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Original Smileys - Update

Andrei Neculau — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 05:10:31 +0000

I have just updated the Original Smileys theme for Pidgin to version 1.1

Changelog Excerpt:

# version 1.1
# - fixed some Yahoo smilies
# - only-Yahoo9 smilies are not hidden any longer
#
# version 1.0
# - added Facebook Chat smileys (2 smilies are missing; missing from Facebook servers!)
…

Pidgin ICQ: The client version you are using is too old

Andrei Neculau — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 06:20:05 +0000

A couple of days ago, my Pidgin wouldn’t connect to ICQ any longer.

It seems that the “lovely” ICQ team pushes people to upgrade their ICQ messenger, or else.. to switch to ICQ.

pidgin.im seems to be down, and there’s no solution anywhere, except for a patch ¹. But most of us don’t do ICQ builds every time we pee, so that’s practically of no help. But there’s hope!

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Read the rest of Pidgin ICQ: The client version you are using is too old (204 words)

Repagination

Andrei Neculau — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 06:28:03 +0000

Repagination is a little Firefox addon that enables you to load paginated entries on the same web page.

For instance, Google Search results. Or a forum’s topic. Or even better: FlickR streams!

You just right-click on a “Next” link, or on a numbered link, you will see Re-Pagination and choose an action from the submenu. As easy as that, and the page will automatically append the next pages.

The extension is not ready for Firefox 3, unless you hack it a bit.¹

Until the extension updates, here’s my hack Repagination for Firefox3.
You can also try antipagination (you will need a Mozilla Developer account because it is marked as experimental).

I’ll see if I can bring some improvements on the line, if time allows, but.. that’s not a top priority for me.

The extension wasn’t updated since 2006, and it looks quite dead ↩

My Pidgin Setup - Graphics

Andrei Neculau — Thu, 29 May 2008 10:18:35 +0000

I go on with my Pidgin setup, regarding the graphics that I use (as of 2008-05-30):

Neat Protocols 0.1, thanks to me
Download Neat Protocols
- it’s a personal collection of protocol icons, from many packs
- includes Skype, Tlen, Facebook Chat, and a gTalk icon, if you want to replace the Jabber one
- How to install? Just grab the ZIP and extract them to your pixmaps/pidgin/protocols/ directory. Be aware of the fact that you will overwrite older ones - make a backup, if you wish!
-

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Read the rest of My Pidgin Setup - Graphics (105 words)

My Pidgin Setup - Plugins

Andrei Neculau — Thu, 29 May 2008 08:11:31 +0000

Here I go and reveal my active Pidgin plugins (as of 2008-05-30):

Skype
Protocol plugin, thanks to Eion Robb (Download)
- doesn’t have Call and Send SMS options yet
-
Facebook Chat
“Protocol” plugin, thanks to Eion Robb (Download)
- it’s a very basic/experimental thing so far, but it’s still super-duper
-
Tlen
Protocol plugin, thanks to Aleksander Piotrowski (Download)
-

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Read the rest of My Pidgin Setup - Plugins (240 words)

Word 2007 crash

Andrei Neculau — Mon, 12 May 2008 16:28:10 +0000

Usually MS Word or any other MS Office application crashes, it is due to a loaded add-in that wants to make your life “happier”.

When MS Word 2007 begins to crash erratically, but most probably upon closing down or showing that the crash happened in mso.dll,
do the following:

Open the Registry Editor (regedit.exe)
Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Word\Data
Delete it with all its properties

This will also erase the linkage to any Word Add-in you might have.

Romanian Diacritics

Andrei Neculau — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 22:29:05 +0000

Diacritics make a language what it actually is.

Romanian has a handful (and I mean exactly 5) of diacritics. And because we have been put to the test in the 90s and adapted, nowadays we are very much accustomed to see text even without diacritics and we can still read it without major problems. The issue has a long story and doesn’t make the case of this article.

With time, diacritics and Romanian keyboards have made it to general consumers though and it has been imposed in public administration. We have seen the fights for that and the improvements in the way the Windows OS handles the Romanian diacritics, may it be Vista or fixes to versions prior to Vista.

Yet, there is one more issue that remains. And that is something related to globalization.

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Read the rest of Romanian Diacritics (776 words)

Original Smileys

Andrei Neculau — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 16:57:51 +0000

Back in September 2007, I started to build a common Smiley Theme for the Pidgin Multi-protocol Messenger. The innovation was that it was implementing the original emoticons/smileys of their respective messenger/protocol - Yahoo!, AIM, ICQ, etc.

Today I give it a major push - easy installation and new hosting place.

Messengers/Protocols Supported

Yahoo!
+ access to hidden emoticons
MSN/Live!/WLM
+ access to hidden emoticons
+ support for msn-pecan plugin
AIM
ICQ
Google Talk
+ access to hidden emoticons
+ round emoticons
+ square emoticons
Skype (requires the Skype plugin for Pidgin)
+ access to hidden emoticons
+ support for D-Bus plugin
Sametime
MySpaceIM
Gadu-Gadu
Tlen.pl (thanks to Kasper Wieczorek)
Tencent QQ/Messenger (experimental; looking for feedback!)
Facebook (requires the Facebook Chat plugin for Pidgin)

Latest Version
1.1 (changelog inside the archive - pidgin-original/changelog.txt)

Installation

Download Original Smileys (9813) - 1.89 MB
Open Pidgin, click Tools from the main menu, then Preferences (or simply Ctrl+P in the Pidgin window)
Go to the Smiley Themes tab
Drag and drop the downloaded tgz archive (i.e. pidgin-original-x.x.x.tgz), or click Add and point to the archive
Select Original Smileys from the list, and click OK

If you want to install the smileys for all users, read how to do it in the FAQ section.

You can also take a look at
My Pidgin Setup - Graphics and My Pidgin Setup - Plugins.

Looking forward to your feedback!

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Read the rest of Original Smileys (465 words)