[JDEV] OT: AOL Patents IM (Patent creates IM wrinkle )

[Van Gale]

Ok, I must be going senile, cause I'm clearly wrong about ICQ being
available in 1990 :)

As for IRC and VAX phone, yes they're clearly earlier examples of chatting,
but I think it's stretching it to say they had presence.  I even wrote a VAX
phone clone for SCO Xenix in 1988 (and I know it was then because I checked
my resumé hah).

I do remember another system that was out slightly before ICQ called Powwow
(or close to that), but I don't remember what features it had.

Van Gale