Yahoo! Messenger status message length

There was a recent change in Yahoo! Messenger’s status message length, reducing the maximum number of characters from 250 to 40. Sarah Bacon, the Product Manager for Yahoo! Messenger, explains on their team blog that “it was an inadvertent change and [they]’re working now on rolling it back to what it was (250 character max).”

So, be patient folks!

Update: The issue had already been fixed, as mentioned by Product Manager Sarah Bacon on the comments. For those who still can’t create status messages longer than 40 characters, please restart Yahoo! Messenger for the fix to take effect.

Your next computer might be your very own coffeetable.

 

Microsoft unveils Surface, its surface computing technology. Is it cool, or IS IT COOL?

BEWARE: Malware posing as Windows product activation

On an entry posted on the Windows Genuine Advantage blog, the WGA team warned of a trojan posing as a Windows product activation dialog. It targets all flavors of Windows XP.

The trojan is Trojan.Kardphisher [Symantec]. When the dialog is displayed, it asks for your credit card information, which if you do not provide (by pressing Cancel), your computer will be shutdown immediately.

 

While not a technically sophisticated approach, this Trojan relies on a social engineering tactic to trick consumers into providing credit card and other personal data. Because of situations like this Microsoft recommends that people be very cautious about revealing personal and financial information online. When in doubt, customers can learn more about our activation and validation programs at Microsoft.com (www.microsoft.com/genuine or www.microsoft.com/howtotell ) or call Microsoft’s customer service line directly (800) MICROSOFT (642-7676). You can also head over to www.microsoft.com/protect, which includes info on how to protect yourself from this type of online threat.

Trying out Microsoft Virtual PC 2007

I’ve downloaded a copy of Microsoft Virtual PC 2007 (which is free, by the way) and installed Windows 98 onto a virtual machine. I missed that operating system. I can’t believe how fast it ran on only 40MB of allocated RAM (by comparison, Windows XP demands at least 128MB of RAM to run as smoothly).

Hey, I missed that bluescreen thing too! Oh, yes. It bluescreened. It’s during times like this that you somehow appreciate the stability of the NT kernel, the one used in Windows NT, 2000, XP and Vista (tidbit: XP is NT Version 5.1, while Vista is NT Version 6). I’m glad they scrapped that buggy 9x kernel long ago.

Philippine Windows Vista Launch

Windows Vista will be officially launched in the Philippines on February 3, 2007, based from an email newsletter I received from Microsoft Philippines. The said launch will happen at SM Mall of Asia.

BSU and Stadium on Google Earth

Wow, Google Earth’s satellite data seems to have been updated recently, because now I can see Batangas City clearly. Just a couple of months ago, I was not able to see the city because it was under the clouds.

Get ready for a new day.

Windows Vista released for businesses and Software Assurance customers.

I can hardly wait for the retail release on January!