The end of MSN

[Rohugh]

Just running the Skype chat windows I don't see any ads?

[dark_moon]

You can simple disable the ads in the skype options

[Moonchild]

You can simple disable the ads in the skype options

You'll have to tell me where then, because I don't see it anywhere in the options. (And "Microsoft targeted" has already been disabled, but that only disables the use of profile data, not the ads)

[dark_moon]

Options -> Privacy -> last 3 checkboxes
Options -> Information -> the two checkboxes

And i set in IE all security settings to maximum. But don't know if this help. Anyway i don't have any ads in Skype

[Rohugh]

This is what my Skype windows look like and I do have the Microsoft targeted ads box still checked. I sign in using my outlook.com address. Odd.

[dark_moon]

My skype: http://s.gullipics.com/image/s/p/l/5yz2 ... /skype.png
Don't use outlook.com

[Moonchild]

I don't have Options -> Information.
When I have a chat open with a contact, I don't see ads either.
When I don't have a chat open, and whenever I place a voice or video call, they show - and they used to close after like 5-10 minutes, automatically, but now they stay open for over an hour, switching ads regularly.
Maybe it's because I haven't given them a dime yet

[dark_moon]

Hmm i just translate this. Maybe the wrong translation ^^
But you can find this under options. And like i say: Maybe it helps if you set the IE settings to max

[Rohugh]

I don't have Options -> Information.
When I have a chat open with a contact, I don't see ads either.When I don't have a chat open, and whenever I place a voice or video call, they show -

Ah, I don't use voice or video so maybe that's why I haven't seen them.

[Apollo702]

Yahoo messenger was an old standby for years but everyone who has used it knows about it's problems. It was getting steadily better but the final straw was when it started spying on us to harvest our data. I would urge switching to Pidgin. It is open-sourced, doesn't spy on us. It can log into any IM network and it can encrypt messages. It has a ( so-so) plugin catalog and it appears to be far less buggy. Perhaps it's biggest drawback is it's picture sharing capability is inferior.

As far as Skype I held onto it for years because it was the standard- and since I have been away from civilization for a while I simply didn't have as many people to talk to online- and the few who I could were technophobes who would flip out at the very mention of the word "Skype"- That meant that I held on too long because I simply didn't get to really test it out enough.

What I did find was the install process was a royal pain, it was buggy as hell, it refuses to shut off without using the task manager to drive a stake through it's heart- and then there is the dealkiller: It spies on us too! Every word we say on it is being harvested and analyzed! Orwell was just a little early when he chose the year 1984... It is critical to know that voice analysis is already here and there are text transcripts of every unencrypted conversation.

I am still looking for an alternative and my search is starting here: http://alternativeto.net/software/skype/ Naturally, open sourced programs will be the best place to start. If the programs come from spy companies their motivation is clear as day.

[Moonchild]

I gave Pidgin an honest try after they moved to that after "gaim", and it's painfully obvious a Linux-sourced program, with windows implementation being both kludgy and buggy (at least it has been for me), and visually doesn't integrate well (IMHO).

I've moved to Trillian, and I will stick to it. It's not open source, but it is free for use on all the major networks (and for a modest fee you get a perpetual license - none of that annual junk - to have it fully extensible with plugins and adding video/audio). And that's truly free, no ads.
I do promote open source, but it seems this is one area where open source alternatives fall short (trust me, I tried just about all of them) - probably because of the massive amount of work involved in a multi-network IM client.
I've since been able to also integrate Skype in it, which thankfully gives me a normal, good way to use Skype IM just like any other IM service. I'm using version 4 since I prefer the interface of it, but apparently Skype integration is done even better in the current version of it. So... bonus?

EDIT: Seems they added both an annual and a lifetime subscription, so... you can choose, if you want to go Pro

[lyceus]

After Moonchild told me to move to trillian, if not perfect is way better than pidgin and miranda. I was a huge fan of miranda but their main trouble is the "assemble it as you need" feature, from icons to tabbed windows, all decent feature is a component that have their own knobs and twists. I had a "perfect" install until they came with the last branch and several plugins and add-on were broken.

[Apollo702]

Has anyone here had any experience with Skype replacements? I have been buried with other things and that one has been on the backburner.

As far as Pidgin goes I haven't run into too many serious bugs although I also did quickly feel that it felt very "ported" from Linux. I did attempt to offer some ideas for improvement though. One example is the buzz button is right next to the smilie button and both icons sure look alike. I think it is a good program- but I can't help but wonder if it will suffer from emails central problem. Is there enough incentive for someone to come up with greatness?

[Apollo702]

Please forgive the 2 posts in a row on the old topic but this is rather significant. Microsoft purchased Skype and there are big plans to improve the ability to spy on calls. For more on the subject check this out: http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2012/11/19/dennis_chang_s_voip_pal_aims_to_help_law_enforcement_monitor_skype_other.html

[lyceus]

Please forgive the 2 posts in a row on the old topic but this is rather significant. Microsoft purchased Skype and there are big plans to improve the ability to spy on calls. For more on the subject check this out: http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2012/11/19/dennis_chang_s_voip_pal_aims_to_help_law_enforcement_monitor_skype_other.html

Well I don't have the formula for CocaCola, but M$ will monitor what I say on skype for more mundane things like trying to sell me things, then is a good sign to move elsewhere and find other way to chat with people that prefer be in M$ hands.

Now in your question so far no, it seems that the move to skype is also for beat all the "bootleg" clients that hangs on MSN line. :/

[lyceus]

I actually use Pidgin as several chat clients can be used through it, no ads and it resides quietly in the system tray.

We are aware of pidgin, trillian, miranda and other clients. The point is that most of them rely to install the official client since some DLLs are not open or the client cannot replicate some features. I use trillian and miranda, but for some reason only the official client of MSN can send and receive files without troubles.

[Apollo702]

Well I don't have the formula for CocaCola, but M$ will monitor what I say on skype for more mundane things like trying to sell me things, then is a good sign to move elsewhere and find other way to chat with people that prefer be in M$ hands.

Here is an example of why we should limit the outflow of information and then I will post some other practical information. Go to this site and see how accurate it is for you. The results are rather shocking: http://www.regiftable.com/regiftingrobinpopup.html


Now I am going to introduce a very geeky term for a simple concept: Cross-discipline methodology. This means combining psychology and marketing, combining economics and politics. Put all of these things together and it is possible to put together frighteningly accurate information. A practical example was in the technological stone age of 2003. The U.S. military was able to find Saddam Hussein in a hole in the ground in millions of square miles of the desert by analyzing his social networks. Just imagine how far the technology has come since then.

Combine this with the everyday tracking done on average people by retailers. When you go into a store there typically will be a sign that says something to the effect of "By entering this store you agree to monitoring." Most people assume that only means anti-theft when now it means that their shopping carts have tracking chips in them. Merchandise often times has tracking chips in them. Many of the merchandise displays have cameras to actually see what their customers look like.

Put this all together and can cross-match this information tol know things like: This guy has a 80% chance of pushing his cart down aisle 5 and a 60% chance he will buy dogfood therefore he is 75% more likely to be politically conservative...

Add in your cellphone giving real time location. Add in social networks and people have a real problem. At this point it isn't just academic. With this level of information to cross-reference and it does become possible to get far enough into people's heads to start figuring out people's passwords. People's credit scores go down because they went to the doctor or a divorce attorney... The list of abuses is endless!

Here are just a fraction of the links I have to back all of this up:
http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/03/i-didnt-tell-facebook-im-engaged-so-why-is-it-asking-about-my-fianc/254479/

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/justine-rivero/do-online-companies-know-_b_1403574.html

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/big-brother-is-watching-you-shop-12152011.html

http://business.time.com/2012/06/14/could-that-facebook-like-hurt-your-credit-score/

http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2012/07/19/cellphone_spying_wireless_carriers_make_millions_tracking_customers_selling_data_to_police.html

http://www.salon.com/2012/09/17/big_brother_is_in_your_car/

http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/orwell-time-5-creepy-new-ways-you-are-being-tracked


Lastly, check out the latest one: Verizon has filed a patent to spy on people while they watch TV! It can record information all the way to our skintones! Yikes!!!

http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2012/12/05/verizon_patent_would_monitor_you_as_you_watch_tv_so_it_can_customize_ads.html

[Moonchild]

Here is an example of why we should limit the outflow of information and then I will post some other practical information. Go to this site and see how accurate it is for you. The results are rather shocking: http://www.regiftable.com/regiftingrobinpopup.html

Interesting little thing, but cheating by using some math magic, that will throw off people who don't understand what happens and think they really do get tracked - this is exactly what paranoia is all about. Providing compelling "evidence" of something that isn't representative.

Want me to explain how it can guess right?

The number operation you are asked to do (2 digit number -> subtract both digits from the number) results in a multiple of 9 at all times (9, 18, 27, 36, 45, 54, 63, 72, etc.)
The table presented has the same item name on every 9th multiple.
Result: it will always guess right.

Also: this is completely off-topic and bound to lead to a discussion about tracking and privacy - if you want to continue that, please make a new thread!

[Apollo702]

Interesting little thing, but cheating by using some math magic, that will throw off people who don't understand what happens and think they really do get tracked - this is exactly what paranoia is all about. Providing compelling "evidence" of something that isn't representative.

Fair enough and I will look for another one the guesses using another method. The point is people psychologically are more likely to pick certain numbers. If you ask them to pick a 2 digit number statistically they are most likely to pick the number 37. Combine psychology with all of the data mining and the applications are nearly endless.

[lyceus]

Well I don't have the formula for CocaCola, but M$ will monitor what I say on skype for more mundane things like trying to sell me things, then is a good sign to move elsewhere and find other way to chat with people that prefer be in M$ hands.

Here is an example of why we should limit the outflow of information and then I will post some other practical information. Go to this site and see how accurate it is for you. The results are rather shocking: http://www.regiftable.com/regiftingrobinpopup.html

Uh,oh! Wrong people to argue about numbers. It happens that my major at University is Advanced Maths and Computer Science I should find that old logic trick that make you agree that 1 = 2 using the same logical tricks you showed here, that's really neat.

Just for fun: Do you know that some friend (white hat hacker) just made a direct attack to guess passwords in hotmail, and he found like 200? The password of all those accounts is "password". So yes, people online is that level of stupid.

Well now in topic and covering the stuff on this thread. It's easy to convert words in some class of database, the magic trick is to convert words in tokens, the same tokens that you use for program in C++/Java/basic/etc. On the example you pointed in FB, the guy wrote some words that triggers some affective relation with the girl. So they checked their ages, if he was not gay and then the ads of rings popped out. So my point is that anybody can get the conversations from IM clients, tokenize the words and give them some value from the basic data from the user (age, sex, country). BUT the article I mention says that Skype will enforce officially "tokenization" of works for find criminals... but meanwhile they can use that data for sell things like google does right now in all their products.

This is the reason that I won't use skype, I don't want that someone made officially a profile based on the words I write to my friends and family.