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 Your first Windows Live Messenger Add-In (maybe)
Your first Windows Live Messenger Add-In (maybe)

dwergs says ( 26 Jan 2007 ):

 

While floundering through my congested inbox I noticed an unread e-mail back from September 2006, in which Developer Audience Manager for Microsoft Belgium, Tom Mertens, pointed me to an excellent tutorial called "Your first Windows Live Messenger Add-In" written by MVP Visual C# and .NET enthusiast, Bart De Smet. After explaining some basics, Bart shows you how to code for example a simple "Hello World" app and conversation content filter using Visual Studio 2005. And if it helps you create a kick-ass add-in, we'd like to hear about it.

>> Complete "Your first Windows Live Messenger Add-In" tutorial over at B# .NET Blog.

Related links:

>> Windows Live Messenger Add-In API.
>> Easily removing web limitations from Messenger plug-in SDK.
>> REVEALED: Create your own Plug-Ins.



 8000 MSN Emoticons at the expense of nasty Trojans
8000 MSN Emoticons at the expense of nasty Trojans

dwergs says ( 26 Jan 2007 ):

 

Yesterday I warned you about a password-stealing Trojan that's spreading via Torrent downloads, but it's definitely not the only piece of Messenger-related malware circulating within the p2p universe.

For instance, there's this executable which promises to install 8000 MSN Emoticons and it does indeed unzip a whole lot of smileys into a folder on your hard disk. But it's so bold to uninvitedly install SpywareNo!, ABetterInternet.Aurora, iSearch Toolbar and iSearch.DesktopSearch as well! Now trust me when I say you don't want to have these nestled on your computer. Who needs 8000 emoticons anyway when we have close to that amount here at Mess.be (without the nasty side-effects), or you can raise the bar for yourself and only import quality emoticons with our spyware-free CustoMess installer.

By the way, we're always looking for fresh, high-quality and original content for CustoMess. If you're a GFX pro and want to show off your talent, please send us your emoticons, display pics and/or backgrounds at the address below.



 Conference calling coming to Windows Live Messenger
Conference calling coming to Windows Live Messenger

dwergs says ( 26 Jan 2007 ):

 

Vapps, provider of VoIP audio conferencing services and systems, will offer free conference calling to all Windows Live Messenger users in the future, the company announced at the Internet Telephony Conference & Expo East in Florida.

vapps conference calling for windows live messengerUsers of Vapps' conference calling activity will be given a conference bridge number and participant codes for use by up to 500 participants simultaneously. Standard features such as volume control, muting, participant announcing, conference locking and recording will be offered along with sophisticated moderator options for web-based, on-demand call control.

The announcement demonstrates Microsoft's determination to further developer voice communication capabilities built into Windows Live Messenger in pursuit of competing products.



 WARNING: MSN Live Password Stealer trojan does exactly that
<b>WARNING</b>: MSN Live Password Stealer trojan does exactly that

dwergs says ( 25 Jan 2007 ):

 

Malware going by the name of Msn Live Password Stealer and which does exactly what its name suggests, came on the radar of anti-virus company Sophos earlier this week and was added to their virus database as Troj/Msnfake-M.

msn live password show aka msn live password stealerVarious versions of the password stealer (up until v4) are currently being distributed via Torrents and can very easily be configured, renamed and passed on to victims. When executed, the trojan displays a fake Windows Live Messenger login prompt and any entered username and password is automatically saved into c:\pas.txt (default destination). For the next step, the hacker can decide to show an error message, just terminate the application or terminate it and launch the real client. He can retrieve the stored login details via a pre-set e-mail address.

Sophos already updated their virus definitions files and other anti-virus firms can be expected to follow suit. To protect yourself from this trojan, do not accept and execute suspicious .exe/.bat/.pif/... files. Just to give you an idea, the filesize of this particular trojan is between 1 and 1.5 megabyte.

We know rumors insinuated the official release of Windows Live Messenger 8.1 today, but be aware that hackers often trick their victims into thinking they're being sent "the latest (Beta) version" of this or that software. Only download the client via ideas.live.com or Mess.be.

PS: Regarding the final 8.1 release, we've been told it won't happen today... but still shortly.

>> More information: Sophos threat analysis.



 Move your favourite Skype Emoticons to Messenger
Move your favourite Skype Emoticons to Messenger

dwergs says ( 24 Jan 2007 ):

 

skype emoticons in messengerSo all your Skype credit expired and you recently discovered the Windows Live Call feature in Messenger, but you can't part with the software's shiny, yellow smileys? Especially for you, I've uploaded all animated Skype Emoticons (that includes some secret ones) so you can import your favorite ones into Windows Live Messenger and don't have to miss them any longer.

[Random Skype fan: Thank you, dwergs!]

You're welcome!

>> Browse all 84 Skype Emoticons.

>> Similarly, you can browse all 88 Yahoo! Emoticons.

>> And don't forget our latest animated emoticons contest ending in one week.



 Virtual Address Book: Save and share your favorite spots
Virtual Address Book: Save and share your favorite spots

dwergs says ( 24 Jan 2007 ):

 

Virtual Address Book is a Messenger activity that allows you to locate, save and share your favorite addresses with your contacts, and even get driving directions from one to another. Don't worry about privacy as you can choose to enter as little or as much information regarding any address as you like. Although it uses JavaScript, it has an AJAX look and feel which allows you search the map and drag-n-drop addresses in a very smooth way.

You might remember this activity as one of the 2nd prize winners in the World's Best App contest, but it disappeared from the web last summer together with the entire competition website. After a small push in the right direction, Nik Donets restored it again for all of us and you can launch it directly via Mess.be.

>> Launch Virtual Address Book via our Messenger Games & Activities menu.

>> Watch the Virtual Address Book tutorial here.



 Time Magazine predicts emoticons for 2007
Time Magazine predicts emoticons for 2007

dwergs says ( 23 Jan 2007 ):

 

Time magazine seems to be focusing on the World Wide Web quite a lot lately with the highly-regarded Person of the Year 2006 award going to you, their recent 2.0 website makeover, and now an amusing article predicting 31 new emoticons for 2007. Curious? Here are some of their suggestions (drawn by David Flaherty) which I freely turned into Display Pictures:

new emoticons for 2007 new emoticons for 2007 new emoticons for 2007 new emoticons for 2007

>> Read the entire article online (without illustrations).

>> Find the scanned version including all emoticons here (thanks to quynh910).

>> Generate your personal Time's Person of the Year Display Picture.



 Windows Live Messenger 8.1 Final next Thursday?
Windows Live Messenger 8.1 Final next Thursday?

dwergs says ( 21 Jan 2007 ):

 

Rumor has it that Windows Live Messenger 8.1 will be officially released worldwide on Thursday, January 25th. The hearsay doesn't report any drastic changes compared to the 8.1 Beta version available since last October.

A final release at the end of this month makes sense after almost 3 months of testing and close to the milestone release of Windows Vista, which 8.1 will be perfectly compatible with. Windows Live Messenger 8.1 will also be the first version to be available in the Thai language.

Talking about foreign languages, I'm looking for someone who can filter info out of a Thai article for me, and somebody to translate a bit of Japanese into English. Get in touch here.

[Reported by: Jack M., Skull & Exorcist]



 Messenger Plus! Live Scripting Contest: The winners
Messenger Plus! Live Scripting Contest: The winners

dwergs says ( 21 Jan 2007 ):

 

After a hard evaluation phase, Patchou officially announced the nine winners of the Plus! Scripting Contest. All 120 submissions will receive a special Plus! developer tee, but the money prizes go to the makers of the following scripts:

Full featured scripts (big scripts):

Simple yet useful scripts (small scripts):
Most original scripts:Congratulations to all!

As promised, a special edition of the Messenger Plus! Live installer will soon be released which bundles the nine winning scripts. In the meantime, the regular Plus! download is doing extremely well with about 230k daily installs, that's "about 5 installs every 2 seconds, 24 hours a day". Yep, that's crazy.

>> Download Messenger Plus! Live.

[Reported by: MenthiX]



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