Project: Shantz Pidgin Away Alerts (splert) Updated to 0.03

I updated my project splert to version 0.03 today.For those who don’t know splert is a tool that lets you convert the multi-client instant messenger pidgin (connects to gtalk, msn, yahoo, jabber, etc) into a full blown answering machine and much more. The main changes are: Now you can use other 3rd party twitter bots with it to get updates through twitter since the official twitter bot is down since a long time and there are no chances of coming back soon. [Read More]

TIP: A Post For Pidgin Plugin Developers

Recently I wrote a small autoreply-answering-machine app for pidgin with a simple premise. Send custom automatic replies to different people when they message you and came across a strange bug. It never sent the reply when you received the first message from someone. I was using the “ReceivedImMessage” signal over d-bus (or “received-im-message” for the plugin writers). What I found initially looked to be a gross and basic error by pidgin developers, but later found that it is indeed a good design and thought that I’ll make a post about it for the benefit of fellow pidgin plugin/app developers. [Read More]

Hack: Pidgin-Gtalk Connection Problems - Get Around The Corporate Firewall

I recently wrote a simple answering machine program/plugin for pidgin and someone asked me to port it to 32 bit. So I fired up pidgin within my virtual box installation at work (as I have only a 64 bit machine at home) but couldn’t get it to connect. Tried all sorts of methods found over the net of changing ports etc, set port forwarding in Virtual Box NAT, even switched to using a bridged host interface but still no go. [Read More]

Project: Splert - A Custom Answering Machine And More for IMs

Update Aug 25 2008: Updated to v0.02 and also added 32 bit package. Hit the link given below to download. You must have heard of (or used) the auto-reply features given by today’s instant messengers that are sent to the ones messaging you while you are not at your desk. But those are one-size-fits-all kind of messages. So, I wrote this simple tool a few months ago to turn Pidgin, everyone’s favourite multi-client Instant Messenger (works with gtalk, msn, yahoo, aim etc), into a customized answering machine (and more) when you are away from your computer. [Read More]

Splert: Shantz Pidgin Away Alerts

This is a simple tool I wrote a few months ago to turn Pidgin, everyone’s favourite multi-client Instant Messenger (works with gtalk, msn, yahoo, aim etc), into a customized answering machine (and more) when you are away from your computer. Basically it allows you to divide up your contact list into groups based on email IDs and execute actions based on when someone from a particular group messages you while you are away. [Read More]