Instant messenger woes
One thing that occasionally worries me is that I rely so much on instant messengers to communicate with many of my friends. In particular, I use MSN quite a lot, which worries me substantially. Some days, I have trouble connecting to it (with Gaim), and while it has always so far turned out to be some kind of network issue, the fact remains that if Microsoft really wanted to, they could cut me off. They could cut off all non-Windows users. It's less worrisome for the AOL and Yahoo! messengers, since they do (at least for the nonce) offer Linux versions of their software (although this software tends to be a few versions behind and lack in features; don't expect me to voice chat with you anytime soon). MSN, though …

Solution? Of course there's a solution. Use a Jabber service. It's instant messaging as email—you get an account with the service provider of your choice and can communicate with users of anyservice provider. I suggest Google Talk. They provide their own client software, but of course you can use Gaim (for Windows or Linux), Kopete (for Linux/KDE), Adium (for Mac OS X), or … well, there's a long list.

To use Google Talk, you need a GMail account. To get one—it's still in beta and invitation only—you can use your cell phone, or just ask me for an invitation; I have 114 of them left. Comment, mail me, IM me (on whatever network you are actually able to reach and access me on at the moment) …

The Google Talk account I actually use is based on my newer GMail account: petter.haggholm (at gmail.com, of course).

By switching from a proprietary IM network to a Jabber-based one, you help turn instant messaging from a proprietary hodge-podge of closed-off networks into an email-like metanetwork where you can talk to whomever you want. More importantly, you can still talk to me (I assume most readers of this blog are interested in that) on those days when I can't access MSN, or on and after that fateful potential day when Microsoft boots me off MSN for good.