IRC is a functional replacement for and improvement to talk(1).  Talk
is an old, primitive, atrocious, minimalist sort of keyboard/screen
conversation tool, using a grotesque, machine-dependent protocol.
IRC does everything talk does, but with a better protocol, allowing
more than 2 users to talk at once, with access across the aggregate
Internet, and providing a whole raft of other useful features.

ftp://ftp.blackened.com/pub/irc/hybrid/