Looking for a web messenger of Windows Messenger? Or better yet, one that works with the Wii’s internet browser? Messenger FX, http://www.messengerfx.com/, has you covered. This nifty website allows you to control a lookalike of MSN Messenger, complete with rearrangeable and maximizable windows.

As the above image says, “You can use your MSN® Messenger account for login.  Your passwords encrypted with 1024-bit RSA keys.” I’ve been using this site for quite some time, and can ensure that it does not harvest and steal passwords.

As seen above, you can change your font, font color, do bolds/italics/underlines, add users, change your status, etc. All windows are fully draggable and resizable.

All in all, MessengerFX is pretty much bug-free. One noticeable bug on the wii is that you must wait several seconds after you log on before being able to send messages. This bug doesn’t seem to affect computer users. (that I know of)

http://www.messengerfx.com/

Rating - 8/10. Comparable to Meebo’s windows messenger. Better than most other web messengers.

Related Web Messengers: Meebo http://meebo.com, Windows Web Messenger http://webmessenger.msn.com

Also known as a WebOS. What are these, you ask? WebOS is, basically, a virtual operating system that runs in your web browser. It’s a set of applications meant to mimic a computer OS. (think Windows XP) Quite useful when using your Wii’s internet channel.

I’ve managed to try a few, cover a few, view a few.  Below will be a review of some of the better ones.

YouOS

(https://www.youos.com/)

As far as functionality is concerned, this one is a real winner. There are several thousand different applications you can choose to install to your OS. (by browsing a list) By default, the client comes with web browsers, an RSS feed reader, trash bin, chat software, a word processor, and several other programs. The applications can be moved accross the desktop, and the interface works similarly to Linux. You can set desktop wallpapers, drag items to the trash bin, etc.

The OS definitely lacks in the design department; everything is rather bland. The main point to this webOS is its functionality. Additional programs such as paint, games, and IM clients can be installed.

Rating - 9/10

Additional:

Best online operating system so far, as far as functionality and diversity goes.
Works with the Wii Internet Channel.

OOS

(http://oos.cc)

OOS is designed to mimic Windows XP. And it does a damn good job–albeit a simple one. There’s not much in the way of applications here. You’re given an extremely simple file browser, internet browser, word processor, notepad, music player, PDF viewer, and calculator. Not much in the way of functionality, but the interface is great.

Rating - 7/10  Not many applications, great design.

Additional:

Does not work with the Wii’s Internet Channel.

So! We got bored in class today, during poetry recitation, and I started doing a parody of The Raven (Edgar Allan Poe) regarding cheese curls. Yes. Cheese curls.
The results of what happened may be found here.

The Cheese Curls
(parody of The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe)

Once upon a midnight dreary, while I ate my cheese curls,
Over many a quantity and crunchy bag of cheese curls,
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my cheese curls.
`’Tis some rat,’ I muttered, `tapping at my cheese curls -
Only my cheese curls, and nothing more.’

Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December,
And each separate dying cheese curl wrought its cheese upon the floor.
Eagerly I wished the morrow; - vainly I had sought to borrow
From my cheese curls surcease of sorrow - sorrow for the lost Lenore -
For the rare and radiant cheese curl whom the angels named Lenore -
Nameless here for evermore.

And the silken sad uncertain rustling of each purple cheese curl,
Thrilled me - filled me with fantastic flavors never tasted before;
So that now, to still the growls of my belly, I stood eating
`’Tis some mouse entreating entrance at my bag of cheese curls -
Some late mouse entreating entrance at my bag of cheese curls; -
This it is, and nothing more,’

Presently my hunger grew stronger; hesitating then no longer,
‘Rat,’ said I, `or Mouse, truly your forgiveness I implore;
But the fact is I was eating, and so gently you came beating,
And so faintly you came repeating, beating at my cheese curls,
That I scarce was sure I heard you’ - here I opened wide the bag -
Darkness there, and nothing more.

Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there hungry, fearing,
Doubting, dreaming of cheese curls no mortal ever dared to dream before
But the silence was unbroken, and the darkness gave no token,
And the only word there spoken was the whispered word, `Cheese!’
This I whispered, and an echo murmured back a word, `Curls!’
Merely this and nothing more.

More may be posted later, at the parody poem’s permanent page.

Amazingly enough, I got Super Smash Brothers Brawl today. This is great, yes? Yes. I’ve tested the game out, and as far as I’m concerned, this a league better than Melee (In comparison, Melee was perfection. What does that make Brawl…?)

I won’t write a review, exactly, but I will say this:

Graphics 9/10 - The graphics are all very polished and crisp. Everything is vibrant. Possibly one of the best wii games I’ve seen yet. Backgrounds to stages are just… Christ. For screenshots of the game, visit IGN’s Brawl Images.

Gameplay 10/10 - Imagine Melee but faster, larger, better. More items, more fields, more characters, more diversity, more _____. The core gameplay is still the same, which is a good thing. You are now given four different ways to play: the wiimote, the wiimote and nunchuck, classic controller, and gamecube controller.
Music 10/10 - The music is godlike. Really. Go download the 314 track OST if you’d like to hear, or visit SSB Dojo. Tracks range from the original scores to new ones that have been remastered or orchestrated.

Sound 9/10 - Sound effects fit perfectly. Each item’s sound effect is taken from the original game.
Online Play 7/10 - Online is a very nice addition but has issues. (more on this below)
Extras 9/10 - New coin launcher game is amazing; the addition of classic games as well as all of the new features are great addons to the Melee formula. Subspace Emissary is DEFINITELY welcome.

Online play is slightly dissappointing in my case. I use a Wifi connection, and the game lags horribly on large fields. Smaller fields happen to do nice, with only a fraction of a delay when you press a button. I’d recommend hooking the wii up directly to the internet via a wired connection, this should greatly reduce your lagtime. Lag at this time could also be because of the huge strain caused by the mass amount of people connecting to their servers.

Subspace Emissary sortof adds a “storyline” to Brawl, which was lacking previous games in the series. It does its job well, topping out around 4 to 5 hours of gameplay. Cutscenes in this are also well made, the CG is stunning; the only problem is the 10 second delay to wait on said cutscene to load.

Overall, Brawl is very well polished. I’d recommend it to anyone that owns a Wii, srsly.

If you’d like to join me in a match, post a comment below with your Brawl friendcode.

Mine is: 1805-2072-8762.
Username: Syl.

And of course, my preferred character among them all:

WordPress.com (the free and official hosting provider of WordPress blogging software) have updated their administration/dashboard software. When I logged into my blog today, I was immediately taken by shock. It looked so much cleaner. The front page now displays statistics of your blogs in a more orderly fashion, and is overly satisfying.

WordPress Dashboard’s New Look
 

WYSIWYG Editor - Almost every page has been improved in some way. One of the neatest new upgrades, as far as old features being improved goes, is the WYSIWYG editor. The new one doesn’t mess with the HTML code, and does a great job of doing, basically, what you want it to do. You can now add media (video, images, songs) quickly.

Friendlier visual post editor — I’m not sure how to articulate this improvement except to say “it doesn’t mess with your code anymore.” We’re now using version 3.0 of TinyMCE, which means better compatibility with Safari, and we’ve paid particular attention this release to its integration and interaction with complex HTML. It also now has a “no-distractions” mode which is like Writeroom for your browser.

WYSIWYG Editor’s New Look
 

     

Gallery - In addition to this, a new code, [*gallery] (without the *), will place all of your images into a clickable gallery with caption displays. As the official update says:

Built-in galleries — when you take advantage of multi-file upload to upload a bunch of photos, we have a new shortcode that lets you to easily embed galleries by just putting [ gallery] (without the space) in your post. It’ll display all your thumbnails and captions and each will link each to a page where people can comment on the individual photos.

Besides the obvious [*gallery] code, there are a few secrets to it as shown here: http://codex.wordpress.org/Using_the_gallery_shortcode

Example of Gallery:

      

All in all, this was quite a warm welcome to an already amazing blog host. If you haven’t already, take a look at WordPress’s new features. (obviously, this requires an account, as you have to log in to reach the dashboard)

You can read the official post here.

Comment on this post, Email Me.

Google’s Virgle:

http://www.google.com/virgle/index.html

An invitation.

      

The Legend of Zelda: The Movie (IGN)

http://movies.ign.com/articles/863/863492p1.html

World of Warcraft: Bard Class Unveiled

http://wow-europe.com/wrath/features/bard/bardclass.xml

World of Warcraft: Molten Core

http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/moltencore/

So I herd u liek ?

Well, it’s been several months since KKRO Niflheim (http://sylvaron.wordpress.com/kkro/serverinfo/ for more info) went down. Recently, there was a poll on a revival, in which, if we got 20 votes saying yes, Magus (our admin) would bring the server back. This was done, and Niflheim is being planned for a rerelease.

Visit http://kgamers.com/forums for more info on this.

—–

I’ve been working quite a lot with Photoshop lately, a screenshot is posted below of my current desktop:

If you also want the actual wallpaper that I made, I’ve included it below:

———

Memento Mori Forums has been pretty active lately, since its recent revival (On Feb 28, 2008). Not many new members, yet, however. If you’d like to join, please register.

That pretty much concludes this multi-update post.

Edit: Also, I’m working on a website for the forums/this blog. If you’d like to see an early, under construction version, visit here: http://mm.synced.org

Testing out Windows Live Writer’s abilities. Pretty spiffy so far, works wonderfully with WordPress.

Update: I’ve created an RODiary (Ragnarok Online Blog) here http://www.rodiary.com/sylvaron/

Ok, ok. I haven’t posted an entry in quite a while. Note to self, express random emotions in text every Wednesday via means of blogging.

Updates on the “Story”

I’ve finished five chapters so far, which, as can be seen, have not been posted to their proper pages. This shall be done… say, eventually. Quite. I’m a major procrastinator. The names of the chapters are already given here, along with links to their pages, which are blank. I’ve set up a system of backward and forward links on each page, which pretty seemlessly transfer you between pages; unless you’ve a dialup connection.

Updates to the Blog Itself

Often, pages are left to rot after I create them, but I’ve updated the KKRO Ragnarok server’s information pages; as around two weeks ago, the dearly beloved Niflheim server was taken offline– permanently.  Memento Mori. More pages will be added, probably random ones, as I go along.

Wooh, passed the math and science portions (all I took this year).  Just three more left to go. Besides that, I’m taking the PSAT tomorrow.

And, eventually this week I’m going to get my permit, since I’m now in Driver’s Ed class (and going to fail miserably at it, I suck at driving).

Time Period: Friday, October 12th - Monday, October 15th.

Friday’s entry

Parties galore. We had “Food Research” in Health class. It’s a friday, weekend after this. It’s -also- my birthday. <3 Hope Audrey had a nice time, she was out of school while I wasn’t. In history, all we really did was take a short test and then watch a movie (JOE DIRT o_o;), “Food Research” in Health was great, I listened to my mp3 player during that block, mostly. Heading to 4th block in thirty minutes from the time of this writing. I believe my birthday party is gonna be tomorrow, I’ll find out when I get home. No one’s really able to come over on a Friday because of work and the like. Btw, in my story I’ve gotten some… three chapters done, I think? It’s going well so far. Bland, but well. I’ll be fixing it up. Oh! Assassin’s Creed = amazing. I watched a few previews/videos on it. I’ll probably never be able to play it, though. It’s coming out on the PS3/Xbox 360/PC. Audrey loves it, I’m pretty sure her computer’ll be able to run it.

Saturday/Sunday Entry

Well, we had the party on Friday, as I did -not- expect. If you can call it a party. I wasn’t really around much, and we didn’t do much. >_> Sweet 16? Neh. I got like, 50 bucks. Not all that great, not all that bad. No presents, but I’m not really in need of anything (other than a laptop? ;;).

Monday Entry

I felt so good when I woke up this morning, for some reason. This weekend has been great. <3

Accounting, bleh. We had to do a bunch of stuff in front of the class involving transactions and the like. Oddly enough, I’m always nervous before I get in front of the class to do something or speak, but after I’m done I feel refreshed.

Boredom causes you to fill out stupid forms.

 Starting the Survey…. Please wait while this random piece of text boots up.

1. Were you smiling when you woke up this morning?
Actually, for once, yes.

2. When was the last time you met someone new?
Don’t remember.

3. What is irritating you right now?
The fact that I’m doing this survey.

4. When did you last eat pizza?
Weeks ago.

5. Who is the last person you held hands with?
Too long ago to remember.

6. How many text messages are in your inbox?
None.

7. What’s the furthest distance you’ve gone in the past 3 days?
My regular school route.

8. What does the sixth message in your inbox say?
To stop reading this.

9. Have you ever kissed anyone named Michelle?
No…?

10. Besides your bed, what is your favorite thing in your room?
Nintendo Wii.

11. Do you enjoy piercings and tattoos?
No.

12. Who is in the room with you?
Tons of people, I’m in a classroom.

13. What are you wearing on your feet?
Socks and shoes.

14. What is/are your favorite pair of shoes?
The ones on my feet.

15. Who was the last person you told you loved them?
Audrey.

16. Do you get along with your parents?
Sometimes.

17. What were you doing before this?
Going to school.

18. What’s the closest item near you that is blue?
My binder.

19. What instant messaging service do you use?
MSN.

20. Favorite website?
IGN.

21. What’s the most abnormal thing you’ve done in the past 4 days?
I wish I could say.

22. What do you wear more, jeans or sweatpants?
Jeans.

23. What is the last movie you watched?
The Bleach movie.

24. What do you currently hear right now?
People talking.

25. When did you last buy a pair of pants?
Months ago.

26. When did you last take a picture with someone?
Months ago.

27. Where’s your favorite place to be?
The internet. Oh, wait.

28. Where did you sleep last?
Bed.

29. Where do you shop the most?
The store. Gasp.

30. Where did you get the shirt you’re wearing?
Dun remember.

32. Where was your default picture taken? (on myspace)
It’s an anime image.

33. Who are you talking to on aim?
Not on AIM.

34. Are you happy with where you are?
Somewhat.

35. Would you ever take someone back if they cheated on you?
No.

36. Who is your best friend?
Audrey.

37. Plans for today?
Talk.

38. Who is your number one and two person on your friends list?
Can’t remember/don’t care. Numbering isn’t important.

39. What’s the story behind your headline?
Skree.

40. Describe your dream car?
Something that gets me places…. safely.

41. Describe the background on your cell phone.
What’s a cell phone?

42. Can you roll your tongue?
Yes.

43. Are you ready for school?
Yes.

44. Where do you live?
Alabama. Bessemer.

47. Describe what you’re wearing.
A preppy shirt that also happens to have a skull on it. And blue jeans.

49. Do you like candles?
I don’t mind them.

50. Do you sleep naked?
… no?

51. Is there someone on your mind that shouldn’t be?
No.

52. Do you burn easily in the sun?
No.

53. Do you speak another language besides English?
Hablo espanol.

54. What did you do last weekend?
What I do every weekend.

55. Who were the last people you went out to dinner with?
Parents.

There’s no telling how many of these I’ve started up. Hopefully WordPress will fill my wishes for a more “perfect” blogging system. I’ve got like three weblogs currently up, one on myspace, one on an IPB board (IP.Blog), and one on Blogger. So far, this place seems pretty nice. <3 *gets to work customizing it*

 Old blog entries can be found on my Kgamers blog.