Comments on: Exploring multiple account IM

By: James Farmer

James Farmer — Wed, 02 Feb 2005 21:53:54 +0000

Sweet, thanks Boris! I'll have a play and include it in the review. Cheers, James

By: Boris Mann

Boris Mann — Wed, 02 Feb 2005 20:04:24 +0000

I meant to post about this earlier. Now that they just announced a new version, it makes for a better pointer:
http://nowhere.2entwine.com/archives/000414.html

What is it? Gush, a Flash-based, cross-platform, desktop news reader/IM client/picture sharing “thing”. You would have to run a local Jabber server in order to get cross IM support, but it has some really interesting capabilities.

By: Bruce Landon's Weblog for Students

Bruce Landon's Weblog for Students — Tue, 01 Feb 2005 03:50:32 +0000

p2p learning platform SmarterChild...Your IM Buddy .

By: Will Pate

Will Pate — Mon, 31 Jan 2005 10:24:47 +0000

When I was on Windows Gaim worked the best for me. Now that I'm on OSX, it's all about the Adium. I added you to my contacts for Jabber and MSN.

By: Trejkaz

Trejkaz — Sun, 30 Jan 2005 09:41:40 +0000

You're right about security issues. If you use a server which isn't run by you, there is a chance that it will log your conversations. This is especially the case if you use MSN or AIM, and you can't avoid it with any particular client since the risk is always there. I remember reading news a while back about the US government getting chat logs from AIM to use as evidence against some IM user. :-/ Jabber gives you a bit of defence against this, since you can just run your own server, or if you really want the privacy, you can use a client with Psi with built-in support for end-to-end crypto. :-)

By: James Farmer

James Farmer — Sun, 30 Jan 2005 04:40:33 +0000

For my own records here are a couple of interesting articles on this:

http://www.instantmessagingplanet.com/public/article.php/2210871

http://pcworld.about.com/magazine/1909p182id55363.htm

& this looks interesting too: http://www.instantmessagingplanet.com/

By: James Farmer

James Farmer — Sun, 30 Jan 2005 02:58:47 +0000

That is a bit bizarre.

What about server reliability / security? Are you at any particular risk if you’re not using a server you / your organisation run?

That’s true for Miranda and the others… am learning this stuff slowly. I’ll hav ea look at Exodus too.

Thanks for the heads up, useful info. I s’pose there haven’t been any web-based Jabber cleintes developed yet?

Do you reckon there’s any point in web-based IM?

This could be another post couldn’t it!

Cheers, James

By: Trejkaz

Trejkaz — Sat, 29 Jan 2005 09:08:20 +0000

Trillian can do Jabber, but I’m pretty sure it’s still only in the commercial version which seems ironic to me.

As for Jabber clients on desktops, I think that the more desktops you use, the quicker it pays off to use Jabber to provide the multiple accounts. For one thing, you only have to sign into the server, and then all your other accounts come online at the same time… unlike Miranda and others, where you would need to configure each client separately.

Some Jabber clients like Exodus go all out and store a large chunk of the configuration on the server as well, so that you don’t need to configure each client separately. :-)

But the other reason it’s good is the way you can sign in from all desktops at once. :-)