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October 29, 2007

tips

The Little Stuff: name-dropping away messages

Posted Oct. 29, ’07, 4:07 PM PT by Dan Pourhadi
Category | Tips

awayVariables.jpgOK, OK: this is the last one for the night, I promise. And, admittedly, it’s not very useful, per se — but I need to write about it if for no other reason than to relay its novelty. This has been in the AOL AIM client (and even Adium) for ages, and it finally worked its way into iChat: variables in away messages.

If you use iChat and you have friends who use AOL AIM (which I’m sure if you qualify in the former you also qualify in the latter), then you may have seen it, something like: “Hey %n, I’m away from my computer!” It angered me at first: “Look, pal, my name is not %n. That’s my brother. I know we look alike and everything, but c’mon: can you please at least try to get it right?”

I was reminded, of course, by my brother, that his name isn’t %n either, which changed my reaction from “angered” to “confused.” That is, until I realized it was just a little trick to get AIM to display the name of the person who’s viewing that away message. It didn’t work in previous versions of iChat, which is why we always saw %n.

But now, in iChat v.AWESOME, it works! Now your away message can be creepy and say the name of whoever’s reading it. Just include “%n,” and you’re open to a whole new era of interactive (and deceptively personal) away messages. And, even better: check out all the hilarious ways you can use this new feature to shock, humor, and embarrass friends. (Two of my favorites: “You know what’s wrong with people like you, %n? Nevermind, it’s a long story, I’ll be back later”; and “Everyone is entitled to be stupid, but %n abuses the privilege.”)

But %n isn’t all: you can also use %t to display the time, and %d to display the date. Cool.

(Note: Unfortunately, iChat’s profile viewer still don’t support these variables, even though AOL AIM’s does. Maybe the next version? And currently, the variables only work in away messages, not in custom Available statuses.)


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