BitWise Chat: the revolution plows forward, join in now!

[KevinMU1]

Some of you may remember a post from about a month ago touting BitWise, a new chat server & client being developed by a couple of college kids, and maybe thought it would die off and go away, and would be a waste of time.

To the contrary. BitWise continues to develop, and new releases have been made available once or twice a week, each with major enhancements. Some new stuff since last time:

- Buddy list now features status icons, and the buddy list can be rearranged
- Inline macro processing to save on typing (%brb could be defined to say "hey, I'll be right back, don't go anywhere")
- File transfers!
- Many additional preferences, including the capability to have any messages sent to you while offline forwarded to you via email!
- Away message storing!
- More flexible menus provide easy access to everything!

And many more, those are just the highlights! Hit http://www.bitwisechat.com and check it out for yourself! We are still accepting user requests for helping us test and provide feedback, so it's not too late!

Watch out AIM!

Have fun!

 

[Maleficus]

cool cool

 

[Spooner]

It would be hard to switch instant messaging services now that everyone I talk to pretty much uses AIM.

 

[pulse8]

<< It would be hard to switch instant messaging services now that everyone I talk to pretty much uses AIM. >>

Exactly. I like some of your features, but getting everyone I know to switch would not work. Especially since the current ones work just fine. If you can get your software to chat with AIM clients, then it would definitely be worth using. Otherwise, it's just another chat program.

 

[KevinMU1]

Consider:

- No banner ads like with AIM
- Faster than AIM
- Smaller than AIM
- Super portable--fits on a floppy, runs from a single .exe... my college friends love it b/c they can run it really easily from a lab (no AIM Express in Java taking up 2 IE windows)
- You have a chance to have any features you want added in, just ask!

At least these are the reasons current BW users have cited as to why they switched.

 

[pulse8]

<< - No banner ads like with AIM >>

I use Trillian.


<< - Faster than AIM >>

Faster how? My messages are instant and I see no lag with Trillian.


<< - Smaller than AIM >>

Trillian is about 10MB, so you got me there.


<< - Super portable--fits on a floppy, runs from a single .exe... my college friends love it b/c they can run it really easily from a lab (no AIM Express in Java taking up 2 IE windows) >>

I have no use for that, so it doesn't matter to me. Someone else may find that helpful, though.

All of those aside, I still can't talk to the people I want to talk to without converting them as well.

 

[KevinMU1]

I use Trillian too, but I still find it annoying sometimes, almost a case of too many features in my book.

Logins are much faster, especially than when using Trillian.

And last but not least, converting people is fun.

 

[KevinMU1]

Oh yeah, and the fact that it's not dependent on a huge corporation that hides behind their power. And even with Trillian, you still need AOL--it was after AOL blocked Trillian for a week+ that we decided to tackle this sort of a project.

 

[KevinMU1]

Alright, here's something else to consider that we just added.

From the web site, you can:

1) Send a message to anyone, online or offline, and if they're offline it'll be waiting for them when they log back in
2) Check your offline messages and see if you have any offline messages waiting for you

Eventually, there will also be options for wireless devices such as PDAs and Cellphones, so that you could stay connected from anywhere.

Are those compelling features?

Also, the next client will be server-detachable, that is, even if the server is down, the client will continue to function for messaging with the buddies that were online at the time the server disappeared. No more interruptions due to a server going down for a few minutes!

 

[KevinMU1]

This will be my last shameless bump on this thread, I promise, but...

How's this for something cool?

Now, if the server disappears, whether because we take it down, or because your ISP has a temporary hiccup, the client can continue to operate even without the server, and you can continue to talk with your online buddies!! The clients are fully capable of operating in "detached" mode and never again will a server problem, or a hiccup with your ISP connecting to our servor, cause you to lose touch with your buddies. You can operate in this mode as long as you like, although you won't get any status updates about your buddies.

Well anyway, we like it, cause we sometimes have problems getting to AIM, even though our Internet connection itself is fine here.