BigBlueBall Staffer Awarded Microsoft MVP

BigBlueBall staff member Doris Kenney–patndoris in the forums–has been officially recognized as a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) for Windows Live Messenger (WLM).

The Microsoft MVP Award is an annual award that recognizes exceptional technology community leaders worldwide who actively share their high quality, real world expertise with users and Microsoft.

Rich Kaplan, VP Customer and Partner Advocacy at Microsoft said “It is with great pride we announce that Doris Kenney has been awarded as a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP). All of us at Microsoft recognize and appreciate Doris’s extraordinary contributions and want to take this opportunity to share our appreciation with you.

“As a recipient of this year’s Microsoft MVP award, Doris joins an exceptional group of individuals from around the world who have demonstrated a willingness to reach out, share their technical expertise with others and help individuals maximize their use of technology.”

Of course, we at BigBlueBall are especially proud of this honor, but we are not surprised. Doris has been actively involved in our forums for a long time, sharing her expertise and helping people every day.

Congratulations, Doris!

Related Links

• Doris Kenney’s MVP profile

Avoid Phishing Worms on WLM

Thank you to Jonathan Kay for giving his permission to repost his full blog entry from MessengerGeek on Live Spaces here for our BigBlueBall members. This is valuable information of which every WLM user should be aware. This is a wonderful explanation of what to watch out for, and what to do if you think you’ve been compromised.

As the most used instant messaging service in the world, it’s become more and more common to find your contacts sending out virus, spam and worm links through Messenger. There’s a lot of different types and different steps for removal, but the one most recently affecting people is a “phishing worm”. Read more

Digsby

Digsby is a multi-protocol instant messaging program that adds social networking and email notification integration. Digsby’s IM support is extensive. Digsby connects to AIM, WLM (MSN), Yahoo, ICQ, Google Talk, Jabber and Facebook Chat.

Social network support includes Facebook, Myspace, Twitter and LinkedIn, giving you the ability to update your status and get live updates from your contacts.

And Digsby gives you email notifications for Gmail, Yahoo Mail, Hotmail, AOL, IMAP and POP3 mail accounts. If you need to connect to multiple networks, Digsby is worth a closer look.

Background

Digsby began as Steve Shapiro’s school project as he worked on his MBA at Rochester Institute of Technology. The project grew to a team of developers, now operating as dotSyntax LLC. After two years of development, Digsby was first released in a private beta in February 2008, and to the public in March 2008. Since that time, Digsby has quickly grown to become one of the most popular multi-protocol IM programs on Windows.

Customization

One of Digsby’s great features is the ability to personalize the look. You can create or download new skins to change the entire look of Digsby.  You can switch the chat theme, load custom emoticon and sound sets.

Requirements

Currently Digsby is only available on Windows (XP or Vista), but Mac OS X and Linux versions have been promised.

Installation Notes

In late 2008, the Digsby installer was changed to include a number of “utilities” of dubious value. Most of these additional utilities are adware supported. Installation of these additional programs is fortunately optional, but be cautious to read each installation screen carefully and choose decline for these “extras.”

Useful Links

• Digsby – official site
• Digsby Blog – official Digsby company blog
• Digsby Forums – official Digsby support forums
• Digsbies.org – fan site with a feature wish list, skins, conversation themes, emoticon  and sound sets
• irc://irc.freenode.net/digsby – IRC chat with the digsbies; frequented by the developers
• Digsby Widget – embed this on your blog and visitors can chat directly with you

Windows Live Messenger (WLM)

Windows Live Messenger (WLM; formerly MSN Messenger) is the fastest growing instant messaging program, and currently ranks #2 behind AIM/ICQ. Regardless of what you think of Microsoft, WLM has one the best interfaces and is very easy to use. The design of WLM is clean and extremely functional. No, not perfect, but a very well-designed application.

 

Useful Links

• Download Windows Live Messenger
• Get help! Windows Live Messenger forums at BigBlueBall
• Express yourself! MessengerMods display picture gallery

Messenger Plus! 2

I’ve been using Messenger Plus! 2 for about a month now. It’s extremely simple to set up with a standard install interface, and it works beautifully from the start. Here’s a look at what this add-on offers.

Logging

Messenger Plus! 2 (or MP2) adds some wonderful little features. One of my favorites of which is the option for automatic logging of messages. I know I have conversations containing useful information, or things that are just plain funny. I’d be willing to bet that others could get similar use out of it.

There is also an event log, so you can see when your friends login, logout, and change their status.

Modify the Interface

You can turn off the ad banner in the contact list or control the transparency of your chat windows.

Custom Away Messages

Another of the useful and fun features is the ability to set several different custom away messages, which allows for either serious messages to describe your reason for absence, or a humorous blurb to give the same information along with entertaining. You can also insert a code that counts down and tells them how long until you’ll be back.

Create Predefined Messages

MP2 also increases the amount of text that can be sent in one message, and you can set it to help through prompts when using emotes. You can create and store predefined messages. Use it for favorite quotes, helps, or just talking smack with your friends.

Notification Sounds

Messenger already can be configured to play a sound when a contact comes online, but Messenger Plus! lets you take that even further, assigning custom sounds to contacts.

Contact Manager

If you’ve used MSN Messenger for very long, you’ve probably got a long list of contacts. I’ve got people that I don’t even remember anymore, but MP2 makes it easy to clean up my contact list with it’s contact manager. This tool shows your entire contact list, with their last login date and the date of your last chat. I had some people who hadn’t logged on in over 60 days. A good indication that I can purge them from my list.

Message Formatting

Now you can mix text formatting (bold, italics, and colors) in your instant messages. MP2 also supports keyboard formatting shortcuts like CTRL-B and CTRL-I.

Controlling Preferences

Messenger Plus! has clean, easy-to-navigate interface for setting your preferences. It gives you very fine control over all of the options.

System Requirements

MP2 requires Windows 95/98/ME or Windows NT4/2000/XP, and either MSN Messenger or Windows Messenger. It’s compatible with versions 4.6 to 5.0. The installation package is 1.2 MB.

Summary

All in all, if you use Windows Messenger or MSN Messenger, Messenger Plus! it’s worth your while to download this add-on. It has something for everyone.

Useful Links

• Download Messenger Plus!
• Get help in the Windows Live Messenger Support forum