My primary phone number is provided by Lingo - a Voice over internet provider. One of the features it has is server based voicemail with the message automatically forwarded to my email. A feature like this would (AFAIK) be very expensive from a traditional provider, but usually comes for free from most VOIP-based providers. Some providers (like PhoneGnome) even bridge your old-system line to the new functionality automagically. My primary email system is Gmail and that’s where my voicemails get forwarded to.

I had been asked to put online the slide deck for my presentation at InfoQ. It is now available for download (.5MByte PDF). Contact me if you want original OpenOffice files for your own work (CC licensed).

InfoQ has put online my presentation on maintaining java applications in production environment. Some of the tools mentioned in the presentations changed ownership since, but the basics are still very valid. Most notable changes: Sysinternals (FileMon, ProcessMon, etc) is now owned by Microsoft. I have mixed feelings about that one, but the tools are still the best on the market (and free). Ethereal is now Wireshark. The change is due to some people/company conflict, so Ethereal is now a dead name/site.

I usually suck at Velentine’s day presents. This year, however, I may have just killed several birds with one stone and impressed my wife too. It all started a couple of months ago, when I noticed ever more frequent mentions of internet telephony becoming a very big thing. I have dutifully subscribe to a couple of blogs, had a quick read of leading websites and left it to stew in the background.

Scottish Country Dancing is everywhere. Moscow is a fairly recent branch, so they are all bright and eager. I do not dance with them, but do read their online public journal, to see what kind of issues a non-English speaking dancers would run into. There was a dancing event there recently and the photos from that event are now available online (1 and 2). One does not need to understand Russian, to enjoy the photographs of young people dancing and generally showing off.