Buy a USB key (I got a 256MB one for...*thinx0rz*...NZ$50), and "install" Miranda (www.miranda-im.org) on there. As long as the computer is a windows box, it will run perfectly...although XP has been known to keep dangling threads around with some of the fancier plugins, which is annoying when you try to stop the drive (however I've had friends rip Mithrandir, my USB key, out of the drive without any adverse effect). Miranda will run AIM as well as other protocols for those of us who know that <a href="http://www.everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=771224>AOL isn't the internet</a>...including randomly obscure ones like Jabber, Gadu Gadu, SMS, Skype, Network messages, Tlen, Walla, Vypress, etc.