Does anyone have any idea (a) why MsnMessenger randomises my display picture and (b) how I can stop it?

I got fed up with having odd images as my display picture and decided to put an actual photograph.

The photo was chosen because it was reasonably flattering, but in an odd way – anyone who knew me would know it was me but noone who didn’t know me would recognise me from it. So anyone who accidentally came across it wouldn’t really recognise me if they saw me on the bus.

However, there are about half a dozen pictures in the folder it’s in. Some have been used as my display picture. They would however only be recognisably me if I could be mistaken for a castle, Dolph Lundgren in the Starman film he made years ago, a hindu goddess, a baby wearing goggles or a toilet (and so on.)

Every time I log on, it’s pure chance which will come up, however. Sometimes the picture will change a few times in the course of an evening. Other times it will stay as it is for a few weeks. Rebooting the PC or reloading Messenger seem to bring on a higher than average rate of change but the change isn’t inevitable even if both of these things happen. Nor, as I explained before, is the changing process absent if I stay logged into Messenger for weeks.

That was a gratuitously long-winded way of saying. I have no idea why Messenger does this. It doesnt seem to happen to anybody else I know.

Before you ask, I don’t have Dynamic display selected.

As an aside, I think the new add-in features of the latest Messenger are mainly pesh of the highest order. Some even put loud intrusive adverts for things like McDonalds on and change your Messenger wallpaper. The Knock thing is quite useful. Everything else is nothing but aversion therapy in terms of making me switch off Messenger.

Well, this is potentially a short rant – simply because this months copy of .net is pretty uninspiring. Normally each issue is a combination of random, idiotic, reporting which inflames people enough to rant about it and a massive serving of inspriation – which encourages people to jump on their PCs and try something new.

Sadly, July 2006 does not follow the normal pattern.

Often the web builder section (especially “tricks of the trade” has good, helpful, advice on how to do cool tricks which then inspire people to try them out on their own sites (even worked on Why Dont You which is why there is a Google Maps mashup at http://www.compuskills.co.uk/demo/). Sadly this month expands on the recent trends for each article to be heavily aimed at a particular peice of software (Joomla for example) so it fails to provide the same inspiration.

Overall, this was a lame issue which provided a total of about two hours reading time before it was consigned to the shelf, possibly until the end of time.