Just wanted to point out two projects that I've become acquainted with lately that kind of kack ass. If you haven't seen these before, you should check them out.

• Gobby: Gobby is this fancy little editor that has a built in IRC-like client and a distributed developmental scheme. Bah... it's complicated... check the website, read up on it, and take a look at this image for an example. Needless to say, Gobby kicks ass.
• Silky: Silky is a secure chat client. Think secure IRC and you get the idea (though, it doesn't use IRC of course but SILC as the protocol). Very cool stuff.