Author: Mosh

Remove ads from Windows Live Messenger

Windows Live Messenger Mobile
Look, Green - no adverts!

This is a very simple hack to get rid of the annoying adverts in Windows Live Messenger (and possibly older versions of MSN Messenger). It doesn’t involve any downloads or patches and the change is simple to reverse if it doesn’t work, or it causes problems which it shouldn’t.

Note that I have nothing against the adverts as such. It’s a great communication tool and MS are well within their rights to sell some advertising space on it. Generally I tune them out, but the “rollover to pop up” ones are a complete pain in the backside. It’s for these I went searching for a solution – and found three on DotNetWizard.net.

That post above lists three solutions. I found that the first did the job for me and I’ll sum it up in brief here.

  1. Open My Computer or Windows Explorer
  2. Navigate to C:/Windows/System32/Drivers/etc
  3. Right click on “hosts” and select “Properties”. If the file is read-only, remove that tick and Apply if necessary
  4. Double-click on “hosts” and when the window appears, choose to open it with Notepad
  5. Near the top of the file you’ll see an entry “127.0.0.1 localhost”. Underneath that, add a new line “127.0.0.1 rad.msn.com”
  6. File … Save then exit Notepad
  7. If the file was read-only before, make it read-only again.
  8. Log out of MSN if you were in it, and back in.

You should now find that the ads are replaced with a blank white box. Not pretty, but at least you don’t end up with adverts obscuring your desktop. This works on XP and Vista. I don’t know about Windows 7 as yet, sorry, though I assume it has the same file structure and use of hosts.

For the techies, how this works is pretty simple. All the adverts from Microsoft are served up via a server located at the end of the web address “rad.msn.com”. The hosts file is a plain text system file which tells the system where to look for certain resources – it’s a single-machine version of the DNS system in some respects.

As well as using it to point at local resources (such as 192.168.0.7 Steve_PC) you can get it to redirect any other network request. All we’ve done is told the machine that when Messenger goes looking for the advert server, it should – instead of heading out into the internet – look to the local 127.0.0.1 address. This is a standard “loop back” address used by all PCs (indeed, all networking equipment). Hence, Messenger can’t reach the server and the ads don’t appear.

Microsoft could easily fix this by hard-coding an IP address for the advert server into an WLM update, though this in turn could be blocked using other methods, such as firewalls.

Right now, though, I don’t have someone trying to sell me coffee every time I try to click on an icon in my tray.

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Microteaching for the immature

This week I did my first “stand up and teach” experience in front of staff and peers at the uni. Just a small group of Computing PGDE(S) students and three staff, but it’s enough to give you the willies. Especially when you realise how long it takes to prepare a lesson on only one key syllabus point, plus Powerpoint slides and worksheets.

For reasons known best to two brain cells that can no longer be found (I think they ran off once they realised what they’d done), I picked “Repetition” as my topic of choice. For the geekier amongst you, this includes such educational joys as FOR .. NEXT loops. For the brighter students, they even get to learn about REPEAT .. UNTIL. Whoop!

Yeah, well I find it interesting. However, my target class was aged 13. And despite looking like they varied from 23 to… erm… older (politeness gene kicks in) they certainly behaved like a class who’d recently discovered the suffix “teen” at the end of their ages.

The point of the exercise, on reflection, was not so much to do the preparation but to find a way to engage a class of – in this case – utter reprobates. The thing is, the staff members were the worst! You know who are…

After the first few minutes of the first presentation (poor Siobhan), the rest of the class really got into it. Paper planes everywhere. Phones being used for texting. Spinning in seats. Messing with computers. Notes being passed around. One small fight broke out. Cheeky questions. Crawling under desks.

As we were told afterwards, nothing happened that hadn’t been seen by the staff in real life classes. Usually not all at the same time, admittedly. Still, it was a real wake-up call. While fun when you were one of the ones throwing balls of paper into someone’s hoodie, it was very different trying to get across the subject you’d toiled over for a couple of evenings with everyone else kicking off.

Somehow I got to roughly where I’d planned/hoped/guessed by the end of my 15 minutes. During that time I’d confiscated one set of headphones and thrown Andy’s apple into the bin (well, he was eating during class). My “three strikes and you’re out” (of the classroom) policy seemed to be working, too. I’m still wondering if that’s a good idea – lets kids think they can get away with two “strikes” – or go for a yellow/red card system. We shall see.

I guess I was lucky that Jack hadn’t actually started lying on the floor at that stage. And that Joy was actually asking sensible questions instead of daft ones.

Regardless, as I said, a very good exercise. Certainly something you’re better learning to deal with with your peers than in an actual class environment with real children. Roll on November when I get to find out if any of this experience has stuck!

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Cinema Thursday – cancelled!

There will be no film reviews today as there are precisely no films on at Cineworld Glasgow that I want to see. I’m not big on horror any more, so Halloween 2 isn’t an option. I’ve never gone for Gilliam’s fantasy material so Imaginarium‘s off the list. There’s that thing with that utterly unfunny guy from The Office in – something to do with lying. Definitely not interested. And some rim-com with some woman from Friends in it.

Annoyingly, three films I really do want to see come out tomorrow: Vampire’s Assistant, Fantastic Mr Fox and The Goods. I may catch one or two over the weekend. Next week finally sees the British release of 9. I cannot wait!

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Tagged: A Musical Exercise

SLAYER
SLAYER!!!!

I was tagged by The Random Within for this one. Git.

By reading this you are also tagged, and you must answer all the questions below using song names from one artist/group. You are not allowed to use the artist/group I have chosen.

Post a blog link to your attempt in the comments section.

Pick your artist: Slayer

  • Are you a male or a female? Sick Boy
  • Describe yourself: Aggressive Perfector
  • How do you feel? God Hates Us All
  • Describe where you currently live: War Zone
  • If you could go anywhere, where would you go? South of Heaven
  • Your favourite form of transportation? Drunk Drivers Against Mad Mothers
  • Your best friend is? Criminally Insane
  • What’s the weather like? Raining Blood (or Flesh Storm or Metal Storm)
  • Favourite time of the day? Witching Hour (or At Dawn They Sleep)
  • If your life was a TV show, what would it be called? Temptation
  • What is life to you? Seasons in the Abyss
  • Your fear? Necrophobic
  • What advice is the best advice you have to give? Read Between The Lies
  • Thought for the day? Evil has No Boundaries
  • How would you like to die? Die By The Sword
  • My soul’s current condition? Blood Red
  • My motto? Fight Till Death

I confess I “cheated” and used a couple of songs by other artists that Slayer have covered. All released on proper commercial albums, though.

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SAAS – I am not liking you

A British passport with the name of European U...
SAAS - see this? It's like mine - BRITISH.

For those who don’t know SAAS is the government body responsible for withholding as much cash as possible instead of dishing it out to students in Scotland to pay things like course fees, and buy things like food.

Yes, you guessed it. It’s a complaint.

A few weeks ago I filled out their exhaustive online application. This took about 20 minutes and, had I been a dependent, would have gone as far as requesting my parents’ National Insurance numbers. Pretty thorough, it must be said.

Then nothing for almost five weeks until a letter arrived. Prior to this, I was checking the website for an update on my status… which consisted of a page telling me to ring them if I hadn’t had a letter within a month. Great stuff. Very “Web 2.0“. Not.

So this letter duly arrives. “Please fill in form AB10E so we can decide if you are eligible to receive support”. OK, fine. More rubbish.

Date of birth… place of birth… Surname… Address… Parents’ address…

Yes, all previously given in the online application.

Then: Date you became resident in the UK. Reason for entering into the UK. Have you ever paid UK Income Tax? If so, give details.

What. The. Fu…?

Am I reacting a little too harshly when I replied to the “Reason for entering” question with the following:

Mother went into labour. I didn’t really have a choice in the matter.

Or by stating that all the addresses I have lived at since I last entered the UK are “not flipping applicable as I never left”? The fact they give you a small box 7cmx3cm with 5 dotted lines to write down what could be a handful of addresses is a little pathetic also.

Perhaps I have made my point as, instead of giving them my address before taking up residence in the UK, I told them:

I have always been resident on the UK. My parents also. And my grandparents (except for a brief period in 1945 when my paternal grandfather helped storm Normandy). Is this clear enough for you?

As for the income tax question:

I worked, I paid tax. As a British citizen, this is how it works. What details could you possibly need? My national Insurance number is [ahem]. Knock yourself out.

As for the “any other information” box, I just managed to squeeze in:

I am British. I was born British. I have held a British passport since I was around eleven years old. Prior to that I was on my mother’s (British) passport. I have always been ordinarily resident in the UK. I have only been abroad for holidays. I am feeling somewhat annoyed at my nationality being called into question when I made it clear I was British on my initial application.

Given that I’m sending this to a government office, who honestly thinks anyone there will really give a flying fruitbat that all they’re doing is wasting time? I gather from others’ stories that SAAS really suck at their jobs at the best of time. Now I know the depths to which they’ll stoop to try and avoid handing out money which is supposed to be handed out.

Mind you, it seems that withholding money from those who actually need it whilst dolling it out to every Britney, Chantelle and Kylie that comes screaming for it is the British thing nowadays.

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