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Things I’d love to be coded by somebody sometime…

• OTR (Off the Record Messaging) Plugin for Apple’s iChat

Why OTR?

Because it provides privacy and authenticity of your chat communication by encryption.

Why an iChat Plugin

iChat is used by many people because it is a very comfortable application.

Why not use Adium instead? It already does support OTR.

Adium is not iChat. (Duh) I consider Adium a very nice and quite powerful chat client for a gazillion of protocols and even more settings. This complexity is too much for many users. i also consider the user interface of Adium inferior in regard to usability. I personally just prefer iChat over Adium because I feel more comfortable in using it.

There is an OTR Proxy that can be used with iChat

I consider myself sufficently nerdy and technically inclined to expect I can make this work. Yet I couldn’t. In addition to that it only works with AIM an not Jabber which makes it useless for anyone using Jabber, Gtalk, GMX Messenger, Facebook chat, or a private company Jabber account.

Any takers of that challenge? You may also want to contact Kent Sutherland to convince him, or even help with implementing OTR in his awesome Chax extension for iChat. According to his FAQ Kent is already evaluating to build this in. If you can help to make this happen, please do!

So, there are already over 2000 WikiLeaks mirror sites on the interwebs. This can still grow to even more mirrors to ensure sustainable access to the publications for everybody. If you would like to host a WikiLeaks mirror but don’t want to or cannot do so on your normal server infrastructure I have created a VM appliance for you.

Why did I create this?

I created this because I consider WikiLeaks a very important publisher of information to society. I am convinced that we need an organisation like WikiLeaks to counter increasing government secrecy, lies and censorship attempts. This VM is a way for me to help that the vital information can stay online and make it simpler for others to create their own WikiLeaks mirror.

Tech specs

It is based on Ubuntu Server Linux 10.10/64 and comes preconfigured with lighttpd as webserver. It is also ready for rsync mirroring of the webpage files. You should be able to setup this VM appliance in about 5 to 10 minutes. Exact details will follow once the final configurations is fixed.

What do I need to run this VM as a mirror?

• A computer that can run VirtualBox a free virtualization solution.
• A 24/7 internet connection for the server.
• An static IP number where said server can be reached from the public internet.
• A few minutes time to configure everything
• The will to help with something important

How can I help?

If you are familiar with Ubuntu Server and want to help with this project, please contact me via Twitter: . The setup still needs peer review to ensure the configuration is safe and also performs as expected.