It’s almost 2am, so I really need to get to bed. Before that, however, I’d like to share some really good new software I’ve come across lately.

The first is Gaim. Gaim is an IM client for Windows/Linux that can log into AIM, ICQ, MSN, Yahoo, Jabber, and others. I know that a lot of people use Trillian, and it already does that. Two features that make me suggest Gaim over Trillian are: (1) You can give people real names (you can set aliases), rather than being stuck with screen names. (2) You can group multiple screen names together as a single person. This is very helpful if some of your buddies have multiple screen names, or are logged on to multiple services at once. Instead of listing your best friend 5 times, you only see them once in your buddy list. Very handy.

The next is Adium X. Adium X is an IM client for Mac OS X. It is very customizable, and the development team seems to want to create a fun product… which is what they’ve done. You can customize sound sets, smileys, IM message display, the Dock icon, and a few other things.

For RSS readers, I’d suggest Feed Demon for Windows and Pulp Fiction for Mac OS X. Both of them cost money, but they both seem to be worth it. I’ve been using Feed Demon since November, and absolutely love it. I just started using Pulp Fiction tonight, but it’s already better than Shrook and NetNewsWire Lite. There’s a 15 day trial for PF, so I’d recommend checking it out.

Flash FXP is a terrific FTP client for Windows. I used to use CuteFTP and FTP Voyager, and Flash FXP is far better than both. Transmit was recommended on Whitespace a couple of months back for Mac OS X. I gave it a try, and I love it.

That’s enough promoting for tonight. I’m going to bed. G’nite.