I Just Wasn't Made For These Times
I must be getting old because Microsoft's new 'NetGen'-targeted threedegrees software sounds annoying. Much like Comic Chat, this is a subset of IRC, however this time concentrating on the gee-whiz features rather than the actual discussion. I suspect the MSNBC article got it wrong: it's 12-17 year old girls who want pop-up animated emoticons — older people actually have something to talk about. While I'd love to see some R&D put into contact-list management, I think adding font styles to IMs was too much.
I also find it interesting that the RIAA will selectively drop their crusade against webcasting on Microsoft's behalf.