• There has been a mass re-design of the colours and images, which will take an hour or so to get used too;
• The layout has been improved, with emphasis on navigation;
• Speed wise, I’m using my bandwidth with other things so it currently seems similar to 2.3.6;
• The flow of the board is really nice, everything seems to fit together well;

As this version is still only alpha there may be a lot of work to do before a beta is released, although there might be something within the next few weeks. Either way, we shall install a test environment to fiddle with the admin side of things; and work out the new layout a bit more. Keep a look out for updates to this!

You can check out the new software as a guest, or if you’re registered with IPS then simply login.

This new release seems very promising, and is a definite plus to IPS. We look forward to the release.

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Patchou has informed us of a new Messenger Plus! Live version, to be released soon, that will address the new beta:

..a new version of Messenger Plus! will soon be released to let you update your skins for the new Messenger 9 Beta.

.. this is good news, as we can continue to release new designs for a popular application.

As for the current designs, they will be updated to fit both 8.5 and 9.0, with a few tweaks included as normal before an update release is made. Ubuntu Live is still un-finished, with work taking over there has been no time to complete everything.

There are plans to make a start on a new design, that will be created to look similar to another poplular software, using the colour scheme; icons; and basic layout; etc etc. There is no definate start date for this, but hopefully before christmas.

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I wouldn’t generally have an issue with this, but after the last weblog wouldn’t ever update (ever!); and the fact that there is no changed files download (only a full installation), it gets slightly annoying having to do everything from scratch.

I’ll have a look through the Trac page and see what files need updating, and just see what happens I guess.

If things look squiffy when you read this it all went wrong.

Update (Nov 28th 08): Nothing went wrong with the previous updates, after I had found the trac page again.

We have since been updated to the latest stable release aswell.

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This time around, the future updates procedure will be handled by Messenger Plus! without a necessity to download anything manually.

The main feature for this release is the Plus! toasts now fitting the skins style, with status icons no longer the defaults.

Several small parts have been updated aswell, to fit around the projects area.

I’m not sure on where I plan to take this skin, but as new ideas are tried they will most likely be added in. If you have any ideas let me know and I’ll get to work.

All information and downloads for this skin has been moved from the forums and can now be found here.

Thanks for the continued support.

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I initially created the skin for myself, to fix some of the issues with the default messenger images, weird stretching etc, but decided to release it for others to use if they wished.

I’ve tried to keep it as close to the default as I can, with a few extra enhances to the overall feel, which make it a little better. A small majority of the icons have been edited, mainly colour changes, to fit with the enhanced look.

Sometime before Christmas there will be an update release made, to address any issues found; add anything new I come across; or any ideas sent to me that you may have.

Enjoy this release, and let me know your views on it.

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I’m hard at work on the new design for my new website, name yet to be disclosed, and have the files scattered across three separate locations, my XP desktop; my external hard disk; and one of my memory pens.

When I first transferred the files over to my laptop to do a little cross-browser-testing it took me for ever to get Firefox 3.0 to even open the .html file. I had to fight the system to finally run it, and I can’t remember how I did but it worked fine. I.E 7 worked fine from the start. Pshh, typical.

The initial tests proved positive, with everything looking good across five browsers, which is always a good sign this early on.

Howeverrrr, and that’s a long; drawn out howeverrrr, today I decided to plug in the external disk to watch a movie on tv through my Xbox, fiasco posted below this one; listen to a bit of music since the laptop has none, which is now being streamed through my tv, cool huh?; and do a little more browser testing now everything has changed substantially.

Or so I thought. (That seems to be the pattern with me and technology, something never goes as straight forward as it should).

For some reason the external disk has read-only protection on the files, which I can remove but doesn’t help anything. For some daft reason, when I try to save the files Vista starts to cry about not being able to locate it. Yea, got me confused as well. I can’t even save the file as a fresh one as it can’t find the folder. Umm, it’s kind of open with this file in it.

This is where XP beats Vista for usability. Vista has the looks but that’s just a mac in a funny jumper.

*Considers formatting fully to Kubuntu* .. or buying a mac book thing!
Apart from all of these Vista issues the new design’s coming along well, it’s only a simple one with a nice colour and about three images, one of which is an icon.

I’m happy to say the design currently works on the current settings:

• Firefox 2 under Windows XP (sp2 & sp3), at 1024×768
• Opera 9.5 under Windows XP (sp3), at 1024×768
• IE6 under Windows XP (sp2 & sp3), at 1024×768
• Firefox 3 under Windows Vista (sp1), at 1280×800
• IE7 under Windows Vista (sp1), at 1280×800

Still to be Tested:

• Firefox 3 under Ubuntu & Kubuntu 8.04, at 1280×800
• Konquror under Kubuntu 8.04, at 1280×800

I would like to point out that if you use anything below I.E 6 it will not be supported. No exceptions! Simply upgrade to the latest stable release of I.E and everything will work as it should. I recommend I.E 7 though, 8 is still a beta so may possibly be buggy.

Over the next few weeks I shall continue to work on the designs, as well as the Windows Live Messenger skins I am making. There is a Ubuntu Live Messenger skin available for beta testing over at the forums, so get over there; download it; test it; give ideas for it; and help squish bugs.

Look out for more news soon.

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Due to all the hassle with the laptop I haven’t been able to work on it as much as I hoped, but I’m getting through.

Head on over to the website to download the beta release, v1.3.3 beta 1, and let me know if you have any ideas. It doesn’t matter how small it is or how daft it may sound, I’ll set to work and incorporate it, giving you a small shout out as well.

As always there is no official release date for the final version, just when it happens.

The Ubuntu Live Messenger skin is sort of on hold while these updates are finished, since I’m working on images with that one and it gets repetitive after a few days.

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As of about 5:30am ish this morning I have finished up a final release of my Windows Live Messenger skin. Thankfully! I won’t lie and say it was easy, because it wasn’t. Hopefully from now on it will be though.

The whole of yesterday was spent adding Plus! options to the skin (and I still haven’t finished, shh) and making my own options panel, which was awful when I kind of lost all the info in the file .. st00pid Ctrl Z & Ctrl S .. yea I blamed the keyboard.

I’m planning on submitting the skin to the Plus database later on tonight, and taking a break for the rest of the week before attempting to edit the icons or something.

I dare say it won’t be long before I begin a new skin, all imagie and stuff.

I’m really tired now.

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Having played around with the idea and various snippets of code nothing seemed to work. I sort of decided I would need a static page but then how could I get a custom entry that allows comments, and the latest entry to sit together? If you’re sat reading this looking for an answer then sorry to disappoint, I never managed to do it.

Instead I just added the quotes to the category pages, and tidied up the sub-headings into my little trademark fancy boxes. They now look nice.

Having once again tried to upgrade the weblog to the latest version of wordpress I phailed. It never seems to work, templates disappear and nothing shows up on the site at all.

I don’t really know why there isn’t an updated files release for those upgrading, that would save us deleting everything. If I get time then someday I will make a fresh install and see what happens, I can simply shift teh database over.

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