"Instant Messaging" archive
Saturday 31 March
- Duh, hackers have their own encrypted IM networks (16:30) - Back when we first added encryption to BitWise, people used to joke with us about if we were willing to accept that we might indirectly support hackers by providing an encrypted IM service. We have never really worried about this because it seemed highly unlikely that hackers would actually trust any company-created encrypted IM. It looks like we were right. A recent ComputerWorld article caught my eye with the title Hackers build private IM to keep out the law. I...
| 1 Comments
Sunday 16 July
- As gaim/Trillian is to AIM, as __________ is to Skype. Do we have a fill-in? (12:16) - As is probably fairly obvious to my long-time readers, I enjoy reading about and commenting on technology. I'm not always right, or terribly insightful, but I usually have some kind of opinion. However, I have recently found myself at a bit of a loss. This all started on Charlie Paglee's blog. Charlie is the cofounder of Vozin Communications, who is apparently not a competitor to Skype. On Thursday, he says that he received a call from a friend in China...
Thursday 23 February
- First Mac OS X virus targets... you guessed it... iChat (16:15) - Last week brought news of the world's first Mac OS X virus. And wouldn't you know that it's Apple's own instant messaging program, iChat, that's used for distribution. The threat from this virus is rated low, appropriately, because it does require users to click on a malicious link. Nonetheless, it does highlight that Apple's OS is not immune to viruses, and that instant messaging is one of today's hotbeds for viruses and malware. Read the complete story at ComputerWorld online....
| 4 Comments
Monday 23 January
- "It looks good, but it's horrible" (20:20) - Knowing that Bitwise is a part of the larger IM world, users frequently forward articles or reviews to me. However, I particularly like hearing what our users think of some of the other messengers' new versions. I'd like to share this really informal review that I received the other day about MSN 8: Ugh.. I just an invitation for MSN 8 live beta... it looks good, but its horrible. My contact list just filled up with 50 contacts that I...
Saturday 31 December
- The pendulum (10:05) - One of eWeek's "Transitions 2006" articles is IM Threats: The Dark Side of Innovation. They are spot-on that 2005 has become the year of the IM exploit, and the question is whether things will get better or worse in 2006. Even though the attacks are getting smarter and more sophisticated, there has not yet been an apocalypse on any of the major IM networks, so the good guys must be doing something right. Here's a short excerpt: I'm really surprised...
Tuesday 20 December
- BlowSearch Messenger just plains blows away (09:34) - I'm not one that delights in other peoples' failures nor am I usually one to pour salt in the wound, but after my series of posts from February about BlowSearch Messenger, this is more about closure than anything else. I don't know what made me think about it again, but I decided to go see what was new with BlowSearch Messenger. What I learned was that BlowSearch (not just the messenger) has pretty much fallen apart. Not unsurprisingly, Joe Holcomb's...
| 2 Comments
Saturday 10 December
- The smiley falling out of favor? (13:52) - I never thought I'd see this, but the January 2006 issue of MacWorld has a tip for disabling iChat's Smilies. What's so surprising is not that they printed such a tip, but that it's no longer a obscure option buried deep in some plist file in the iChat application bundle. Using iChat on OS X 10.4.3, there is a Hide Smilies menu right from the View menu. After years and years of more and more smilies, what's causing the sudden...
Thursday 8 December
- Ad bots give way to virus bots on AIM (22:41) - On November 16th, I lamented AOL's recent addition of AIM bots to their service. It appears that these bots have paved the way to even worse bots: bots that use social engineering to help spreads viruses sent through malicious links. No longer will a compromised system just send you links that download viruses, now they can respond to you, including assuring you that the link that they just sent is not a virus. If you're interested, here's the full story...
| 1 Comments
Wednesday 16 November
- BitWise, not BotWise (19:54) - I'm almost afraid to say this publicly, but for various reasons I need to use IM systems other than BitWise. [Dramatic pause while you recover from your shock.] You can only imagine my horror this morning when I received this message on AIM from AOLSystemMsg: "AIM added a new AIM Bots group to your Buddy List. Send IMs to moviefone and shoppingbuddy for great holiday flicks and gift ideas. (To remove 'em, just right-click and delete!)" Yes, I really want...
| 2 Comments
Wednesday 2 November
- FUD isn't FUD when it's true: rootkits spreading via AIM (14:09) - The other day, I was reading an eWeek article entitled Researchers Say Automated IM Worm Is Inevitable about the supposed inevitable wide-spread attack coming over one of the large public IM networks. While the large public networks have been in the news a lot recently about small-scale worms and other problems, even I was a bit skeptical, thinking that this was mostly just spreading FUD (fear, uncertainty, doubt). Today's news showed me that it wasn't FUD after all: Worm with...
| 1 Comments
Saturday 15 October
- Bigger is not always better (20:44) - You've probably seen the news by now about MSN Messenger and Yahoo Messenger becoming interoperable sometime in the second quarter of 2006. Perhaps they feel threatened by Google, or Skype, or AOL, but in the end, I'm not sure that it will matter all that much. Let's consider a few possible usage scenarios: 1) I use only MSN Messenger right now. I don't have much need for any of the others, or I'd be using them already. So I can...
| 2 Comments
Tuesday 4 October
- With bugs that impressive, who needs features? (18:44) - Once again, blog material just landed in my lap. This story was sent to me today from a BitWise User: "In other news, MSN is giving me an extra hard time. I now have two contacts that have me somehow automatically blocked when they load up MSN, for no apparent reason. We can't figure it out. With bugs that impressive, it's no wonder it's so popular!" That, and who do you turn to for help? Where do you go to...
Tuesday 13 September
- Don't email the seller, call them (10:40) - I'm sure that other eyebrows besides mine raised when hearing the news yesterday that eBay has purchased Skype for $2.6 billion. That's a huge chunk of change. Full Story (Infoworld). The general concensus seems to be that there is some validity to enhancing the communication between buyers and sellers, but $2.6 billion worth of validity? Is eBay going to benefit $2.6 billion worth? It's not immediately obvious, so I guess we'll just have to wait and see. I have read...
| 1 Comments
Wednesday 31 August
- FaceTime serving their face? (19:58) - Here's an article that caught my attention the other day: FaceTime greets, disarms spyware (InfoWorld). I don't know about anyone else, but it bothers me that a company that sells an instant messaging service is announcing other instant messaging services are security holes, and then starts offering a product that plugs those "holes." So, you can pay them $5,000 for their spyware protection suite, and then you'll have to choose them for corporate messaging because your new spyware protection suite...
Wednesday 24 August
- Incomplete software is Alpha, not Beta, duh. C'mon Google. (10:17) - I suppose I would be considered grossly negligent if I didn't comment on the recent release of Google Talk (Google's new IM service). I have four observations: 1) Why? I can't see anything that Google offers over most other IM services. It's a contact list, text messaging, notifications, voice and... well, that's it. 2) Beta? I don't think so! Someone needs to give the Google folks a re-education about what it means to be alpha or beta. Given the skeletal...
| 12 Comments
Wednesday 17 August
- Use BitWise, save $49.99 (10:05) - Thanks to Sonic for relaying this really scary screenshot of the current AIM 7 Beta: Yes, you're seeing that right: that's an advertisement mixed in the messages themselves. Is nothing sacred anymore? I really like the notice, too: AIM is an advertising supported product. Give them credit, at least now they're owning up to it. I can see it already: Norton Anti-Spim for AIM. Save yourself the $49.99, use BitWise instead. You know, BitWise doesn't even have to improve anymore,...
Sunday 14 August
- IE 7 Beta breaks 3rd party MSN connectivity (15:14) - This is pretty old news now since it was news around the time I left for San Francisco, but I think it's humorous enough that it's still worth mentioning. People ask all the time about connecting to the "Big 4" networks, like AIM or MSN. Our reasons for not doing this have always been the same since day 1. One of those reasons is that your software becomes reliant on factors outside of your control, and that's exactly what has...
Friday 29 July
- You will see ads in AIM. But you get to choose where! (17:08) - I don't know if anyone else will find this as amusing as I do, but I find it absolutely hysterical that the latest AIM beta now has a preference so you can choose whether to see ads in your contact list, or in your IM window. Note that there's no option to disable the ads, you just get to choose where you want them. Check it out: And to think, some businesses use adware for conducting business! Now that's really...
| 5 Comments
Tuesday 12 July
- Nuclear pifs (10:22) - Not too long ago I posted about MSN's new filters against programs with extensions commonly used to exploit Windows machines (like .pif, .scr, .com, etc). It turns out that there is a really bad side-effect of all this new protection in a recent build of MSN. If you type a forbidden extension like ".pif" in a group conversation in MSN, it boots everyone out of the group conversation and closes the group conversation. Too funny. You can read more on...
Monday 11 July
- do-du-lu, do-du-lu (20:51) - I have a nice series of short blog topics queued up, so maybe I can have a post every day this week. :) I called the 800 number for the Sears repair center to have someone come and look at the dishwasher (it leaks). While I was talking to the nice lady, I repeatedly heard the unmistakable AIM do-du-lu (raising pitch) and do-du-lu (falling pitch) noises. What I wondered is if it was being used to actually conduct business, or...
| 1 Comments
Saturday 11 June
- IT personnel say the darndest things (13:55) - I've been meaning to write about this for a while. A recent ComputerWorld article about an AIM virus had an absolutely jaw-dropping statement in it:"Fundamentally, many businesses will have to ask their staff if they really need IM for their day-to-day work, and if not, it may be more sensible to take it away," [an anti-virus company employee] said. "We're certainly seeing more instant messaging malware being written, although they haven't yet had the same kind of impact as email-aware...
| 3 Comments
Thursday 5 May
- BitWise 1.0.4 released (16:30) - At long last, BitWise 1.0.4 is available to download from the download page. I'm sure that many users will be seeing the new web site for the first time when they go to download the new version. :) Now it's time for me to take a breather after a new web site and new client in the same week. In other news, it seems that my previous post may not be accurate inasmuch that the list of blocked file types...
| 4 Comments
Wednesday 4 May
- No, really, that txt file is dangerous! (20:20) - I got an email today from a friend with some links to some interesting stories (link #1, link #2) about some changes in the recent versions of MSN Messenger regarding file transfers. Microsoft has started blocking a lot of file extensions in order to help prevent viruses from spreading through their network. This is understandable, given the rash of virus problems that they've had lately, but let me paste here the list of blocked extensions: .exe; .bat; .com; .cmd; .reg;...
| 3 Comments
Wednesday 16 March
- AOL gives privacy back (supposedly) (11:07) - Due at least in part to the public outcry, AOL has announced that they will be changing their TOS, and explained that the TOS was really just a misunderstanding. I fail to see how any reasonable person at AOL could have read the TOS and not seen the huge problem with its wording, but that's another issue. In any event, here's a small excerpt from the full article news.com: America Online said late Monday that it plans to revise its...
| 2 Comments
Monday 14 March
- AOL does away with privacy (20:25) - Now that the news is pretty well broken around the world, it's time for me to jump on the bandwagon. ;) As I'm sure you've heard, AOL's new TOS (Terms of Service) contain some disturbing clauses. My favorite: Although you or the owner of the Content retain ownership of all right, title and interest in Content that you post to any AIM Product, AOL owns all right, title and interest in any compilation, collective work or other derivative work created...
| 3 Comments
Wednesday 9 March
- Will you be my moo? (21:23) - You know it's a good day when you ask someone, "Will you be my moo?" The best part is I don't know what it means, I just thought it sounded funny. Plus I really need to start living up the craziness of the aoeu message from last week... :0 Potpourri this evening: - The wxWidgets book manuscript has finally been submitted after a series of extensions (remember it was originally due March 1st). We also have received a first draft...
| 2 Comments
Saturday 5 March
- Scroll down a few entries... (10:26) - ... and read the comments on my February 27th post. There's a post with some real meat and things to discuss, unlike the recent aoeu/asdf posts. :) (Since this isn't a "real entry," comments are disabled for this post.)...
Sunday 27 February
- BlowSearch Messenger just plain blows, part 2 (19:14) - I got a comment today on my BlowSearch messenger review from Joe, who wrote on behalf of Blowsearch. Since I doubt anyone is following comments on entries that old, here it is: Thanks for your comments and we'll take them into consideration as we upgrade BSM. BTW, there is a complete description of the encryption mechanism used in BSM available on the site. There's nothing shady about it. It's proprietary and patent pending. Did you think we would open it...
| 9 Comments
Saturday 5 February
- BlowSearch Messenger just plain blows (13:39) - "Know thy competition;" yesterday, a BitWise user brought to my attention a new IM program called BlowSearch Messenger (BSM). (BSM is a terrible acronym, IMHO, given its similarity to the acronym BDSM.) Keep in mind that their big focus is encryption/privacy. Even though it connects to the big 4, you still have to register separately with BSM. Not only that, they require all sorts of information, like your full name, city & zip, email address, your birthday, etc. While you...
| 2 Comments
Thursday 20 January
- MSN Bropia.A worm spreads without user intervention (16:20) - A scary report for anyone who uses MSN: a new worm called Bropia.A is in the wild and can spread to you via MSN Messenger just by having an MSN Messenger window open. The payload is to install a trojan program called "Rbot" which can open a backdoor in your system and has features that collect keystrokes, relay spam and collect other information about your system. It also can disable your right-click context menus and adjust your sound mixer settings,...
| 1 Comments
Wednesday 5 January
- Voice over IP can't be regulated by states (20:12) - I have received many links and news article from BitWise users regarding the current court cases involving Voice over IP (VOIP) software and whether or not the states can regulate VOIP. Last week, in an appeal, VOIP has been ruled a data service and cannot be regulated by the states. Unfortunately, it's not over yet as some states want to appeal to the Supreme Court. Link The two-page decision was issued by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth...
Wednesday 8 December
- Hey person at my keyboard, step away from me! (19:31) - There have been quite a few articles recently in/on a variety of magazines/web sites about the vulnerability of Linux and Mac OS X to viruses and attacks. The general feeling seems to be that Linux and Mac OS X are safer partly because there is less reward (fame) in bringing down only a few machines. If someone were to write a virus or worm for one of these operating system, it probably wouldn't get very far because most of the...
| 4 Comments
Wednesday 6 October
- Me and 100 of my closest friends (15:42) - I found an interesting article the other day about IM and IM viruses/worms. The article itself wasn't interesting for the technical discussion about the worms, but rather for the facts it had about people's buddy lists and social habits. You can view the original article if you wish, Super-connected users could aid IM worms. The virus throttling technology works by limiting the number of IM messages infected IM users can send outside their "working set," the small number of regular...
| 5 Comments
Friday 10 September
- Humanity through a 17" rectangle (23:36) - It is undeniable that the Internet has opened avenues of communication that did not exist just 10 years ago. We now have the ability to "reach out and touch someone" half the world away with the touch of a few keys. Cameras and microphones allow us to see and hear people instantly. Or, for the true multitasker, text-based IM lets you communicate with multiple people all at the same time, none of them knowing that they don't have your full...
| 8 Comments
Thursday 15 July
- Microsoft and IM interoperability (for a mere $1,000 minimum) (22:30) - Several people were kind enough to inform me of some "big news" in IM (and yet another did as I was writing this)... Microsoft has announced interoperability with AIM and Yahoo in its next version of Live Communications Server (CNN Story). My reaction to this news is largely ho-hum, because I'm not sure what's really going on here. The article says that it was a feature highly demanded by businesses, but I guess I'm not sure why. It seems like...
| 1 Comments
Thursday 1 July
- IM, vulnerabilities and responsibility (00:17) - PC Magazine ran a story the other day about instant messaging and how it's a big virus threat. I understand that it is a threat, but I don't understand why because I can't imagine what goofy things most IM programs let you do with them when you connect. According to the article, people leave their IM programs on 24/7, even at work, and that these are gateways for viruses. It's not talking about the "someone sends you a link and...
| 3 Comments
Thursday 24 June
- The Cat and the Mouse (aka Trillian and Yahoo) (16:34) - It happened again yesterday. Trillian, a popular "all-in-one" IM client was shut out of Yahoo's network (to be fair, all 3rd party clients were shut out). This isn't a new problem for Trillian, in fact, it was AOL's similar maneuver two and a half years ago that inspired us to create BitWise. Then, AOL and Trillian shared 3 or 4 rounds of the cat and mouse game, where AOL would make a change to block Trillian, and 1-4 days later,...
| 1 Comments
Sunday 20 June
- Freedom of misinformation and bad software (20:38) - Today, a different BitWise user informed me about another [bad] IM program called PSST. Not only is my favorite "military-grade" expression used again there, but this person obviously knows nothing about encryption and has the absolute worst ideas about what to put in screenshots."It would require military-grade supercomputers to crack the 128-bit block encryption." - Again, no such thing as a "military-grade" supercomputer. Besides, a fast PC these days could crack 128-bit encryption within only a couple of weeks (or...
| 1 Comments
Friday 18 June
- Deceptive Advertising and Stupid Pricing (16:52) - I like to make truthful statements, and like to do honest promotions that are not misleading or controversial (at least not more than mildly so). Though there is always some marketing flex that is expected, sometimes it goes way too far, and reading about a product just sends me over the top. A BitWise user sent me a message today telling me about more competition, Intego ChatBarrier which is a plugin to Apple's iChat. It's a nice idea, but I...
| 3 Comments