For some reason related to my encroaching Google-paranoia, I have
decided that my IM system will be Jabber; and the server will be one I
run and pay for myself. This is not merely paranoia; it borders on
disassociative psychosis. But nothing stupid and pointless ventured,
no holes punched in drywall gained.
Software: it all really, really, really sucks. I decided
that I’d use “Prosody“, because hey why not,
it’s less monstrous than installing Erlang just to fucking chat.
But, never one to do things easily, I maintain a separate build root
that’s not /usr/local (which for reasons that are lost to me in the
dim mists of time, I hate). But! In order to install “Prosody” one has
to install Lua — NOTE TO SELF: INSTALLING A LANGUAGE INTERPRETER WHO’S
DOCUMENTATION IS IN PORTUGESE IS THE FIRST SIGN THAT YOU’VE MADE A
GRIEVOUS MISTAKE — and then a whole giant whack of dependencies, like sockets (apparently, Brazilians don’t care for their sockets) and, more depressingly,
expat. Yes, this process involves XML.
There are many things I hate, most if not all of them software
related, but there is little I detest quite so pointedly as XML. And
now I have to go find a stupid goddamn XML library so this IM system
can talk to other people? Is this protocol not self-describing? Are
we not men? Have we fallen to the level of dumb beasts? And then,
as if I hadn’t been worked over enough by the preceeding, I have
patch Makefiles to get the fucking Lua expat wrappers to build.
Why? Why? Why?
Usually at this point I give up, but I had some strong Oolong before
bed so I powered through it. I even went to a certificate authority
and got a signed XMPP certificate! Yes, I am part of this oily web
of XML based trust.
sigh
The strict aceticism of the world of
Dijkstra
becomes more attractive with each passing softwaer-related blow these days. Those of
you interested, however, can reach me
here.
