Read at your own risk
2011 October 1/10:32 PM
This document dates from the early web period, and is kept for archival purposes only. It is no longer updated, and contains much that is apocryphal, or at least wildly inaccurate.You can “talk” with people in “real time” as well. The talk command is the “real time” equivalent of electronic mail. Real time means that the person on the other end sees what you type when you type it, and you see what they type at the same time. There is “talk” software for the Macintosh and for Windows. You can also use talk from your Unix “shell” account if you have one. From the Unix command line, type talk email address and press return. For example, to talk to your friend arnie@example.com, type talk arnie@example.com and press return.
Your computer screen will split into two parts, and, at the top, it’ll tell you what it’s trying to do. When it starts, it “rings” the other person. If the other person answers, your “connection” is “established”. Whatever you type will appear in the top half, and whatever they type will appear in the bottom half of the screen.
Talk will not work on all addresses. Some people have e-mail addresses without having direct Internet connections. Both parties must have direct Internet access in order to “talk”. Other times, their software fails to interact correctly with the your talk software. That’s a common problem with Sun computers, for example. Look at Stairways for Macintosh ‘talk’ software, or Download.Com for other ‘talk’ software.
Talk Etiquette
“Talk” requests break up your screen, beep at you, and otherwise try to get your attention. It can be very annoying to get a “talk” request from someone while you’re trying to do something else, and it gets really annoying when you get lots of “talk” requests.
You should generally not try to talk to people without asking permission first, through electronic mail. You should especially use e-mail first for people with whom you have only a passing acquaintance, or whom you don’t know at all.
