Middle man (AIM plugin)

middle_man is a free shareware program created by Krunch Software. The AOL Instant Messenger plug-in extends functionality of AIM, adding additional features not found in the AIM program itself. middle_man takes the basic idea of "being in the middle" of an AIM connection. Acting very similar to a proxy, middle_man intercepts an AIM connection before it reaches the server and vice versa. middle_man is written entirely in C++ by John Tull and Harry Finocchiaro.

Currently, middle_man is in the third stage of the 3 planned beta stages. Future releases will focus on incorporating additional features and improving stability.

middle_man has been featured on G4techTV's "The Screen Savers"

Current Version: 0.3.0004 (April 23, 2007)

Features

Beta 3 features added to AIM include:

  • log IMs (normal, secure, directly connected)
  • log chats
  • log buddy events (sign on/off, away/back)
  • log direct connection files
  • log buddy's last profile
  • log viewer with search capabilities
  • clone AIM
  • remove advertisements from the buddy list
  • auto-collapse content at the bottom of the buddy list
  • buddy aliasing
  • tabbed IMs

Future releases of Beta 3 will include:

  • local / remote commands
  • scripting
  • window transparency

Beta 2 features added to AIM include:

  • Buddy List Customization
  • Ad Removal
  • Cloning
  • Real Time Logging
  • Buddy Aliasing
  • Window Transparency
  • Away Message Groups
  • Talking While Away
  • Idle Control
  • Local/Remote Commands
  • Scripting
  • Invisibility

Warnings

middle_man (Beta 2) offers a supplemental (ad-supported) version which includes WhenU SaveNow, according to McAfee SiteAdvisor.