pymsn : some work is (finally) done

No school this week so one of my goals was to achieve some work for the pymsn project. pymsn, a free python library which allows you to connect to the MSN IM network, is being rewritten sticking to the 15th version of the MSN Protocol (MSNP15, which is the last one used by WLM). The protocol is getting more and more complicated and it took me a while to completely dive into new stuff like soap (a HTTP/XML way to set Web Services up). Ali and Ole being busy doing other things, I had to implement basic contact list operations like ‘add/remove a contact’ or ‘block/unblock a contact’. I’ve used Ole’s oSpy , a nice tool to do reverse engineering (I had to virtualize a XP OS to sniff WLM’s traffic). I’ve finally grabbed a bunch of soap operations which I’ve documentated here (I’ll add more information about the semantic of elements soon).

The week is nearly over but I’ve just succeeded in adding ‘Remove a contact’ and ‘Update a contact’ to pymsn, the first operation removing the contact from both MSN and Hotmail lists, the second one giving us the opportunity to remove the contact from the MSN list only and to change contacts’s aliases though the last action hasn’t been really tested yet. Changes can be merged from my bzr branch here : https://code.launchpad.net/~jprieur/+branch/cocoon/pymsn.rewrite

Anyway, still lots of work to achieve and a huge need to sleep.

Run rabbit run
dig that hole, forget the sun
and when at last the work is done
don’t sit down, it’s time to dig another one

White tea

I was waiting for my cup of water to boil up in the microwave oven when I found out that I didn’t want to drink the tea I usually drink (I mean earl grey tea). So I’ve opened an old tea box and found a lonely white tea bag from Lipton. I had bought this one way back in the middle of 2005, when several pleasant things were happening in my life. Now I find my life boring.

With the smell of that tea, I can recall the smile of a girl and my stupidity. With the taste of it, I can remember a meal shared with a friend and our delight.

Sometimes I just miss people and past times. Right now, I find my life boring.

Wifi in da house

Yesterday I had to get up early to retrieve an ADSL connection box at the shop. With my brother, we used to make the usb modem travel between each other’s room, him allowing me to use it between 4 am and 5 am on full moon. Now the box broadcasts a WiFi signal I can connect to using my macbook so I can be connected to the Internet the whole day and nights. I’m now on a desk in the attic, where I’m not bothered by my brother wanting to chat on MSN… and I can haunt #pymsn as long as I want , being as unproductive as I can be.