Well, guess what: Today's my birthday.

For those of you who are still confused as to what exactly Jabber is, read on and I'll break it down for you one more time.

As I have mentioned before, I believe Jabber/XMPP will be one of the most influential technologies on human communication since the introduction of standard email. I've been thinking lately about ways to encourage my friends to make the switch to Jabber, and I've come up with my solution.

As of my birthday this year (May 19^th), I'll no longer be using AIM, ICQ, Yahoo, or MSN. The only way you will be able to contact me via IM will be via my jabber id, darco@deepdarc.com*. So if you want to chat with me after this time, you'll need to at least give Jabber a try. Don't worry, it will be the last switch you make.

The "Keychain Access" application that comes with MacOS X is one of the most useful tools that come with Macintosh computers, but it is also one of the most neglected. If you are a Mac user and don't know what this tool is or how to use it, read on.

As many of you may know, sometime around 2002 I began work on starting my own company. In January of 2004, that dream was realized as Voria Studios. That company has come and gone, but the logo that I made for that company lives on in Synfig. So where did this logo come from? Well, it's an interesting story. And like most stories, the best place to start is...at the beginning.

When it comes to checking your mail, unless you want to use a web-based interface, you will need to use your mail client to connect to your mail server to download your messages. There are two protocols for accomplishing this, POP and IMAP. POP is what I had always used since the first time I ever set up an email account. It was simple, everyone else used it, and it worked; so I never really thought about trying anything else. I now realize that I could have saved myself a lot of trouble over the past 10 years if I had learned about the strengths of IMAP long ago.