Instant Messaging

Actually, it doesn't matter, at least between those three (as long as it's the Mac OS X version) - StuffIt Expander can decompress/decode/unarchive ALL THREE formats (I'm guessing you meant bz2, not bgz). StuffIt Expander can also handle its own .sit and .sitx formats, as well as .zip, .rar, .Z, and a bunch of others.

 

I'd suggest you try adium

www.adiumx.com

 

Can I ask a couple of random Adium questions? I just downloaded it and I kinda like it, but there are a couple of things that annoy me.

1) This is really weird, but since AE takes a while to reinitialize after waking my iBook from sleep, I kinda use iChat as my thermometer to know my connection is active, since it blows up the buddy list and makes a noise as soon as it can. Is there any way to put *your own* status somewhere on the buddy list or something in Adium, or to make it chime when it logs in/out of one or more svcs? The only place I see it is in the menu. Especially also since some of the chat srvrs don't work some of the time, it'd be nice to know what you're connected to.

2) Whenever I re-launch Adium, it seems to re-arrange the categories my buddies fall into. One time some of them will be in Co-Workers, and the next time, they will be in Family, instead of the friends category I created. And if I move them back, I get this "Could not add....for an unknown reason. The most common reason for this is that you have the maximum number of allowed buddies in your buddy list" error. I only have six people in my list all together. What's up with that?

OTOH, I really like the customizable chat window, and some of the other things, although iChat, though less customizable, is more attractive to begin with IMHO....

 

I only use iChat because of the Rendezvous feature.

 

Go to the Adium forums and search for answers to your questions there. You will need to do a FunMac.com search (or, if you're like me, five searches), but be sure that you do the search under that forum.

 

Yeah, use AdiumX it is really good, but looks kinda uglier than iChat..Apple really needs to change iChat to have more features.

 

ichat and proteus

I like ichat because it is the only thing that allows me to video chat with micro**** users. Otherwise I use proteus 4.02 which I personaly like a lot better than adium.

 

I've been using Adium, but only because it has more features than iChat (besides audio/video of course). The only thing I find annoying with Adium is the inability to change your buddy icon from the program. I'm one of those people that change their icons often, and it's sort of annoying to have to go somewhere else to do it. Oh well, I'll probably use it until iChat is a little better.

 

I do the exact same thing, and it is so handy, its rediculus! I love that "feature"!

 

Thanks (and sorry for trying to threadjack ). I found that the buddy list thing is a known problem, and other people also requested the status indicators, although its not in Adium at this point.

 

Okay, now I feel better!

 

The only problems I have with Adium are the random bugs that get through each release. Last week my friends said my font was size 8 and bright green even though I had it set to size 12 Helvetica Neue black. It seems every week I have a new bug to deal with, but besides that, it's so cool being able to basically tweak the GUI of the entire program according to what your desktop picture/color scheme is at the time.

 

HAHAHAHAHA! i dont know why, but thats really kinda funny... makes me wonder if adium has been doing that to me too! they post frequent updates though, which is nice.

 

proteus offers nothing that fire or adium don't and they are free unlike proteus.

fire seems to do a couple things that no other ones do. I use adium though.

 

i downloaded adium after reading this thread. its great. i have a question though. how do you use the emoticons, do you have to type the symbol, or cant u get a dropdown menu of icons in ur chat window?

thanks

 

You either have to type the symbol, or there's a "Insert emoticon" under the edit menu. I don't think you can have a menu in the chat window. That would be nice though.

 

k thanks, one more question.
how do we set it to take the pic from the address book, in place of the default duck icon?

thanks

 

Go to Adium > Preferences > Advanced > Address Book
Here you can import the images etc. from the address book.

 

sweet..thanks

 

another question about adium
how do you really set your status as away?
i hv gone into prefs, and set an away message, and an auto response. .but still it doesnt show my status as away?

edit: dont bother, i found it..

thanks

 

U can control or right click on teh space where u write and u can get emoticon there

 

easiest way is to right click the icon and select your message. i love the itunes integration. i always say "getting clean in the shower listening to %_track by %_artist. it looks at itunes and fills in the track and artist, real slick.

iJon

 

Great stuff, I always have my nickname as: Wes %_status: %_track - %_artist, so my msn nickname is always something like: Wes playing: Saturday - Fall Out Boy. Impresses lots of people, although some think I'm sad enough to change my nickname every 30 seconds.