Gus What?!

The credit for this goes to Osman. Here is what it looks like with the theme picker menu open:

You can enable this theme by following these simple steps:

1. Install AIM 6.1.
2. Open the blGadgets.box file from C:\Program Files\AIM6\services\imApp\ver6_1_32_1\content\bl in notepad or any text editor.
3. Search for “black” (at about line #580).
4. Remove the collapsed=”true” part.

You can also enable a cool “twisty” transition that is shown when you switch themes by following these steps:

1. Open the bl.js file from the same folder above in notepad or any text editor.
2. Search for “g_bNoSkinTransitions” (at about line #39)
3. Replace true with false so that the line looks like this: var g_bNoSkinTransitions = false;

Enjoy.

AOL released AIM 6.1 today. This version is the first public update of AIM 6.0 since it was released back on November 15th of last year. While this may be a “point-release”, AIM 6.1 still includes a lot of functionality that AIM users have requested like, Buddy List docking, customizable Buddy List fonts, sorting of buddies in groups, window color schemes, and more.

A lot of excellent work has gone into this release and I highly recommended you upgrade to it. You can download the net installer here and the full installer is available here.

Be sure to check out the official aim.com web site for more information.

I want to thank all the beta testers out there that helped us test out this release; your support is truly appreciated.

Thank you and enjoy.

I actually installed the AIM 6.1 Beta 3 build at home and will be using it as my AIM client from now on. This build comes with a heap of bug fixes and more. Full screen video support has been added. The RX-Plugin and CoreWitness plug-ins work excellently. All features are fully functional. The same goes for my IM Control Panel.

You can download the net installer for this beta here or get the full installer here.

Please give it a try and tell us what you think.

I found a bug yesterday in the beta registration code on my website. The simple description is that all subsequent guest keys obtained after the first one were invalid if they were obtained within minutes of each other from the same IP address. (Yes, that’s at least three features in that one sentence.)

So, this explains why a registration would fail on the second and third product. I only saw this happen about two or three times in the past three months which is about as long as I have been offering more than one product.

This is fixed. You can register for all of my products at any time. Enjoy.

Just a quick post to let you know that I have updated my IM Control Panel and CoreWitness plugin. Basically, the IM Control Panel now supports AIM 6.1 and I added more details in the logging for secondary sessions in my CoreWitness plugin. See the respective links for more details.

I want to thank you all for your privately sent comments and suggestions for my RX-Plugin. I am prioritizing my list of new features to add and will be working on them soon. No ETA on when this will be out.

Finally, plugins 3 and 4 (as I am calling them) are in the early stages of development they should be interesting when they are done later this year.

I know, I know, this beta, actually beta two in the AIM 6.1 series if you are paying close attention, was released yesterday and this post is one day behind. In any case, this is a HUGE beta release. A lot of great work from many teams has gone into it. So, what’s in this release? You might ask.

Here is my list of what’s new, just to name a few:

Read the rest of this entry »

While I have not posted on this plug-in since I announced it back in December, I have been uploading minor improvements as soon as they were working. This plug-in is a great way to visualize how the Open AIM SDK works by observing the sequence of events it receives.

I highly recommend the CoreWitness plug-in if you are planning on developing your own custom AIM clients and plug-ins. You can register and download the latest version here.

Feel free to leave any comments on questions you may have about the plug-in or the traces it produces.

Continuing on with this series of posts on AIM URLs, I now introduce a tool to help you create “Go Chat” URLs which are used to enter or start a chat room. You can specify up to two parameters: the room’s name and exchange number. The room’s name can be almost anything you want and the exchange is either 4 or 5 and can be omitted which would then default it to 4.

You can use the Go Chat URL Generator tool to help you create these kinds of URLs. Just follow the instructions on the page and then paste the HTML or URL in a web page, e-mail, IM, or desktop shortcut. Here is a sample link I created with this tool: Go Chat Link.

RX-PLUGIN USERS: You can generate a Go Chat link in a conversation with a buddy by typing “chat(roomname)” where roomname is the chat room name you want the buddy to join. Give it a try.

The “Go IM” (aka “IM This”) URL is used to start a conversation with a buddy in AIM. You can specify up to three optional parameters: from, to, and message. The from and to parameters are screen names and the message parameter can be anything you want in plain text or HTML depending on how you encode it.

As in my previous post, I created a Go IM URL Generator tool to help you create these kinds of URLs. Just follow the instructions on the page and then paste the HTML or URL in a web page, e-mail, IM, or desktop shortcut. Here is a sample link I created with this tool: Go IM Link.

RX-PLUGIN USERS: You can generate a Go IM link in a conversation with a buddy by typing “im(name)” where name is the screen name of the buddy to be contacted. Give it a try. See here for more details on this rule.