|
But lets go back to what I said about the Yahoo! chat feature. First, of all, it is very unstable. Running in javascript as web based only (through your browser), it requires ActiveX access. At best, if it doesn't succeed in getting the prompt from your computer in a timely fashion, it will lag; at worst, it will boot you offline. If you are having ActiveX problems to start with, hang it up. Second, it is slow when working properly because it is not software native to your computer system. Instead, it is resident to the host server you are accessing, meaning the entire environment is being continually uploaded. Third, it is unfriendly in appearance, barebones and yet cluttered with advertising, and without much in the way of amenities to recommend it. Enter Cheeta Chat which was made to access web based community environments such as Yahoo!. If you were an IRC user, if you were familair with mIRC or Pirch software, then CheetaChat is hardly anything new except that it contains a few more bells and whistles at the expense of others. For instance, long custom scripts and pop-ups are out, quick macros that you can customize and emotives are in; midi files and mpegs are out, but wavs are available and can be shared. Another detraction from what IRC does, of course, is that you cannot set a heirarchy of chat management. There is no chat moderation. You cannot kick or ban abusive bullies or people who use foul language. And while you cannot date and time stamp or perform running transcripts, it will allow you to save sections of the dialogue subject to date and time stamp from your computer for the file. In fairness, these last are partly due to the medium it is working with. Yahoo! has always assumed that there will be little or no riff-raff due to the fact that you must join the club or group to enter their chat area. Yahoo! chat apparently cannot disguish founder/owner/moderator from other users, and it updates screens according to a refresh timetable internal to the host computer. Cheeta Chat is, therefore, restricted in these terms. One other detraction of CheetaChat compared to Yahoo! Chat, if you wish to call it that, is it does not have built-in voice chat which is exclusive to the use of those having proper sound cards, microphone connected, and little or no firewall or security to interfere with the operation of the software. However, it is a comparatively much more stable form of accessing chat. Why? Because there is a big difference between software loaded and running on your computer and software that is loaded on a host computer and sent as a series of temporary Internet files. The fact is that there is a good deal less lag, less net separation problems, and less potential for java scripting error. Furthermore, you are not tying up your browser to use CheetaChat. You can, in the course of your conversation, look at club and group files and messages, go out to websites which use javascript, whatever you like. You can move from chatroom to chatroom with a click of a button rather than by laboriously exiting and restarting the software. And, you can customize the environment to look the way you want it. It is indeed these last reasons, more than any other, that makes CheetaChat the software of choice for most Yahoo! chat users. You can acquire a FREE download of CheetaChat, a product of Merkur Technologies, from http://www.cheetachat.com/
|
