If like me, you find yourself juggling multiple messenger applications to keep your friends, family and colleagues happy you will be glad to hear about Pidgin. Formally known as Gaim, Pidgin is an open-source messaging program that allows the simultaneous use of multiple instant messenger services through one application.

Available as a free of charge download from www.pidgin.im, this small program supports 17 networks including favourites AOL, MSN and Yahoo as well some lesser known ones such as Jabber and Gadu-Gadu. Additional chat clients such as Skype and the Facebook Chat tool can be added through the use of freely available third party plugins which are easily located on the Pidgin site.

Once installed, simply select the type of account you want to add (for example a Google Talk account) along with your user name and password. Any of your contacts from that account that are currently online will automatically appear in the buddies list and you can begin chatting straight away. Not only does this offer the distinct advantage that you don’t need to switch between several applications if you have contact with friends on multiple networks but it also cuts down on the resource requirements of having multiple chat services running on one machine.

Along with being cross compatible with different networks, the Pidgin application is also available for many different Operating Systems; as well as the obvious Windows version, the developers have provided support for Solaris, SkyOS, Qtopia, UNIX, Linux and even the AmigaOS.

All the standard features you would come to expect such as contact organiser, custom smileys, file transfers and group chats are present. The only slight criticism that I would have is that it doesn’t support video and voice chat however my assumption is that these protocols are difficult to integrate in to an application that has been designed to be compatible with dozens of networks and half a dozen different Operating Systems. Hopefully this lack of functionality will be addressed in future releases.

Pidgin is completely customisable; the preferences dialog box provides an area where you can define every conceivable option including the interface, sounds, network connection, chat logging and your default availability status. In terms of appearance you can also change the font type, size and colour, formatting along with installing new themes which change the appearance of smileys and status icons. An additional option to install themes in order to change the actual user interface would be welcome as the default interface may be a little dull and unintuitive for some users.

youtube.jimmyr.com to request tutorials pidgin.im also see Miranda instant messenger go to start – run – msconfig or if on windows 98, start – run – services.exe and find YahooMessenger, AIM, MSN and disable the services from starting up. %%software

This video shows 5 things one can do with a yellow dog linux install on their ps3. After making numerous videos showing various gaming perks of yellow dog I figured I would show some other advantages of having linux on your ps3. The five things: 1. Ipod compatibility playback in YDL 2. Surf the net with Firefox and Opera 3. Bittorrent 4. A little work (open office) 5. Playback formats unsupported by sony OS There are a number of other things you can do as well just check out my other videos. If you want to try Linux on your PS3 then check out this guide; www.fileden.com other videos; PS3 and Yellow Dog Linux coexisting w FAQ www.youtube.com PS3 running SNES, Genesis, TG-16, NES www.youtube.com PS3 Stream Shoutcast Yellow Dog Linux www.youtube.com PS3 Yellow Dog Linux Youtube www.youtube.com PS3 running MAME in yellow dog linux www.youtube.com

The best way to lag your computer by downloading messenger after messenger, one program for all you messengers including yahoo, google, aim, my space, Hotmail/msn and some I have never even heard of

Are you chatting a lot from different PCs? Tired of losing your conversation history every time you switch computers? Access your chat history for any instant messenger, from any PC, anywhere in the world with a free service!

If you ever interrupt an important conversation or a friendly chat and want to catch up later, you can now have access to what was previously said, making it easy to restart a conversation from where it stopped. You can access it thanks to the built-in conversation history features of your favorite instant messenger, such as ICQ or MSN Messenger. Your conversations are stored on the hard drive of your computer for your future reference.

But what if you are away from your home computer? Or, what if you chat on several different PCs? In that case, you would have parts of your conversation history stored on different computers, which causes all kinds of problems from simple inconvenience to invasion of your privacy and security leaks. Using your work computer for chatting, when allowed by employers, is particularly prone to this problem. The worst part is that you cannot even synchronize those PCs to have one solid conversation history as this operation is not on the list of most instant messengers!

Keep your conversation history always accessible and save your chat history online with a new service! IM-HISTORY stores your instant messages on secure dedicated servers, and provides easy online access to your chat history from anywhere in the world.

IM-HISTORY (http://www.im-history.com) supports all popular instant messengers, including ICQ, MSN Messenger, Miranda IM, QIP, Skype, Trillian, and Yahoo! Messenger. IM-HISTORY client is easy to install and configure. It detects supported instant messengers automatically, and offers you an option to upload your existing contacts and conversations online. Install IM-HISTORY on all PCs you use for chatting, and consolidate all contacts and scattered conversation parts into a single, solid online archive that is easy to access from any computer. IM-HISTORY stores your sensitive data securely, and provides real-time, 24/7 online access to your information.

Are you using more than one account, or even several different instant messengers? IM-HISTORY provides an option to consolidate all your accounts from all supported instant messengers into a single, easy to access online archive.

IM-HISTORY is here to stay. In the nearest future, it will support even more instant messengers, including AOL Instant Messenger (AIM), GTalk, IChat, Kopete, Pidgin (Gaim), and other popular products. Soon you’ll be able to access your message history from mobile platforms too – imagine using your mobile phone for chatting, and seeing what you said when chatting on a PC!

IM-HISTORY does for the first time what many have been dreaming of. With no real alternatives, there’s just no doubt that any serious IM user would want to have IM-HISTORY on their PC. IM-HISTORY is absolutely free, so download your copy now from http://www.im-history.com and have greater chatting convenience wherever you go!

Pidgin is the one-stop shop IM client. And it’s free. We’ll show you where to get it and how to set it up. A Internet tutorial by butterscotch.com.