Following on from my previous post where I took a look at social networking and how interaction has changed on the Internet over the years, I came across a few programs which tie in chat programs, email and social networking in one neat package. I used Trillian years back, and cannot remember why exactly, but no longer have it on my system. Probably just got left behind as upgrades, new drives and new machines evolved. There are quite a few of these all-in-one programs available now though - Trillian, Pidgin, Miranda and Meebo - as examples, but the one that really caught my eye was Digsby. From the authors' themselves: Digsby is a multiprotocol IM client that lets you chat with all your friends on AIM, MSN, Yahoo, ICQ, Google Talk, and Jabber with one simple to manage buddy list. digsby is an email notification tool that alerts you of new email and lets you perform actions such as 'Delete' or 'Report Spam' with just one click. digsby is a social networking tool that alerts you of events like new messages and gives you a live Newsfeed of what your friends are up to. First impressions are quite good, with the only problem as ...

When I first started out with computing, I used to connect to the Internet using dial-up technology and with a 1200 baud modem. I vividly remember the exact tone it made and the screams of joy I cried when the connection actually made it through and I was on the Internet! Moved on through 9600 and 38700 baud and so on and each connection became more stable and faster. But the Internet that met my eye was nothing like the Internet I see today. I progressed to the point where I owned my own Bulletin Board and felt like I was a king in my own castle, especially when I started getting bulletin board members who actually visited me from other locations. I could chat with people, send emails and even managed to build up a 100,00o+ strong file system ready for downloads and sharing. It was magic and it was all done via DOS [better known now as the Dead Operating System]. So the Internet back then was 90% black and white or possibly 8-bit colour depending on your monitor at the time. And the biggest joy of owning a bulletin board was the interaction from other members. People you ...