Exactly! :)

Do they teach you how to do this sort of thing at your Uni?

Well, for this particular course the lecturer was useless - had to teach myself most of it. But yes, that's the second assignment - so that's what we were working towards for this semester.

I loved the bit where you typed a Client command to MACOS and the audience was on the edge of their seats wondering if you'd realise in time :-D

"… on the edge of their seats"? I think you exaggerate! ;-)

And yes, theoretically it would be possible to take an existing standard like Skype and add a whiteboard front-end to it.

Skype's protocols are closed-source as far as a I know - and Microsoft taking over the company probably means that it will stay that way. But I think there have been a couple of open-source efforts to replicate the Skype protocol, some of which have seen some success. I remember reading something about it a few weeks ago on Engadget.

What I've created here is probably a lot more similar to IRC. You specify a server to connect to, can log in using whatever name you want (as long as it isn't already taken), and can then send text-based messages to other clients that are also connected to that server.

Maybe I should try writing an IRC client sometime, with a whiteboard tacked-on for those that want to use it. It's probably already been done before, but I'm guessing that it'd be very similar to this.

The protocols for Skype are proprietary, but I understand there is an API available, not that I have ever seen or used it.

As for others, yes there are a few open-source protocols, for example XMMP that Google-Talk uses. See http://www.jitsi.org

Nice to hear your voice Shane

Shame about the South Australian accent though… XD

It's weird. People say that I have a British accent. Yet as far back as I'm aware, we're all "pure-bred" Aussies.

Edit: Not that being British or having a British accent would be a bad thing… not at all! ;-)

I'll have a look at that XMMP protocol soon then.

Yes, I agree, it sometimes sounds british. Well, when the South Australian ladies speak anyways. Blokes seem to have a different accent altogether XD

But one thing's for certain, you don't have that superior Melbournian accent. </taunt>

Haha - is that all you have that is superior? ;-)

I seem to remember Victoria stealing our upstream water supply during the drought, your lack of a decent beer (VB), and the fact that you lost several defence contracts to builders in SA :)

< harmless taunting >

To be honest, my accent is nothing like other South Aussies, so don't judge us after only hearing my voice or you'll be very surprised if you ever visit our state.

We also have a superior AFL team: the Collingwood Magpies!

What's your excuse? Port Power and the Crows? Pft.

We also have a superior AFL team: the Collingwood Magpies!

What's your excuse? Port Power and the Crows? Pft.

Wait… out of 16 clubs in the Australian Football League, Victoria has 10 of those. And you consider that having one superior football team is an achievement? ;-)

Though I admit, Power and Crows are performing very, very badly this season. And last season. And the season before that! :S

:D

Oh there are plenty more excellent Victorian AFL clubs, it's just that nothing compares with Collingwood XD

We also have the tallest residential building, the Eureka tower, in the country (in the world?). Muahahahahaha.

That's right, size matters :D

Of course it does!

I had to check the number of users Wikidot has at the moment as part of an assignment (I've been using Wikidot in some way for almost every assignment this semester!) … and we're up to 850,000 now!

850,769 as of right this second.

Oh… have you considered using Twitter, James? It's extremely useful for sending quick messages (similar to an SMS). Every now and then I want to ask you something about STE on there, but can't! :)

Frankly, I don't know how to use Twitter. Like, why should I use Twitter over other communications?

Sorry, that came across as rhetorical… it was supposed to be a genuine question.

People use Twitter for many different reasons, so I can only speak for myself.

Primarily, I use it as a way of asking quick questions of one or more people, or quickly informing them of something. If they're online, they'll get a notification and sometimes I'll get a reply within 30 seconds of asking. In this way, it's very similar to how I use SMS - but it's free, and I can use it on my computer (which I'm on most of the day) rather than the phone (which sits by the window where the best reception is on our property!).

From time to time I also use it to speak directly to companies. For example, I had a short conversation recently with a Microsoft rep about Office for Mac. Much faster than waiting for an e-mail response or using a call centre. (Edit: Here's the conversation if you're interested, read bottom-to-top: image)

For the 'wdeditor' account, I usually post questions about STE & provide updates (how soon until the next release, asking questions from Bryce and Rob at the same time as I'm writing code, etc.)

I'd highly suggest trying the official "Twitter for Mac" application in the App Store, rather than using the website. It makes Twitter much easier to use (and can be launched automatically at startup, as with any other app).