GAIM is an Instant Messaging client which can use AIM, Yahoo, MSN, Jabber, and many other protocols. Originally, it was solely for Linux, but last year they put out a Windows port, and just now they have finally release version 1.0 for both platforms. It’s been a long, long time coming, and I’ve been using it on both platforms for a long, long time so it is great to see the project reach this milestone. I suggest highly that if you are using AOL’s client, you dump it immediately and go and download a copy right now!

Update: This is from an email I sent to the developers to congratulate them, and Sean Egan replied:

On Thu, 23 Sep 2004 10:38:59 -0400, Ben Wilson wrote:

Thought I’d drop a line and congratulate you on Gaim v1.0. Being a developer, I know that version numbers don’t really mean that much technologically, but they are a huge psychological barrier. I’m sure it’s a big relief.

Actually, you’re wrong. 1.0.0 is entirely insignificant. The only reason for it is that we decided to change to a major-minor-micro versioning scheme, and 1.0.0 was the most logical place to start.


-s.

So, nevermind! Actually, not really. I’m giving Gaim their props anyway.

Further update from Rob Flynn, maintainer of GAIM:

Thanks :) It’s always good to hear these kinds of things. :)

Further further update:

(13:41:10) HunterDixon: ooh, just installed gaim
(13:41:11) HunterDixon: i like
(13:41:30) HunterDixon: oh wow, tabs
(14:00:08) HunterDixon logged out.

From a collection of Japanese cigarette PSA graphics, with
more here. I love you, Japan. I do.

Kelly and I went up to Dayton on Friday so that Kelly could run the Air Force Marathon Half-Marathon (13.1 miles). The race was on Saturday, and Kelly did really well, completing the race in just under 2 hours — a real improvement over her miniMarathon time of 2 hours 12 minutes (and vastly improved over her 2 hour 45 minute time in the 2003 miniMarathon). The course was very hilly, but Kelly has been training with lots of hills, and really kicked some ass! Me, on the other hand, was around for moral support only. We did, however take in the Air Force Museum after the race, and it too was awesome.

We took many pictures:

View the 2004.09.18 Air Force Marathon gallery.

Hey, that’s me!

Geoff has been helpind Odd Todd out with various and sundry flash games over the last couple of years, and they’ve finally released Mep Ball, a Kick-ups style game, and I was credited for beta-testing with ol’ Geoffy. Mostly, I played Mep Ball and tried to cheat a lot. It turned out very well — very fun indeed!

I decided to build myself a nice, flat workbench last night. I looked for some free plans on Google and quickly came up with Building a Basic Work Bench. It’s a little smaller than what I wanted, and I already had a perfectly good workbench-top, a door (80″ x 30″) that we had removed from it’s hinges upstairs! 80″ x 30″ = 2400″ square inches of pure workbench. So, with a rough plan in mind, we headed to Home Depot.

I already had one 2″ x 4″ at home, so we got 5 of the straightest 2×4’s we could find, and box of 3″ deck screws. I returned home and made a quick plan (as you can see in the image above). It only took about 2 hours to complete, so I was happy with my spur-of-the-moment build. Now I have a nice, flat place to build the next sailplane I will crash! Some photos were taken and my rough plan was made with The Gimp, and you can see them in the workbench gallery.

This weekend, I competed in my first-ever sailplane competition. The competition was held in Lexington, Kentucky by the Bluegrass Soaring Society. The 2004 Mid-American Soaring Championships was held for the 28th year, this year at beautiful Jacobson Park on the east-side of Lexington.

I’m currently working towards my League of Silent Flight Level II certification, and I need 6 contests to complete that level. The contest spanned both Saturday and Sunday, and I had a plane that could compete in two different levels — both “Unlimited Sportsman” and “RES” (Rudder/Elevator/Spoiler). My first day, Saturday went pretty well for my first contest. I ended up 5th out of 9 in Unlimited Sportsman and 9th out of 16 in RES. Sunday, however, was a different story all together. I was again competing in two classes, and while the clouds were very low early in the morning (around 600 feet), I took my chances and went up for my first RES flight. The flight went pretty well, and I got 6:49 out of 8 minutes for the flight and an 84 out of 100 for my landing points. Then I said “Hey! Let’s shoot for one of my Sportsman class flights!” Feeling all heady with my earlier flight, I brought it back to the line. I plugged the battery in, switched on my transmitter, and with fellow LASS-mate Gordy ready to time me, I sent it up the winch. Pretty good! A little too left, okay now it’s way left, push it back right, okay good! Left again? What the hell? No response! NOOOOOO! It nosed in about 50 yards from the winch, so hard that the nose was in about 6 inches, and the very sturdy fuselage and tail were shattered. One wing was completely snapped in half, and the other sustained minor damage.
I hauled it back to the pits, and after investigating a possible radio-frequency conflict, I figured out the issue was actually with a battery cable. It would seem that a lot of jostling and pulling in and out of this cable caused a weak connection in the wire, as it would cut power at the slightest touch.

But not to fear — I came back with my 2-meter Spirit and finished out the rest of the day (4 flights), managing to get 9:58 out of 10 minutes on both flights and 91 out of 100 on two flights, with the other two being rather unimpressive. Overall, I think I finished DFL in the Sportsman class, but considering I killed one of my planes and got a zero in the first round, not so bad.

So aside from the calamity, I had a blast! Lots of fun. You can see photos of the contest here: 2004 Mid-American Championship gallery at LouisvilleSoaring.org

Celebrating 100 years of fearful-eyed bunnies and overweight children. See it all in the 2004 Kentucky State Fair gallery.

Hey! It’s the birthday of my favorite Japanese native ever! That’s right -Mayumi’s birthday today. Apparently, November in the late 70′s was a hoppin’ time for many of our parents, and out popped Eve, myself, Nick, Mayumi (among many others, no doubt). Anyway, give Mayumi a shout-out today and wish her a happy 26th birthday!

Her birthday also occurred last year, on this very day, and i made a note of it. You may also want to search the gallery for photos of Mayumi.

To round it off nicely, I had some of my office-mates pitch in to help say “Happy Birthday Mayumi”. The resulting images can be found here: Happy Birthday Mayumi gallery.

I gots lots of cards and gifts and shouts-out over the past couple of days for my own birthday, but don’t forget that we’ve got two birthdays coming up — N. W. Smith on the 21st of August (tomorrow!) and Jackson Jacksonius Cooper on the 23rd of August. Let ‘em know that theys old when you get the chance.