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Exclusive: MSN France offering free buddycards soon
dwergs says ( 27 Aug 2004 ):
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Like slightly mentioned before, MSN has realised the power of the buddy list. Inviting or accepting someone on your list is so much more than just a couple of clicks. To make the event as special as it deserves to be, MSN France is going to allow MSN Messenger users to order FREE MSN contact cards we'll call "buddycards" for the time being.
Not yet, but in the very (very) near future, french messers will be able to get 20 real and professional MSN Messenger business cards from a yet to be announced URL. Afterwards, other MSN portals around the world may decide to offer the same service. As usual, you'll hear about it first here on Mess.be! |
Download MSN Messenger in a new way
dwergs says ( 27 Aug 2004 ):
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BetaConnect reports that you can not just go to the MSN Messenger download site and get your copy in one or two mouseclicks anymore. Microsoft has inserted a front door page where you have to confirm you have a Passport-registered e-mail address already, or you need to create one. In addition you will have to accept an ActiveX component on a second page to finally get your download started. The new system hasn't been introduced at regional MSN sites yet, just the .com.
[Updated thanks to: Alex P]
Another change I have noticed is the new style (v2.5) of the MSN Today popup in Belgium (see screenshot). Versions for other countries are still left unchanged and since Belgium isn't usually an MSN test-case area, I'm not sure if the blue backgrounds will be adapted by other countries later on. The question is, does somebody actually care? ;-) |
Staying in touch with your PC on vacation, at work or at school
dwergs says ( 26 Aug 2004 ):
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You can already access MSN Messenger anywhere without having to install the software, but what if you need a specific program or file on your computer at home? With a GoToMyPC account you can turn any web-connected PC into a clone of your distant machine, affording access to remote programs, files and networks. This software has won PC World's Best Remote Access Software of 2004 award and was the Best Utility Product of 2003 according to PC Magazine!
>> Download GoToMyPC for free and access your PC from anywhere. |
The sky is not yet the contact list limit
dwergs says ( 26 Aug 2004 ):
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In a news post earlier this week we told you about Robert Scoble's claim that his contact list capacity had been expanded beyond 150 buddies. Today we received information that Scoble's blog wasn't entirely accurate. According to our sources Jeff Wilkes - the Microsoft employee mentioned on Scobleizer- wasn't talking about the Forward List (the thing we can see in our main MSN Messenger window) but one of the other sorts of contact lists. Our guess is they raised the Allow List limit, because of specific contact list issues reported last month. We have yet to verify this assumption.
Meanwhile, and mainly because of the misinterpretation, there might very well be a chance they will increase the maximum number of contacts on the "Forward List" as well after all. You're invited to notify us as soon as you have added your 151th contact! |
Guess who is the biggest voice over IP service provider in the US?
dwergs says ( 26 Aug 2004 ):
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Who is the biggest voice over IP service provider in the US? You probably said Vonage, which has roughly 200,000 paying customers. Wrong. There's another company with more than four times the subscribers delivering voice capability over broadband. It's a company you've probably heard of, though not in this context.
Give up? It's Microsoft, with its XBox Live online gaming service. Xbox Live has over one million paying customers for multi-player online games. And all of them have a headset that plugs into the game console, enabling real-time voice communications with other players.
Microsoft may not hold the lead for long. Sony announced in March that it has 2.6 million America Online users for its PlayStation 2. Sony handles its online services on a game-by-game basis, and it hasn't announced figures on how many of its users are paying for online functionality that involves VOIP.
[Further reading: Tech Central Station] |
Added: Family Guy Display Pictures
dwergs says ( 25 Aug 2004 ):
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One of the funniest cartoons, Family Guy, gets a display picture treatment from lpchick. Peter Griffin, the cynical dog, the baby, you can set them all as your MSN Messenger avatar! Also check out our other cartoon display pictures...
>> Browse 46 Family Guy Display Pictures. |
Larger contact list capacity expected
dwergs says ( 24 Aug 2004 ):
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In a personal blog maintained by Robert Scoble, technical evangelist at Microsoft, we can read that fellow Microsoft employee Jeff Wilkes said the list limits on MSN Messenger have just doubled in size. For me, the maximum number of contacts is still 150 but apparently the limit was raised for Scoble's account already. "Patience" is the keyword.
The blog also reads: "(...) The backend is now running on SQL Server. Over in one of the buildings that MSN is housed in they have an electronic sign that shows how many people are using MSN Messenger. It's an amazingly high number. Nice to know that SQL Server is handling the load.". I'd love to have a look at that sign showing 6 or 7 digits myself...
[Source: Scobleizer via Bink.nu] |
Over 5000 Mess.be news Alerts served
dwergs says ( 24 Aug 2004 ):
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About 1000 Messers have signed up for Mess.be's MSN Messenger News Alerts and more than 5000 alerts have been delivered since we launched the free service. If you want to be the first to know about site updates, then sign up now:
As predicted lots of tech news sites aped the service so just have a browse around the web and you'll find more interesting (yet often analogue) alerts! |
Added: Olympic Games 2004 Display Pictures
dwergs says ( 23 Aug 2004 ):
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We're day 10 of the XXVIIIth edition of the Olympic Games and twenty sports are taking place in Athens, seven of which include finals. I have uploaded some display pictures showing memorable moments during this year's Games. There's also a subcategory dedicated to the communicative power of volleyball women's behinds I'm sure even not-so-sports-fans will enjoy. For example, you can see in the display pic to the right that she's telling her team partner to visit Mess with MSN Messenger. Oh, and feel free to let these inspire you for your Mess.be fanpic!
>> Browse Olympic Games 2004 display pictures.
>> Browse Olympic Booty 2004 display pictures.
NOTE: If you'd like to contribute your own Olympic display pictures to these categories, then please tag your 96x96 pixels display pictures with the mess.be URL as shown on the example to the right. You can download a template with instructions here. Thank you! :) |
The most comprehensive image buggery on the web
dwergs says ( 23 Aug 2004 ):
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I just discovered Toogle, a text version of Googles Image Search currently "messing with 880,000,000 images". Here are some of the results I ended up with: an ascii-fied conversation window (when searching for "msn messenger"), a seventies (?) mugshot (for "bill gates") and our own messer mascotte when searching for "msn". Go on then, try it yourself! :) |
Hide advertisement banner bug in Messenger Plus!
dwergs says ( 23 Aug 2004 ):
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Phil, SeBsZ and Mykster_x witnessed problems with the Hide Advertisement Banner option in Messenger Plus!. Here are some of the reported symptoms:
- The ad messes up MSN Messenger's main window when resizing it; - The ad flickers on and off; - The ad shows some code (XML to be precise) instead of an image.
Patchou is fully aware of this bug and has promised to fix it in Messenger Plus! 3.10, due early September. Apparently, Microsoft is using seperate windows for its banners since MSN Messenger 6.0: one for basic banners and another for more complex codes.
If you really can't stand that small banner at the bottom of your contact list, you can remove it with Nega Patch (link goes to 6.2.0137 version so if you have another MSN Messenger build then download the appropriate one). Please note that the ads keep your MSN Messenger free! |
I see you baby... waiting for news
dwergs says ( 22 Aug 2004 ):
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Just got back from one of the best music festivals I ever attended, Pukkelpop. The 3-day killer lineup (Groove Armada, The White Stripes, Franz Ferdinand, Faithless, 50 Cent, etc etc...) made me forget about my daily duty to inform you about "everything MSN Messenger", but I'm back (so no, it wasn't my camping tent that exploded) and you can expect lots of updates the next couple of days. This includes the announcements of many winners in the different competitions we've been running, as well as new contests kicking off this week! |
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