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 Updated: Universal Jnrzloader (take two)
Updated: Universal Jnrzloader (take two)

dwergs says ( 25 Feb 2005 ):

 

Droopy from Argentina informed me that another update of Universal Jnrzloader was issued just this week. Version 1.01 fixes a recently discovered Windows 98/ME bug and loading without the graphical interface should be easier now. Just create a shortcut for Universal JnrzLoader and Modify its properties. Now all you have to do is append -MSN for MSN Messenger or -WIN for Windows Messenger (in uppercase please).

For instance, if you've unzipped Universal Jnrzloader into your C-root directory, C:\jnrzloader.exe -MSN will load current MSN Messenger installed on your system. And C:\MSNLoader.exe -c:\ExePath.exe will load the executable given.

>> Download Universal Jnrzloader for polygamy & logging in offline with probably all versions of Messenger.



 The new MSN Today, today!
The new MSN Today, today!

dwergs says ( 25 Feb 2005 ):

 

Like we've told you before, the MSN Today mini-site that appears when you sign into MSN Messenger is receiving a makeover and today it's supposed to make its début in the US and Canada. Other countries around the world will follow in phases two and three.

Not blurry but dead sharp is the new screenshot we got for you this time. First thing you'll notice are three tabs:

- The familiar MSN Today tab with external links to the wide range of MSN services (eg. Shopping, Careers & Jobs, etc.)
- MSNBC News, with continually updated fresh news from your country.
- A Hotmail tab, showing up to 10 new messages. Read or compose an e-mail, or get to your Inbox with a single click.

The tab you leave open when you go offline will be remembered as your preferred page and will always show first when you come back.

Under MSN Search and today's weather forecast specifically for the user's region, you'll also notice the MSN Messenger info is now more prominent than before. MSN describes this space as "Tips of the day, new features and other cool things to do." But we all know you got another resource for that kind of stuff, right?

>> Take a Tour and discover the new MSN Today.

>> FAQ: Can I stop the MSN Today popup.

[Reported by: Ben B]



 Inside Messenger puts Amazon inside Messenger
Inside Messenger puts Amazon inside Messenger

dwergs says ( 25 Feb 2005 ):

 

UK-based Instant Messaging solutions developer, Inside C, has developed an e-commerce (or is that IM-commerce?) bot for the .NET Messenger Service. Inside Messenger will allow users to search through Amazon.com's large product database directly from MSN, Windows or Web Messenger. The final version is to be rolled out in April along with a banner-marketing campaign on MSN.co.uk.

After a simple registration procedure, users can add Inside Messenger to their contact lists and start browsing Amazon.com by giving the fully automated Messenger contact specific commands that are explained through menus. The use and navigation is nothing different to the -often more advanced- bots that previously made it to the Mess.be news.

According to Inside C's Riaan van Schoor, who gets all referral fees for products sold through the bot, the search-to-sale conversion ratio was 22.8% during last year's beta-testing period. That's an impressive result, given the fact that the shopping experience is completely text-based. The customer is not forced outside the Messenger conversation window until checking out.

Since January, Amazon's E-Commerce Service (ECS) lets developers innovate and generate revenue from websites and applications (like MSN Messenger bots) that serve customers and sellers on all six Amazon-branded sites worldwide.

>> Register and use Inside Messenger.



 Bropia: Yet another cause for concern...
Bropia: Yet another cause for concern...

Zero1 says ( 24 Feb 2005 ):

 

You may have read in an earlier post about the many different versions of the Bropia virus travelling through MSN Messenger, well now there is possibly another. This 'variant' plays on peoples concerns about Bropia by sending this message to all online contacts:

*** URGENT *** Download the latest patch from http://msnupdate.**.com/ to prevent getting infected by W32.Bropia.C.

Do not download any files off this site, as they all contain viruses. If you believe anyone you know is infected by the virus (check earlier posts for telltale signs) advise them to update their virus scanners or at least run the Bropia Removal Tool.

[Reported by: Segosa, Drowning, Grant]



 Microsoft Slips a Plug in a Patch
Microsoft Slips a Plug in a Patch

dwergs says ( 24 Feb 2005 ):

 

Looks like Microsoft tried to get a little benefit for itself when it repaired a serious security flaw. At least that is how BusinessWeek's Stephen H. Wildstrom looks at it.

"As of February 11th, users who had not updated their copies of the vulnerable MSN Messenger 6.2 software were blocked from logging on to the service. Because of the nature of the vulnerability this was the right action to take.

However, Microsoft went a bit further than was strictly necessary. During the course of installing of the update, [as is usually the case with an installation of MSN Messenger since v6.0] the user is offered several options unrelated to security, one of which is "Make MSN My Home Page." It is checked by default. So if you don't pay close attention -- and you should always pay close attention to these options when doing any sort of installation -- the next time you start Internet Explorer, your home page will have changed. This is perilously close to the browser hijacking that's a characteristic of many spyware programs.
"

Wildstrom thinks Microsoft should be ashamed of itself for trying to turn its own security flaw to its commercial gain: "There's no reason to believe that customers installing a mandatory security fix also want to change their browser home page to an MSN portal, and there's even less excuse for trying to spring a change on the unwary."

[Source: BusinessWeek]



 Hotmail access for Outlook and Outlook Express continued
Hotmail access for Outlook and Outlook Express continued

dwergs says ( 24 Feb 2005 ):

 

Last year, MSN announced that in order to improve customer experience and reduce spam and junk e-mail abuse, Hotmail will no longer allow e-mail accounts to be accessed via Microsoft Office Outlook and Outlook Express.

Existing customers however, regardless the fact they're already making use of the feature or not, are exempt from this restriction and will be able to continue enjoying access to those accounts from Outlook or Outlook Express. It's only NEW Hotmail or MSN accounts that will not be accessible via Microsoft's e-mail clients.

Talking about Hotmail, don't be surprised when you get a "Server Too Busy" message when browsing through your Inbox. Apparently, certain "bays" are having issues.

[Reported by: Kangie & EvilSeph]



 MSN Messenger Keyboard Shortcuts
MSN Messenger Keyboard Shortcuts

dwergs says ( 23 Feb 2005 ):

 

With permission of Daniel, I've added a list of keyboard shortcuts you can use in the MSN Messenger contact list window.

A keyboard shortcut list for the conversation window will follow.

>> List of MSN Messenger Keyboard Shortcuts (main window).



 New Bropia variants on the loose, end of alphabet in sight
New Bropia variants on the loose, end of alphabet in sight

dwergs says ( 23 Feb 2005 ):

 

L, M, N, O, P to the motherf**ing Q.

Bropia cloners are no slackers. Ooh, and just while I was typing this, there's R already!

In February, global leader in information security, Symantec, has detected six more Bropia worms. From infected machines, this worm sends a copy of itself to any MSN Messenger contact whose status changes. Symptoms vary from audio levels set to zero, disabled keyboard and mouse input, over being unable to log into MSN Messenger, to terminated antivirus and firewall processes. Here's a quick overview of the new batch:

bropia l msn messenger worm sexy.jpgW32.Bropia.L distracts you with an exotic babe (sexy.jpg), but in the background it tries to shelter the vulnerability-exploiting W32.Spybot.Worm as updates.exe. L is also the one that completely silences your system's audio.

Just as annoying is W32.Bropia.M, which attempts to swap the left and right mouse buttons. Har-har. This variant presents itself with filenames such as: Beautiful Ass.pif, John Kerry as Super Chicken.scr, Kool.pif, Me & you pic!.pif, Me Pissed!.pif, sexy.pif, She Could Fit her Ass in a Teacup.pif, she's fuckin fit.pif and titanic2.jpg.pif. We can't stress enough that files with the .pif extension do NOT contain images, but execute system commands.

W32.Bropia.N (also labeled O by many other antivirus companies) compromises your security settings by terminating antivirus and firewall processes in order to finally exploit as much vulnerabilities as possible. It tries to propagate not only via MSN Messenger but also to computers on the network.

bropia p msn messenger worm pic.jpgAnother W32.Spybot.Worm dropper is W32.Bropia.P. Instant messages like # CHECK THIS LOL!, CUSTOM, Huge Turd hahaah!, LOOK!, nice!, ownage! and even paris hilton got hacked!!, are followed by a link to the members.chello.nl domain. You know you're infected when you see a more elaborate version of the pic.jpg to the left, but chances are low you'll see more of her because the ISP owning that domain was informed about the threat. UPDATE: A pervy Messer informed us that the girl on the picture is called Kate.

Another worm linking to a .nl domain is W32.Bropia.Q. Does that mean a lot of Bropia-creators reside in The Netherlands? Q may disable keyboard and mouse input and even restrain you from signing into MSN Messenger. Now isn't that the most horrible? ;)

bropia r msn messenger worm img.jpg"If you're not sexy, you have to be funny", is what the creator of W32.Bropia.R must've thought. No naked women pictured in the attached img.jpg but a moderately funny cartoon. You won't laugh though, when W32.Spybot.Worm is having a go on your system.

The end of the alphabet is in sight so let's get it over with guys. We'll kindly await Bropia.S, T, U, V, W, X, Y and then let's knock it off with Bropia.Z, ok?

>> Download Symantec's Bropia Removal Tool for W32.Bropia, W32.Bropia.J, W32.Bropia.N and W32.Bropia.P.



 I hacked Paris Hilton's phone!
I hacked Paris Hilton's phone!

dwergs says ( 22 Feb 2005 ):

 

Like many entertainment sites have already reported, "missfortunate-of-the-year" Paris Hilton's Sidekick phone has been hacked, revealing her address book (private phone numbers and email addresses of Eminem, Lindsay Lohan and Anna Kournikova... anyone?), text messages and camphone pics.

So... Did YOU do it?

i hacked paris hilton>> Browse 11 I Hacked Paris Hilton MSN Display Pictures.

>> Download CustoMess for MSN Messenger 7 and import them instantly!

>> Get CustoMess for MSN Messenger 7 from Download.com.

>> Browse 66 regular Paris Hilton MSN Display Pictures.

>> Read more: Paris Hilton's Sidekick Hacked.



 Python, Perl and Unix: MSN Messenger Exotica
Python, Perl and Unix: MSN Messenger Exotica

dwergs says ( 22 Feb 2005 ):

 

Not for the rookies out there, here's various stuff that takes Messenger beyond the Windows platform:

msnp.py is an implementation of the MSN Instant Messaging protocol in the Python programming language. With this package, it's extremely easy, quick, and efficient to build applications that need to interact with the MSN Messaging Service.

>> Download msn.py by Manish Jethani


Need a Perl script to monitor MSN conversations? This script takes an interface name, an IP address and an MSN Messenger user name for input and returns logs of the conversations captured during the session. The script uses the Pcap library to capture and decode packets. Anyone familiar with Perl can find it very easy to customize the program.

>> Download Perl MSN Sniffer by primary0


TMSNC is an opensource, text-based MSN client written in C that should be able to run on all Unix-like operating systems (including RedHat Linux 9, OpenBSD/PowerPC 3.6, MacOS X 10.3.8 (Panther), etc.).

>> Download TMSNC v0.2.0b by Jonas Broms.



 New in CustoMess: Mr. Fart's Artist Showcase
New in CustoMess: Mr. Fart's Artist Showcase

dwergs says ( 21 Feb 2005 ):

 

mr fart display picsFeatured in the second Mess.be Artist Showcase back in 2003 already, was the young, talented and -last but not least- Belgian imagevirtuoso Floris, also known as Mr. Fart. As a pro Floris is busy with freelance illustration, animation and webdesign, but he is most famous for his cute and chubby comic drawings. Mr. Fart's comic called The Professor got published Dutch and Belgian magazines, with his drawings he won the Gamespy Planet Wolfenstein competition... twice, and almost all of you have seen at least one of his creations: the world-famous Messer mascotte.

His big ambition is to make a full-size comic album, but in the meantime he delivered -exclusively for our artist showcase- 65 superlovely MSN Display Pictures based on the adorable characters from his past work.

Soldiers, monsters, robots, supermen and superwomen: the whole enchilada is now available through our free CustoMess software for easy instant importing into MSN Messenger 7.

>> Download CustoMess for MSN Messenger 7 to import hundreds of MSN Emoticons, MSN Display Pictures, MSN Fonts and MSN Backgrounds quickly and at no cost.

>> Visit Mr. Fart's crazy homepage for a more complete overview of his previous and current work.



 Updated: Universal Jnrzloader
Updated: Universal Jnrzloader

dwergs says ( 21 Feb 2005 ):

 

Phew, I'm back after a wrecking weekend! No front page news for two days, but as usual I've done some work in the background (like a FAQ on why some contacts disappear from your contact list).

Now let's start the week with a small but well-advised update to Jnrz's Universal Jnrzloader. The utility now comes with separate Windows Messenger support and of course it still works with all versions of MSN Messenger (hence the "universal"). I have also received a report that the previous version was wrongfully considered virus-infected by one or another AV package. That shouldn't be the case anymore with this one.

Jnrzloader has always been one of my personal faves, allowing you to log into several Messenger clients at once (a.k.a. polygamy) starting in Appear Offline mode.

>> Download Universal Jnrzloader.

[Reported by: Dani]



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