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Main/News >> News Archives > The week of January 16 (2005) (you
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 Added: Bropia.A Virus Scanner and Remover
dwergs says ( 21 Jan 2005 ):
Best of ilovemessenger. Oh really?
dwergs says ( 21 Jan 2005 ):
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 Halfway October, MSN portals around the world kicked off with a global contest in which participants were asked to submit their homemade MSN Emoticons, MSN Display Pictures and MSN Backgrounds. Early December the winners were announced and rewarded with webcams, movie tickets, Tablet PC's and a grand prize: a trip for two to any destination on this planet.
I have to admit, I was aware of this competition but I decided not to report about it here on Mess.be. Why? Because after going through the contest's terms and rules it was very clear to me that it could very easily go wrong.
My presumption about the compo's flaws was confirmed today when I threw a look at the page with the finalists (see screenshot to the right). You see, the worldwide number one rated MSN Display Picture measures 78 by 102 pixels, far from the 96x96 pixels standard for DP's. Even worse, it's animated! So there's no way you could properly use this image as your MSN Display Picture. Next, the bronze for best background went to a 89x78 pixels and also animated gif. Good luck trying to add this as your conversation window background! I could go on because there's more and then I'm not even putting the genuineness of the winning images on the table.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not dissing the winners of the competition, but MSN for not being clear and punctual with their rules and procedures. I want to raise attention to the fact that the results of this worldwide competition are, like I predicted, highly questionable and at least leave an unprofessional impression. Just my two cents...
By the way, talking about contests: winners of currently running Mess.be competitions will be announced soon together with new contest announcements. So stay tuned! :)
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Last words on last night's BETA chat
dwergs says ( 21 Jan 2005 ):
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After going through the complete transcript of last night's expert chat session on MSN Messenger 7 BETA in order to expand the summary below a bit further, I noticed this interesting anecdote:
Question: "When people add me as a contact, I'd like to see a personalized note. I usually don't recognize just an email address. Just a sentence, like "Hey, it's Mary, we met last night." That text would stay with the contact incase I forget why I added them."
Roger (UI and customer experience tester): "Well, we actually considered this situation just two weeks ago! People sometimes don't send Friends and Family mail when adding their buddy... so we have come up with an idea to help make this easier (tho' not as involved as your suggestion...which we also considered). Stay tuned..."
I would welcome such a feature with both arms because I tend to block addresses I don't recognize immediately when they're requesting to be added to my contact list. During the MSN France event in Paris, we discussed the fact that exchanging each other's MSN addresses and "adding someone to your contact list" should be made more "special". They partly succeeded in that plan with the offline MSN Cards (800 000 MSN Cards were handed out for free during the entire campaign!) but it would definitely be nice to see some expansion to the actual event in MSN Messenger.
And finally, here's one last memorable quote from the expert chat:
A fantastic messer's question: You visit mess.be ever?
NicoleT (Program Manager on the MSN Messenger Team for about a year): Yeah I have.
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Summary of tonight's MSN Messenger 7 BETA chat
dwergs says ( 20 Jan 2005 ):
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Here's an early and very quick recapitulation (updated on-the-fly) of what we have learned from the MSN Messenger 7 BETA chat announced in the post below and joined by over 250 MSN Messenger fans including over 70 Messers. What we can expect in MSN Messenger 7 FINAL expected to be released in the course of next month:
- More winks;
- Animated smileys will be correctly displayed
- Definitely NO re-introduction of Messenger API functions, not even in future releases;
- Less crashes and overall better performance;
- Added flexibility to the graphics in the main window;
- Remote Assistance will be available from Activities again (you need Windows Messenger 4.7 or higher installed);
- Remembering your sign-in status (though very small chance for this feature to be included);
- Lots of improvements and some new stuff...
Thanks to everybody* for representing Mess.be in the chat through their nicknames. I would like to aplogize for not being able to reply to any cheers and questions due to the massive amount of private messages I received :(
*Everybody includes: c00ly, javier, Kirjava, Ian, §te-Vie-B*, AdaMmMm, Meni, ^Krispy, Bertuz, Dany, Impheatus, Iwan, CapitolK, allah, Ashleigh, CANR2002, Chestah, Chris, day-car, effu, george, j0nn13, Steve, syntax_error, bees, BigTrev, jonphamta, Drewcool, D_V, FlyBabyTina, Someone, SuperCrw, t0x1c, Allied129, Deadude, fatjoe151, fragel, grem, Jago, JD_VD, jesper, Link`, Marcboy, Raptor, RileyM, UchihaItachi, XA04, smooth-criminal, dandin1, mpmc, CrypticNight, Opp, OPTM, XeroCool, Crompee, Stigmata, Zero1, Grimpy, sweatybob and the others!
UPDATE: For those who missed the chat I've added the complete transcript of the MSN Messenger 7 BETA chat, thanks to MenthiX!
UPDATE #2 (21 Jan '05): I've expanded the summary a bit. |
Friendly reminder: MSN Messenger 7 BETA Chat
dwergs says ( 20 Jan 2005 ):
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 Today at 1:00 PM Pacific Time (that's in less than an hour at the time of writing) a chat session will be held discussing the MSN Messenger 7 BETA you've all been able to test during the past few weeks. MSN Messenger General Manager,Raja Abburi, and other experts on MSN Messenger will be present listening to your remarks and suggestions.
>> What's 1 PM Pacific in your timezone?
>> Enter the chat here (Put Mess_be| in front of your nickname so we can see where you came from!)
[Reported by: XeroCool & Inky]
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WARNING: Bropia.A, a new MSN Messenger worm on the loose!
dwergs says ( 20 Jan 2005 ):
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Based on numerous reports from messers, a new virus seems to be propagating itself rapidly through MSN Messenger.
F-Secure identifies the worm as Bropia.A, other antivirus software (like including Kaspersky) labels it IM-Worm.Win32.VB.a.
When received and executed by the victim, the worm places itself in the C directory with a random filename like:
sexy_bedroom.pif
drunk_lol.pif
naked_party.pif
webcam_(random number).pif
love_me.pif and similar looking names.
It then automatically sends itself to active MSN Messenger contacts. It also drops and executes oms.exe, a variant of Rbot, which copies itself as lexplore.exe and adds two registry keys so it will be executed at next system startup. The bot can be used as a backdoor, logging keystrokes, relaying spam and for various other purposes and is therefor a huge security threat to your system. Brobia.A can also disable mouse right button and manipulate Windows mixer volume settings.
If you receive a file transfer request for such a file, press ALT-D or click Decline. Don't ever execute the file. If you did, delete the file immediately and permanently from your system (My Received Files and C drive) and take necessary security measures. For more information, visit F-Secure.
[Reported by: Michaela, Quanium and Jonphamta] |
Belgian MSN Alerts On Microsoft Security
dwergs says ( 19 Jan 2005 ):
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Microsoft Security Alerts now offers free MSNŽ Security Alerts to IT professionals and home users in Belgium.
With the help of this service you can receive important security messages throuh MSN or Windows Messenger, your e-mail or mobile phone. During the easy setup process, you can decide when and where to receive these alerts.
>> Sign up for Dutch Security Alerts.
>> Sign up for French Security Alerts.
We are currently unaware of the existence of the similar service in other countries and languages. Tell us if you know any more.
>> Remember, you can also sign up for free Mess.be News Alerts. |
Added: Mac MSN skin for MSN Messenger 7 BETA
dwergs says ( 18 Jan 2005 ):
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 Listen up, Mac users with a spare Windows system or chatters with a Mac fetish. The Unknown has created a wonderful full MSN Messenger skin based on the look and feel of MSN Messenger for Mac 4.
You can apply Mac MSN to any clean MSN Messenger 7 BETA installation in any language, just follow each step of the setup process carefully. The installer, courtesy of TheBlasphemer, comes with an optional polygamy patch, nudge disabler and custom MSN games patch.
>> Download Mac MSN skin for MSN Messenger 7 BETA.
This brings the Mac version of MSN Messenger a little bit closer to the Windows version, but we also want to see a fusion the other way around. RJT has updated his comparison table to show the still many differences between current and expected releases of MSN Messenger. Join thousands of people and sign the MSN Messenger for Mac petition if you want equal versions on both platforms!
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Steal from your contacts with MSN Ripper
dwergs says ( 17 Jan 2005 ):
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Out of pure boredom, Huuf decided to make a simple but very efficient MSN Messenger content ripper. MSN Ripper stores all your contacts' Custom Emoticons, MSN Display Pictures, Contact Card content and their backgrounds DIRECTLY into a user-specified directory.
Sadly for Windows 95, 98 or ME users, MSN Ripper does not work on non-NT systems. .NET Framework is also required, which will be automatically downloaded (25 mb) if not present.
>> Download MSN Ripper.
>> Visit Huuf's little place. |
MSN Messenger maintenance completed
dwergs says ( 16 Jan 2005 ):
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The scheduled MSN Messenger maintenance for this weekend completed successfully. The maintenance started a few hours later than expected but ended on time at 2 PM Paris time (or 5 AM Pacific). It appears nothing major has changed, but MSN Web Messenger does seem updated from version 10.0.1108.0 to version 10.0.1111.1.
Big thanks to Ben for reporting!
By the way, we're launching a new cool service this week at Mess.be so stick around! |
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