Article note: It's an interesting history, and I certianly do have fond memories of AIM, both the interpersonal kind and the "OSCAR doesn't support encryption" kind.
It's also interesting that it completely ignores IRC in its telling.
I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. It’s when you know you’re licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what. You rarely win, but sometimes you do.
— Atticus Finch from Harper Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird”