Main/News >> News Archives > The week of April 01 (2007) (you are here)

MSN custom colors for your font! MSN Emoticons list overview! Find a Date for online chats! Quality Hosting specials for Messers! free msn games

 Watch your back while video chatting
Watch your back while video chatting

dwergs says ( 06 Apr 2007 ):

 

Here are two new Windows Live Messenger related ads by French marketing bureau heaven, starring (in order of appearance):

1. A Microsoft LifeCam VX-3000.
2. A May-Wa Denki Colon Knockman and May-Wa Denki Cha-Cha Knockman (inspect the desk carefully).
3. Looooooads of hyperactive Messenger buddies.
4. One of the best :-o expressions in history, performed by Clo Julie.

lifecam


>> Watch the ads: #1 - Les hommes en noir and #2 - Des buddies refont la déco.

>> UPDATE: Just found this "Making of..." photo set on Flickr.

[Source: heaven.fr] [Thanks to partner-in-crime Romain for the links]



 3 sets Windows Live Messenger free in Ireland
3 sets Windows Live Messenger free in Ireland

dwergs says ( 05 Apr 2007 ):

 

three windows live messengerMobile operator 3 is today launching Windows Live Messenger on its Irish network. The service will be free to its monthly (Pay Monthly) and prepay (3Pay) customers for up to 200 messages a day or 6,000 a month. In the UK, 3’s Windows Live Messenger offers has been around for a few months and sees two million messages sent every day. The service even won the Best Mobile Messaging Service award at the 3GSM Awards in Barcelona in February.

3’s head of marketing Susan Branchflower said that research shows that peak messaging time is from 11pm to 2am on the company’s network, "so being out on the town is no excuse for being offline."

Currently compatible handset are: LG U400, LG U830, LG U890, Motorola V3XX, Motorola C975, Motorola IZAR, Nokia 6280, Nokia 6288, Nokia 6680, Nokia N70, Nokia N73, Sony Ericsson K608i, Sony Ericsson K610i, Sony Ericsson K800i, Sony Ericsson W850i and Sony Ericsson Z610i.

For more information see here.

[Source: SiliconRepublic]



 Yahoo! Messenger vulnerability, take heed
Yahoo! Messenger vulnerability, take heed

dwergs says ( 05 Apr 2007 ):

 

Windows Live Messenger's buddying IM software, Yahoo! Messenger, was diagnosed with a vulnerability last year and it took its vendor until earlier this week to address the issue. Last October Peter Vreugdenhil discovered a buffer overflow vulnerability in an ActiveX control part of the audio conferencing feature, present in all Windows verions of Yahoo! Messenger 8 downloaded before March 13, 2007.

The vulnerability can be exploited via malicious HTML code on an attacker's website, which can cause you to log out of IM, crash running applications, etc. In spite of the interoperability between the two IM services, Windows Live Messenger is not affected by the security issue. But in case you installed Yahoo! Messenger -eg. to try sending messages back and forth between the two programs- we highly recommend upgrading to a current version via messenger.yahoo.com or uninstall the software completely.

>> Read the Zero Day Initiative advisory here.

>> Read Yahoo!'s official security update advisory here.



 IM session with Nicole
IM session with Nicole

Inky says ( 03 Apr 2007 ):

 

Nicole, a Microsoft employee and avid blogger on MessengerSays, is inviting Messers from all over the world to join her in a conversation on Windows Live Messenger!

The chat is taking place from 4 to 5 PM PST and you can join her by adding the email address messengerbloggers@hotmail.com to your contact list. Please note that she can only read and reply in English, and that some information (such as release dates and feature lists) cannot be shared.

After the IM "mix-up" Nicole will post a summary on the MessengerSays blog.

>> Read the announcement by Nicole (UPDATE: The summary's been posted as well).

>> Did you talk to Nicole? Did you find this useful? Did you have to stay up late? Leave your comments here.



 CarderIM, Instant Messaging for cybercriminals
CarderIM, Instant Messaging for cybercriminals

dwergs says ( 02 Apr 2007 ):

 

Never mind the occasional scriptkiddie on Windows Live Messenger, real hackers use CarderIM.

Cybercriminals have built their own "secret" IM program which allows them to exchange and sell information (mostly credit card details) in an encrypted and covert environment and via "offshore" servers. CarderIM's logo is an obvious parody of MasterCard's, and its name also refers to "carding", the practice of converting stolen credit-card details into cash or goods.

don't mess with the law, bill gates mugshotObviously, the software is hard to get (seriously, don't ask us for a copy) and distribution is limited, so if you're not part of an underground criminal network I suggest you stick to Windows Live Messenger for all illegal activities and just install the SimpLite encryption tool. Ok, you know I didn't really mean that but still use SimpLite with your contacts if you care about the privacy of your MSN/Windows Live Messenger conversations.

UPDATE: Well, well... According to an anonymous tipster CarderIM is in fact a trojan put together by Silo and distributed by so-called "agents" inside underground communities. An elite carder claims that this software is just a slight variation on CumbaRAT's VPN and thus far from a "secret" IM.

This is shady stuff beyond our focal point so we're not gonna follow it up any further.

[More information: PC Advisor]



 Internet Spelling Bee ends without winner
Internet Spelling Bee ends without winner

dwergs says ( 01 Apr 2007 ):

 

The Internet Spelling Bee pits middle school students who are active on Internet message boards and chat rooms in a spelling competition. Three hundred students entered, but none were able to make it past the first round.

"We started out with our regular list of words, but after about a hundred kids we could see we had to change," said event organizer Tom Spellings. "We then switched to common words like 'laugh' and 'stupid' but the kids still failed. Eventually, we limited ourselves to three-letter words but the kids still couldn't get one right."

The final student, Tyler Frenski, was asked to spell "the", but wrongly spelled it "t-e-h." Judges threw their hands in the air in disgust while a giggling Tyler exchanged high fives with his friends.

This hilarious/bleak story dates from last year, but I simply couldn't resist posting it. Maybe it's time for that built-in spelling checker after all? Unless we want to see "the" replaced by "teh" in the Oxford English Dictionary Edition 2010...



 Upgrading the Mess.be forum
Upgrading the Mess.be forum

dwergs says ( 01 Apr 2007 ):

 

Please stand by while we upgrade our forum software. This could take a few hours until everything is sorted. Thanks for your patience!

As you can see, our forum is back and the upgrade is 95% complete. Kudos to Zero1 for spending most of today working on this. Read his announcement to find out what's new, and leave praise or remarks here.



Click Here!

Back to the News Archives