Instant Messaging for Developers ...

I used to like it -- IM is to email as telephone conversation is to sending a telegram, but this mornings I was having simultaneous conversations about bug and issues in three different software products plus what I'm currently working on at the moment with five people, and my brain is starting to go soft around the edges. Softer, I mean.

It's great to be able to just send code snippets, especially when your client's email system sometimes doesn't spit out outgoing messages until two hours after the sender hit the "go" button, but there's definitely a dark side to the technology. Tut.