This morning I finally got around to installing the jabber server. I'd thought about just registering with jabber.com or jabber.org, but I liked the idea of having a server for my friends and I. There are still some things I need to work out (like getting ssl support enabled), but so far it looks like it works.
Why am I doing this? Because the Jabber folks seem to be doing some interesting stuff. Because it is free. And because if I can't get on IM it will be because it is my fault, not the fault of some big company screwing up.
So my jabber ID is snooze@jabber.ezoons.com. You can find clients for every OS over on jabber.org. I use one called Psi on OS X. I think Trillian over on Windows may support jabber now too. If you want an account on my machine, ask nicely and I might help you. Otherwise you can just get one at jabber.org.