WEBVTT - What is IRC? 0:00:00.320 --> 0:00:03.000 Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve Camray. 0:00:03.240 --> 0:00:08.959 It's ready. Are you get in touch with technology? With 0:00:09.039 --> 0:00:18.440 tech Stuff from how stuff works dot com. Hello again, everyone, 0:00:18.560 --> 0:00:21.239 and welcome to tech stuff. My name is Chris Poulette 0:00:21.280 --> 0:00:23.319 and I am an editor here at how stuff works 0:00:23.320 --> 0:00:26.639 dot com. Sitting across from me as he always does 0:00:26.840 --> 0:00:29.400 on Friday afternoons when we talk about tech things, is 0:00:29.480 --> 0:00:33.280 senior writer Jonathan Strickland. Remember, no matter where you go, 0:00:34.080 --> 0:00:39.159 there you are dre pithy. Thank you. So today we 0:00:39.200 --> 0:00:42.440 wanted to uh have a little chat. Yes, actually we 0:00:42.479 --> 0:00:46.000 want to have a little chat about a chat protocol 0:00:46.600 --> 0:00:50.560 or a chat system that predates the World Wide Web. 0:00:50.920 --> 0:00:54.200 And this, uh, this is a request from Charles and 0:00:54.400 --> 0:00:58.760 also from Christopher. These are two independent requests. Both Charles 0:00:58.800 --> 0:01:01.480 and Christopher wanted to hear a little more about I 0:01:01.840 --> 0:01:06.720 r C or Internet Relay Chat. Yeah. Um, actually it 0:01:07.040 --> 0:01:11.200 dates back to so this is a pretty pretty uh 0:01:11.400 --> 0:01:14.200 robust protocol to have made it, uh you know, good, 0:01:14.560 --> 0:01:18.840 almost twenty two years now. It's August of is when 0:01:18.880 --> 0:01:21.960 it started to make its appearance. And um, as a 0:01:22.000 --> 0:01:24.080 matter of fact, that's that was sort of my introduction 0:01:24.120 --> 0:01:25.800 to the Internet. And I say sort of because it 0:01:25.840 --> 0:01:29.720 wasn't exactly I r C UM. I became acquainted with 0:01:30.160 --> 0:01:34.880 using online services through a similar system uh called bitnet 0:01:34.959 --> 0:01:38.759 Relay chat um. And as a matter of fact, one 0:01:38.800 --> 0:01:41.960 of the founders of of I r C and I'm 0:01:41.959 --> 0:01:46.640 probably totally mispronouncing this, um Yarko arkin In, who has 0:01:46.680 --> 0:01:50.280 a fin Uh. He apparently took some of his direction 0:01:50.400 --> 0:01:54.160 from using bitnet chat um. And the two systems really 0:01:54.160 --> 0:01:58.400 aren't all that different, but uh, it is a has 0:01:58.440 --> 0:02:02.960 a much different system, uh, or at least it's a 0:02:02.960 --> 0:02:05.200 different protocol from what you would see for so many 0:02:05.280 --> 0:02:10.760 the other different Internet uses, right. Uh. And leading up 0:02:10.800 --> 0:02:15.000 to I r C, before that, there was a program 0:02:15.040 --> 0:02:20.120 called Talk, and Talk was really it's like what would 0:02:20.120 --> 0:02:24.000 happen if you were to phone someone and uh, it's 0:02:24.040 --> 0:02:26.760 just a regular phone line and so it's two people, 0:02:27.520 --> 0:02:30.160 one person on either end. And that's the extent of 0:02:30.200 --> 0:02:34.720 that conversation. That was the limitation of Talk and uh 0:02:34.800 --> 0:02:39.000 and really the I'm not even gonna try and say 0:02:39.040 --> 0:02:41.800 his name because my finish is terrible. I'd be finished 0:02:41.840 --> 0:02:47.959 myself at any rate. Our our intrepid inventor thought, well, 0:02:48.080 --> 0:02:51.760 why should we be limited to having two people in 0:02:51.800 --> 0:02:55.080 a single discussion. When the Internet really gives you the 0:02:55.120 --> 0:02:58.280 opportunity to connect with people all over the world, why 0:02:58.320 --> 0:03:00.639 doesn't need to be a direct connection to two We 0:03:00.639 --> 0:03:04.520 we could have a centralized connection where a connecting point 0:03:04.560 --> 0:03:08.440 where where thousands of people potentially could join in and 0:03:08.480 --> 0:03:12.880 have a conversation. Yeah, systems like talk and other early 0:03:13.480 --> 0:03:17.400 different communication protocols like y talk and x y z 0:03:17.480 --> 0:03:22.040 z Y. Remember that one, Um, we're we're seriously talking 0:03:22.080 --> 0:03:26.080 like your Your whole screen would essentially look like uh, 0:03:26.280 --> 0:03:30.040 a divided window uh and and two chats you would 0:03:30.040 --> 0:03:32.440 see what the other person was typing in. Uh. They weren't. 0:03:32.440 --> 0:03:35.840 It wasn't even integrated like AIM or h I c 0:03:36.000 --> 0:03:37.840 Q or any of the other chat services that are 0:03:37.840 --> 0:03:40.600 in use today. You know, it's like this is everything 0:03:40.680 --> 0:03:43.200 your friend has said, and this is everything you have 0:03:43.320 --> 0:03:45.480 said in reply. So you could go back and forth 0:03:45.520 --> 0:03:48.920 between the other and UM and gradually. Yeah, that the 0:03:48.960 --> 0:03:52.200 idea of of Internet relay chat actually would divide it 0:03:52.280 --> 0:03:56.200 up and divide up the service into different channels, and 0:03:56.520 --> 0:03:59.720 you know, theoretically you could be talking about you know, 0:04:00.240 --> 0:04:03.560 a whole different conversation on one channel where from the 0:04:03.800 --> 0:04:06.480 people who are talking in other channels. So it's it's 0:04:06.480 --> 0:04:09.440 basically one service where everybody goes and you can go 0:04:09.480 --> 0:04:12.040 from channel to channel and talk about whatever is the 0:04:12.080 --> 0:04:14.000 topic of the day or topics of the day are. 0:04:14.360 --> 0:04:17.560 And depending on on when you used I r C, 0:04:17.760 --> 0:04:21.080 because it did evolve over time, that's certificantly. In fact, 0:04:21.279 --> 0:04:25.000 you could occupy multiple channels at one time, depending on 0:04:25.040 --> 0:04:27.960 their client. Uh. Client is an important thing that we 0:04:27.960 --> 0:04:30.960 should talk about very quickly. UH. So you've got a 0:04:31.000 --> 0:04:35.080 server that's hosting this program, the I r C program, 0:04:35.160 --> 0:04:37.479 in order to access that information. In order to be 0:04:37.520 --> 0:04:40.760 able to participate in these conversations, you as a user 0:04:40.839 --> 0:04:44.360 would need to have a client. And there are different 0:04:44.360 --> 0:04:48.039 ways of getting clients. Uh. You could compile a client, 0:04:48.120 --> 0:04:50.360 get a sort, get source code, and compile your own 0:04:50.360 --> 0:04:53.080 client if you were using a Unix based system, um, 0:04:53.240 --> 0:04:57.120 which would require a level of of tech savvy that 0:04:57.279 --> 0:04:59.520 is beyond my own means. But just because I've never 0:04:59.600 --> 0:05:02.719 used a NEX system, if you never used Unix, well, 0:05:03.160 --> 0:05:06.920 I mean that's being that's not entirely true. But I've 0:05:06.920 --> 0:05:09.480 never got to say I thought you had. I've never 0:05:09.839 --> 0:05:12.200 I've never owned a you know any sort of machine 0:05:12.279 --> 0:05:15.039 or worked exclusively on a Unix based machine. I've worked. 0:05:15.920 --> 0:05:19.920 My time with Unix has been very limited, I understand. So, 0:05:19.640 --> 0:05:21.360 uh so I would not be able to do this. 0:05:21.600 --> 0:05:23.400 I just don't have that knowledge. I mean it's not 0:05:23.440 --> 0:05:25.480 that I couldn't learn. I just if you sat me 0:05:25.520 --> 0:05:28.440 down in front of a computer right now, I'd be like, uh, 0:05:28.800 --> 0:05:34.520 help or maybe slash help. So but once you had 0:05:34.560 --> 0:05:38.000 a client to access this, then you could go and 0:05:38.120 --> 0:05:41.800 uh and start having a conversation with other people. Now, 0:05:42.480 --> 0:05:45.000 some people have have a little difficulty grasping the whole 0:05:45.040 --> 0:05:48.960 client concept, but I'll give you a very simple analog 0:05:49.040 --> 0:05:51.920 to that. Your web browser is essentially a client. It's 0:05:51.920 --> 0:05:54.960 a client that lets you access the world Wide Web. Yeah. 0:05:54.960 --> 0:05:56.960 I think this is a good time to remind people 0:05:56.960 --> 0:06:02.080 to that, UMU, the Web is only part of the Internet. 0:06:02.160 --> 0:06:05.120 The Internet itself is is a network of networks, is 0:06:05.720 --> 0:06:09.760 more or less the Yeah, it hundreds of them. Actually, Yeah, 0:06:09.760 --> 0:06:12.400 you've got you've got your mail protocols, you have the 0:06:12.400 --> 0:06:15.000 world Wide Web. Um you can still do things like 0:06:15.160 --> 0:06:19.359 use Gopher or waste or I r C or you 0:06:19.360 --> 0:06:22.440 know all these different other things. Yeah, use net and 0:06:22.680 --> 0:06:24.159 you know we should do a podcast on that, Yeah 0:06:24.160 --> 0:06:28.000 we should. Um, but uh but yeah, I mean there 0:06:27.839 --> 0:06:31.000 are there are a number of things that that travel 0:06:31.160 --> 0:06:33.599 over the Internet and I r C is just one 0:06:33.640 --> 0:06:36.800 of those protocols um that can be used that way. 0:06:36.800 --> 0:06:39.280 So yeah, you need in order to do to actually 0:06:39.320 --> 0:06:44.039 access that service though, you need a program that can 0:06:44.320 --> 0:06:48.360 understand that traffic and make it into something useful for you. 0:06:48.480 --> 0:06:51.400 Otherwise it's just a bunch of ones and zeros. So 0:06:51.839 --> 0:06:58.680 back when I r C was was really pretty young, um, 0:06:58.720 --> 0:07:01.599 you would be using one of these client and that 0:07:01.680 --> 0:07:03.320 you would have to have installed on your computer. You 0:07:03.320 --> 0:07:06.000 would have to have either built it or had someone 0:07:06.000 --> 0:07:10.000 else build it for you. Uh. Today it's a little different. 0:07:10.080 --> 0:07:13.240 You can actually find clients that are built into web 0:07:13.280 --> 0:07:16.080 pages so that you could go to a web page 0:07:16.120 --> 0:07:20.520 and log into an I r C chat area, um, 0:07:20.560 --> 0:07:22.520 and you never have to worry. You know, it does 0:07:22.560 --> 0:07:24.920 all the work for you, all the all the coding 0:07:24.960 --> 0:07:27.960 and everything is is essentially hidden away from you and 0:07:28.000 --> 0:07:30.720 you can just log in. Now, that doesn't necessarily mean 0:07:30.760 --> 0:07:33.320 that the commands are all going to be intuitive to you, 0:07:33.360 --> 0:07:36.040 because it turns out there are lots and lots of 0:07:36.040 --> 0:07:38.640 different commands that you can use within I r C 0:07:39.320 --> 0:07:42.400 while you are having conversations, And some of them are 0:07:43.320 --> 0:07:46.480 very basic, things like being able to create a channel 0:07:46.680 --> 0:07:48.640 so that you have a separate channel that you can 0:07:48.840 --> 0:07:51.400 you can go into and have other people go into 0:07:51.440 --> 0:07:55.360 if you want to take part of a conversation away 0:07:55.440 --> 0:07:59.560 from the main room that you're in. The idea here 0:07:59.560 --> 0:08:01.880 being that perhaps maybe you and three other people you 0:08:01.920 --> 0:08:06.000 find out are all huge fans of a particular book series, 0:08:06.080 --> 0:08:08.440 let's say yes, so that the room in general doesn't 0:08:08.480 --> 0:08:11.080 have that interest. Well, the polite thing to do would 0:08:11.080 --> 0:08:13.840 be to create a room specifically for you and your 0:08:14.080 --> 0:08:17.680 three new book friends to go to and have a 0:08:17.680 --> 0:08:22.880 conversation that doesn't doesn't interrupt the flow of the general conversation. Yeah, 0:08:22.880 --> 0:08:25.960 and I r C. It's considered pretty rude to have 0:08:26.240 --> 0:08:29.080 off topic conversations. Now, there are some channels that are 0:08:29.520 --> 0:08:33.240 are generic, kind of free for all. Yeah and UM 0:08:33.600 --> 0:08:36.800 usually on what I was going to get into some 0:08:36.800 --> 0:08:39.319 more depth on this, let's let's just say usually there 0:08:39.440 --> 0:08:43.280 is something called a channel called talk or chat. These 0:08:43.280 --> 0:08:47.520 are very very generic, but if you were um and 0:08:47.520 --> 0:08:50.760 and they also often have a description that goes along 0:08:50.800 --> 0:08:52.920 with it. So you might have a channel for say 0:08:53.040 --> 0:08:56.439 Terry Pratchett. Let's go with an author, your channel would 0:08:56.440 --> 0:08:59.360 want to you'd want to do something descriptive and uh, 0:09:00.320 --> 0:09:03.160 you know, generally in the title of the h of 0:09:03.240 --> 0:09:08.679 the channel, the channel name, you would often see the 0:09:08.679 --> 0:09:11.720 topic or a topic with a little descriptive material like, 0:09:11.800 --> 0:09:15.000 you know, Terry Pratchett the greatest author ever or something like. 0:09:15.040 --> 0:09:17.080 It might just be as something as simple as hashtag 0:09:17.160 --> 0:09:21.240 Pratchett fans, Yes, exactly, um and yeah. That that's something 0:09:21.240 --> 0:09:24.160 else to remember too, is the hashtag is generally what 0:09:24.280 --> 0:09:27.800 shows you the uh that it's a channel name, which 0:09:27.840 --> 0:09:31.880 is important both for their command and to identify where 0:09:31.880 --> 0:09:34.280 you are in I r C. Yeah, because they can 0:09:34.320 --> 0:09:37.880 get kind of confusing. I mean, you also create a 0:09:38.000 --> 0:09:40.880 nickname when you go to an I r C chat rooms. 0:09:40.960 --> 0:09:42.880 You know, you might have one assigned to you, or 0:09:43.360 --> 0:09:45.800 you can always choose your own. Some of them even 0:09:45.840 --> 0:09:48.679 allow you to register your nickname. Uses a thing called 0:09:48.800 --> 0:09:51.599 nick Serf, which disappeared for a while off of I 0:09:51.800 --> 0:09:53.800 r C. It was hosted in Germany for a while, 0:09:53.880 --> 0:09:56.959 then disappeared and then came back. Um. Which it's really 0:09:57.000 --> 0:10:01.680 just an administrative system that keeps nicknames and passwords together 0:10:01.720 --> 0:10:04.440 so that you can reserve a nickname because of course, 0:10:04.480 --> 0:10:07.000 otherwise what will happen is if you log off, then 0:10:07.040 --> 0:10:09.800 anyone else could log on choose the same nickname you use, 0:10:09.920 --> 0:10:14.760 and then that can cause confusion, whether it's intentional or not. Right, right, 0:10:14.880 --> 0:10:16.640 Like if you have a like you want your nickname 0:10:16.679 --> 0:10:20.000 to be optimist, prime or something okay where it's you know, well, 0:10:20.120 --> 0:10:22.800 something where it's really identifiable, and presumably more than one 0:10:22.840 --> 0:10:25.920 person could choose it, just you know, just by chance, 0:10:26.040 --> 0:10:29.800 not necessarily by design. Um. Yeah, as a matter of 0:10:29.840 --> 0:10:32.040 fact that I've had that happen to me on different channels, 0:10:32.080 --> 0:10:35.040 and um again in the now is a good time 0:10:35.080 --> 0:10:37.839 to point that out. Um, there are actually a number 0:10:37.880 --> 0:10:43.040 of different UH servers that that take uh different I 0:10:43.240 --> 0:10:47.480 r C protocols. So um, there is not one standard 0:10:47.520 --> 0:10:49.760 I r C that is roaming around the world. And 0:10:49.800 --> 0:10:54.040 apparently in the past um twenty two years or so, 0:10:54.440 --> 0:10:57.360 there have been disputes between people who are running I 0:10:57.600 --> 0:11:00.199 r C. So you have uh, you know, the r 0:11:00.280 --> 0:11:04.320 C net, which is which is part of the original group, 0:11:04.320 --> 0:11:07.240 and then you have e F net. I remember under 0:11:07.240 --> 0:11:11.200 net also being a very very large UH group of 0:11:11.480 --> 0:11:14.880 I r C folks, and they have they also maintained 0:11:14.920 --> 0:11:18.760 multiple servers in those groups, and from what I can tell, UH, 0:11:18.800 --> 0:11:21.800 it appears that from time to time the people behind 0:11:21.840 --> 0:11:26.640 those UH services have maybe butted heads with one another, 0:11:26.640 --> 0:11:29.160 because when I started looking up commands, I noticed they 0:11:29.160 --> 0:11:31.400 were different. Some of the commands were different than what 0:11:31.480 --> 0:11:33.800 I had remembered. I imagine that's probably because they have 0:11:33.880 --> 0:11:37.200 updated that. But I understand that UM having multiple nicknames 0:11:37.200 --> 0:11:39.679 and the way to deal with those has also been 0:11:40.000 --> 0:11:43.880 an issue between the different UH server organization groups and 0:11:43.920 --> 0:11:47.400 networks of I r C servers, so they may be 0:11:47.480 --> 0:11:50.240 running slightly different versions of you know, the I r 0:11:50.320 --> 0:11:54.600 C protocol. And when you have these issues, like let's 0:11:54.600 --> 0:11:56.880 say that I logged into I r C and realized 0:11:56.920 --> 0:11:59.920 that the handle I wanted has been taken by another user, 0:12:00.200 --> 0:12:02.320 and let's say even that I've used that handle of 0:12:02.320 --> 0:12:04.560 the past on I r C, UM, there's not a 0:12:04.559 --> 0:12:06.120 whole lot you can do about it. I mean, you 0:12:06.120 --> 0:12:08.760 can message the person and say, hey, dude, that's UH, 0:12:08.760 --> 0:12:11.200 that's kind of my nickname. I'm kind of known for 0:12:11.280 --> 0:12:14.240 that nickname. Do you mind logging off so I can 0:12:14.280 --> 0:12:17.560 have it because you can't take someone's name. You can't 0:12:17.559 --> 0:12:19.600 take someone else's name if they are currently logged into 0:12:19.640 --> 0:12:22.360 the system. You could add a number at the end, 0:12:22.480 --> 0:12:25.319 so you know, I could become John Strickland one or 0:12:25.400 --> 0:12:27.560 John Strickland two or something like that, but I wouldn't 0:12:27.600 --> 0:12:30.040 be able to be John Strickland, um if someone had 0:12:30.080 --> 0:12:32.120 already taken that name on I r C, if I 0:12:32.120 --> 0:12:34.360 if I had not been able to register it. Uh. 0:12:34.640 --> 0:12:39.640 So that the same thing goes for channels. Let's say 0:12:39.640 --> 0:12:41.800 you want to create a channel and someone's already taking 0:12:41.840 --> 0:12:44.760 the channel name that you wanted. It's like the exact 0:12:44.840 --> 0:12:47.240 same sort of situation. You'd have to message that person, 0:12:47.400 --> 0:12:50.520 ask them nicely if they would relinquish that channel name 0:12:50.600 --> 0:12:52.760 for you to be able to use it. Uh, And 0:12:52.800 --> 0:12:55.480 if they say no, then you know, that's kind of 0:12:56.120 --> 0:12:59.439 tough luck for you. It's not like someone taking a 0:12:59.520 --> 0:13:02.559 nickname or taking a channel name is a bootable offense. 0:13:02.600 --> 0:13:04.640 You know someone They're not gonna get an administrator to 0:13:04.640 --> 0:13:08.600 boot that person. So there's certain basic commands that everyone 0:13:08.640 --> 0:13:12.720 has access to, more or less depending on the version 0:13:12.720 --> 0:13:15.080 of I r C or in the things like slash 0:13:15.200 --> 0:13:19.280 nick would they all have slashes that precede the command. Yeah, 0:13:19.280 --> 0:13:21.040 if you just type, if you just start typing when 0:13:21.040 --> 0:13:23.000 you're in a channel, everyone in the room is going 0:13:23.040 --> 0:13:25.520 to see the message that the words that you are 0:13:25.520 --> 0:13:28.640 typing as soon as you hit return. Yeah, it's not 0:13:28.720 --> 0:13:30.559 real time like, so if you leave that slash out 0:13:30.600 --> 0:13:33.240 instead of the command that you were hoping to execute, 0:13:33.280 --> 0:13:36.160 you're gonna it'll be as if you said, quote unquote 0:13:36.200 --> 0:13:38.600 said that in the room. Yeah, So a forward slash 0:13:38.679 --> 0:13:42.560 proceeds the command, and then any strings that you need 0:13:42.600 --> 0:13:45.400 to include after that. Of course, you would want to 0:13:45.440 --> 0:13:47.880 leave a space in between. So right, So if I 0:13:47.920 --> 0:13:50.839 wanted to create my nickname, I would do slash in 0:13:51.040 --> 0:13:54.760 I C K space John Strickland, Yes, and that would 0:13:54.960 --> 0:13:59.440 change my whatever my generic login name was to John Strickland. 0:14:00.280 --> 0:14:04.600 And then um, if you wanted to join uh the 0:14:04.640 --> 0:14:09.319 text stuff channel, you would do slash join and then 0:14:09.320 --> 0:14:13.640 a space hashtag tech stuff. Right. And there are other 0:14:14.000 --> 0:14:16.920 basic commands like quit clearly that would make you quit 0:14:16.960 --> 0:14:19.680 out of the I r C client help, which would 0:14:19.680 --> 0:14:21.720 get you more information who is, which would give you 0:14:21.760 --> 0:14:25.840 information about a particular person logged in under a handle 0:14:25.880 --> 0:14:28.040 You would do you know, the slash who is all 0:14:28.080 --> 0:14:31.000 one word w H O I S and put in 0:14:31.040 --> 0:14:34.080 the name, which may or may not give you a 0:14:34.120 --> 0:14:36.360 good amount of information. All depends on how the person's 0:14:36.520 --> 0:14:41.360 set his or her account, or who was even work 0:14:41.800 --> 0:14:46.000 if the person has recently changed the nickname or disappeared. UM, 0:14:46.000 --> 0:14:50.040 slash away lets people know that you are not paying 0:14:50.240 --> 0:14:52.560 attention to what's going on in the chat room at 0:14:52.560 --> 0:14:54.560 that time. So maybe you know, have to get up 0:14:54.600 --> 0:14:57.120 and go to the restroom, or make a cup of coffee, 0:14:57.360 --> 0:15:00.760 or put out a fire, or walk a dog, or 0:15:00.960 --> 0:15:03.880 apologize profusely to a spouse. Then that would be a 0:15:03.880 --> 0:15:05.760 good thing to put so that people know that you're 0:15:05.800 --> 0:15:09.840 not paying attention to the screen. I'm sorry what that 0:15:09.920 --> 0:15:12.880 last one happens a lot to me. Um. But then 0:15:12.920 --> 0:15:15.440 there and and I shall say, there's also a way 0:15:15.440 --> 0:15:18.400 of sending private messages to people. You can do slash 0:15:18.560 --> 0:15:21.280 msg and then a message and that sends it instead 0:15:21.320 --> 0:15:23.760 of going to the room in general, it'll send it 0:15:23.800 --> 0:15:27.720 straight to another person. Yeah, that's embarrassing because I thought 0:15:27.760 --> 0:15:33.240 that that was the way to put monet. Yeah, so 0:15:33.280 --> 0:15:35.960 you were like you were like frantically trying to poison 0:15:36.000 --> 0:15:37.560 people and it turns out you were just saying hi, 0:15:37.880 --> 0:15:41.960 yeah exactly, um um, then there and if they were 0:15:42.000 --> 0:15:45.840 rebuffing my attempts to poison them with MSG, they could 0:15:45.840 --> 0:15:51.040 be slash ignoring me. Yes, that's a very useful uh command. 0:15:51.080 --> 0:15:53.560 If you ever run into trolls them and you know 0:15:53.680 --> 0:15:57.520 you don't maybe the the administrator of that channel, the 0:15:57.520 --> 0:16:00.120 the operator that channel doesn't necessarily care if there is 0:16:00.120 --> 0:16:04.520 a trollish person in there. Ignore is your friend. And 0:16:04.680 --> 0:16:06.960 if you are a channel operator, if you're the person 0:16:07.000 --> 0:16:10.760 who owns the administrative power of that channel, you have 0:16:10.840 --> 0:16:13.760 other commands that are at your disposal, including things like 0:16:13.960 --> 0:16:16.720 you know, usually there's a kick command where you can 0:16:16.800 --> 0:16:21.000 kick people from the room if they're being really obnoxious um, 0:16:21.120 --> 0:16:23.080 and I'm along with other ones. You can even ban 0:16:23.560 --> 0:16:27.240 people from a room. And sometimes there's different settings like 0:16:27.280 --> 0:16:30.560 you can ban uh that one user or you can 0:16:30.600 --> 0:16:34.600 ban anyone from that particular users domain. You can get 0:16:34.640 --> 0:16:38.960 pretty nasty um, depending on the the the rights that 0:16:39.080 --> 0:16:43.400 the channel opp has. And also you can accidentally or well, 0:16:43.440 --> 0:16:47.080 you can give other people operator rights as well. Can 0:16:47.560 --> 0:16:50.160 and if you're not careful, you can give other people 0:16:50.200 --> 0:16:53.520 operator rights and relinquish your own rights, and the next 0:16:53.520 --> 0:16:55.680 thing you know, you're at the whim of somebody else. 0:16:56.720 --> 0:16:59.200 And they're even ways where I mean, if if people 0:16:59.400 --> 0:17:02.800 trick you into typing a certain kind of string, that's 0:17:02.880 --> 0:17:05.479 essentially what happens. You give over the right of not 0:17:05.520 --> 0:17:08.760 only of the channel, you could actually give over the 0:17:08.800 --> 0:17:12.440 ability to control the client, and the person could control 0:17:12.520 --> 0:17:15.040 your I r C client. You could you could accidentally 0:17:15.040 --> 0:17:18.280 relinquished control if you if you posted the right command 0:17:18.320 --> 0:17:21.320 in there. You know, honestly, I've never heard of that happening. Yeah, 0:17:21.359 --> 0:17:23.600 it's um, it's actually if you look at there's a 0:17:23.640 --> 0:17:26.280 couple of really good I r C Frequently asked question 0:17:26.320 --> 0:17:28.679 files out there on the on the web, and a 0:17:28.720 --> 0:17:30.520 few of them will tell you. They don't tell you 0:17:30.560 --> 0:17:32.800 specifically what the string is, but they will say, you know, 0:17:32.880 --> 0:17:36.120 do not if someone gives you a string of seemingly 0:17:36.240 --> 0:17:38.879 random commands and says you need to type this in 0:17:38.960 --> 0:17:42.000 because it'll, you know, solve your problem or whatever. You 0:17:42.000 --> 0:17:45.120 should not just automatically do that, because there are commands 0:17:45.160 --> 0:17:47.840 that can end up coming back to haunt you when 0:17:47.880 --> 0:17:50.600 you hand over. Essentially you hand the steering wheel over 0:17:50.640 --> 0:17:53.400 to a maniac and then they laugh at you and say, 0:17:53.440 --> 0:17:56.040 ha ha, we tricked you, and now you know all 0:17:56.119 --> 0:17:59.240 your base belong to us. Someone set us up the bomb. 0:17:59.600 --> 0:18:04.200 Speaking of which, should we mentioned bots? Bots? Yeah, alright, 0:18:04.200 --> 0:18:09.359 so bots are and that's an automated program and automated essentially, 0:18:09.400 --> 0:18:12.280 it's like like a script script. Yeah, and it's a 0:18:12.280 --> 0:18:15.000 script that often takes the form of what looks to 0:18:15.080 --> 0:18:18.680 be a normal I R C. Chatter. Yeah, I mean, 0:18:18.760 --> 0:18:21.320 and basically they can they can stay in the channel. 0:18:21.359 --> 0:18:24.639 Say if if you own a very popular channel, um, 0:18:24.840 --> 0:18:26.560 and you don't want to lose control of it, but 0:18:26.640 --> 0:18:29.919 everyone's going to bed, your bought could be sitting in 0:18:29.960 --> 0:18:32.400 there for you. And uh. As a matter of fact, 0:18:32.400 --> 0:18:36.159 a bot can can automatically be configured to give people 0:18:37.359 --> 0:18:40.080 operator privileges. Yeah, you can, especially you know, like certain 0:18:40.080 --> 0:18:44.040 people can you know, your buddies, your most trusted buddies 0:18:44.080 --> 0:18:46.480 when they pop in and it will automatically give them ops. 0:18:47.040 --> 0:18:48.800 And then as soon as they do that, you know 0:18:49.119 --> 0:18:51.880 they're running a channel even when you're not there. Yeah, 0:18:51.960 --> 0:18:54.680 you can script a bot to do lots of different things. 0:18:54.720 --> 0:18:57.359 It doesn't have to just uh, you know, it doesn't 0:18:57.359 --> 0:18:59.920 have to just sit there. In other words, like the reason, 0:19:00.200 --> 0:19:01.840 as Plett was pointing out, the reason why you would 0:19:01.880 --> 0:19:04.359 want to have a bot sit there would be so 0:19:04.440 --> 0:19:07.440 that you could hold on to a certain channel name 0:19:07.480 --> 0:19:09.159 and you wouldn't have to worry about someone stealing it 0:19:09.200 --> 0:19:12.200 once you logged off. You would have a squatter essentially, 0:19:12.640 --> 0:19:14.879 But you could also give a bot like I've seen. 0:19:15.000 --> 0:19:17.760 Um there's one I R C. Each chat room I 0:19:17.800 --> 0:19:21.280 occasionally go into that has a bot that what its 0:19:21.359 --> 0:19:26.879 main purpose is to scan for for any instance of 0:19:27.000 --> 0:19:32.199 foul language. So it essentially is is uh scanning everyone's 0:19:32.600 --> 0:19:36.040 lines and if words that match up to its database 0:19:36.160 --> 0:19:39.760 of naughty words pop up, it automatically boots you from 0:19:39.800 --> 0:19:43.040 the room. So if you were to say something that 0:19:43.160 --> 0:19:44.920 was you know, like if you were to to to 0:19:45.400 --> 0:19:48.440 say an obscenity, type in an obscenity and and into 0:19:48.480 --> 0:19:51.920 the main room, UH, it would notice it and kick 0:19:51.960 --> 0:19:54.280 you from the room. Um. Other things that it would 0:19:54.400 --> 0:19:56.159 kick you for are things like if you typed in 0:19:56.240 --> 0:20:01.000 all caps, because that's the equivalent of counting online I 0:20:01.000 --> 0:20:05.320 mean in text based chat rooms, all upper case is 0:20:05.400 --> 0:20:09.080 like you're yelling, and just like any other party, no 0:20:09.080 --> 0:20:11.960 one wants to be around the guy or or girl 0:20:12.359 --> 0:20:14.440 who is screaming at the top of his or her 0:20:14.520 --> 0:20:19.200 lungs uh and thinks it's funny. Yes, that is correct. 0:20:19.200 --> 0:20:23.440 I can say that specifically after working for now as 0:20:23.600 --> 0:20:26.240 the time of recording this podcast five weekends at the 0:20:26.280 --> 0:20:29.119 Renaissance Festival. The loud ones are the ones that always 0:20:29.160 --> 0:20:32.040 think they are the funniest people, and they are always 0:20:32.040 --> 0:20:37.040 wrong unless it's me right. There is that exception to 0:20:37.080 --> 0:20:40.600 the rule. So if you wanted to join I r C, 0:20:41.080 --> 0:20:43.720 you don't have to really do all that much. As 0:20:43.720 --> 0:20:45.880 long as you're on the internet, you should be able 0:20:45.920 --> 0:20:49.400 to uh, you know, choose a client. There are many 0:20:49.440 --> 0:20:53.040 many pre I r C clients or as Jonathan pointed 0:20:53.040 --> 0:20:55.320 out earlier, you can go on the web to certain 0:20:55.359 --> 0:20:59.239 sites and access from there, um you know, they are 0:20:59.400 --> 0:21:02.560 their clients. Also that you can pay for shareware clients 0:21:02.600 --> 0:21:05.399 if if you're really, uh really getting into the I 0:21:05.520 --> 0:21:08.840 r C thing, they might have special you know, especially 0:21:08.840 --> 0:21:13.520 configured windows that you can use that just make life easier. Um. 0:21:14.119 --> 0:21:16.359 And they're you know, they're pretty you can even you 0:21:16.359 --> 0:21:20.399 can even find them for smartphones now. Um. Although I 0:21:20.400 --> 0:21:24.640 wouldn't recommend I r C and driving at the same time. 0:21:24.680 --> 0:21:27.359 Actually I wouldn't recommend being on I r C on 0:21:27.400 --> 0:21:31.000 a mobile phone anyway, because teeny tiny it's so hard 0:21:31.040 --> 0:21:33.320 to keep up with, especially if you if you tend 0:21:33.359 --> 0:21:36.400 to frequent rooms that have a lot of people in them. 0:21:36.840 --> 0:21:39.800 But the one I was talking about earlier, it it 0:21:39.960 --> 0:21:42.640 often has more than a hundred and sometimes more than 0:21:42.680 --> 0:21:45.520 four hundred, and it peaked times nearly a thousand people 0:21:45.520 --> 0:21:49.520 in it on a significant for an IRC chat room. Yeah, 0:21:49.560 --> 0:21:52.200 this is a specific chat room that's a fan chat 0:21:52.320 --> 0:21:56.680 room for a technology podcast that I listened to while 0:21:56.680 --> 0:22:00.600 they're doing it live. Unlike unlike our technique where we 0:22:00.720 --> 0:22:02.760 pre record everything and no one gets to hear it 0:22:02.760 --> 0:22:05.720