29 May 07 More Tinkering About

I got Ekiga set up on the lappie today.

What’s Ekiga? It’s a sip client.

A What?

Well, it allows me to interface with a phone account (Diamond Card) and I can make worldwide calls from here to anywhere in the world. It’s like a skype type deal I guess, but it seems a little cheaper.

Now why would I want it, when I have a cellphone, and Vonage? Well, with the introduction of free wi-fi in many downtown areas, when I’m travelling with the laptop it would be a cheap option if I wish to make international calls. The cellphone is prohibitively expensive in that case.

I got it working, easily enough. The worst thing was locating my details to put in the darn thing, as I’d set up the account a little while back.

The Logitech Web Cam I have also works nicely with Ubuntu. Plugged it in, and it worked as easy as a Windows Plug and Pray set up. No, I lie. It worked easier, as I didn’t have to install ANY extra drivers. No CD to look for, no rebooting nonsense either.

I’m happy with Pidgin on the laptop, although it plays around a little with the desktop on the other Linux box for some reason I need to investigate.

Something else I visited again for a very short while this afternoon was FlickrVision.

It’s a great 2.0 product from Dave Troy, and he mentioned on Twitter earlier today that it was featured, along with Twitter itself, and Twittervision, in USA Today.

It’s great watching this kind of photographic history of the world in the making going on. I realize that not all of the images are taken right now, and not all are in the location they are posted from, but I suspect many are recent, and relatively local.

Why do I only stay a very short while? Well, I find it so absorbing I could sit there for hours watching new images appear. A terrible time-waster even if it’s enjoyable.