NetBloke.com - Instant Access
Publication Date: 14th September 2001
ISSN 1445-1360
Publication Date: 14th September 2001
ISSN 1445-1360
I think it would be impossible for anyone, anywhere writing a newsletter, to not mention the horrible events of the past two days. Although I believe that my family has been untouched directly by the events that have unfolded before our eyes on television, we have still been touched and deeply saddened by the loss of life that has occurred. Our thoughts and prayers are with those that have been directly affected by this tragedy.
Having said that, now that I too call the USA my home (I still also call Australia home as well, don't worry Mum!), I believe personally that we cannot allow terrorism to stop our lives. As that is what the terrorist organizations would like to see. So I am going on with this weeks issue on Instant Messaging.
So last week I asked what everyone uses for instant messaging and I had a huge response. I believe I answered nearly everyone's email but a few might have slipped by.
This week I am defining what instant messaging is for those of you who do not know. I then move on to my personal favorite (at the moment at least) for instant messaging, along with the details for some of the popular variants out there on the Web.
From last weeks feedback a number of readers put me onto an application called WeatherBug (http://www.aws.com). This program can sit in your system tray and let you know the local temperature. Then looking at the full screen version you can get detailed weather details, weather alerts, national, regional and local radar, forecasts and local webcams. I used it Saturday to check for any bad weather coming our way, before heading off on a 25-mile bike ride. It even makes your computer chirp when a weather alert (tornado, flood or thunderstorm) warning comes in. All the data comes from your local weather or television station. I recommend it to all of you who like ready access to weather details.
Oh and to all those friends and relatives who took my selling of my daughter a bit too seriously, don't worry! Next week I will do a parenting issue, so if you have any parenting sites you like please tell me about them.
So until next week seeya later!
Nathan Allan
If you can spare the money, at times like these a donation to the Red Cross would be greatly appreciated by those in need.
http://www.redcross.org
For those of you who have not heard of Instant Messaging, here is my layman's explanation of it.
When you are connected to the Internet you run an Instant Messaging program that constantly runs in the background. This program will have a list of your contacts (friends, family, workmates or whomever, even authors of books when they remember to actually have their instant messaging programs running!), which includes each contact's status. Their status is normally reflects if they are online, offline, away from their computer or the like.
With this information at you finger tips you can instantly send your contacts short messages that will appear on their desktops instantly. You can look at it like email, except that it arrives instantly and alerts the recipient.
Of course Instant Messaging programs can do a lot more than this now, such as file transfer and voice chat, but the essence of the program is still the messaging.
The popular examples of Instant messaging are:
ICQ
http://www.icq.com
Yahoo
http://messenger.yahoo.com
AIM (AOL)
http://www.aol.com (then click on the instant messaging icon)
MSN (Microsoft)
http://messenger.msn.com
If you do not like being bugged by everyone when you have your instant messenger running, set your status to AWAY. People can still message you but will not expect an instant response from you as much.
Remember that this is just another tool to make communication easier. So don't let it start running your life and taking up all your time online. There are too many other things to explore!
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I only started using this all in one messenger a week or so ago. Now for our more advanced instant messaging fans I would have to recommend this client. It will allow you to have connections to all of the popular services at the same time. Plus it is not bloated with unnecessary functionality.
The reason I like it is because my friends, family and workmates are split over ICQ and MSN, therefore in the past I had to run two separate programs to access these people. Now thanks to Trillian I run one. And if I wanted I could now add AIM and Yahoo users as well, not to mention IRC channels.
Also by the response to last week's issue a lot of you are already on to this great little find. On CNET I noticed there are already a lot of people trying this relatively new client out.
If you are an Instant Messaging fan try this client out! It is easy to set up and actually works without having to fiddle with settings. It is also skinable, and I have swapped my skin to the compact design so that it does not take up as much of my desktop real estate.
http://www.trillian.cc
As I asked in my editorial, I would like to know from my readers which parenting sites you frequent or have used in the past. They don't have to be just for males, they can be female specific too. I may even have my wife Karissa review some for you all. So what parenting sites do you suggest I check out?
Contact me and tell me,
ANSWER
Last issue I asked what your favorite Instant Messaging program was. I obviously picked a topic that you all like as I received more email on this than any other question I have ever asked you all to respond to.
Rather than post everyone's reply I am going to tell you a brief breakdown of what I was told.
Most people use ICQ, closely followed by MSN. And I had very few responses for Yahoo.
The biggest complaint was the spam that you can get on ICQ, although by altering your settings to allow only people on your contact list to post you messages, will eliminate the spam.
My biggest surprise was the number of you who have swapped to Trillian in order to take advantage of its multi service offerings.
I would really like to take this opportunity to thank you all for your emails and responses. I only write NetBloke for fun. I don't make enough money from it to even cover the costs (small as they are). However knowing that people like you are reading this newsletter and getting some value out of it is wonderful.
If you have a question of your own, contact me.
It isn't really a funny time at the moment, more a time for reflection. So like many others have decided to do, we have lit a candle in this day of remembrance and prayer.
