Raw, but c*nsored blabbing and blogging of a young journalista
and local news producer in Southern New England.
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Sunday, July 04, 2004

You Phreak: Slamming All The Doors

Bought my first issue of 2600 the other day. In hindsight I'm surprised I've never bought it or read it before. Maybe I should have done back when I was in high school and closer to UNIX and VAX/VMS computers. Couple of articles in the Spring 2004 issue made me think of a problem I'm having with AOL. I'll probably write to them and ask if anyone knows what's going on.

The problem is this. I'm running OS X 10.1 and AOL version 10.2.1 on a G4. (I know, I should upgrade.) I don't use AIM at this point, I just use the AOL client's onboard Buddy List. Some of my friends are what AOL terms "Internet users" of AIM and so it is necessary for me to be able to receive IMs from Internet users. (I looked around today and couldn't figure out to disallow Internet users without allowing in people I've blocked. Unless I just wasn't reading the Preferences screens properly.)

What with one thing and another I get a lot of bots IMming me with ads for sites from porn to pharmacies to mortgage companies, with the Knock-Knock window reading "XXXXX has sent you an Instant Message from outside of the AOL Service, which is not bound by AOL's TOS agreement", and it includes a checkbox to say if you always want to see the names of Internet Users on Knock-Knocks. (Why wouldn't you ever want to see the name? "Actually I don't want to know who's IMming me until I see their horrible message beseeching me to visit their site featuring BLONDES BANGING EACH OTHER.")

Every so often I'll get one of these Knock-Knocks from some yokel I've never heard of ("sxyhottie99999" or whomever) and all of a sudden, the Instant Message portion of the system will somehow shut down. All the icons for Buddies on my Buddy List will turn into slammed doors at the same time, and I'll hear the "slammed door" sound a jillion times, once for each buddy that was there. And I won't be able to send anyone an IM or get one from anyone until I reboot AOL.

My theory is a program the "spIMmers" are using (Trillian perhaps?) is either shutting down my IM system inadvertently, or on purpose. I tried Googling to find info and didn't find anything about this particular problem, but through reading other things I was told that AOL has been trying to shut down the use of Trillian on its Instant Message system. Could this have anything to do with it? If so, AOL is shooting themselves in the foot. (Trillian is one of many programs used to assimillate Instant Message systems into one. You can be logged on to things like AIM, Yahoo Instant Messenger, and IRC all at the same time without running three different programs.)

Now today the plot thickened. At some point all the doors slammed WITHOUT MY RECEIVING AN IM. It sounds like a) somebody is having fun shutting down people's IM capabilities (whether it's a personal attack on me is anybody's guess) and b) the system appears to be evolving.

I'm loath to try to complain to AOL because I don't want to have to get on the phone waiting for half an hour and then trying different things with a tech support person for half an hour... among other reasons.

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And by the way, since I'm not going to get a nap before I go in to work tonight I guess am going to be the Banana Republic whore today. I'll be wearing a new polo shirt freshly bought at their summer sale. I revel in being a clearance and sale fiend of the men's specialty clothing stores. This nice royal blue shirt with black pinstripes for example was $12.99, marked down from $39.50. And between the labor in Peru (or China if Banana Republic et al. are part of the group slipping things under the radar of US importation inspectors), the yarn, buttons, shipping, and other overhead, it probably cost about $5 to make overall. One of these days I'll be able to snag a man with a shirt like this. 8^)

Labels: Originally published

... Scribbled by Bill T ... 7/04/2004 09:06:00 PM ... Email this entry ...
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