Doodle your life away
August 7, 2008 on 1:45 pm | In Features, Fun Stuff | 15 Comments
In a meeting today someone mentioned the Doodle IMVironment. I had forgotten how much fun it can be to play with while IM’ing with a friend.
The Doodle IMV lets you and a friend both sketch together on a canvas right in the IM window, using a palette of colorful crayons. I’ve used this to literally illustrate an idea to a friend and when one of my colleagues is traveling, he signs on and watches his kids draw pictures for him.
To start your masterpiece, just click the crayon color at the top that you want to use (you can also select different thicknesses on the right hand side). Then use your mouse to draw by clicking and dragging on the white canvas. Your friend can also draw on the same canvas from their end.
If you don’t like your drawing or need to start over, click the “Erase Page” button on the right hand menu. But if it’s the best thing you and your friend have ever drawn, hit the “Print” button so you can put it up on the refrigerator.
One of the handiest features of Doodle is under the Extras menu. Click on “Tic-Tac-Toe” and the IMV will draw out the game grid so you and a friend can square off. There’s also a “Dots” option that will draw a grid of 48 dots for you (if you can think of a fun thing to do with that option, leave me a comment here on the blog).
The Doodle IMV is available on Yahoo! Messenger 8.1 and 9.0. Just click on the “IMVironment” button in the IM window and go to the “See all IMVironments” menu, then look in the “Interactive Fun” folder. Of if you’re using 8.1 or 9.0, click here to try it now.
Sarah Bacon
Product Manager
[...] Doodle your life away [...]
Pingback by Today’s 10 Blogosphere Quickies : INconstantIN.ro — August 7, 2008 #
Oy vey… Look now, I know you guys are only trying to make Y!IM seem more appealing or more fun to use… But trust me when I say this, I doubt something like this will make much of an impact on the users. Not to mention this is a rather childish addition. Then again, that’s just my opinion…
Comment by Janus — August 7, 2008 #
Hi sarah, i remember doodel im vironment its a lot of fun. thanks for reminding us about it.
Hey i need to ask you to pass this up to the tecchies. It’s about the most serious hinderance to Everyone’s Yahoo Chat enjoyment:
LAGGERS
PLEASE get some filters on out CODEC, specifically on the DECODER side. The criminal element that is disrupting the peaceful enjoyment of yahoo chat has crafted compressed files with almost infinite decoding times. When these are broadcast, every voice user in the room loses control of their computer.
It would be trivial to examing incoming sound files and reject such evilsound streams.
It might also be possible to stop these at the “reflector,” examining sound file before they are broadcast.
The booter/lagger Industry must be stopped, not only are the tools illegal to use, but the toolkits themselves (“free” downloads) are loaded with trojans and malware.
Thanks, Sarah, because of you a great service gets better every day.
Comment by Disco Legend Zeke — August 8, 2008 #
Wow it makes me feel like im in kindergarten all over again. LOL
Comment by Ray — August 8, 2008 #
I know a game that can be played using these dots. I don’t think it has a name in English but in Romanian we call them “căsuţe” (read like kow-soo-tze) in which there are two players.
On its turn, each of the players will draw a line between two of the dots and get points if encloses a space. The bigger the space enclosed, the more points the player gets.
Comment by Petru — August 8, 2008 #
You wondered about the grid of dots option for doodling.. I’m thinking that’s the same game we called “dots” when I was a kid. You start with a grid of dots, and then take turns connecting any two dots together. Whenever a player is able to connect 4 dots into a little box, they’d put their initial into any boxes they win. The one with the most boxes at the end of the game wins. The idea is to create long tunnels that eventually force one player to make 3 sides of a box, then the other player closes the box, then the next box, then the next, on and on, until the tunnel comes to an end. fine entertainment for when you have to be quiet, like in church or school. give it a shot.
Comment by joe — August 8, 2008 #
Yes Petru and joe – you are right! I do remember playing that as a kid. Thanks for sharing!
Sarah Bacon
Comment by Administrator — August 8, 2008 #
Doodle is GREAT! I use it for explaining things or just to ‘get it out’. I do however miss an ‘undo’ (at least one step) option.
Comment by Odyn — August 9, 2008 #
lam the^’ nao` de^? ay vao` njch chat’
Comment by zaizaidangyeuc — August 9, 2008 #
Will Yahoo! Messenger Vista edition ever get the same features of XP like the IMVironments, Games, Launchcast, and all the other plug-ins?
Comment by Jonathan — August 9, 2008 #
Will they, might have the imvironments of mac ( apple ]
because i really want to play some of thise especially the doddle one . My friends want me to get that one = ) .
Comment by __x . swaqq — August 13, 2008 #
Check this picture : http://img146.imageshack.us/img146/1834/doadoodlezg9.png and this site : http://doodle.huhiho.com ( Vietnamese only
)
Comment by nga — August 16, 2008 #
i know what to do with the dots feature u can play grandmas quilt where u make lines then u make boxes and u can play
Comment by dididevilxoxo — August 19, 2008 #
LOL! I remember I used To use that doodle, its pretty fun on yahoo messenger..I tried it many times before.
Comment by Raffi — October 11, 2008 #
Ok, dots is a game where:
Each player ,in turns,makes a line between two dots using a different color( for example player one uses red while player two uses blue)
The lines can only bevertical or horizontal (diagonals one aren’t allowed)
Each time you close(form) a square you are allowed to connect another line ( you get another turn)
If you close a square you alsoe check it with an X on the inside (so at the end of the game the winner can be determined)
Comment by Oliver — April 20, 2009 #