Microsoft have recently done their best to become resurgent to some degree; and one of the new innovations as it were is an update to Windows Live Writer. This new version is installed by a new version of Windows Live Installer, which also offers a new and updated version of Windows Live Messenger as well as Windows Live Sign in Assistant.

Although I’d heard reports that the beta versions “sucked”; I tried a download to one of my comps when I noticed that a final retail version of the new WL Messenger was advertised in my Hotmail account. On clicking the link I wasn’t surprised to see that a new WL Installer loaded.

When this was activated I noticed that the softies had added Parental Controls to the choice of programs. I myself didn’t need any parental controls as my computers are never used by non-adults, so I didn’t bother with them and therefore have no idea how good or otherwise they are.

I did install the new WL messenger, Sign-in Assistant, and Writer though. I haven’t actually properly used the new messenger, although I have had a look at it and I am impressed by the sleeker look and the curviness of it: It appears more feminine as far as style is concerned. It also has a much gentler notification sound: Something softer and noticeable, rather than a harsh “DING!” that makes me jump out of my skin if I’m not expecting it. 

One thing I did notice, on the flipside of that, is that after installation it returns to the default blue. – Which is a lighter blue than before. I didn’t try it out for long; but during the 10 minutes or so I was messing about with it, I didn’t find anything that allowed me to change the colour back to pink, as I usually have it.

Hopefully it’s not operational on the Rubik’s-Cube principle: The longer you play with it, the harder it gets. ( – Yes I am aware of exactly what some of you are thinking about at this juncture. )

Anyway; rather than mess with Messenger at that point, I decided I’d rather write with Writer: -

Once again a nice curvaceously styled GUI; which actually this time did retain its previous pink tone. In fact it enhanced it somewhat. On this module I immediately noticed the colour-settings icon, not that I needed it in this case. The GUI is much the same as the old GUI but with a much sleeker appearance, It also uses the term “blog” rather than “weblog”, which is something that used to annoy me: Like OK it’s called a BLOG. I know that it’s an abbreviated version of the word “weblog”; but please don’t try to sound clever…Plus you’re just confusing people who aren’t aware of that.

What else has changed? Ooh lots; more than I have room or time to tell you all about here. One more main point though; and something quite important, a bug-fix from the previous version: - __________________ <——– I snagged this pic from cybernews.com . I thought it was rather creative to be frank. I don’t know whether it’s a Microsoft original or a creation by the aforementioned. Credit to the creator whichever.

When using the last version I’d alternate views between Web View and Text a lot. – Because I write and edit my articles partly in web-preview and partly in html. That was fine, but with the last version I’d have to ensure everything was finished totally and ready to be posted to blog before I inserted a Google Adwords advertisment in html. The reason for that was that if I inserted a Google Adwords ad in html and then switched back to Web View from Text it appeared initially that nothing was wrong. However if I then uploaded it to blog or returned to Text view the Adwords ad had multiplied. Every time I switched between Text and Web View it multiplied again!

This bug has now been fixed; and I can now change between “Edit” as it is now labelled, (Microsoft love to be as confusing as possible.) and “Source” as it is now known. (Ditto.) Everything else seems to work as before. It’s retained the add-ons from the previous version, and, after a single session getting used to the new look, I must say that I prefer it to the old one.

‘Would love to tell you more, but don’t have all day and night to write. I thought I’d just squeeze this post of a few notes into my blog-writing session, before I get on with other things.

Do try out the new Windows Live apps for yourself. Yesterday (10th January 2009) the latest WL apps weren’t exactly easy to find on Google: Everything led back to the older WL Installer with its previous versions. – But it’s there somewhere.

Do leave a comment and let me know what you think.

I was checking my email earlier when I saw an interesting article on a new type of social-network worm:

“Security company ESET’s analysis of Win32/Inject.NBL reveals it to be an interesting piece of malware.” “This instant messaging-based bot has the following functions built into it:

• download
• update
• rm
• msn.msg
• msn.stop
• aim.msg
• aim.stop
• triton.msg
• triton.stop

In other words, it can download files, update itself, remove itself, and send messages through MSN Messenger, AIM and Triton, spreading itself on those networks. This is a nice chunk of functionality.”

What next – A virus that decides whether it likes you or not? Are viruses becoming more intelligent? The first viruses were more an annoyance than anything else; soon to be followed by the destructive type of virus that lurks on your system undetected until its clock reaches zero-hour and it delivers harmful payloads that wreak havoc with your machine. Around the same time they were equipped with their own SMTP engines, enabling them to mail themselves as an attachment to a bogus email-message on the internet to any email addresses that they could find on the host machine…You know the story.

Not long ago appeared the network-aware variety of virus that actively sought out unprotected paths in cyberspace to infest anything from individual computers to entire networks: The first signs of intelligence.

Nowadays worms are infecting individual machines and adding them to a collective, using those collectives as botnets to launch mass DDOS attacks, send and relay spam and [illegal] porn.

As computers develop in sophistication, will we one day see independent malevolent data-entities roaming the web, looking for a computer to possess and set up home in, like some form of information-based AI? In my opinion it’s not that far off being a future reality given the right circumstances. Could our computers eventually at a future date become a separate living collective entity – Life; but not as we know it? Maybe it’s already starting to happen?
Is “Skynet” only a piece of science fiction from the Terminator series; or will some similar lifeform eventually evolve? Will that lifeform be malevolent? In my estimation, if it actually did happen, probably not; given that it would have access to nearly all of human knowledge and be able to devise intelligent and productive concepts for itself from that information. Without doubt it would probably be hard to live with; particularly initially, but I feel that soon certain people would befriend it and it would learn from them as well as they from it. Could such an entity become a new “god” that lives in cyberspace? Would there be a Cyber-Fundamentalist cult? What are your thoughts on this?