How can I disable idling / auto-away?

Switch to Pidgin. (not really, missing documentation)

Guess I really should stick with pidgin..

Edit: For that and more, I’m back to pidgin!

This past 3 days I was at Codebits. That, I have to say, was one of the best tech conferences I’ve ever been.

In the first day, the workshops were really interesting, and quick enough to never get boring, so that we could jump right to the next one, keeping it always interesting.

Second day, after 6 hours sleeping at Living Loung Hostel (recommended), we’ve arrived just in time of learning from Mitch Altman about his Tv-B-Gone and how to stick with an idea until we can make it come true. He’s a truly inspiring person, maybe one of the most interesting workshop there, despites not being technical at all. He also had a place were he was teaching people on how to make you’re on tv-b-gone and other gadgets.

After lunch, the hacking begun. Along with some friends, we’ve started hacking a web platform for creating and managing journeys. The idea came from the bus travel, were we’ve thought that it could be nice to plan a travel online, with some guidance on means of transportation and points of interest to see. The ideas started to flow, but the time to implement was short, so you’ve managed to create a nice prototype, using SAPO services for getting information and twitter for status updates and a couple more of things. Only later we’ve leaned that the idea of the contest was way far from that, there was no need to actually have something operational, so the project didn’t get much notice, but we’ve learned a lot from it.

We’ll back next year  for sure:)

Tomorrow I’ll be heading to Lisbon, attending Codebits, a 3 day conference organized by SAPO. Despite the late inscription, I’ve been accepted and since this is my first year attending, I’m really looking forward to it. The place is looking great, ready to accommodate 3 days of hacking by 600 attendees. You can check the calendar here.

I already have my idea and team for the programming contest, let’s see how it works out for us.

See you there?

Coordinated by Google, the Android platform has been finally released into the market!

T-Mobile is already accepting pre-orders for the first HTC with it, the G1, being priced at $179.99 (plus taxes and fees; two-year agreement required). You can see the video about it at HTC home page, but before that, here are the specs:

• 3.2-inch TFT-LCD flat touch-sensitive screen with HVGA (320 X 480 pixel) resolution.
• Full 5-row QWERTY keyboard.
• One-click Google Search.
• Customizable Home screen with instant Email, text message and IM notifications.
• Instant access to Google services (Gmail, YouTube, Maps, Google Talk, Calendar).
• High-speed 3.5G network connection.
• Wi-Fi technology with seamless transition to open networks.
• Android Market with access to variety of software and media downloads. (some fees may apply)
• 3.2 megapixel color camera with auto focus.
• microSD™ (SD 2.0 compatible) expansion slot for all your storage needs.

Forget about the closed IPhone, here’s the new hype!

Fortunately, Sofia blogged about myEpisodes, an usefull webapp, that can be used to manage exactly this. You just have to select the ones you want to follow and mark the ones you already have and have seen.

Furthermore, it has the advantage of having all the episode names and airing dates, a rss feed when a new episode of any of the selected series airs, a calendar to all your series and much more.

It also keeps track of the time we waste watching these series, and, by the time I’m writting this post, I have already wasted 2 weeks, 3 days, 11 hours, 30 minutes. How about you?

I’ve been using the release cores for a long time now, and they’re outstanding. Definitely, my browser of choice!

This new version includes:

• Lot’s of security enhancements
• It’s easier to use
• Even more customizable
• Easier to develop plugins
• Performance has increased

Furthermore, the community is trying to achieve the Guiness World Record on most downloaded software in 24 hours in the day the browser is released, so, come on, try the best available browser and help them achiving that! Bad thing about it, the offial site went down in no time!

Also, after testing my SSH keys, I’ve found out that they were vulnerable due to a patch in Debian, which made the random number generator guesseable. If you’re running a ssh-server, in a Debian-based distribution, you should test if your keys are compromised.

If, like me, you’ve been waiting for this, go on, download the proper package for your distribution and have some fun

This is for you!

Google’s Higly Open Participation Contest will bring together young developers and open-source. They’ve gathered some great projects, like Apache, GNOME, Python, and many other, that will now give to the contestants several type of assignments, like writing code or documentation and patching bugs.

At the conclusion of the contest, contestants will receive a t-shirt and certificate for completing at least one task and 100 USD for every three tasks completed (maximum 500 USD per contestant).

Still waiting?

So, what are you waiting for? Read the wiki, register and join us in this adventure!

P.S.: We’re getting more people every hour, still, every help is needed! Come and join us and be able to get to know other Ubuntu users, while having some fun! If you have a digg account, please help us spreading the word.