When thinking about AIM secrets, you can't escape feeling the urge to look back in the dark past of instant messaging. Just thinking that you're using a technology that appeared in mid-1960s, while thousands of many others appeared and slowly died in the meantime is quite a thrill for me, despite the fact I didn't manage to use any instant messaging software older and more basic than the UNIX "talk" command. Anyway, modern GUI-based messaging clients, as we all know them now, started with ICQ, in 1996, followed next year by AOL Instant Messenger, shortly known as AIM...


...and the rest of it is history! To be honest, the above should be just enough, because we arrived exactly where I intended: AIM secrets! For me, one of the secrets of this instant messenger is its market share. Back in 2006, there were over 50 million active users, and AIM had over 50% of the US instant messaging market. Now...I have no idea, but I don't think it went down too much, either. If you have some info about this AIM secret, please go ahead and enlighten me, you will surely get my eternal gratitude!

This may not be a secret for experienced users, but if you're just getting started with AIM, you should know that AOL's instant messenger is freely available for Mac, Windows and Linux users. Even more, if you want to take full advantage of your AOL account without installing any software, AIM Express is a very good option, only that you have to feel comfortable using Beta software. Other than that, everything's just fine, I can bet on that(I am also an AIM user, I have to mention that).<-120x240 Vertical Banner - right->

As it happens with almost every decent piece of code, the AIM client supports plugins. Be sure to use them! If you don't know where to find them, just start with the AIM homepage - in my opinion, it's the best place to get'em - just look at the top AIM plugins located to the right side of the page!

I know this is not one of those well guarded AIM secrets, but using the bots can be quite fun, and even useful, in most cases. To learn how to give commands to a bot, simply open a dialog box with the one of your choice, and say something. I usually say "Hello," but it works with anything. If you have too much time to waste, you can even type a 2000 words story and send it to a bot, it won't make any difference...:)

Well guarded or not, I hope you enjoyed these AIM secrets I have been able to find and sort out for you today. Obviously, you know more than I do, so I am waiting for your tips and tricks. After all, I am only one, and you're an entire legion of current and future AIM users, hunting for AIM secrets, right? Let's make this only a first step in our joint effort to seek and retrieve as many AIM secrets as possible!

Almost one year ago, we were talking about SensorsView Pro 3.1, a pretty capable computer software for controlling the fans of your computer, only that its price was its only weak point I could find back then, apart from a few minor glitches. In the meantime, a new version of this software has been released, while the price remained the same, but I won't get into SensorsView Pro once again. After all, there could be more than a paid program to control your fans, right? Well, let's see...



...what about that nice fan controller in the image above? While I must admit one could come in pretty handy, I think we should skip it, obviously because it's harder to install than a software application, and it doesn't come for free, either. Anyway, we have a lot of answers to that "freeware computer software cooling fan controller" question, and I must admit I asked myself this question for a pretty long time in the past, but now I have some answers, which I will share with you.

If you own an older computer, then my first suggestion is Motherboard Monitor. <-336x280 Large Rectangle - right->Despite the fact its development has been stopped a few years ago, it is still a very good program for its purpose, and the only potential problem you may face because of its age is the lack of support for newer motherboards. Obviously, we're talking about a free program, and you can still download it from most major download sites, like Softonic or Major Geeks, since the former official page is now hosting a parked domain page...

SpeedFan is, currently, my favorite freeware computer software cooling fan controller, and I also think it's the best free Windows program in its category. To make a longer story short, here's what I like - very good hardware support, although not perfect, voltage and SMART monitoring capabilities, ease of use and a very low profile, of course.

If you are using a Windows computer, most chances are you'll find a software able to control fan speeds on one of the CDs that come with your motherboard, since all major manufacturers have such a program ready, but I must confess I don't like them. Anyway, just for your knowledge, be sure to remember that Gigabyte, MSI, AOpen, ASUS and Universal abit (formerly ABIT) motherboards come with such programs.

Since I didn't say "freeware computer software cooling fan controller for Windows," I will conclude today's article by telling you about such a program for Apple's Macs, called smcFanControl.

smcFanControl is a mature application, its current version being 2.1. The good part is that this program is also able to monitor system temperatures, so everything is just fine, especially since you won't be able to set anything wrong and damage your hardware, because minimum fan speed can't be set to a rate below Apple's defaults.

I hope today's guide will help you keep your computers cooler in these hot days, and from now you'll be able to guide your friends looking for a freeware computer software cooling fan controller. Good luck and...stay cool!

I don't know about you, but I must confess I have never-ever used Yahoo! Music. Well, that doesn't mean it's something wrong with it, just that I usually know what I want, and I like buying music CDs or DVDs, instead of paying to download lossy-encoded music files. After being released as "LAUNCH" by LAUNCH Media, purchased by Yahoo! in 2001 for no less that $12 million, Yahoo! Music grew up to be the number on online music site in March 2007, when considering the audience reach and total time spent. Unfortunately, it's not like that anymore...


If you clicked the Yahoo! Music link above, you probably noticed already that you're being automatically redirected to new.music.yahoo.com, the new website for the service released last month. Despite this recent design overhaul, it seems <-125x125 Button - right->Yahoo! Music will be turned to nothing more but a memory pretty soon, so if you're having DRM-protected files from them, you should get ready to burn some discs with them, since you may need one day to change your computer, and you don't want to lose all those nice tunes, I am sure of that!

According to an email to the Yahoo! Music Store customers sent out on the 23rd of July, its DRM license key servers will go down on the 30th of September, but while MSN Music is down, and Microsoft promised to keep the DRM authorization servers up and running through 2011, Yahoo! is sealing the coffin of its music store pretty fast.

In the end, the anti-DRM movement may have a reason to go have a beer and celebrate, because it seems the target of their hate is going to slowly fade away, and become only a gray page of the IT history.