Here’s another presence problem. I have two Windows PCs at home, a desktop and a laptop. I sat in front of the desktop this morning to eat my muesli and read the news and e-mail. I then powered up my laptop to edit a client document and mail it off. The laptop was then shut down. Now I’m back at my desktop PC.
Guess what I can see? Each IM client has a window telling me I’ve been logged off because I logged in somewhere else. Bloody useless! I’m BACK! HELLO! Why not just register my presence wherever I am?
Has nobody at Yahoo! or MSN ever actually studied how people use their products? Methinks not.
Posted by Martin Geddes at 11:34 AMTrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.telepocalypse.net/cgi-sys/cgiwrap/mgeddes/MT/mt-tb.cgi/374.
XMPP (instant messaging standard based on Jabber) tackles that problem nicely by letting you add a "resource" attribute to your account and have as many resources connected as you like.
The following setup would then solve your problem:
mgeddes_uk/muesli@jabber.org on your PC
mgedded_uk/bread_and_butter@jabber.org on your laptop
A downside is that the person that you are chatting with will know that you are typing with a mouth full :-)
Posted by: at January 14, 2005 12:43 PMI have a similar problem, which may be solvable in a similar way. I use IM at work, which is particularly useful, as my current primary project is split between a souless business park in Newcastle, a souless crystal maze of an office in London, and just occasionally I work from home.
Now I essentially have two sets of buddies, those from my private life, and those for work. But sometime I only want to be present to one group or the other. I could have multiple IM identities, but the defult IM client will only let me use one identity at a time. I'd like to advertise a different availability to different buddies, just like we do in the rest of our lives.
I also have the same problem about signing onto my laptop ... and of my home PC rebooting whilst I'm away; grabbing my IM online status so that my buddies messages are on a screen 300 miles from my desk until I notice the changed icon and re-sign in.
About multiple presence:
The current AOL IM clinet (Windows) allows
you to selectivly provide visibility to multiple
personas. I no longer use it, but I played with
two AIM names. with a click you can make a given
identity visible or not.
yes they have seperate buddy lists.
AIM for about a year has allowed multiple
signons at mltiple computers. It takes
some getting used to, but it works.
These days I mainly use the Gaim IM client.
But I am mainly talking with AIM users.