Main/News >> News Archives > The week of August 28 (2005) (you
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Custom Games, Jeux, Spellen, Jogos, Spiele...
dwergs says ( 02 Sep 2005 ):
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As promised, Koen from games.mess.be has released the first set of language files for multilanguage support in the custom games for MSN Messenger.
Those of you who live in Holland, Germany, Hungary, Portugal, France, Slovenia or Sweden will automatically get a version of the custom games in their own language. More languages will be added in the future!
>> FAQ: Can I add extra games to MSN Messenger?
>> Download Custom Games Patch v2.0.1.
>> Download Mess Patch for MSN Messenger 7.5.0299 (select Install Mess.be Custom Games). |
The Netherlands put forth as MSN Messenger pilot country
dwergs says ( 01 Sep 2005 ):
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The managed BETA of the recently released MSN Messenger 7.5 was held in eight countries, including the US and the UK. Testers from The Netherlands submitted 201 original bugs. Of those, the development returned 25% for more information, 15% were duplicates and 7% of the bugs were not directly related to MSN Messenger.
Except for bugs exclusive to the Dutch version, a lot of unique bugs present in all versions were found. And from all participating countries, BETA-testers from The Netherlands found the most "universal bugs".
As a result, the MSN Messenger development team has decided to use The Netherlands more often as a pilot country to experiment with new features. So, congratulations to all Dutch BETA-testers! We're pretty sure you (and your friends) will be invited to test future versions of MSN Messenger.
In earlier news we already reported that The Netherlands will be the first country in the world to have its own MSN Messenger Magazine in paper form. They sure get spoiled over there!
>> Download MSN Messenger 7.5.
[Reported by: a happy Messer and anonymous BETA-tester] |
Blackmailer threatens company via Skype, MSN Messenger
dwergs says ( 01 Sep 2005 ):
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Kao Corp. this week withdrew all its Biore Cleansing Gels from all sales stands in Taiwan as part of its effort to counter blackmail from a crime ring that had poisoned the gels, according to company sources. The company's move was aimed at securing the safety for consumers. The action is estimated to cost the firm at least NT$1.5 million, or US$45,801.
The extortionists demanded NT$1 million (US$30,534) on Friday from the cosmetics giant via Skype, threatening to put poisoned tubes of the company's Biore Cleansing Gel on the market if the company refused to pay.
The blackmailers also sent photographs via MSN Messenger showing a needle injecting an apparently poisonous substance into a tube, the police said, but the contact person indicated he had yet to put the poisoned gel on a store shelf.
The police formed a special task force to investigate the incident, but said they were running short of leads. According to police, the extortionists threatened the cosmetics company using point-to-point transmission, making it impossible to trace the call and produce a lead on the caller's identity. Investigators concluded from tapes of the calls and the MSN Messenger photos provided by the company only that one of the suspects is a male aged between 20 and 30 and speaks Hoklo (or Taiwanese).
The case is the latest in a spate of attempts to extort money from large consumer-product companies that began in June when a man put energy drinks spiked with cyanide on Taichung convenience store shelves, resulting in one man's death and the hospitalization of three other consumers.
[Source: The China Post & Taiwan News] [Reported by: Dempsey] |
MSN Messenger to be extended with VoIP later this year
dwergs says ( 31 Aug 2005 ):
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Microsoft announced on Tuesday that it has purchased a small Internet calling start-up called Teleo, as part of a move to expand the VoIP (Voice-over-IP) capabilities of MSN Messenger. "We've been making a lot of investments in voice, but as we looked at continuing...we had that build or buy discussion". Since the competition of Skype and now Google Talk is becoming fierce in that area, they decided to do things rapidly and buy the San Francisco company.
MSN tried a service for calling from a PC to a standard phone a few years ago but dropped it because the quality wasn't high enough. In the latest MSN Messenger version the company improved the capabilities for computer-to-computer voice and video chat. "With the built-in base that Messenger has, and the fact that all these people are looking to communicate already, it's a natural extension for what they're doing," MSN lead product manager Brooke Richardson said.
The company plans to build on the Teleo technology and hopes to release a preliminary version of the feature for MSN Messenger later this year. The company hasn't decided how much it will charge users for the additional PC-to-phone calling feature, but the basic, text-based instant-messaging capabilities of the program are expected to remain free.
The technology also includes a feature for clicking on a link to quickly launch a voice call. Because of that, the technology could also be incorporated into MSN Search results. "In that setting, the company may end up allowing free PC-to-phone calls, making its money instead through related search-based advertising", Richardson said.
>> Visit teleo.msn.com.
PS: The Seattle PI article on this topic also claims that MSN Messenger counted 189.7 million users in July 2005. Jeez! Louise!
[Source: CNET News.com & Seattle PI] [Reported by: Dan Atkinson] |
StuffPlug-NG 2.2.397 BETA
Sean says ( 30 Aug 2005 ):
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A new BETA version of the popular Plus! plugin Stuffplug-NG has been released. This BETA addresses some compatibility issues with MSN Messenger 7.5 so no more crashing! All features are now compatible with MSN Messenger 7.5, apart from the Ignore feature.
Also, this version marks the return of the "Window Opened Notifier"! But remember, it may still not be 100% accurate.
UPDATE (by dwergs): This advance release is the result of a visit to the odontologist gone bad. After a nasty fall from his bike on his way to the dentist, StuffPlug-developer TheBlasphemer ended up breaking his precious wrist. This means he won't be able to do any breakdancing, cow-milking or... coding for the next couple of weeks. And therefore StuffPlug 3 will be postponed for a while, but we all know TB for his stubbornness so he'll probably learn to type with his feet. Wow! Wouldn't that add a whole new dimension to StuffPlug?
>> Download StuffPlug-NG 2.2.397 BETA now!
>> Requires Messenger Plus!
[Source: Stuffplug-NG] [Reported by: TheBlasphemer, Kangie, _m0rg4n_, soccer5sg, marcin8c, Cool Rik, XxRebelSeanxX, mwe99] [Thumbnail by: Andrew Mason] |
The downside of MSN Messenger 7.5
timothy says ( 30 Aug 2005 ):
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The final release of MSN Messenger 7.5 brought a lot of new features, but one of those features is predestined to become a major spam magnet and Internet Explorer crasher. We are talking about the nifty msnim:// Internet Explorer protocol.
1) A simple JavaScript loop could crash Internet Explorer. A rather simply crafted JavaScript (only 3 lines of code) could crash Internet Explorer and annoy the user before doing so. By keeping on calling the msnim:// inside a one millisecond timed loop, you can not get rid of the popup asking if you wish to start a conversation, and render Internet Explorer locked up.
2) Easy bait for spam crawlers. Only a few years ago spam companies realized that they could harvest e-mail addresses just by using an automatic webpage scanner, it took years to convince people not to publish their email address on a webpage because of this. This new protocol is by far most the easiest target for spam crawlers in the world, since the only way to start a conversation from a website is by putting your email address in the url… running around naked on the street with a four meter wide neon sign with your email address will probably generate less spam.
3) Reverse Psychology. The last trick that can be performed with this new technology is the most disturbing. By tricking users to start a conversation they have been lured into a spam list trap. The only thing the spam companies would have to do is put a home-brew client behind it, that logs anything that looks like a email address. I wonder how many people will click yes if they see a MSN Messenger screen asking "Do you wish to start a video conversation with xxx_hotsexy_girl@hotmail.com".
How to protect yourself from these things?
- Never post your email address on a website, even if it’s useful.
- Don’t just accept conversation invites that pop-up on your screen.
- Alternative browsers like Firefox aren’t affected, since this is a Internet Explorer only feature.
- Disable the new protocol in Internet Explorer (how-to below)
How to disable the msnim protocol:
1. Hit start, run and type regedit 2. Go to the following key: HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\PROTOCOLS\Handler\msnim 3. Change the value of the CLSID to 0.
(to re-enable it change the CLSID to {828030A1-22C1-4009-854F-8E305202313F} )
Update: Zero1 made a easy registry patch to enable or disable the new protocol. Just run activate.reg or deactivate.reg from the ZIP file for instant result. |
Block checkers are EVIL!
dwergs says ( 29 Aug 2005 ):
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Because of recent developments, I would like to repeat a warning already issued in 2004 (maybe even 2003!):
Stay away from anything that claims it can tell who blocked you on MSN Messenger!
Why? Because first of all IT'S NOT POSSIBLE. Ever since Microsoft made some adjustments, the golden years of "block checking" are over. Not a single program or website can make a distinction between a contact who's offline or who's blocking you.
Secondly, most of them are PURE EVIL. Some collect e-mail addresses for SPAM (and SPIM), others try to install adware or trojans or other malware onto your system. The "services" at URLs including 41m, block-checker or block-detector are among the bad guys. And just like most MSN Messenger worms, they are involuntarily being promoted by your own contacts. So don't fall for scams like this, you've been warned.
>> Read the instructions to remove block-checker (originally composed by Fergy and further modified by CookieRevised).
>> Read more on the block-checker adware at McAfee or Symantec.
>> Read our FAQ How can I see who blocked me on MSN Messenger?
[Reported by: m180up, Ikarus, D-smash, GoesHere, Danny, chaytor, Glenn, Dim, oblivion, Heero_200, Chaos-X, DrBean, xsoul, rob dude, JamesHospedales, robtinbc, Griffin, toddmyster & OMER KEMAL] |
Return of the "unblockable nickname" part III
timothy says ( 29 Aug 2005 ):
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People who use MSN Messenger since the dawn of time remember this bug as if there was no tomorrow. Rendering people with the great power to become unblockable by just changing his or her nickname to &xxx;
But being a super hero also has its dark side, people who used the unblockable trick somehow disappeared from other people's lists, could not be removed, could not be re-added and other disastrous mutations happened. Overlord Microsoft introduced the word filter for nicknames and so ends part one. Shortly afterwards Heavy_K's Nick Changer allowed people to bypass the nickname filter, reintroducing the unblockable nickname in MSN Messenger ("Revenge of the Unblockable"), it only took a matter of days to get fixed and for a long time everything was fine in Messenger land. Until now! (DRUM ROLL). Mad scientist mario found a work-around for a (unlikely) return of this old friend.
Enough dramatic film-like crap, you probably wonder how he's done it? The answer is the ignored Ô character: if the user sends a nickname to the server with only URL encoding, it will remove all the Ô's from the nick. So ÔMÔess.be will change your nick to Mess.be. Now you've probably tried this before even reading this line and figured out it doesn't work. The only way to get it working is by hooking into the MSN Messenger protocol and send the raw commando.
Are we as doomed as we used to be? No, since the new Messenger servers actually reset the nickname after disconnecting any long term damage it could do is prevented.
Read more at the MSN Fanatic Forums.
[Reported by: Rolando] |
Web2Messenger Back on Track: Let's celebrate!
dwergs says ( 28 Aug 2005 ):
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After someone abused an exploit in third party blog software hosted on the same server and kidnapped their Epsilon bot, the Web2Messenger crew had to close down their service for a while. But vulnerable scripts have been patched and improvements have been made in the meantime, doubling the maximum capacity of W2M. A part of the official statement posted here goes:
"Rest assured we are doing everything we can to prevent any compromise of our service from happening again even if it wasn't our "fault" this time around. We apologise for any inconvenience this downtime has caused, but we are back now and hope you enjoy using our service!"
To forget about this bit of "bad luck", we're giving away 13 (!) exclusive invitations to participate in the Web2Messenger BETA. They were donated by the following kind Messers: Sr_Colgao, DarkButterflies, balupton and last but not least (because he sent us six:) soccer5sg.
As usual, first comes first served (ah, the benefits of signing up for our Mess.be news alerts).
Invite #1, Invite #2, ... UPDATE: Too late!
>> What's Web2Messenger?
[Also reported W2M-related news: RichM, phil, PeRKoniX, Nitemare and marcin8c] |
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