Just an update on the microblogging site I set up.  I was able to get XMPP support.  That means that I can post by sending an Instant Message to an account on my server.  So here are the instructions to post to your profile from google talk.  There are only a couple of requirements.

Prerequisits

1. A google account so you can use google talk.  A gmail account should already be set up for that.
2. An account on my micro blog at micro.notsopc.com
3. An IM client.  I use Pidgin for mine since it supports all of the IM services (including google talk.

Steps

1. Open Pidgin
2. Setup your google talk account
3. Add update@notsopc.com as a buddy to your account.
4. Log in to your account on micro.notsopc.com
5. Click Settings
6. Click IM
7. Enter your google talk user name
8. Click Add
9. After a minute or so you should get a message from update@notsopc.com with a link.  Follow the link

That should be all.  You should be able to send a message to update@notsopc.com and have it show up in your profile on the site.

I was recently introduced to the concept of microblogging from an awesome linux podcast.  Thank you Dan and Fab from Linux Outlaws.  I started last week at a site call Jaiku.  Late last week they went down with some server issues and have still not come back.  I don’t have a whole lot of confidence in that service anymore.  Granted I only used it for a couple of days.

So you might be wondering what microblogging is.  It is kind of a weird concept.  It is a cross between email and Instant Messaging.  You make short entries about anything.  What you are doing or thinking, or whatever.  So people can subscribe to your posts and see what you are up to.  It’s kinda cool. There are times that I don’t want to write an entire blog post but want to rant about something or post something small that is going on that I want to share.

On Monday in that same podcast, they interviewed the founder of a different service called identi.ca.  I started using that yesterday.  My profile is identi.ca/discostu.  I also installed the server software on my own site.  I’ll probably be using that one primarily now.  It is open source software so I will probably attempt to make some changes and improve the service.  Sign up if you are interested.  micro.notsopc.com