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How To Use Facebook As Your Instant Messenger With AIM

Posted: 20 Jan 2011 03:30 AM PST

Years ago many people used AIM (AOL Instant Messenger) as their primary means of instant messaging, but it fell out of favor with the masses with the advent of social networking, namely, Facebook.

Today you can use a traditional instant messenger just like people used to, using the same client, AIM.

The first reaction people have to this is "I don’t want everyone on my Facebook friend list having the ability to IM me." That’s not a problem because you can specify exactly who can IM you by way of Facebook Friend Lists. Once done, the AIM client will automatically recognize these groups and you’re good to go.

Step 1. Set up your Facebook Friend Lists

When logged into Facebook, at top right click Account and then Edit Friends.

Step 2. Click Create a List

Step 3. Create new list, populate and save

For the example below I’ve created a list called IM. After I type that in, I click each friend I want in that list to be able to message me directly via IM. Once done, I click Create List at the bottom.

Step 4. Set the list as "Online"; others "Offline"

This is the part everybody gets confused about, but is actually very easy to configure.

You obviously can have multiple lists, and yes you can assign multiple people to multiple lists. For whatever list you want to be able to see you online when there and chat with you, click the little pill-shaped button next to the list so it turns green, and it’s enabled. If you click again, it turns gray and it’s disabled.

If you’re still confused, think of this as "visible" and "invisible" lists. Any list that’s green is visible; any list that’s gray is invisible.

Step 5. Download AIM, install and login with your Facebook account

Download AIM from www.aim.com and install.

I want to make one point very clear here, and sorry about the all-caps but I really need to put this across so there’s no misunderstanding:

THERE IS NO REQUIREMENT TO HAVE AN AIM ACCOUNT.

You absolutely do not need to sign up an AIM account nor using any existing AIM account to use AIM to chat with your Facebook friends.

After installing AIM and running for the first time, you will be prompted to login with either your AIM or Facebook account. All you need to login with is Facebook and nothing else.

A few screens will pop up asking you to authenticate AIM to Facebook. Follow the dots and then AIM will login to Facebook, showing you your friend lists.

AIM by default will show all friend lists, however only the lists you enabled in Facebook will be able to chat.

Notes

Can you use the Facebook.com site and AIM at the same time?

Yes. One will not ‘kick off’ the other. If you have three computers in your house and a smartphone, you could literally be logged in seven times (one browser + client for each computer, one smartphone) and it will all work.

It also should be noted that any message sent from any client or logged-in browser will show up in the history instantly. For example, if you’re downstairs on a PC sending messages, then have to run upstairs to do something and use the computer up there, the conversation stays the same and everything synchronizes.

Are messages kept in the unified messaging center?

Yes. Messages sent to those not online will be sent as a unified message instead. The same will happen when someone IM’s you but you’re not online at the time. (If you’re thinking, "Wow.. that’s really handy!" Yes, it is.)

Can I use AIM to set Facebook status updates?

Yes. You can also reply to people on your friend list via the "Lifestream" tab (you’ll see this after logging into Facebook with AIM.

I don’t like AIM. What are my other choices?

Several other IM clients support Facebook, including Yahoo! Instant Messenger, Pidgin, Digsby and Trillian. Simply pick the one the works best for you, or just use your existing web browser.

Post from: PCMech. Helping Normal People Get Their Geek On And Live The Digital Lifestyle.

How To Use Facebook As Your Instant Messenger With AIM

How Long Will That Media Last?

Posted: 19 Jan 2011 04:08 AM PST

Media in the context of this article refers to file storage. I’ve covered this before but I have a few new things to add, plus it’s just a good refresher to know this stuff.

Facts about hard drives and optical media

Western Digital used to offer lifetime warranties on consumer PC hard drives

There was a point where any WD HDD you bought had a lifetime warranty. Then WD knocked that down to 7 years. Then 5 years. Then for some models 3 or even 1. If you want to see every type of warranty WD has currently, go here. You’ll notice that nowhere is the word "life" or "lifetime".

What happened is that the manufacturing process changed, and certain components on the inside of the HDD that used to be made from metal were changed to plastic.

I’m not saying WD drives are bad because I use them myself, but the phrase "they don’t make ‘em like they used to" definitely applies.

As a testament to this, there are still 386 PCs out there that when started, the drive takes a really long time to spin up, it’s really loud once running, but it amazingly still works 25 years later and all the data is accessible and ready to rock. I seriously, seriously doubt hard drives made today will be able to boast that 25 years from now.

The vast majority of blank optical media sold today is absolute junk

It’s very easy to tell if the spindle of blank DVDs you just bought are junk or not. Look at the sides of the discs in the stack. Do you see lumps, bumps and inconsistencies? If the answer is yes, they’re crap. Don’t bother returning them because every spindle you buy will be like that unless you go with a specific brand which I’ll mention in a moment.

Truly good optical discs have no imperfections that can be seen by the naked eye. Unfortunately the only way to get these is by special order because they’re never sold in stores.

The best optical media made is Taiyo Yuden like this. Yes, it costs more but you’ll never use a better disc. If you care about what you write to disc at all, use that brand.

How long will that media last?

OPTICAL

You know from above that off-the-shelf media today is crap, much the same way floppy diskettes turned to crap at the end of their tenure. Manufacturers churn these things out without any consideration of quality file writes or reads for the long haul.

If you do opt to use this media, don’t plan on having anything last for longer than 2 to 3 years at most before read failure. It doesn’t matter if you have the best optical drive available, because there’s nothing you can do to fix junk discs, other than not using them and buying better discs.

HARD DRIVE

The best way to make a hard drive last as long as possible is to use two. A smaller hard drive for the operating system and a large one for storage. This is a time-honored way of computing and it does allow for HDDs dedicated to storage to last longer. As for how much longer, standard fare is 3 to 5 years. A dedicated storage HDD will last for 5 or greater, possibly much greater.

And yes there are plenty of instances where people have had hard drives last well beyond the 7-year mark, however it’s never wise to assume that you will achieve that just because someone else did.

FLASH

USB sticks have been around long enough to prove that they can definitely withstand the test of time better than any other immediately available affordable storage media. If you write data to a USB stick, toss it in a drawer then 8 years later go to use it again, it will work. A hard drive used that way is an iffy prospect at best and I’d never trust optical media to last that long even with premium brand.

I’ll put it to you this way: If I were making a time capsule and wanted to put some data in it, I’d use nothing but USB sticks if I wanted something I could retrieve two decades later and have relative assurance it would still work and not have decayed beyond being usable.

(Side note: If you’re thinking, "Hey! USB sticks are a great idea for a time capsule! I’m doing that!", make sure you buy the kind have a cap on the end to protect the plug from corrosion. You can add in extra ‘insurance’ by wrapping where the cap meets the body with a few layers of electrical tape.)

The only known thing that can kill a USB stick is either unmounting it improperly or running out of file writes as it does have a predetermined limit – but that limit is usually only reached if you’re doing something with the stick that requires a monster amount of reading/writing, such as running a biz-card sized Linux distribution off of one. Otherwise, Flash media will give you years upon years of trouble-free use.

I strongly suggest picking up a 3-pack of USB sticks where each is 6GB a piece; it’s $22 well spent. These are definitely worth having and believe me, you will use them.

If it sounds like I’m telling you to burn discs less and use Flash media more, I am. Flash sticks don’t suffer from scratches or any damage from being a moving part because it doesn’t move.

Post from: PCMech. Helping Normal People Get Their Geek On And Live The Digital Lifestyle.

How Long Will That Media Last?

you and you

Kamis, 20 Januari 2011