It’s been impossible signing into Yahoo the past few days with my Pidgin.  Thanks to Celtic Wolf for this post:

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Note: The problems described in this document are fixed in Pidgin 2.5.7.  You should upgrade immediately to continue using Yahoo! IM.

As of June 17, 2009, Pidgin users are having trouble connecting to Yahoo! IM accounts.  Here is a summary of the problem:

Yahoo! appears to be upgrading their servers to a new version of their software.  This new version requires a new authentication method.  The latest version of Pidgin, 2.5.6, does not support this new authentication method.  The next version, 2.6.0, will, but it has not yet been released. Version 2.5.7 does.  To continue using Yahoo! IM, upgrade to this version.  See the Pidgin web-site for details.

The domain name that is used to connect to Yahoo! servers is "scs.msg.yahoo.com".  This domain name is actually mapped to multiple servers.  Some of these servers have been upgraded, while others haven’t.  As a result, you may see intermittent failures, or you may fail every time, while your neighbor logs in successfully.  It’s effectively a roll of the dice.

The following addresses appear to work:

• cs101.msg.mud.yahoo.com
• 66.163.181.172

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66.163.181.172 worked for me. To read more click here.

EDIT

The fix stopped working some time today.  I decided to download the newest Pidgin (2.5.7) and am using the following pager server: scs.msg.yahoo.com, so far so good!

I just discovered some useful Adobe Air apps.  The first one was TweetDeck, and just today I found a color finder app that allows you to search through ColourLovers’ database of user submitted patterns, palettes, and colors.  This is a pretty neat tool for design inspiration, and color combo ideas.

If you want to get this, download Adobe AIR first, then click here.

Source: MSNBC

“Green tea-flavored Coca-Cola will hit Japanese stores June 8, Coca Cola (Japan) Co. spokesman Katsuya Sato said Thursday. It contains tea antioxidants called catechins, leaves a slight green tea aftertaste and is mainly targeted at health-conscious women in their 20s and 30s, Sato said.”

I love a cup of good green tea, i wear Green Tea scent by Elizabeth Arden, I super heart green tea soy ice cream, I’ve had several green tea fraps in this lifetime, so I’m a bit curious about the soda.  I guess I’ll at least try it… Hmmm.

Source: Noypi

Awesome spoofs! Know your Philippine History FB style! Featuring the Katipunan and characters from Jose Rizal’s  Noli Me Tangere.

“How the Katipunan would be found in a web dependent society”

“Padre Damaso Scandal”

I’ve been getting random IM’s from people I do not know.

Last April 28:

(6:54:23 AM) unusualsalmon: DEUS VULT!
(6:54:33 AM) me: huh?
(6:55:27 AM) unusualsalmon: Ohh it’s cool, I didn’t wanna know anyways.
(6:56:13 AM) unusualsalmon: You IMed me. Haha
(6:56:18 AM) me: i’m sorry, you don’t seem to be on my friends list…
(6:56:59 AM) unusualsalmon: Lmao, but see you just IMed me and said “BEES”
(6:57:09 AM) me: really?
(6:57:16 AM) me: thats weird.
(6:57:43 AM) me: i know i didn’t…
(6:57:46 AM) me: hehe..
(6:58:02 AM) unusualsalmon: Hmmm, fuckin crazyyy. And I don’t know who you are.
(6:58:19 AM) me: uhh yeah same here!
(6:58:47 AM) unusualsalmon: Da fuck
(6:59:37 AM) me: Oh well. Must be some glitch or someone hacked into my account or something.
(7:00:01 AM) unusualsalmon: Mmm danng. Haha.

And just a few minutes ago:

(2:30:36 PM) grammaticalsalmon: I IMed you first. If I deny this later, I’m lying.
(2:31:18 PM) me: Ok
(2:32:11 PM) grammaticalsalmon: No.
(2:33:22 PM) me: so how many of you are there? i think i met your brother before. (trying to be funny)

I wasn’t going to let this whole random thing go, so of course I turned to Google to investigate. Here’s what turned up:

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Source: Nixie Pixel

When you were a kid and discovered the joys of call waiting and connecting calls, did you ever prank call two different people by dialing them both, connecting them together, and then simply listening in as they accused each other of calling? Hilarity usually ensued, as either they eventually came to the conclusion that they had been tricked, or one or the other got angry and slammed down their phone…

Today I was the victim of the digital equivalent, something called “Project Upstream;” a (harmless) bot system using AOL Instant Messenger that contacts two random people to engage in a completely random conversation. According to their website they are “an organization dedicated to promoting social ideals through the use of exciting new technology.
Project Upstream’s most well-known service is our swarm of robotic fish, which spontaneously connects AIM users to each other.”

What is a fish bot?
The friendly AIM bots have a countless number of screennames and have been seen as any of: (something)Salmon, (something)Trout, and (something)Coho. The opening message or “icebreaker” from these screennames varies, and the user screennames contacted appear to be gathered from LiveJournal, deviantART, Twitter, Xanga, and Digg. Messages sent may be altered in some way, such as being changed to piratespeak, old English, or changed to rainbow-colored fonts. The feeling you get when you receive that random IM is quite like being RickRoll’d.

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I wish I had known this before replying to grammaticalsalmon! I could have found out his real screen name and who he/she really is. Hahaha.  Interesting stuff.