Tag Archives: instant messaging

Parallels

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Another eccentric post here but lately I’ve been wondering about a close affinity with another person who could be just next door or thousands of miles away. It’s happened to me a few times and it might have happened to you too.

For instance you’re chatting with them (either on the phone, instant messaging, Skype, whatever) and they mention they’re not feeling well, perhaps a bit of the flu or something like that. Well guess what, I have the flu too. Coincidence? What about other stuff like when they mention a song and you interject “Hey, that song is one of my faves too!” And on and on it goes, with other elements, like colors, food, hobbies, etc. And sometimes more philosophical stuff like their values, their dreams, their aspirations. You find that the more you know them, the more you have in common.

What I want to remind my readers is that no, I don’t want to be an exact copy of another person, sharing the same taste for things and life 100% of the way. That wouldn’t be too exciting, would it. It’s the unexpected flukes that make me sit up and smile. There will be times that we dare to be different (I’m talking stuff like bananas here. Yes, bananas. Someone’s probably shuddering now) and that’s what makes human interaction so fascinating—it’s always in a state of flux. Similar, yet different.

Dunno about anyone else, but I tend to gravitate toward people who have the same tastes as myself. It’s so weird that I can experience this even with someone who’s thousands of miles away—there must be some unique and wonderful disturbances in the temporal vortex*, but I like it!!

* Yes I pinched this from Star Trek.

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The week that was…with apologies to Trillian

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I suppose everybody has one of those weeks where everything is pretty dullsville and nothing exciting is happening. My Monday started off with signs of a cold building up along the horizon. Meh, no problem, I thought—just stock up on the Vitamin C, paracetamol, actifed tablets, tissues, etc. Unfortunately this cold bug (bugger) was a little different, in the sense that it laid wastage to my voice (the last time I experienced this was during my teenage days)—fortunately I’m not a singer. My voice is now 20% of what it used to be, anyway I am having tea with some honey (and yes I know it isn’t good, but the coffee train rolls on) Thank goodness for Windows Live Messenger, a great IM program when it’s working properly (most of the time, must give some kudos to Microsoft) where I don’t have to talk, but type instead.

Speaking of IM programs, I confess I have to eat some humble pie. I have not spoken well of Trillian Astra in the past. What’s Trillian Astra, you ask? It’s a multi-IM client, meaning that if you have contacts using different IM programs, you can let Astra be a supervisor of sorts, incorporating all your WLM, Yahoo, AIM, etc contacts into one basket. I used Trillian 3.1 a long long time ago, and when they announced about going to version 4.0 I was thrilled. However, I didn’t expect Astra 4.0 to be in Alpha for three long years! Man, my patience has a limit, lol. Like waiting for grass to grow. That made me give up on Astra eons ago, and I never thought anymore about it.

Then I was browsing the Net last week and happened to read that Astra had entered into Beta and Trillian was encouraging users to sign up to test it. Like seeing a long-lost girlfriend again, I was enthralled, especially with the way she looked—Trillian must be the Jessica Alba, or Angelina Jolie, or Britney Spears, or (fill in the blank) of the multi-IM world. There’s so much eye-candy that it can be overwhelming at first. I mean, WLM9 doesn’t look half-bad, but when you compare it to this baby—wow! Seduced by the dark side of the Force, I signed up, and they dispatched an email with a download link and token key to me in a blink of an eye. So I download and install Trillian Astra 4.0 and—she’s beautiful. Just look at the screenshots. For a beta product, I’m amazed that most of the features work so well; the sounds are very very cool, and it uses only about 4 MB of system resources on my Pentium 4 computer.

Uh oh, I have to confess again, shucks. I’m not using Astra as a multi-IM client, since 99.9% of my contacts use WLM. I’m not breaking any laws here, am I? It’s my 5th day of using it (they just did an auto upgrade from build 103 to build 104 for me, it was painless) and I’m still enraptured with it. This Pro version times out after 30 days, reverting to the basic version. I don’t know whether I’d shell out $25 to keep the Pro version, I haven’t made up my mind yet. Stay tuned.

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The new Big Blue Ball is launched!

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If you’ve read my About Me page you would already know that I’ve been a member and staff of BigBlueBall since June 2006. Although this forum caters to IM (Instant Messaging) and social networking first and foremost, there are a lot of other sections within, such as Cell Phones, PDA and Mobiles, and also Computer Support. There’s also a Community Center with the BigBlueBall Lounge as a place where you can get to know new members, post your own poll, read the funnies, a Music room, etc. All in all, there’s a lot to see and do. Needless to say, becoming a member is totally free (and painless).

Have a look at the new BigBlueBall here.

Last but not least, don’t forget to visit the BBB Blog, where you can post comments even without registering (but we hope you will). A big plus is that BBB is also connectable to your existing Facebook account:

So, a lot of stuff to explore—drop by anytime!

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The great things about the Internet

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I was just thinking of this while folding my clothes Hee hee. Here are a couple of things I came up with:

  1. Help and advice are readily available, provided you look for it. And most of the time, people don’t even think about charging you.
  2. A sense of belonging. This is especially true in a great forum such as BigBlueBall, where I’ve met lots of nice folks. Furthermore, with Instant Messaging such as Windows Live Messenger, you’re never alone.
  3. International brotherhood. Yeah, I just coined this up. Tied in with #1, because while you can search for help and advice, you can also contribute ideas and solutions. It’s an international win-win situation.
  4. Opportunities. Granted, there are thousands of scams on the web, but there are also genuine opportunities. This is something I am really looking into!

Any thoughts? Please drop a comment here (no moderation or approval in my blog, your comment will appear immediately).

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BigBlueBall rocks!

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Well, what can I say about BigBlueBall (BBB) other than it’s one of the best sites I’ve ever clicked on! I stumbled on to BBB in June 2006 while googling for a problem with Windows Live Messenger (WLM). The staff were so quick to reply to my questions, and I was so impressed that I stayed on and decided to help others out with their IM (instant messaging) problems.

Obviously my charm worked, and Jeff Hester, BBB’s owner, asked me to join BBB as a staff member. I couldn’t say no to this big, affable guy, so I became a staff in 2007. I never thought that spreading help and kindness on the Internet would be so gratifying, but it is. BTW Jeff, I’m still waiting for that staff meeting in Hawaii :-)

And the BBB staff: in a word, fabulous! Jeff, Graham, Heather, Sarah, Doris, Andrew, Nessa, etc. You guys are the best! Thanks for allowing me to be a part of the BBB world.

I’ll be doing more posts on BBB here in the future. Stay tuned!

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