For the past few years I've been using naim to communicate over the AIM and IRC networks. When my workplace agreed to use GoogleTalk to communicate, I thought I was doomed to a graphical IM client -- that is until I discovered Bitlbee.

Bitlbee "tunnels instant messaging traffic (including MSN, ICQ, Yahoo, Jabber) to a virtual IRC channel". This means I can use a console IRC client (such as naim or irssi) to connect to a Bitlbee server and then communicate over all those different IM networks from a single spot! Whether I'm talking to someone on AIM, Jabber, or IRC, it all looks like I'm talking to someone on IRC. So I setup a Bitlbee server at home and started using it to communicate with office workers (GoogleTalk uses the Jabber protocol).

A few days ago naim stopped communicating with the AIM network and rather than trying to restart naim to get the connection working again, I added my AIM account to Bitlbee and started using it to talk to my AIM buddies. Little did I know, however, that my AIM profile was gone. Apparently (unlike naim) Bitlbee doesn't support AIM profiles at all.

No big deal. Profiles are overrated anyway. 🙂 But for history sake (and to make this post a bit more interesting to read) here is my retired AIM profile:

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I am who I am not because of what I am told, but because of where my intellect guides me.

Hello, my name is Raam Dev.