Simkl is a web service that saves your instant message history to its servers so that you can access that searchable history from any computer with Internet access. You'll need a Simkl account and some money (1 month of archiving is $2.99 and one year is $24.99). You'll also have to change a setting in your IM client to use Simkl as a proxy (so that it can save your messages).
If the thought of a third party (besides the actual service provider) archiving your instant messages doesn't bother you, you can try out the service for a week for free. The history viewer is web-based, and you can do full-text searches on your IM history.
Simkl supports most of the popular IM clients including Yahoo, MSN, AIM, Pidgin, iChat, ICQ, Trillian, and Adium. Keep in mind that many of these IM clients like Pidgin and Trillian can log your chats individually, but if you use multiple computers with different IM clients, Simkl can unify your IM logging.
A few months back, Mozilla announced plans to create a new organization responsible for development of the Thunderbird e-mail client. While Mozilla's Firefox web browser has been getting a lot of attention in recent years from both developers and the general public, Thunderbird has sort of been living in the shadow of its big, more popular sibling.
Today David Ascher announced that the new Thunderbird project has a new name: Mozilla Messaging. He also outlined a bit of what we can expect to see in Thunderbird 3:
An integrated calendar (right now you have to install the Lightning add-on to get calendar functions in Thunderbird)
Improved search
Easier configuration
In the long term, Ascher says the team will also have to think more generally about internet communication. Many people use instant messaging, IRC, blogs, and VoIP to communicate and not just e-mail. It's unlikely that we'll see all of those services built into Thunderbird anytime soon. But perhaps one or two of them will creep in, or maybe we'll see development of chat add-ons in the future.
Four years ago people primarily used the internet for communication. Today, the main reason people go online is to look for content. That's according to a new study released by the Online Publishers Association and Nielsen/NetRatings.
Of course, the change didn't happen overnight. There's been a steady increase over the last few years in the amount of time internet users spend online looking for content. Part of the reason for the shift is that a lot of information that was once only available offline is no online. News, sports, weather, and entertainment information is ubiquitous on the web.
And then there's the whole Web 2.0 thing. There's probably no bigger time suck than social networks, news sites, and media sharing sites like YouTube and Flickr. You could make the case that these sites are blurring the lines between communication and content by letting anyone contribute. But there's a substantive difference between e-mail or IM and leaving comments on MySpace or Facebook.
Interestingly, the study suggests that instant messaging is actually reducing the amount of time people spend "communicating" online. That's because it takes a lot less time and energy to send an IM than an e-mail message. Of course, that all depends on the message you're sending. We've all probably gotten sucked into an online chat that's lasted for hours when a quick e-mail would have gotten the same point across in a few hundred words. Or maybe that's just us. [via Ars Technica]
Microsoft has released version 6.0 of its chat client Messenger for Mac. This version, like the previous one, requires Mac OS X 10.3 or later. New features include custom emoticons, integration with Yahoo! IM contacts, the ability to display the currently playing iTunes song (a la iChat), and the option to have multiple contact list windows (this may be helpful in decreasing the likelihood of accidentally sending a steamy IM to your boss instead of your significant other). Additionally, if you're using Live Communications Server, you get the added benefits of secure chat, encrypted file transfers. Oh, and did I mention it's a universal binary version? Add one more to the list of apps that will run natively on Intel Macs.
The project codenamed "Orcas" is now available for download. The developer tools release is Microsoft's September customer technology preview (CTP) for the .net framework 3.0. You must have the .net framework and September CTP software development kit (SDK), not to mention a non-express version of Visual Studio 2005 already installed to run the tools in this release. At under 4MB (not quite a whale), the development tools include XAML intellisense support, project templates for Windows Presentation Foundation and Windows Communcation Foundation. The dev tools also features the Visual Designer (codename: Cider) for Windows Presentation Foundation, but is sadly not supported by the express editions of Visual Studio 2005. If you understood anything I just said, and it interests you you will be happy to know that it is now ready to be downloaded and I suppose anything else you want to do to it.
Geesee is straight out of Slovakia with some startup pocket money, and an embeded online address free communication service. Geesee combines web chat that is topic based, tag searching, and widgets that connect into a central network of chat rooms. Geesee can be accessed through widgets on websites, which would be a direct embedded conduit to a chat area about that specific sites contents. From there users have multiple tabbed chat areas in which they can anonymously chat in. No need in searching the web for individuals with similar interests, just access if through your favorite websites that have the Geesee widget. Geesee is currently in development with beta testing launching October 2006, and full launch in November. You can sign up to become a beta tester on their website.
AOL has announced that they have acquired Userplane, a company that builds communication software for online communities. Userplane applications are primarily developed in Flash, using the Flash Communication server. This makes it extremely easy for developers to plug it into their websites.
The Userplane suite of software includes:
Webchat - a multi-user Flash-based chat interface, that can be easily plugged into any website
Webmessenger - a Flash text, voice, and video instant messaging application
Webrecorder - a Flash-based audio and video recording app for recording and playing audio and video messages
Sitesearch - a user search engine
Presence - live user tracking, enabling you to see who is on your site right now.
The best part about Userplane's software is that there is no installation needed. It fits extremely easy into existing websites. It should be really interesting to see how AOL plans to align and integrate these tools into community sites, and how they will get these products in the market more. Userplane is currently used on Friendster, Date.com, and MySpace, and many others.
Edward Tufte is
a master of communication. In particular, his books on visual communication are classics, and should be standard
readings for anyone in the field. Well I happened to find an essay on Tufte's site about PowerPoint, and specifically,
how the slides used in a
presentation on the dangers to the shuttle Columbia might have led to the death of its crew. Tufte analyzes the
PowerPoint presentations made to NASA, by Boeing engineers. He points out deficiencies in the communications, and how
the optimism in the presentation (not necessarily in its content, if you read it all) led NASA to not ask the
DOD to take high-res pictures of the underside of Columbia while it was still in space. I still have an old book called
"How To Lie with Statistics" from the 50's. Anyone in the dot-com boom can tell you how easy it is to lie with
PowerPoint (or in Steve Jobs' case, Keynote). But the possibility of a miscommunication when lives are at stake makes
PPT's a little more suspect. Perhaps, as the author suggests, PowerPoint isn't always the best tool for the job...
Edward Tufte is
a master of communication. In particular, his books on visual communication are classics, and should be standard
readings for anyone in the field. Well I happened to find an essay on Tufte's site about PowerPoint, and specifically,
how the 
