Month: February 2012

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Twitter Weekly Updates for 2012-02-26

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Yahoo! IM Links broken in Messages Beta

Messages So I’ve been playing with the Messages Beta and it’s pretty neat.

Messages is touted as the replacement for iChat for its upcoming OSX release. Not only will it support existing IM networks, but you will now be able to chat with people on its iMessage network, where anyone using an iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch running iOS 5.0 is already on.

I’m currently attempting to switch completely from Adium to Messages and see how that’ll work out. Messages currently supports AIM, Yahoo! IM, and Google Talk. The only obvious missing network is MSN/Live Messenger.

It obviously doesn’t have all the plugin support such as OTR (Off-the-Record Message), but for a beta, it’s actually working pretty well. I understand this is still in beta and any of the problems I see will probably be fixed by the time Mountain Lion comes out.

One annoying thing is there’s no way to disable all sounds. If you’re a fan of the beeps and boops you get with text messaging on the iPhone, you’ll probably enjoy it. The preferences allows me to disable sounds for each event individually, but I can’t seem to find a way to disable sounds globally.

An issue that my only friend on Yahoo! keeps reminding me is that they appear to have broken the Yahoo! IM protocol for links. Whatever it’s doing, the links are showing up multiple times on their end. I’ve confirmed this by doing a test with my dad’s Yahoo! account also. Here’s what happens when I send a simple http://www.example.com/ link:

Yahoo! IM Links broken on Messages Beta

One rather cool thing is that you can link up your IM contacts with your address book entries. Took me quite some time, but I’ve finally mapped out most of my IM contacts. Previously I would attach a note/comment on the user in case I forgot who they were (which happens to people I don’t talk to frequently).

I had hoped that conversations would be synced to the cloud, but unfortunately it doesn’t look like it’s happening yet. Something I was hoping to see was if I was having a conversation on my laptop, I would be able to see the full conversation in Messages on my desktop (and vice versa).

All in all, I’m enjoying Messages and looking forward to see it in its final form when Mountain Lion is released.

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Twitter Weekly Updates for 2012-02-19

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Twitter Weekly Updates for 2012-02-12

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How To Fix The Shopping Tote Bag Problem

Safeway Tote BagI generally try to be environmentally friendly, but I just can’t seem to remember to ever bring in my tote bag into the grocery store. Maybe it’s because it’s so infrequent that I ever go to a supermarket. I always have a tote bag in the back of my car, but 90% of the time, I only remember it when I’m checking out. By then, I’m too lazy to just drop everything just to retrieve my tote bag from my car.

I know some stores have a small monetary incentive for you to use your tote bag instead of using their plastic bags, but do people really care about the quarter they just saved by using their tote bag?

What they should do instead is at EVERY entrance of the store, have a giant sign reminding people about their tote bags. When I don’t actually have anything picked out yet, I’m a lot more inclined to head back to my car to get my tote bag.

What would be better is they have some sort of tote bag program, similar to milk that comes in a glass bottle, where you’re charged a nominal fee for the glass bottle, but will be refunded when you return the bottle. So by the time I accumulate 20 or so tote bags, I can just return them all at once. If people like the tote bags, they can opt to keep them and it’ll be cheap advertising for your supermarket.