mynetx - Windows Live Enhanced » Stuff

Apple’s reasons against Flash

Klaus Neumann — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 16:18:15 +0000

Yesterday, Steve Jobs talked about his decision not to support Adobe Flash, when he got interviewed on the D8 Conference.

Being asked whether he doesn’t consider it unfair for customers not to support Flash contents on iPhone and iPad, he declared that Apple is not a company with unlimited resources. To have success, you have “to bet the right technological horse”. That is why Apple chooses technologies that have a future.

Jobs noted that Apple had been the first company to dump the floppy disk. Later, they were among the first ones adopting the USB interface. “Sometimes when we get rid of things, people call us crazy. But sometimes you just have to pick the things that are going to be the right horse to ride forward. And Flash has had its day, but HTML5 is starting to emerge. The video looks better and it works better and you don’t need a plug-in to run it. And while 75 percent of the video on the Web may be available in Flash, a lot of it is available in HTML5 as well,” the Apple CEO explained.

“We didn’t set out to have a war over Flash. We made a technical decision.” Jobs explained that it was Adobe who made an arguing topic out of it, when they had a problem with the iPad. Apple is getting tired that Adobe is talking bad about them. That’s why Steve Jobs noted his ‘Thoughts on Flash’ and published them.

Finally, Steve got asked what he is replying to people wishing Flash support on the iPad. “We’re just trying to make great products. We don’t think Flash makes a great product, so we’re leaving it out. Instead, we’re going to focus on technologies that are in ascendancy. If we succeed, people will buy them and if we don’t they won’t. And, so far, I have to say, people seem to be liking the iPad. We are selling an iPad every 3 seconds.”

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Former Windows Live Boss becomes Yahoo! Chief Product Officer

Klaus Neumann — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 16:46:56 +0000

The former Windows Live Platform Group Corporate Vice President, Blake Irving, has started working for Yahoo. He will be responsible for Product Development.

In 2007, Irving had left Microsoft to spend some time with his family. Before, he had been working for Microsoft for 15 years in total, finally being responsible for Windows Live Services. Among others, Irving was responsible for Microsoft’s e-mail, blogging, messaging and VoIP services. At Yahoo, he is working directly for the Corporate President Carol Bartz.

According to his own statement, Irving starts working for Yahoo on 17 May. “I’m thrilled to be sharing my experiences and background with the world class people at Yahoo! (…) to make Yahoo! even more central to daily online life than it has been over the past decade and a half,” he wrote in Yahoo!’s Corporate Blog.

The 2009 Summary: The Top Ten Posts

Klaus Neumann — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 12:33:33 +0000

Welcome to 2010! The last year has been filled with many Messenger error codes. Do you want to have a look at the Top Ten list of most-visited posts in this blog?

Messenger problems: Resolving sign-in error 80072ef3 (24 July)
Plus!Patch 2.0.1 Beta for Messenger 2009: the first Patch Skin (11 January)
Messenger problems: Solving Messenger error code 81000306 at sign-in (14 July)
Phasing out Windows Live Messenger 8.1, 8.5 and 2009 QFE1 (28 August)
Messenger problems: How to solve error code 8e5e0713 (21 July)
Free e-book: Visual Basic 2008 Express Edition – Build a program now! (19 April)
Messenger problems: Sign-in errors 80072ee2 and 80072efd and their solution (23 July)
OneCare and Windows 7 (30 March)
Still on Messenger 8.5? You need to upgrade now. (6 November)
How-to: Minimize Messenger to the system notification area in Windows 7 (14 May)

As this list shows, Messenger users have experienced various error codes and couldn’t fix them on their own. Of big concern was the upgrade to Windows 7, with OneCare not working and Messenger changing its minimize mode.

Will Windows Live Messenger 2010, currently in development, be more compatible with the users?

2009’s Real-Time vs. 2010’s Cloud Computing

Greg Sampson — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 13:21:25 +0000

Throughout 2009, many interesting virtual technological advancements have emerged, taken into account the celebrated growth of one of the most popular social networks, Facebook.

Social Networks have existed ever since the beginning of the decade, varying from social blogging portals, such as Windows Live Spaces, to video-hosting networks, such as YouTube, to mere social networks, such as Hi5, Bebo, MySpace, and most importantly, Facebook.

Throughout the many years that this decade delimited, several social networks emerged, each for its significant purpose. Amongst them was the well-known social network, MySpace, which leapt in popularity for its ability to integrate all the social networking structures under one site. For a start, MySpace seemed to be a quite neat site, as it provided the many capabilities one could use to customise his or her profile. However, many users started abusing these capabilities by displaying their profiles with abysmal colours that simply hurt the eyes. Additionally, filling their profiles with automatically played garish music that causes you to bounce out of your chair owing to shock.

A couple of years later, Facebook gained popularity as of a well-presented, well-organised feature set. As Facebook proceeded to grow in popularity, it began introducing APIs for third-party applications to assimilate, enhanced privacy settings to tinker with, and further enhancements to stay connected in “real-time.” Wait! Did I just say “real-time”? Well, yes. That is why Twitter has been in the centre of attention for this year, as the service it provides promises to deliver real-time messages from one end-point to the other. However, Facebook and Twitter are not the only “real-time” contingent social networks on the web, as Google Wave promises to exhibit “real-time” emphasis on a web-based service intended to unite social networking, instant messaging, and e-mail delivery.

Speaking of “real-time,” Google has recently introduced its “Cloud Computing” concept, where through Google’s new Chrome OS, users will be able to store their data online (in the cloud) so to be accessed anytime, anywhere, it will make use of Google Docs, Google Calendar, Google Weather, Google Calculator, and all the plentiful services Google has to offer. Therefore, users will no longer be as dependable on physical storage media, as all their files would be stored virtually, on the web. On the other hand, Microsoft is introducing a breakthrough innovation to application development—this innovation is known as Windows Azure—an Operating System solely designed to allow developers to provide users with “Cloud Computing” technology and products to use, on the fly.

“Real-time” was the keyword for this year, 2009, as social networks have been dragging it further with real-time improvements and enhancements to the way we share and connect. However, as I see it, 2010’s new keyword would be “cloud computing,” where users store and maintain their data online to access them wherever they are, securely and easily.

May you have an exceptional New Year!

Upcoming project releases at mynetx Creations

Klaus Neumann — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 15:57:17 +0000

I thought it was about time to let you know what I am currently working on. While you can find the complete list at the Projects page, here is a summary of the most interesting bits.

MPLCode

A Messenger Plus! script for sending/receiving programming codes formatted instead of plain-text.

WLMStatus

Allows to display your current Messenger status on a website or forum signature. Several people have notified us of permanent error messages like “Failed to validate download signature,” and the next update will fix this. Also stay tuned for the next server release, which will introduce Messenger Plus! format codes parsing and correct emoticons placing on the images.

Plus! VRT Radiospeler

If you are living in Belgium, this is going to be interesting for you: listen not only to all radio programs broadcast by the VRT, as the upcoming update adds on-demand stations for even more radio fun in Messenger. Get more info about this from Bram Lancsweert.

Skinning work

I am currently working on updates for 3 Messenger skins, including Apple Live Messenger, stormless Messenger and Plus!Patch. Pending any surfacing news about the next version of Messenger, I will release these updates as soon as I finished coding support for Messenger 2009.

Twitter2PSM

Everybody knows Twitter these days, and I have plans to add OAuth support to the next version of Twitter2PSM. What should I add as well? Leave a comment or tweet and we’ll see.

Oh, before I forget: I will change the script name, but am too lazy to think of a new name. The easier way: I ask you! Think about a new, unique name for Twitter2PSM (that does not include the word “Twitter”). If I take the name you suggested, you win $10 USD!

mynetx.net

I don’t want to mention too much in beforehand, but: I will create a corporate site for mynetx Creations. The URL mynetx.net will not redirect to blog.mynetx.net anymore, but there will be a prominent link to it instead. The site contents? Well, that’s a surprise!

Oh, and my secret drawer…

Yes, I have some stuffs in my secret drawer too. When I pull them out, I will tell you. I also started cooperations with some very cool sites, but it’s just too early to talk about those.

Questions? Suggestions? Begging? Tips?

Leave a reply, tweet me, poke me, ping me, contact me however you like to!

Thank you, mates!

Klaus Neumann — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 10:00:18 +0000

It has been one year since I started this blog. Many things have changed, but one thing has stayed: it is you visitors, you readers, that make this blog living. I would never have assumed that this blog would get over 50,000 visitors in just one year, with more than 130,000 page views, and PageRank 3. Thank you for one year loyalty!

For nostalgic reasons, I have reactivated the original blog theme. Here is what it looked like:

When I looked at the theme today, I got some ideas for the current theme as well, so stay tuned!
Up and on to the next year of watching Windows Live, enhancing Messenger, chatting with friends—just mynetx: Windows Live Enhanced.

Summer in the city

Klaus Neumann — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 06:00:50 +0000

These days, with increasing temperatures, we had some severe thunderstorms already. Rain, clouds and sunshine are all facets of the upcoming summer, a time of less work, more free time, enjoyment, … fun. The last days and weeks, we started preparing for this year’s summer vacations, and Windows played a quite big role in it. How so?

Well, using online map services like Bing Maps is really fun, especially when there is Bird’s Eye view of the location you are interested in. We visited our home town virtually and were simply amazed at the accuracy and level of details you can see in those photos.

When we had checked out locations, we thought about how to get there. How good that you can check trains and their timetables online! We just entered our departure and arrival locations, date, number of people, hit ‘Submit’—and instantly got our train connections. Then it was only a matter of seconds to hit ‘Print’ and get some tiny PDF files containing the site, using a PDF printer.

After our vacation, we will probably plug in the SD card of our digital camera and let Windows Live Photo Gallery do the rest.

Long story short—what would we do without our computer? It has become part of our daily life.

What are your plans for the summer? I’m curious.

Love Coldplay? Get new Live album “LeftRightLeftRightLeft” for free!

Klaus Neumann — Sun, 17 May 2009 10:35:12 +0000

“Playing live is what we love. This album is a thank you to our fans—the people who give us a reason to do it and make it happen,” says Coldplay. Do you love Coldplay? Check out “LeftRightLeftRightLeft”, the album that the band is giving out to every visitor of the remaining concerts on the Viva La Vida Tour.

The Live album features the following 9 tracks:

I. Glass of Water
II. 42
III. Clocks
IV. Strawberry Swing
V. Hardest Part / Postcards from far Away
VI. Viva La Vida
VII. Death Will Never Conquer
VIII. Fix You
IX. Death And All His Friends

Grab your free copy—now!
Free Download: Coldplay—LeftRightLeftRightLeft (152 downloads)

Thank you Bram Lancsweert for the hint!

Changing clothes

Klaus Neumann — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 17:52:57 +0000

Since yesterday, my blog has a new theme, designed by Picturepan2 (owner of LiveSino.net). I hope you enjoy the design as much as I do… Tell me your opinion about it. I also changed the blog tagline from “Messenger news, Windows tips, and more” to “Windows Live Enhanced”.

If you’re interested in using Theme “Codename H” as well, just have a go – it’s free!

Update: Expect special day themes to come up now and then. The first one is the “Love” theme, available on Valentine’s Day, Feb 14.

Dark forces around an intelligent guy?

Klaus Neumann — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 14:25:16 +0000

In its issue of January 29, 2009, The Guardian has published a controversial, even critical essay on Patchou, the creator of Messenger Plus!. I found it worth reading, however decide yourself.

The adware altercation

Software developer Patchou provokes fierce opinions in cyberspace. His army of fans think he’s a genius; critics say he has sold his soul for profit.

Cyril Paciullo (aka Patchou), who created Messenger Plus! Live

To some in the downtrodden kingdom of the geek, he is a messiah. To others, he is the devil incarnate. No one, it seems, divides opinion among the tribes of of cyberspace quite like Patchou. The software creator, real name Cyril Paciullo, is the man behind Messenger Plus! Live – which, he claims, has been downloaded 60m times and is particularly popular among teenagers. An updated version is due out at the end of this month; the forum on his site boasts 80,000 members.

Patchou’s creation is an add-on to Microsoft’s hugely popular Windows Live Messenger, or MSN, the instant messaging and social networking program used by 17.5 million people in Britain alone. Patchou’s software adds dozens of extra features, such as custom sounds, colours, clever ways to manage contacts and, for the uber-geeky, the ability to program your own tweaks.

And for that Patchou’s grateful young disciples sing his praises in thousands of web forums and chatrooms. “You rock,” they gush. Such is their adulation that one admirer boasts of making a 100mph dash to Disneyland just to spend a few minutes in Patchou’s company. The acolyte proclaims: “It was really cool to meet Patchou, he’s awesome.”

But this is a man who has also outraged millions. His sin? A Faustian pact with dark forces responsible for distributing adware, those pop-up windows that torture PC users the world over. Messenger Plus! Live comes bundled with a “sponsor’s program”, which the unwary install unwittingly on their machines. They are then subjected to messages urging them to buy insurance, take out credit cards, play poker or download ringtones. To his opponents this breaks a sacred code of geek ethics and the two sides engage in furious online debates. Supporters say Patchou has provided a brilliant piece of software free to millions of people and the adware is harmless; critics call him “a scam artist making money off gullible young Live Messenger users”.

Devil in the detail

In the middle of this maelstrom sits Microsoft, which appears to have been impressed by Patchou’s work. In 2006, the software giant was moved to honour him with a Most Valuable Professional award – but the howls of protest about his links to adware led the company to withdraw it. Although the dust has settled and the adware is easier to spot and remove, online forums remain littered with the pitiful pleas of the infected driven to distraction by the unslayable sponsor program.

So who is this demi-god/devil? In fact, he is a French-born, self-confessed geek and Star Trek aficionado living in Montreal, Canada. Even his harshest critics admire his skill and industry. After all, he’s been at it since he was 14, when he first got a computer and started dabbling with programming. “I’ve always been passionate about computers,” he says.

Messenger Plus! Live started eight years ago; it’s now a full-time job.

“Back then, I was working on it part-time, during the night, while working as a software developer for a company during the day. The popularity of the software was growing so I decided it was time to do the jump.”

Much of the success is down to attention to detail, the 27-year-old insists.

“Thousands of programs are created and put online every day. Unfortunately, a majority of them are never ‘finished’, never polished. If you do something, do it well,” he says. “I now have around 60 million active users and a lot of people working for me, directly or not. About 50 people are working to translate each new version of the software into 21 different languages and 100 more give a hand for the beta tests. You have the official helpers on the main forums and people on various websites doing the promotion of the add-on.

In a given month I may be working only 20 hours a week and the following month, I’ll get up only to put myself in front of my computer screens until I go to sleep 16 hours later. The good news is I have a very nice and forgiving girlfriend.”

And he doesn’t find it easy coping with the worldwide adulation.

“Software developers tend to be geeks and, yes, geeks tend to be shy,” he says. “Still, I’ve always enjoyed our gatherings, what we call Plus! Meetings, quite a lot. It’s a nice feeling to see many people coming from many different countries and who have never met before have some fun together, speak in real life. The software is just a pretext to socialise. It’s good to see people from time to time when you spend your days and nights in front of a screen.”

The devotion surprises his critics. Another Microsoft MVP award holder, the internet security campaigner Chris Boyd, who spoke out against Patchou in 2006, says he was taken aback by the amount of vitriol poured in his direction by the software designer’s youthful army of fans. Boyd acknowledges some of Patchou’s changes have helped soothe some, if not all, of the critics, but adds: “It’s a very peculiar business model.”

There are perhaps a dozen other Live Messenger add-ons available, although none of them have Patchou’s audience. MessengerDiscovery, started four years ago by the New Zealand-based software developer Matt Holwood, adds 150 features to Live Messenger, has racked up millions of users and has a forum with more than 8,000 members. Like Patchou, it started as a part-time project but has also become a full-time job, paid for by more traditional ads on his website.

But Holwood, 21, is scathing about Patchou’s use of adware. He says:

“Personally, I think it’s wrong and greedy. You have a moral obligation not to get greedy and infect such a large amount of unsuspecting people with malware. I’m sure he lives a very luxurious lifestyle but you have to look at the big picture. Developers should fight against that sort of trash rather than distribute it. He could live very well simply from the advertising on the website. I do, and he has seven times the visitors.”

Not into temptation

In Holland, another 21-year-old, Frans-Willem Hardijzer, known as The Blasphemer, has been running StuffPlug for the past five years. He also uses ads on his site to to fund his program, which has about 250,000 users. Although he has had to fit his project around his school and university studies, and now a full-time job, he also refuses to be tempted by adware.

“Apart from the server to host the website, there isn’t that much cost to keep it running,” says Hardijzer. “In the past I’ve made enough money through the Google AdSense program to live pretty comfortably as a student. I’ve considered selling out but I simply don’t like the idea of bundling mal/spy/adware with my program like [Patchou] does. People trust me to give them quality software and I don’t like abusing that trust.”

Adware is undoubtedly profitable. Because it inhabits a murky corner of the internet linked to more malevolent forms of computer infection, no one knows exactly how much money it generates, although estimates of up to $2bn (£1.4bn) a year are bandied about. Distributors pay those who help get their software on to them a few cents each time their adware is installed or, more rarely, each time a pop-up ad is clicked.

One notorious US adware company netted a reported $149 million in four years. Another, which was eventually brought to book by US regulators, raked in a reported $80million in three years.

Messenger Plus! is connected to a little-known company called Circle Development Ltd – which appears to be based in the Ukraine – also known as C2Media or CiD, and linked to the website Lop.com.

Installing belief

For people like Patchou there is plenty of potential to get rich. Challenged in forums by claims that at 6 cents an install, with 800,000 downloads a month, he could potentially net $48,000 (£34,000) a month, he responded:

“In case there would be some doubts, I’m still not paid by install. And so you know, C2Media doesn’t give 6 cents per install for the kind of package I have. For the record: I’m being paid by searches (and only for some of them), so I wouldn’t win a cent even if a billion users installed my sponsor tomorrow. C2Media (lop.com) is probably one of the best adware companies on the market today and that’s exactly why I continue to do my business with them: because they can be trusted.”

Graham Cluley, a senior technology consultant at Sophos, says adware is a “huge business” and some “very well-known companies” were trying to exploit the fact no one really considers what they are installing on their PCs .

“If you are a youngster, then you just press the button until the thing you want is installed,” he says. “You agree to the terms and conditions, so it’s legal. It’s human nature not to read the terms and conditions.” At best, he adds, adware is a nuisance. At worst, it can be bad for online business. “It’s not the way you want to behave on the internet. It does inflame the internet community.”

For all that, Paciullo is unrepentant.

“People who accuse me generally do not understand – or accept – that software development is not something you can finance easily these days. People don’t tend to buy software, they just download it. The idea behind an optional sponsor program is to offer a way to support the work while offering at the same time a product that’s completely free of any obligation.”

He says he may adopt the same approach for future software launches.

“It’s a win-win situation that works out pretty well.”

—Ian Pickering, The Guardian

What do you think? Adware? Malware? Software? Cool-ware? Curious to read your opinion .

Memory on Fire[fox]

Klaus Neumann — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 14:32:51 +0000

The other day I was wondering why my computer got unusually slow. When I opened the task manager and looked through the entries there, I saw what the reason was. Have a look yourself:

Obviously Firefox ate a quite big amount of my RAM, making Windows behave sleepy. I had thought that the Mozilla developers had improved the Firefox memory usage in the Firefox 3 series?!

What are your experiences with browser memory usage?

2008: A Retrospective

Klaus Neumann — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 19:03:00 +0000

What was 2008 like for me? Read a summary.

1 WLMStatus software name
1 WLMStatus Premium version
6 additional WLMStatus translations
6 updated WLMStatus client versions
1 Skinning Contest winner: stormless Messenger
3 server moves
2 server crashes
2 Messenger betas
1 Messenger Release Candidate
12 Messenger Plus! private betas
3 Messenger Plus! finals
1 Messenger Plus! public beta
14 web messenger ideas
1 new Windows Live ID
243 MB chat logs of this Live ID
1075 chat log files
75 MB private chat logs of a different Live ID
178 MB Received Files – without the ones I already deleted
1 new OS for me
1 mynetx blog
41 posts about Messenger
1 mynetx art blog
1 crush, rediscovered as a true friend.

What was your 2008 like? I’m curious…

Wanted: Logo for a new Web Messenger!

Klaus Neumann — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 19:58:17 +0000

See your creation become the logo of a popular web service!
Without publishing too much details: I am looking for a logo for a new Web Messenger.
You think you can create such a logo? Start over, and show me your creation!
What do you get from it? The designer of the winning logo will get invited to Beta testing of the project and will be credited in an appropriate way, and his logo becomes the logo of the service. Additionally, I can offer you a free 6-months subscription for WLMStatus Premium!
Need more details? Sure. Just read the following Contest Rules.

Anybody aged 13 or upwards is able to enter the contest.
The contest starts on Saturday, November 8, 2008, at 12:00:00 AM GMT, and ends on Friday, November 21, 2008, at 11:59:59 PM GMT.
Any logo matching the criteria below is entering the contest.
Each author may present up to 2 (two) creations.
The following logo criteria apply:
- The logo must not contain any text.
- The logo must be submitted in image format PNG, with Transparency Channel (PNG32).
- The logo must have a minimum size of 256 x 256 pixels. The bigger, the better.
- The logo canvas must be squared.
- It must be well to recognize even when scaled down to 16 x 16 pixels.
Only logos with a professional look will be considered to enter the final round (see below). No rules except for this one are being made in regards of the contents or style of the logo. Be creative.
You may not create logos that could create an outward impression to be a simple modification of an existing, copyright-protected logo, such as the Windows Live Messenger logo, and as such result in a copyright infringement if used.
You may choose to add a text design template matching your logo. If you supply such text design, you will be asked to set the project name in this design, if you should win. Use „Messidog“ as demo text string (this is not the project name). Do not integrate the text into the logo, but keep the two separate. Adding a text design is not necessary to enter the contest with your design.
Submit your creation by replying to the contest thread at msghelp.net, the Official Messenger Plus! Live Community Forums, and attaching your creation. Please respect the forum guidelines for large images and use a linked thumbnail preview, or refer to an external image hosting service like TinyPic or ImageShack.
After the contest has ended, I will pick the 5 best logos from all considered submissions (refer also to Rule 6), and these 5 logos will be published for a public vote.
The logo with the most votes wins.
The designer of the winning logo will get invited to Beta testing of the project and will be credited in an appropriate way, and his logo becomes the logo of the service. Additionally, I can offer you a free 6-months subscription for WLMStatus Premium!

Now be creative and show me your ideas and creations!

The one and first

Klaus Neumann — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 19:33:25 +0000

“Hello there.”

Yes, that’s likely to be the only thing I want to tell you, reading this first post. But don’t wonder: there is more interesting stuff to come than these lines.

So, keep checking back soon…

mynetx

By the way: there is already some stuff on the “About me” page.

No related posts.