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Justin Frankel of Nullsoft Hacks AIM
Trinition writes "Justin Frankel from Nullsoft, the creators of WinAmp, as gone and hacked away at his new Parent Company's popular AIM service. He's remove the ads. Read the ZDNet article for details." Apparently AOL yanked it from the firehose page, but it's on Zeropaid.Update: 09/22 02:40 AM by H :Thanks to a couple people who pointed out that it is still on firehose.
Personally I find this rather amusing. It seems that nullsoft is trying to cause as much trouble for AOL as possible. You will remember how gnutella was created and then removed by AOL and now this.
I wonder if Frankel and other at nullsoft are trying to see how far AOL will allow them to go, or maybe they are just unhappy with their job at AOL. Most companies have you sign a non-disclosure agreement in regards to the software owned by the company. This would blatently infringe on this contract.
Perhaps Frankel is doing this to get back at AOL for buying his company out (even though it made him rich). To me this course of action doesn't seem logical. It would be like a microsoft employee putting out a free version of a windows like operating system which he based on the windows code.
If ya didn't want grits, wha'd you order breakfast for?
Just goes to show what happens to the bloodflow from wearing a tie around the neck. :-)
;-)
Maybe they could buy an ad on zeropaid
It's all true! ±5%
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
Trolls .. they really whip the llama's ass!
Here's how you disable AIM Advertisements:
Make sure AIM isn't running (not even the icon in the tray). Use notepad to open aim.odl. Scroll down to where there are two sections that have "advert" followed by "required". Remove the word required in both cases, and save the file. Now delete or rename your advert.ocm file (I renamed mine advert.bak). Now start AIM. When you sign on, no more annoying advertisements at the top of your buddy list.
--
$x='S24;r)>63/* h@<5+oZ)32"5cz';$me='phroggy'x$];
$x=~y+ -xz+\0-Tx+;print$_^chop$me for split'',$x;
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Did you even read the artical? They don't make money fromt he ads. All the Ads are AOL advertizements. That's why they don't care if the alternative protocol doesn't have support.
Also, the alternative protocol was NOT made to make up for the fact that the UNIX clients won't have ads. It was made for ease of development, and it actually has a few extra features, like saving/loading your buddy list on the AOL servers, rater than on the local machines. It's not specifically crippled, it's simply a version or two behind because less time is spent working on it. I should have been clearer in my earlier post.
"Evil beware: I'm armed to the teeth and packing a hampster!"
Lex orandi, lex credendi.
When you're done with that, click on my homepage to get a small but effective ad-blocking host file.
They paid Perot $700million to resign his seat on the board, sign a 5-year(?) non-compete, an agreement not to try to hostile takeover GM and they bought all of his shares.
He should have held out for more.
Opinionated Law Student Strikes Again!
It seems like AOL's recent buy-out of Nullsoft is turning out to be quite the thorn in their side. :)
Refrag
I have a website. It's about Macs.
they have, its called Fire.app (search Softrak on stepwise.com for it). Its been around since at least the 1st few releases of Rhapsody. Also, I would just like to say that my friend Greg hacked the AIM for Mac client ages ago, removed the ads. One would think that it would be easy with Mac resource forks and all. unfortunately no, since AIM decompresses its code eac time it starts up (thats why its so damn slow on even the fastest Macs...its basically unstuffing/unzipping its own code). But yes, he removed it and it was nice to have an AIM client that didnt take up so much window realestate :) that was way back in the 1.x or 2.x versions tho
---
"I would say that 99 per cent of what my father has written about his own life is false." - L. Ron Hubbard Jr.
That .5" by .5" square was taking up valuable room which could be used for porn and UT and watching RIAA sanctioned DVD's.
First off, it's firehose.net, not firehouse.net.... secondly, the software is still posted on the webpage, unless I'm hallucinating....
http://www.firehose.net/free/aimazing/
1. He could get fired and sued.
2. He could get promoted and told to "lay off" the special projects
3. He could get "talked to" and fold like a napkin.
Me, I'm guessing he gets promoted.
Dirty Pirate Hooker
Simply put, time spent using non-company resources is your "free time." For instance, if you go home and use a PC that you own to do anything, you own that work (unless the company has a claim to it otherwise [i.e. copyright, it started as a work project, etc]).
Also, depending on the terms of your employment, there are "work hours" for which you get paid (even on salary). If you do non-work-related things outside of "work hours", that would be free time.
Although I bet that some employers would see it differently.
--
We may not imagine how our lives could be more frustrating and complex—but Congress can. – Cullen Hightower
Perception: AOL is for dumb newbies, and AOL's IM client has annoying ads.
So they buy Nullsoft, and get cool hacks like this. We love it, AOL loses nothing (those ads were worthless!), and AIM gets to bask in Winamp's reflected glory.
Reflected glory!!
firehose.net is what you're looking for. firehouse.net is a guy who does security consulting, mostly in a BSD context. A great guy, too. :) (I work with him sometimes.)
;-)
He's getting about a hundred hits a minute off that bogus link. Luckily, he's not a Microsoft guy, or you'd have crashed his system.
My blog: http://www.seebs.net/log/ --- My iPhone/iPad app: http://www.seebs.net/seebsfrac/
Perot sold EDS in 1984 to General Motors for $2.5 billion. He retained ownership in the company, which made him GM's largest individual stockholder and a member of the board of directors. From the start, Perot and GM head Roger Smith quarreled, and Perot criticized the quality of GM automobiles. In 1986, GM bought out Perot's stock for $700 million with the agreement that he could not compete with EDS for three years. Perot ignored the agreement. Two years later, he started a new computer service company, Perot Systems, which operates in the United States and Europe.
"If I have seen further than other men, it is by stepping on their glasses." - Michael Swaine
Hold your friends close, hold your enemies closer
Intelligent: Pay these guys off and assign them something less damaging to their filthy aspirations of world domination
Unintelligent: "Hey! You can't do that, you're fired!" - thus they go beyond the control of their might evil masters and really rip them.
It's all true! ±5%
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
Come on, AOL offers a service, Instant Messenger, which costs them money to maintain and support, for free. The ads allow them to recoup some of their costs.
How does stealing from AOL amount to someone being a 'programmer's hero'?
When is everyone going to get it through their head that most of the services on the internet eventually will not, and cannot continue to be free. You will either have to pay hard cash, or pay with your eyeballs.
-josh
some people have way way too much free time.
This doesn't seem to make the product "Better" in anyway, just gets rid of the annoying ads that help pay for the AIM servers.
Now if he could only get rid of those annoying ads that pay for slashdot.
I'm truly underwhelmed.
The point about these sorts of contracts is to avoid you looking at all the employer's "trade secrets" and figuring out something really whizz-bang using them, and then setting up in direct competition. Many contracts forbid you setting up in direct competition (or working at the direct competition) within 6-12 months of leaving, too.
But what you've got to remember about contracts is that (a) they're legally binding and (b) they are negotiable. Never forget (b) - it's your best friend.
--
It's a
-- Danny Vermin
Or his $86 million dollars...
I could not justify my existence if I were a turkey farmer. Would I terminate myself? Undoubtably, yes.
Are you scared about the merger yet?
Fist Prost
"We're talking about a planet of helpdesks."
Fist Prost
"We're talking about a planet of helpdesks."
-Jaron Lanier
I also got rid of that stupid news ticker with a couple of these:
  ; load_ocm ticker
now if I could only find a way to loose that search bar, I'd be happy
These pretzels are making me thirsty.
They say next that they'll distribute this AIM program via WuFTP and Netscape, two programs that also allow free trading of copyright music files over the Internet. Those pirating bastards!
I'm just trying to protect the artists!
The Other Nate
The Other Nate
Want AIM without ads in Windows? Just use Novell InstantME. http://www.novell.com/download/index.html
ResExcellence has the scoop.
Paul
http://www.nullsoft.com/free/aimazing/
Source code included! Apparently, AOL took it off of Firehouse, but forgot about Nullsoft's own website. Heh heh.
And, just in case they take it off of that website, you can still get it (a slightly older version) from BetaNews, right here:
http://fileforum.efront.com/d etail.php3?fid=968658671
"As for AOL, it says it isn't troubled by the software because it doesn't affect outside advertisers. The Instant Messenger box has two advertising spots, and right now they are being used to promote AOL's service. "Since AIM does not have [paid] ads, this is a moot point," says Tricia Primrose, an AOL spokeswoman."
The article is available for free at MSNBC. Also, here's a screenshot from a link at Zeropaid.
==
www.sitesherpa.com
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Maybe AOL should just hire EDS. AOL is having a problem managing their programmers, and EDS has that cat herding ad...
h tml).
Cat herding: (http://www.adcritic.com/content/eds-cat-herders.
Become a FSF associate member before the low #s are used
Actually, Mozilla.org released the API for AIM, but it got pulled soon afterward. Here is the page where it was and it tells why the API was pulled from the site.
Thank you. Thank you. Please no applause; just throw money
I wonder about this, because the suits try to convince us annually that anything we create belongs to the company. All the employment contracts I've seen try to tie down developers so that the company gets first shot at anything they come up with. I don't know what his contract states, but how many of you working engineers could get away with releasing something to the public and then proclaiming that you did it on your free time?
What is 'free' time when your on salary?
Aah, change is good. -- Rafiki
Yeah, but it ain't easy. -- Simba
THe instant messaging client integrated into netscape 6 also has no advertisements, and they are also a subdivision of AOL, so this isn't a big unique thing...
AOL must be regretting getting Frankel on board the way General Motors came to regret ending up with Ross Perot after acquiring EDS. Maybe Frankel is pursuing the same strategy; GM finally paid Perot huge bucks just to go the hell away and stop making their lives miserable.
"If I have seen further than other men, it is by stepping on their glasses." - Michael Swaine
He didn't just pull the adspace out, he lets you replace the adspace with an oscilloscope from the winamp mp3 you're currently playing. less of a hack than an overlay.
but he does seem to be a 6 million dollar loose cannon. more proof to time warner that the truly gifted are beyond their control?
perhaps.
--
What happens when you outlaw guns
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/* begin remove_ads.c */
}#include <windows.h>
int main(){
Actually, it took longer to format the damn html than to write this. What the hell did slashdot do to the <pre> tag? err.
People have been taking the ads out of the Mac version for quite some time, no code required.
The oscilloscope is, admittedly, a new thing. But I could do that before with a WinAmp plugin (if I used WinAmp, anyway, which I don't).
But geez; first Gnutella and now this. Is this guy trying to make his bosses mad?
Incidentally, AIM has no paid ads; the only ads there advertise AOL's own stuff. So he hasn't damaged revenues at all, since the ads don't pay for anything AOL does.
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Yeah, those priestly types can really get out of hand... ;)
;): "Notise up at..."
Oh, and BTW, your comment is a prime example of the pot calling the kettle black
-- Dr. Eldarion --
he replaced the AOL ad with a _winamp_ad_ !!
and it's promoting both winamp and AOL instead of just AOL..
so like everybody is still happy..
no wonder they let him do it..
It's much easier to reply to the parent than to all the "but they are only aol ads" or "but they allow free *nix clients" or other people objecting to this post, so, I am.
I bring you a dictionary definition:
loss leader (lôs ldr) -- n. -- A commodity offered especially by a retail store at cost or below cost to attract customers.
AIM is, in a sense, a loss leader. They provide the service free of charge in order to get more people using the service. The ads may be only AOL ads, but they do get money when someone signs up.
AIM has another loss leaderish aspect. "Look how good this product is, and imagine how great the whole service must be!" Sure, that doesn't apply to the TiK using group (and other flavors), but it does to the geek's friends. (I'll refrain from posting the definition of "friend.") One doesn't lose the ability to "talk" with TiK using buddies when they sign up for AOL.
Oh, and my Win AIM client just put up an ad for th is page, which seems not to be an AOL site. But that has nothing to do with the idea of AIM being a loss leader.
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is the fact that so many on /. are such l33t hax0rs and have an intimate knowledge of AOL instant messenger, that they know of multiple ways to hack it.
w/m
This software could be considered a circumvention-mechanism under the DMCA, violating AOL's intellectual-property rights to its ads. I'd be very wary, if I were Justin Frankel.
Here's another program that actually hides the ads (resizes your aim window smaller). It's also open sourced.
win32aimad
Actually, AOL has ported their normal AIM client to Linux - it's available in beta, and works OK though I reverted to Gaim for reasons I can't remember any more...
Yahoo Messenger is also available on Linux as well - quite weird having these official versions coming out...
It isn't Firehouse, it is FireHOSE.net
The software can be found at Firehose.net/free
-Davidu
# Hack the planet, it's important.
There's a contest here on Slashdot. Every time you get a first post, it sends an e-mail to CmdrTaco. He tabulates all of the first posts every week and if you win, you get a point. At the end of the contest, the person with the most points wins a bowl of hot grits, signed by CmdrTaco himself! If you get 100 first posts, Natalie Portman personally pours the hot grits down your pants!
I'm on a chair.
Like that "written in his spare time" comment. Almost all "spare time" progects I've seen were written during work hours. Man I wish I had his job, or his boss.
"Science is about ego as much as it is about discovery and truth " - I said it, so sue me.
The url was not firehouse.net but firehose.net and the plugin is available freely at firehose.net/free/ or nullsoft.com/free/ no one knows how to read these days.