Microsoft strikes back? - Windows Live Messenger, Windows Media Player 11, etc

I just installed the latest beta of Windows Live Messenger and Windows Media Player 11. Though I haven't played around with WMP11 yet I should say that Live Messenger is looking good. But one downside - it has tons of stuff I will never use but which still clutter the interface.

After some searching on Google I found A-Patch for Windows Live Messenger - a cool program that strips out many (and I mean many!) unwanted interface enhancements from Messenger. Check out the screenshot that shows my Messenger window after I stripped it down with A-Patch.

And for those that upgraded to Yahoo Messenger 7.5 and got a shock when they saw the bottom ads on the contact list window - there's
a registry fix for that.

And finally about Windows Media Player 11 - it looks very retro-modern but I will have to actually start using it to see if it can be any serious competition to iTunes. Watch this space. :-)

A yawn, Hamachi and Stormy Weather

I awake from deep slumber to post again.. tada! OK I know no one is going to be surprised or even looking forward to this post. Its been a rather whirlwind schedule these past few months and I conveniently shelved my blog during this period. So here's a short post to keep things live.

Hamachi - this is a 'cute' piece of VPN software that is virtually zero configuration required (except to make the necessary firewall settings to allow the Hamachi adapter access). Pretty useful if you want to use the Internet to form a private network (home office use, playing LAN games etc).

Stormy Weather - this is a book by Carl Hiaasen. I just finished listening to it on audible. Its seriouslly comically and the author sure knows how to weave a tale.