Facebook want to launch an IM service. D-Day for MSN?
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According to TechCrunch, Facebook want to launch an instant messaging service, now I know that almost everyone I know is on Facebook, and as such the service has the potential to completely change my online social experience.
According to TechCrunch, the service will be embedded on the Facebook site and available as Jabber chat for programs that support it, like my personal favourite Adium but I happen to know everyone I’ve ever met has used Windows Live Messenger, and as we know that doesn’t support plugging in anything really.
So this could end up being as lame as GTalk (no friends on GMail), MySpace IM (Came too late and was Windows only), or it could be something new, revolutionary, and exciting. It will be interesting to see if people can cope with an instant messenger in the browser (since I doubt many people are going to know how to plug into its jabber capabilities).
We’ll see.
In other news AOL, who just bought social network of-two-years-ago Bebo.com have announced they want to integrate their Instant Messenger AIM into the service. In my opinion it’s a bit late to start invading Europe with your messaging service.
OS War: The votes are in… who won?
Thank you readers for voting in my little poll on the side there, today is the expiration date and I’m not likely to get many other votes…
What a surprise! I personally voted for Undecided/Other, as I don’t want to decide yet. However, even without my help, it seems there was a decisive victory for Mac OS X towards the end of the polling period, XP coming second and Linux and Undecided coming third.
Surprisingly no one opted for the next generation Windows ‘7′, the next major version of Windows, and unsurprisingly, none voted for the much maligned Vista.
Thanks for taking part!
So I finally got my graphics tablet working…
My graphics tablet, a Trust 1200 Wireless Tablet has been lying unused in my bedroom for about a year, I once had a dream of doing a grand web comic called Men N’ Bots, but my Windows PC was too crappy to handle my leet skills. So I got a mac, and low and behold, my tablet didn’t work. Well long story short, I put some batteries in, and found some compatible drivers (not by Trust) and it works like a charm, and it’s truly great.
So to get to the point, I’ve been doing some drawing, and here’s one I’d like to show you…
Click for larger.
It isn’t perfect, but yeah it was like my second try, and I sortof cheated on the face, if you call tracing cheating. But I still need to master the art of faces.
and yes… OK OK, I promise my next one will not be of Evangeline Lilly. I promise, gimme a break, geez.
Testing out Windows Live Writer
Now as you know, I’m a mac guy, but I thought over the winter, I might try out VMWare with XP, since Vista looks shit without its aero glass (oh and it’s getting the most awful rep from everyone who utters its name).
So I thought I might try out Windows Live Writer, it had been recomended on a podcast I listen to, and it’s incredibly cool looking, no ads like messenger, it’s got the wordpress logo seamlessly integrated into the design, and it’s just generally nice looking. Obviously this is my first post with it, so I don’t know if it will post yet, but hey, it looks nice.
Oh yeah, and you can change the colour! How awesome is that.
But as I said, I have a mac, I mean, do I really want to boot XP every time I have to express myself? No, I don’t but you know, it is pretty neat.
Drawing a PSP in Microsoft Paint
Microsoft Paint fascinates me and it is one thing that lacks from a mac, it’s not something I will ever particularly need but it’s simplicity is intriguing. In this video by graphic artist Randis Albion we can see he’s obviously very proficient at the program, it’s simply astonishing.
Back in black…
Well it’s time for me to say hello and apologise for abandoning LiveJournal for a little while, now I think I shall attempt to be a true blogger, and why not? it’s good for the soul, apparently.
My Weekend: I went on a march with my good friend Katie, we were marching to have nuclear power reinstated as we both passionately believe it is the energy source of the future… just kidding, I do, but she doesn’t. Well it was the climate march in central London, I would show you some pics but they havn’t been processed yet, yes I probably need a good digital camera if I am to be a true blogger, you’re right, but I will process them soon, and let you have a gander, promise.
I was very happy at the end of the march, because it turned out there was a gig afterwards, how exciting! KT Tunstall, and well 2 seconds of Razorlight for me, as myself and Katie had to hike (in some cases barefoot) back to land of dragons, southampton, nightmare.
Then on Sunday I went to the cinema with Freya (who may I add is delightful) and we went and saw Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan which is a documentary by a Kazakhstani journalist by the name of Borat Sagdiyev and his assistant Azamat Bagatov…
It’s Nice!
The film is widely misinterpreted as a comedy by some, who say that Borat is simply a creation of a comedian from England, but anyone who has been watching carefully will see that everything to do with Borat is desturbingly true. The racist underpinings of the film are widely seen in the east as not amusing, but frightening, where we might see comedy, in Kazakhstan they may see horror, Borat’s "crazy" attitude in the west may be amusing to some, but it is a desturbing view of the future to people like me, one day we will be flooded by many Borat clones, a nightmare world if I ever thought of one.
None the less this documentary, documenting Borat’s travels accross America in order to find a wife is well worth viewing, if only to see the attitudes prevalent in nations such as Kazakhstan and understand our worldly neighbours. Five Stars.
Up next movie fans: Casino Royale!
While I have been gone many things have happened, I got a laptop notebook in the form of a now defunct MacBook Pro…
(This is the new one but it looks almost exactly the same as mine)
(while it was still new, in August) and I’ve been playing around with it, now you must understand I absolutely hate the current iMac, urgh! So I’m put off of all Apple’s consumer line, so no MacBooks for me. But I love this, so easy to use, but I’ve currently clogged it up with Lost episodes, what I need is an external hard drive. Next on my wishlist is Windows Vista, which if you’ve seen pics of, actually looks really cool, it could almost put my mac to shame, for a screenshot look here and for those that are wondering, yes it is exactly like Mac OS 10.4 – with cooler looking windows, no dock and less security. Ace!
Ah but there’s always Mac OS 10.5 to look forward to… ok nerdyness over…
And I hope this brings about more bloggieness in the future! See ya then!