Prettification of Miranda

*Miranda is a mulitprotocol instant messenger*

This small tutorial is written for v 0.70. You can get it here. Well the first thing for this is to go and get the plugins you’ll be needing.

ieview – (unstable version) v1.0.9.7  You have to make sure you have this version if you are using IE7 or it will give you errors.

tabSRMM –  v 1.0.0.1

And the modern clist which should be included with Miranda.

To install the plugins, it is pretty simple. You find your Miranda root folder and in there is another folder called plugins. Simply take both the .dll’s and drop them into that folder. If you already have Miranda running, close and restart it. Then go

Options->Plugins  and there click tabsrmm, ieview and modern clist.  Restart Miranda and the plugins are installed.

Your next step is to find some skins you like. Now, please note you skin Miranda (where your contacts are) and the message box (where you type your message at) separately. ieview will mod your message box and modern clist is used for modding your contact list.

So for ieview themes, go here.

For mordern clist themes, go here.

What I suggest doing is in your Miranda root folder is creating a folder called skins and one called ieviews. This is just to make life easier when you start amassing several different skins and want to quickly and easily browse and switch between them.

We will start with applying the contact list theme. Extract the theme to your skins directory (they are usually zipped). Next go into Miranda, Options -> Customize -> Skin and it may already have the skin listed. If not , browse for it.  You will be looking for .msf files which are usually in the theme folder, but not always.  You may see several of these files for each theme. Thats normal. They are just different color schemes, or a slightly different build. After you find the skin you want, apply and it you should notice the effects right away ^_^

Onto ieview skinning. This is just as easy basically. Extract your skin to your ieview directory and then go, Options -> Message Sessions -> IEView -> (tab) Message Log.

In the message log tab you will see several  modes to select from. Choose the last one, use templates. Next browse to your ieview folder where you will be looking for .ivt files. Again there many be several for one theme. Different colors, slight mods, etc.  Below you will see template options. Not all themes support all of the options, so try them out.  Hit apply and ok, then try messaging someone. You should see the changes!

And one final note: If you like to have your messages pop open when someone messages you, this how you do it.

Options -> Message Sessions -> Message Windows -> (tab) Tabs and Layout -> Message tab and window  creation options. There is an option “ALWAYS pop up and activate new message windows”. Check it and your good to go ^_^

I  hope this helps ya make your Miranda pretty.  If anyone has any questions, feel free to ask. I will try to answer them.

Happy prettifications!!

Requests and a Mac user!

Well, for those that read my blog on even a semi regular basis, I am going to start taking requests on what software you want me to review (windows based only currently). Give me at least 3 programs that are similar, and I will compare the 3 of them. If you have more than 3, throw them all in! I will gladly review them. I don’t really have anything else to do.

On the note of reviewing, I will hopefully be able to start reviewing Linux software soon. Due to stupid incapabilities with my current video Linux won’t run on my box. So over christmas break, I am either building a new one (outta old parts) or using an PC my father snagged from work. I plan on installing Ubuntu on the box and doing a big string of Linux software reviews.

Also, I am looking for a Mac user to write for my blog! Since I  personally don’t use Mac and don’t know anyone that does, I am taking this to the rest of the blogging community. If you love Mac and love testing software even more, please reply with an email address. All I need is a link to your blog so I can read your style of writing and whatnot. Hopefully someone will reply to this before I go home for Christmas.

Gaim vs Miranda vs Trillian

Memory Usage:

Gaim (v 2.0.0 beta 5): 23232K
Miranda (v0.6 build 14): 16816K
Trillian (v3.1): 20796K

After 5 minutes :

Gaim: 13684K
Miranda: 17568K
Trillian: 24140K

0.5 Gaim/Miranda

Protocols Supported:

Gaim:
(all native)
Aim
ICQ
Gadu-Gadu
GroupWise
IRC
Jabber(Gtalk)
MSN
QQ
SILC
Simple
Sametime
Yahoo

Miranda:
ICQ (native)
AIM (native)
MSN (native)
Jabber (native)
Yahoo (native)
IRC (native)
Gadu-Gadu
Tlen
Netsend
And More the site claims….

Trillian:
(all native)
AIM
IRC
MSN
Yahoo
ICQ
(Attempted to install Jabber plugin but it didn’t work)

+1 Gaim

Plugins:

Overall, they all have a fair amount of plugins, but miranda by far has teh most and largest virarity, not to mention the must useful.

+1 Miranda

Skins:

Gaim: They don’t have skins…

Miranda: Doens’t have a single skining structure and is difficult to use. But has a ton of different skins

Trillian: Has a large number. Not near as difficult as Miranda to apply them

+1 Trillian

Ease of use:

Gaim: Is by fair the simplest to use. Install and run and things are going smoothly. Easy to install plugins and manage connects.

Miranda: Slightly more difficult if you want to do anything other than the bare bones. Can and will get very confusing.

Trillian: Install and use, but not as intuitive as Gaim or Miranda when appoarching contact management.

+1 Gaim

Notes:

Gaim: Open source, free, tabbed chats, simple, clean, small, spell check (if you want). Very easy. I enjoy it a lot. Do I like it more than Miranda? I don’t know. It is aweful close. I will continue to test gaim for the next week or so until I can settle.

Miranda: Open source, free, painfully complicated at times, particularlly when attempting to play with skins and even harder, chat window skins. But it is also small and very expandable if you enjoy that type of thing.

Trillian: Closed source, free (but a pro version is avialalbe), pretty easy, but not as simple or basic as gaim.

Overall:

I really enjoy miranda and gaim, trillian not so much. When it comes to programs, I want simple, easy to use… Its not often I want that out of software and trillian but feels so heavy to me. Too much random crap. Plus I need to pay to get all the features… ya I don’t think so.
In reality, I really only need these programs to support MSN and Jabber (for Gtalk) and Trillians plugin for it didn’t work. But as a piece of software I still don’t find it as good as it’s open source counterparts.

If you like really simple, Gaim. If you want to costumize the hell out of your messenger, Miranda. Trillian in its current states I don’t recommend, but its new version that is in alpha (astra) looks rather neat.

So there you are. A simple guide to the 3 top multi protocol IMers.

On a side note, if you are away from your pc and want an online Imer that supports several protocols, Meebo.com will be your new best friend. Great when you aren’t at home and want to chat.

Trillian Astra

Traillian Astra

This program looks bloody sweet. If you don’t already know, trillian was one of the first programs to support multiple protocols (MSN, ICQ, AIM, etc). This made it fairly popular among those that were a part of communities where not everyone shared a common IM (games, forums etc). In my opinion, trillian, while a good program, just never cut it for me. Too much crap, not streamlined enough, and just not as well done as other clients out there.

Well their new piece of software, Astra, seems to be much more promising. According to the site, stride were made everywhere possible to streamline the experience, minimize the footprint and increase speeds.

Alpha testing supposedly opens tomorrow so I hope to get accepted though I doubt I will.

One of the main problems I for see is that  they will charge for a full edition, which means I won’t be using it. If I can’t get all the features available without paying I refuse to use it.  There are many other programs out there that are similar. But why I am hoping for this one is because these guys have been around for a while and this new program should (hopefully) take advantage of everything they have seen in IMing in the last several years.

So here’s hoping. I will write a review of the software as soon as possible. Hopefully I get accepted for the alpha.

Die Brucke, Be Bad, Hellacaust & Cauldron live in Halifax!

You can’t destroy the metal, to quote Jack Black.

So last night, a few friends and I went to Gus’ Pub to watch the show, which I must say, was the best one (metal show that is) I have went to since  I seen Unexepect live. One of the best things about this show was it wasn’t all brutal death metal, which I am falling out off. I still really enjoy it live, but when you compare them to Hellacaust you is almost at every show, they just fail to compare.

So first up was Die Brucke, who I really liked. Being a mix of punk and metal, it was a nice change and was unexpected from what you normally hear at these shows.

Next was Be Bad with amazing attention to their music and instruments but left MUCH to be desired in the department for vocals. The singer didn’t really sing… He more or less talked loud into the mic. And they just didn’t have near as much energy as the first band.

After them, came Hellacaust, seriously one of the best death metal bands I have heard. These guys blew me away with the energy they had last night. My head was constantly banging as were my hands and feet.  Wicked goodness.

And finally Cauldron. The leader singer being an ex-member of goathorn (or so I’m told)  meant that before they started everyone knew they would be great, since Goathorn was a kick ass heavy metal band. And did these guys ever live up to it. Leaning pretty close to traditional heavy metal with death influcenes, these guys had the whole crowd bouncing with energy, devil horns out with the high pitch metal screams sounding form every corner (including mine). The only problem I had with the band was their singers voice (not when he screamed but sang) didn’t do it for me. I felt it was flat.  Mind you I likely couldn’t do better and, fuck, I love the band, but I think thats where they need the most improvement.

Not being a musician myself ( I can sing metal though but not a member of a band) I don’t like to say bad things, because I can’t do better but since it’s a recap of last nights show, I will say what I think.

Overall, amazing and through the 5 buck cover charge. Its time like this that I remember why metal is so close to my heart. The feeling and emotions I experience while at a concert are those I never felt anywhere else. If you have never been to a metal concert, don’t be so quick to judge a cd. I myself am not a big fan of listening to them on my pc, but god, live these bands are amazing. You just can’t convey the energy through cd.  Plus they sound much much much better live then recorded.  So if you live in Halifax, take advantage of the great metal scene we have here. At least go to one show before you say you hate it.