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How to catch invisible friends on GTalk

ajatus.in

21–30 of 32 posts

Re: How to catch invisible friends on GTalk

#21
post #3

As an exploit demonstration, this is at least noteworthy, maybe even interesting. Actually using it is a bit rude though; people set themselves invisible because they want privacy.

Agreed... interesting exploit but actually having it used on me when I chose to be invisible would be a very good reason to just remove someone from my friends list entirely.

Re: How to catch invisible friends on GTalk

#23
this trick is not new, and the functionality is available in a couple pidgin plugins: http://www.siorarina.net/google-invisibility-half-scan/ http://www.siorarina.net/google-invisibility-tracker/

Note that if you read that first link, you will see that you used to not only be able to see the "go invisible" event, you were also able to simply scan your entire buddy list for invisible users. Google fixed this 'vulnerability,' but for one reason or another left the ability to see the becomes-invisible event.

Re: How to catch invisible friends on GTalk

#24
post #4

A quick-and-dirty way to check if any given person is invisible is to just click on their name and send a message. If they appear offline, but you don't see a response message that says " is offline and can't receive messages right now. ", then they're invisible. (Only checked this in the desktop Google Talk client and the Gmail chat version)

even worse, some clients (e.g. Adium) will show invisible users connect and disconnect if you have a conversation open with them.

Re: How to catch invisible friends on GTalk

#25
post #9
post #3

As an exploit demonstration, this is at least noteworthy, maybe even interesting. Actually using it is a bit rude though; people set themselves invisible because they want privacy.

You could say the invisible people are rude. I've had people who always set themselves to be invisible, but will still talk to you and ask you for stuff. But since they are invisible you can't initiate.

With Gtalk you actually can initiate. Gmail just says they are offline and will get it when they come back online. If they really are offline it essentially turns into an email.

Re: How to catch invisible friends on GTalk

#26
post #4

A quick-and-dirty way to check if any given person is invisible is to just click on their name and send a message. If they appear offline, but you don't see a response message that says " is offline and can't receive messages right now. ", then they're invisible. (Only checked this in the desktop Google Talk client and the Gmail chat version)

This also works in Skype. They do a good job of cloaking calls, but chat sessions have the same 'leak' in that you get an error if they are actually offline but not if they are just invisible.

I don't think that's right about calls- I regularly call people I know are invisible on Skype and it rings. If they are offline, it says so (almost) immediately, with no ringing.

Re: How to catch invisible friends on GTalk

#27
post #17
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You could say the invisible people are rude. I've had people who always set themselves to be invisible, but will still talk to you and ask you for stuff. But since they are invisible you can't initiate.

since they are invisible you can't initiate Yes, that's the whole point of being invisible. If your friends are misusing a technical feature in a manner you consider rude, perhaps you should try talking to them about it. What if you discovered a technique to make a phone ring when the ringer is disabled or perhaps even when the phone is switched off? Using it outside of an emergency would obviously be quite rude.

How about instead of insisting they use the tool correctly, you learn about what it means that they're misusing it.

This is a VERY common thing. It means that people tend to not want certain people initiating conversations with them, but they have no problem doing so when they need something.

It's a tool, it doesn't have a correct use case. Just common and uncommon.

Re: How to catch invisible friends on GTalk

#28

this would make things even funnier: message = xmpp.Message(event.getFrom().getStripped(), 'BU!') message.setAttr('type', 'chat') C.send(message)

Indent by four spaces to get typewriter style like this.

  Two spaces is sufficient.

Re: How to catch invisible friends on GTalk

#29
post #9
post #3

As an exploit demonstration, this is at least noteworthy, maybe even interesting. Actually using it is a bit rude though; people set themselves invisible because they want privacy.

You could say the invisible people are rude. I've had people who always set themselves to be invisible, but will still talk to you and ask you for stuff. But since they are invisible you can't initiate.

You could say that. You could also say that their IM client is for their convenience, not yours.

Re: How to catch invisible friends on GTalk

#30
post #17
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You could say the invisible people are rude. I've had people who always set themselves to be invisible, but will still talk to you and ask you for stuff. But since they are invisible you can't initiate.

since they are invisible you can't initiate Yes, that's the whole point of being invisible. If your friends are misusing a technical feature in a manner you consider rude, perhaps you should try talking to them about it. What if you discovered a technique to make a phone ring when the ringer is disabled or perhaps even when the phone is switched off? Using it outside of an emergency would obviously be quite rude.

It could also be an implicit compliment: they may be avoiding someone else, thus invisible, but still want to talk with you.
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