Google Talk to iChat

I'm out traveling to IEEE BroadNets for the week and attempting unsuccessfully to connect up to folks using iChat. I'm traveling with my Lenovo tablet as it makes working much easier on the plane (amen to rotating screens and the stylus for doing work).

The use of my tablet of course means that I'm stuck using Windows. While there is an iTunes version for Windows, there is as of yet, no version of iChat for Windows. Hence, I go with option number two, Google Talk which in the past has worked alright. During the winter, it became the stand in for a Ph. D defense at Western Michigan due to inclement weather. Not great but not too bad either.

Anyway, iChat has been positively wonderful on my Mac at work. I can add Google Talk users quite easily and chat without any major issues. Being naive, I assumed the reverse would be true with Google Talk. Perhaps someone can enlighten as to why Google Talk despite using the open Jabber standard insists that I invite users to get a Google Talk account before I can chat with them? The core Jabber protocol isn't terribly difficult and one would think that Google Talk could intermesh nicely with. The whole point of the IETF Jabber effort was to try to standardize these things to get rid of counter-intuitive interactions like this. Near as I could tell, the only way one could chat is with the iChat user initiating the conversation, not the Google Talk user.

More later in the day (or tomorrow) regarding my visit to NC State and the first day of the conference...