• yourself
• the experience

• you already have a way to figure out whether a user is online or not; and
• you already have prefabricated images available for each status; and
• the images are named "online.png" and "offline.png"

if ($TimeUserWasLastOnline > time() - 3600)
{	user is online
}
else
{	user is not online
}

• use an alpha channel
• use a single color for the parts you want transparent (some color not used throughout the rest of the image, such as bright pink or such), and add a chunk in the PNG making that particular color transparent.

1. save a regular 24-bit RGB image as a PNG file, without transparency, using pink (or some other color) in the parts you want transparent.
2. open it in TweakPNG
3. Insert -> tRNS (it's at the bottom)
4. Double-click on the tRNS chunk that was inserted.
5. type in the RGB value for the color to be transparent.
6. Save, and rejoice.

1. save it as an 8-bit PNG, again, without actual transparency, but with one palette entry set aside for it.
2. open it in tweakpng, and add a tRNS chunk as described above.
3. double-click on it. In the "alpha values" box, type in the same number of colors are there are in the palette (so if there are 256 colors in the palette, type 256 in the "alpha values" box)
4. find the color that you want to be transparent, and click on it. Type "0" in the box that pops up.
5. Save.
6. Buy war bonds!

• does not require you to change your desktop (not to mention using the buggy "active desktop")
• works whether or not you use AIM, ICQ, or any IM program

• a program is a program, whether it's a simple "pick one or the other" script or a full-blown forum engine.
• you still have to determine whether the user is online or not.

<php
if ($user_is_online)
	header ('Location: online.png');
else
	header ('Location: offline.png');
?>