I tried out LiveJournal's new LJ Talk, a jabber server integrated with LiveJournal - mainly because it was so easy! In iChat preferences, I added an account of type "jabber", username cos@livejournal.com, with my LJ password. You could do the same in Trillian, GAIM, or any other IM program that supports jabber [edit: apparently the free version of Trillian doesn't do jabber, only the paid version]. My favorite things about LJ Talk (besides not having to create a new account) are:
I can talk to people on gmail/gtalk without having a gmail account: I add user@gmail.com to my buddylist.
Since LJ's jabber server automatically treats mutual-friend links between your LJ accounts as approved buddy links between your jabber accounts, it adds a "who's online" feature to LJ for mutual friends.
You can now chat with LJ users as soon as you mutually friend them without having to find some other way to traid AIM names first, via comments or email.
So this post is my way of encouraging my LJ-friends to use LJ Talk. If you don't already have an IM program that supports jabber, LJ provides one for Windows or OS X (it seems to be a skype competitor).
P.S. Massachusetts people: Deval Patrick rally tomorrow on the Common, 2:30pm. Also, The Nields at the Iron Horse in Northampton this evening (comment/email if you're going?)
