IM Status Program
 

I wanted to throw out an Idea I've had that I have not seen around on the web. I was wondering if anyone had seen a project like this out on the Internet.

What I would like to do is basically make my Slackware file server an AIM bot. I would program it so when certain event happened my aim screen name would be sent a message informing me of the event.

For example
Say power is lost at it current location and it is running on battery backup.
The server would send me a message informing me that power was lost and how long the battery back is estimated.

Also I would be able message the server through aim to check the status
If I were to send the message "status"
The server would respond back with various information on how it was performing.

I'm just throwing out ideas at this point but I can't be the only one who has thought of this. I was wondering if anyone has heard of a project like this and what your thoughts are on such a program.

Any feedback would be appreciated

I've thought about something like this, but never found anything readymade. One option to save some coding might be a plugin for an existing client, like gaim. It would save network and protocol coding.

Well I've thought of the structure as something like that.
Some bash shell script setup os a cronjob runningperiodically checking for certian events
The aim client would be independant but the shell script would be able to interface with it to send out the information should an event occure.
As far as sending it commands I'mless sure but my idea is the aim client should redirect the text it recieves to a file that the script can scan and look for strings that have meaning.

I've found this thread http://ask.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=02/10/22/0235215 where someone wants to gain shell access through aim.
It's not quite what I'm lookin for but they do talk about a console based aim client called TAC http://users.tmok.com/~smike/ Has anyone ever used TAC before. I hope to try it out this weekend to see if it might do work.