I really don’t like AIM and I don’t like Facebook, but others do. So what are you going to do? If the people you need to talk to say to use a tool, then well, you have to use it to continue the relationship. So I occasionally use AIM as it is the best way to get a hold of several people, including a couple of family members. If you use AIM, it will on start-up self load a “portal site” called AIM Today.

I find it annoying, not to mention that because it is tied to your user name it is fully tracked when you visit it, and where you go from it. Now this is not unique as many other sites do the same thing (including Google when you are logged into your gmail account for example), however most of the others all require you to initiate the process. Not so with AIM, it just starts for you when you access the messenger function. So how do you stop it?

It is actually pretty easy to disable. All Windows computers have a host file buried in them somewhere.

It will have this line somewhere in it:

#       38.25.63.10     x.acme.com              # x client host

Simply add this line to your host file and re-save it:

127.0.0.1     aimtoday.aim.com              # remove aim today boot up daily

In my case the host file is located here:
C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc

Keep in mind that it is a “hidden” file and so you have to view hidden files and open it with a plain text editor. Note also that it has no extension. It is not a .txt file, so do not add an extension. On some editors you will have to save as “hosts” using the quote marks.

I just visited Robert Scoble’s page where he is “attacked” by a robotic helicopter. I get buffering on the video and guess what? The buffering message covers what may be the most important part of the video, his advertisers’ logos. This gives some reason to question a lower left layout for video. Perhaps an upper right placement of logos would be better? What do you think?

As a designer on the web we are constantly faced with questions from traditional print designers. Why can’t we control every element? How come it looks different on this screen or that browser. Video is no exception, you need to think about the medium and consider placement to maximize your screen — taking into account things like the buffering messages. Sure some people are at such high speeds that they may not buffer. Others, not so much as is shown by the screenshot above.