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Speaker 1: Get in touch with technology with text Stuff from how

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Speaker 1: stuff dot com. Say everyone, and welcome to tech Stuff.

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Speaker 1: I'm Jonathan Strickland and I'm Lauren foc Obama. Lauren, I'd

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Speaker 1: like to have a little chat, a little Internet relay chat. Uh.

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Speaker 1: That's convenient because our topic today is actually about Internet

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Speaker 1: relay chats or i r C, which is fantastic because

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Speaker 1: it's something I've never talked about before. Uh, or so

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Speaker 1: you thought until about noon thirty today. Yeah, longtime listeners

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Speaker 1: of tech stuff might be thinking we already did an

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Speaker 1: episode on I r C, and you are completely correct.

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Speaker 1: Jonathan and christ did one of those way back on

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Speaker 1: June called what is i r C? But it was

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Speaker 1: it was more of a basic overview of what the

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Speaker 1: service is and how it came about and how people

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Speaker 1: use it. We wanted to go a little bit more

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Speaker 1: into the history of i r C thanks mostly to

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Speaker 1: an idea from listener Addie um that's at Addie siram

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Speaker 1: one on Twitter, who said, can you do an episode

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Speaker 1: on I r C? And we said sure, Yeah. I

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Speaker 1: just want to make it clear that I listened to

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Speaker 1: that podcast from and I have no memory of ever

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Speaker 1: saying those words and I it sounds like I'm making

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Speaker 1: a joke, but I was, like I, I clearly recognized

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Speaker 1: my voice, but there is nothing in my brain that

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Speaker 1: held onto the fact that I did an episode about

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Speaker 1: I r C already. So we if you did listen

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Speaker 1: to that episode and you have a better memory than

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Speaker 1: I do, some of this might sound familiar, but go

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Speaker 1: with us, all right, So let's start our our journey

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Speaker 1: down memory lane, and and also open up a few

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Speaker 1: other doors on the way if I can mix some metaphors. So,

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Speaker 1: what exactly is I r C. Well, as we have

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Speaker 1: mentioned even just in the past couple of minutes here,

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Speaker 1: it stands for Internet Relay check. Wait, I have no memory, Jonathan.

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Speaker 1: This is becoming a problem. I know that you're off

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Speaker 1: caffeine today that that might be the issue. Yeah, I

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Speaker 1: gave up caffeine and now now I'm all sorts of

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Speaker 1: messed up, y'all. So yeah, it's it's actually a platform

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Speaker 1: for real time chat on the Internet. And it's text based.

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Speaker 1: It's not you know, voice or video or anything like that.

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Speaker 1: This is actually typing in your little type type. It's

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Speaker 1: a it's a type of instant messenger. Might be a

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Speaker 1: phrase that people are more familiar with these days, although

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Speaker 1: I would argue that most messengers are probably based on

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Speaker 1: I r C. Yeah, I r C is also group based,

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Speaker 1: as opposed to a one on one discussion. You would

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Speaker 1: It's almost like if you were to go to a

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Speaker 1: physical location where the people at a physical location are

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Speaker 1: all all interested in a particular topic, and you walk

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Speaker 1: through the door and you join the conversation. Except in

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Speaker 1: I r C you can actually be in multiple rooms

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Speaker 1: at the same time, having multiple conversations about multiple topics, right,

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Speaker 1: because you're going through a server. Yeah, a server that

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Speaker 1: has multiple different kind of rooms, virtual rooms, or or

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Speaker 1: channels exactly. And each channel has its own name. Uh.

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Speaker 1: Most of the time, the channel name kind of gives

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Speaker 1: you an idea of what the subject is some of them.

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Speaker 1: Some of them are general subjects. They're pretty straightforward. It's

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Speaker 1: uh yeah, like hashtag firefly fans. I guess that would

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Speaker 1: be people who really enjoy bugs that light up at night.

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Speaker 1: That clearly must be it um. To connect to these

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Speaker 1: kind of spaces, you have to use a program, a client,

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Speaker 1: an app YEP. So you've got this client server relationship.

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Speaker 1: The servers what houses the connections and the client is

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Speaker 1: what you use to have your computer connect to the server.

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Speaker 1: And these days there are many much clients yeah, and

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Speaker 1: lots and lots of servers too, So the clients exist

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Speaker 1: for all sorts of different operating systems. So you're not

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Speaker 1: going to be left out, you know, if you're if

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Speaker 1: you're saying, but I use a Mac, how could I

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Speaker 1: participate in this wonderful world that is I r C.

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Speaker 1: First of all, I'd say, well, you're about a decade

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Speaker 1: late to this party, more than a decade later, as

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Speaker 1: it turns out. But also I would say, don't worry,

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Speaker 1: because every operating system has a host of clients you

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Speaker 1: can choose from. Many have very different capabilities that are

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Speaker 1: built in. Some of them are more intuitive than others.

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Speaker 1: And there are also lots and lots of servers on them.

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Speaker 1: And uh. The other interesting things is that the servers

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Speaker 1: can connect to each other to form networks. And in fact,

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Speaker 1: that's how I r C got started. It started with

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Speaker 1: an a network originally, UH, and then eventually reached the

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Speaker 1: world that we're in today where you have all these

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Speaker 1: different servers UH and networks that some of them are

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Speaker 1: not connected to each other. So in other words, there

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Speaker 1: may be channels on one server that you really like

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Speaker 1: and channels on another server that you really like, but

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Speaker 1: those two servers aren't connected, so you have to connect

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Speaker 1: to either one separately in order to access the stuff

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Speaker 1: that you want exactly. Yeah, it's not like you can

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Speaker 1: just jump from channel to channel if those servers have

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Speaker 1: no connection between them. And uh so it's meant for it.

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Speaker 1: Like we said, group to gussions, you know, having a

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Speaker 1: big group conversation, there are ways that you can send

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Speaker 1: private messages back and forth. Um, and to communicate, you

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Speaker 1: just type your text into a little text field. Think

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Speaker 1: of a divided window. So the window on the top

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Speaker 1: is sort of the ongoing conversation within that channel, and

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Speaker 1: the window below, it's very narrow, is really a text

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Speaker 1: field for you to type in. And then you can

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Speaker 1: also enter in commands I r C commands. We talked

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Speaker 1: a lot about I r C commands in the two

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Speaker 1: thousand ten episode, so I highly recommend you go and

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Speaker 1: check that out if you're really interested. For one thing,

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Speaker 1: the commands are dependent upon what client you use because

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Speaker 1: the different systems use slightly different phrasing. Yeah, just imagine that,

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Speaker 1: you know, think of it as evolution and at one

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Speaker 1: point all these different client philosophies split and then evolved

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Speaker 1: on their separate pathways, which is actually exactly what happens,

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Speaker 1: which we will talk about. Yeah, so that's the basic

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Speaker 1: way that these things work. So so let's talk about

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Speaker 1: how this actually came to happen. It all started way

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Speaker 1: in eight y'all when when we mentioned that you are

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Speaker 1: a ten or twenty years too late, we were not

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Speaker 1: really kidding. Um and and for the record, on all

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Speaker 1: of this history stuff that we're about to talk about,

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Speaker 1: there are a bunch of vaguely conflicting reports about all

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Speaker 1: of it because no one was really documenting it at

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Speaker 1: the time. No one was expecting this to be something

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Speaker 1: that someone would be sitting in a podcast room talking about.

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Speaker 1: It's It's the way a lot of things unfold eventually

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Speaker 1: is that unless there was someone who was officially a chronicler, uh,

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Speaker 1: you just get you know, kind of time estimations. So,

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Speaker 1: for example, the birth of I. R. C Is often

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Speaker 1: said to be sometime around the end of August nine,

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Speaker 1: but we don't remember what the day was because the

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Speaker 1: operative person um one yarco A k A whiz. I'm

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Speaker 1: gonna go I think it's I I think it's okay.

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Speaker 1: So here's the thing, guys, he's finish. There are a

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Speaker 1: lot of Finnish people involved in the development of r C,

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Speaker 1: and we are Americans who have a vast ignorance on

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Speaker 1: the way to pronounce Finnish names. Lauren has done her

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Speaker 1: best to to decipher this. I have not, and hilarity

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Speaker 1: shall ensue. Now. I want to extend all my apologies

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Speaker 1: to my Finnish friends who are going to cringe every

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Speaker 1: time I mangle a name. But just no, it's not

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Speaker 1: out of malice, it's just from ignorance. Yea um. But

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Speaker 1: so at any rate, he was working at the University

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Speaker 1: of Aulu in Finland, and he was working specifically in

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Speaker 1: the Department of Information Processing Science, and he thought, you know,

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Speaker 1: I want to include some sort of chat functionality in

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Speaker 1: this BBS service software that I am installing BBS bulletin

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Speaker 1: board system. So this is sort of the predecessor to

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Speaker 1: you know, these were like those those local networks that

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Speaker 1: you could log into. It wasn't an Internet. It was

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Speaker 1: something that you could dial directly into a BBS and

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Speaker 1: get Internet like uh services, including things like messaging and email.

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Speaker 1: But it was usually restricted just to that BBS. So

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Speaker 1: in other words, again it was there like little islands

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Speaker 1: as opposed to a global internet. Yeah, that there was usenet,

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Speaker 1: which was a little bit more expansive and had more

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Speaker 1: group discussion kind of functions. But but one of the

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Speaker 1: ideas that Yorko had was that he really wanted to

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Speaker 1: to integrate that into a real time chat capacity, right,

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Speaker 1: and he started looking around for inspiration U and one

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Speaker 1: of them was a bit chat client that was developed

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Speaker 1: by a friend of his. He actually started borrowing parts

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Speaker 1: of multi user chat programs that were written by other people,

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Speaker 1: including and tell me if I get this one wrong,

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Speaker 1: or key yes, or I don't know, I know I

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Speaker 1: got that one wrong and Yoka Peel and uh. So

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Speaker 1: his friends had been working on similar ideas for other implementations,

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Speaker 1: and at the end of August, I r C was

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Speaker 1: switched on and it lived on a single computer, so

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Speaker 1: just one computer in the world running the server software

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Speaker 1: for I r C. So then you had this group

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Speaker 1: of friends campaigned the university to eventually allow them to

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Speaker 1: release this code to a wider audience because technically the

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Speaker 1: code belonged to the university itself. And I love the

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Speaker 1: way that the that Yarko talks about the the development.

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Speaker 1: He says, once it got up to ten users, I

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Speaker 1: knew that I wanted to let other people have a

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Speaker 1: crack at this, and I thought ten the Internet was

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Speaker 1: very I mean, it wasn't really Internet yet. The Internet

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Speaker 1: was a yeah, the Internet was was just the realm

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Speaker 1: of research organizations and universe these no one outside of

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Speaker 1: that really had much access to it. Besides it was

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Speaker 1: some government agencies as well, but you know, we plebeians

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Speaker 1: out in the real world didn't have any access to it.

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Speaker 1: The Worldwide Web was more than a decade away, so

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Speaker 1: this was you know, this was early early days. So

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Speaker 1: ten was actually a significant number. And just I just

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Speaker 1: joke about it because I think of our discussion about

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Speaker 1: Twitter from a few weeks ago about how the five

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Speaker 1: thousand number was so small. But yeah, ten people. So

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Speaker 1: he just he convinces the university to allow them to

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Speaker 1: release this code to some other people, and they started

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Speaker 1: getting it installed in other universities in Finland first and

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Speaker 1: they joined on and then looked at other countries as well.

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Speaker 1: But there were some issues there right there. There were

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Speaker 1: a few like inter country connectivity issues apparently U. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: because I mean at this point, again, internet is not

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Speaker 1: a real thing, right right, Yeah yeah, yrk will remembers

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Speaker 1: there being specific problems connecting his his networks in Finland

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Speaker 1: with US networks, but this wouldn't go on for very long. Yeah. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: there were improvements in the infrastructure going on at the

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Speaker 1: same time as I r C starting to catch on

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Speaker 1: in popularity. In fact, by November of that year, of

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Speaker 1: universities in Colorado and Oregon would become connected to the

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Speaker 1: I r C network. Um they would set up their

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Speaker 1: own servers and and hook everything up together, so it

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Speaker 1: was no longer solely finished and what it was just

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Speaker 1: getting started. I couldn't help myself. UM and uh Jorco

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Speaker 1: had connected with some people through m I T S

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Speaker 1: network and distributed a couple of copies and it basically

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Speaker 1: just went wild. I mean like he didn't he didn't

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Speaker 1: distribute it physically to all of these people that ended

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Speaker 1: up setting up their their their own versions. But yeah,

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Speaker 1: it's actually kind of funny, like the story about the

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Speaker 1: Colorado coming online. As I understand it, one of the

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Speaker 1: other UH universities and finn Land, there was a user

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Speaker 1: who was very interested in it, who then passed it

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Speaker 1: on to someone who was at in Colorado who then uh,

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Speaker 1: you know, so it was it was growing organically. It

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Speaker 1: wasn't like a planned out this is how we're rolling

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Speaker 1: this out. It was it was a viral. Yeah. He

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Speaker 1: was just like, hey, check out the school thing that

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Speaker 1: I made, and and all of a sudden he would

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Speaker 1: see it pop up in other places. So that was

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Speaker 1: August to November. It took very little time at all.

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Speaker 1: By midine, there were forty servers worldwide. Uh and by

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Speaker 1: nineteen ninety the average number of active servers so forty

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Speaker 1: servers worldwide that not all of them are necessarily active

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Speaker 1: all the time. So by the number of active servers

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Speaker 1: and the number of active users at any particular given

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Speaker 1: time was still pretty modest. We're talking twelve users and

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Speaker 1: thirty eight servers. Granted, the original code for I r

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Speaker 1: C really only accounted for some hundred users to be

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Speaker 1: connected all at the same time. And uh. Furthermore, according

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Speaker 1: to some numbers around that same time, there were only

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Speaker 1: three million people worldwide who even had access to the

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Speaker 1: Internet right and and doing something like if you've ever

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Speaker 1: connected to a BBS in the old days, a lot

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Speaker 1: of those original BBS has only had capacity for a

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Speaker 1: couple of people to connect at a time, So for

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Speaker 1: something to have the capacity to allow a hundred people

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Speaker 1: to communicate simultaneously was a huge deal. It was it

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Speaker 1: would turn out to not be scalable really at all,

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Speaker 1: which created many problems down the line. Yes. In fact,

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Speaker 1: so in August that's when one of these problems starts

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Speaker 1: to rear its head, and that the ir C community

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Speaker 1: suffers its first schism, but not the last one, certainly not.

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Speaker 1: So in this corner you have the traditional lass community

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Speaker 1: and on the other corner you had a group that

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Speaker 1: just they you know, they didn't want people to tell

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Speaker 1: him what to do. They wanted they wanted freedom from rules,

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Speaker 1: rules for squares. Man, I don't know if they actually

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Speaker 1: used that voices. That's exactly the how people talk to

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Speaker 1: I'm old enough to remember, I see. Um. So, so

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Speaker 1: these two groups split, and the the kind of anarchists,

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Speaker 1: the anarchists sort of side uh founded a net which

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Speaker 1: stood in fact for anarchist net. Yes, and the rest

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Speaker 1: of it became known as e f net, which stands

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Speaker 1: for arist Free Network e r I s Aris Free Network.

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Speaker 1: And why because the server that a net was founded

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Speaker 1: on was named Aris dot Berkeley dot E d U. So,

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Speaker 1: in other words, you had one group of people who

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Speaker 1: are like, we kind of want the freedom to do

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Speaker 1: whatever we like because we don't like these rules where

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Speaker 1: you say we can't do things like take over someone's

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Speaker 1: channel just because they weren't smart enough to block us

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Speaker 1: from and since they're not smart enough, they should not

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Speaker 1: be allowed to run that channel. I should be allowed

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Speaker 1: to run it and do whatever I want. I'm being

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Speaker 1: I'm certainly adding a little more motivation here than it

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Speaker 1: was probably in the literature. But that's kind of how

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Speaker 1: I do things. Well, I mean, you are you are

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Speaker 1: being snarky, but first of all, snark is what you do.

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Speaker 1: Snark is what both of us do. Yeah, it's not

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Speaker 1: guess what tech stuff does? We embrace it? We do. Um,

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Speaker 1: but uh, the folks who are on that that a

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Speaker 1: net did really enjoy exploiting um what was called nick

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Speaker 1: colliding and this is um. Yeah, So here's the thing, Like,

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Speaker 1: you would choose a nickname when you log into a

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Speaker 1: channel or or a server to to chat with other people,

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Speaker 1: and this nickname represents who you are. You can choose

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Speaker 1: any nickname you want given the character limit of that

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Speaker 1: that's supported by that particular client and server. So one

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Speaker 1: thing that could happen is that if you try to choose,

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Speaker 1: what you know, another person's nickname, the system would generally

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Speaker 1: prevent you from doing that, saying that that name is

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Speaker 1: already taken. But if you were able to orchestrate an

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Speaker 1: event or take advantage of an event where everyone is

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Speaker 1: kicked out of a room and then you rejoin that

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Speaker 1: room or channel I should say, everyone's kicked out of

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Speaker 1: a channel, you rejoin that channel before the operator or

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Speaker 1: OP can join that channel, and you name yourself the

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Speaker 1: OPS name. You could end up giving yourself OP powers

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Speaker 1: for that channel, and you prevent the rightful OP from

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Speaker 1: being able to take hold. And so that's nick colliding.

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Speaker 1: It's when these nicknames collide. In One way that would

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Speaker 1: happen is you would have what what's called a net split.

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Speaker 1: A net split is when, uh, you have two servers

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Speaker 1: that are connected to a network that are running the

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Speaker 1: same sort of channel, and some people are on one server,

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Speaker 1: some people are on the other server, but they're all

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Speaker 1: in the same chat room. But then somehow a connection

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Speaker 1: between those servers breaks and then you end up having

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Speaker 1: two instances of that same channel, so you've got half

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Speaker 1: the people in one and half the people in the other.

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Speaker 1: So let's say that I'm a jerk. I mean, it's

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Speaker 1: easy to say, right, So I'm a jerk. I've logged

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Speaker 1: into the hold on. It's gonna take me a second. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I know, it's okay. There's you're in a forest. There's

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Speaker 1: a tree, all right. So Lauren, you're an OP and

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Speaker 1: I'm a jerk, and I've logged into the channel, and

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Speaker 1: right now I'm not being too jerky, So you haven't

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Speaker 1: booted me or anything like that. But there's a net

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Speaker 1: split and you and your group are in one server.

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Speaker 1: I'm on another server, so we're on separate ones. I say,

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Speaker 1: ah ha, there's been a net split. I shall change

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Speaker 1: my name, yes exactly, I'll change my name to Lauren's name.

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Speaker 1: And so I change my nickname. And then when the

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Speaker 1: servers are reunited and it tries to reconcile these two

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Speaker 1: worlds into one. Because you have two people with the

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Speaker 1: same nickname, the nicknames collide, thus nick colliding, and it

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Speaker 1: boots both people out of the channel. Now, because I'm

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Speaker 1: a jerk, and because I've planned for this, I've already

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Speaker 1: got another window open, so i can log right back

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Speaker 1: in using Lauren's nickname again. And Lauren, because she wasn't

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Speaker 1: expecting this because she was being decent, is locked out

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Speaker 1: of her own channel. That's kind of nick colliding in

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Speaker 1: a you know, in a nutshell, and that's the sort

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Speaker 1: of stuff these guys like to do. So they started

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Speaker 1: up their own party. They say, well, you know, the

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Speaker 1: e f net people for some reason don't find this

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Speaker 1: nearly as entertaining as we do, so we're gonna make

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Speaker 1: our own party. Um. However, a net would not last

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Speaker 1: very long, and in fact, most users chose to go

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Speaker 1: with e f net instead, saying this anarchy thing doesn't

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Speaker 1: sound like it's a lot of fun or very you

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Speaker 1: know productive. Everyone being nice seems to make a lot

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Speaker 1: more sense, right, So then we have a unified network

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Speaker 1: e f net again. So it started off as a

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Speaker 1: unified network, had that one schism. A net did not

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Speaker 1: last very long. We're back to unified. However, then you

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Speaker 1: have a second splintering, which is when some users left

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Speaker 1: e f net to form tub net, which was mostly

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Speaker 1: kind of a The tub net folks were saying, look,

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Speaker 1: you need to fix things so that net splits happen

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Speaker 1: less frequently. They are, they're disruptive, you it's it's ruining

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Speaker 1: the experience. Right. The way that people react to net

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Speaker 1: splits is not the problem. The fact that we are

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Speaker 1: having net splits at all is something that really needs

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00:18:55,480 --> 00:18:58,760
Speaker 1: to be worked on more exactly. And so it wasn't

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Speaker 1: so much a disagreement with policy as it was we

347
00:19:01,359 --> 00:19:04,960
Speaker 1: need to improve this platform. So they left and uh

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Speaker 1: toughnet had about five servers and around a hundred users,

349
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Speaker 1: But it didn't stay around very long either. People kind

350
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Speaker 1: of might um and and again, basically all of these

351
00:19:14,920 --> 00:19:19,439
Speaker 1: were really scalability issues um which which Arco himself actually

352
00:19:19,440 --> 00:19:21,080
Speaker 1: listed as being just about the only thing that he

353
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Speaker 1: would go back and change if he had it to

354
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Speaker 1: all do over again. Right. But you know, again, hindsight

355
00:19:25,920 --> 00:19:28,040
Speaker 1: being twenty, it was a lot harder to imagine this

356
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Speaker 1: back when you were doing something where you had ten

357
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Speaker 1: people on. So an event, a world event happens that

358
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Speaker 1: ends up making I r C a very useful utility

359
00:19:40,240 --> 00:19:43,520
Speaker 1: for a certain population. That was when the Gulf War

360
00:19:43,640 --> 00:19:47,240
Speaker 1: broke out and you started seeing lots of people using

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Speaker 1: I r C to communicate about the war, sharing news stories,

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Speaker 1: sharing information as they got it, because different parts of

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00:19:53,359 --> 00:19:56,679
Speaker 1: the world we're getting reports earlier than other parts, and

364
00:19:56,760 --> 00:19:59,800
Speaker 1: everyone wanted to know what was going on, and this

365
00:20:00,160 --> 00:20:02,240
Speaker 1: when they were seeing the height of their popularity in

366
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Speaker 1: their early days. And keep in mind, again we're talking

367
00:20:05,040 --> 00:20:07,600
Speaker 1: modest numbers, so when we tell you how many users

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00:20:07,600 --> 00:20:11,080
Speaker 1: at the high their popularity, don't snicker, right, because for

369
00:20:11,119 --> 00:20:13,480
Speaker 1: the first time in history, it was it was about

370
00:20:13,560 --> 00:20:17,000
Speaker 1: three concurrent users at any given moment, and that that

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00:20:17,119 --> 00:20:19,600
Speaker 1: was a big deal. Uh, you know, kind of similar

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Speaker 1: to how we were saying in the Twitter episode about

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Speaker 1: how how people were so impressed by the ability that

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Speaker 1: this that this software gave them to tune into live

375
00:20:29,000 --> 00:20:32,840
Speaker 1: reporting about an issue, same same thing. Yeah, yeah, exactly.

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Speaker 1: So it was, you know, really, to me, what this

377
00:20:36,720 --> 00:20:41,280
Speaker 1: says is it's it's it's a premonition about what the

378
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Speaker 1: Internet will be and how it will be important and

379
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Speaker 1: how people will use it to communicate these important ideas

380
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Speaker 1: in real time across the entire globe. And even though

381
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Speaker 1: it was very tiny, particularly compared to something as enormous

382
00:20:55,119 --> 00:20:57,119
Speaker 1: as the Internet, it was kind of a proof of

383
00:20:57,200 --> 00:21:00,720
Speaker 1: concept in many ways. So then another blit happens, but

384
00:21:00,760 --> 00:21:03,199
Speaker 1: this one was not. It was an amicable split. It

385
00:21:03,320 --> 00:21:05,760
Speaker 1: wasn't something where a bunch of people were really upset.

386
00:21:06,160 --> 00:21:10,520
Speaker 1: A user who used the nickname wild Thang and yes,

387
00:21:10,600 --> 00:21:13,840
Speaker 1: that is how it's spelled, created a test network to

388
00:21:13,960 --> 00:21:18,520
Speaker 1: develop bots. So these are automated accounts. Often they will

389
00:21:18,560 --> 00:21:22,720
Speaker 1: create admins that are bots, and the admin bots really

390
00:21:22,720 --> 00:21:25,080
Speaker 1: are just there to scan for anything that would be

391
00:21:25,119 --> 00:21:28,359
Speaker 1: objectionable and react to it so that if someone's typing

392
00:21:28,359 --> 00:21:31,080
Speaker 1: in all caps, the bot can step in and say, please,

393
00:21:31,080 --> 00:21:33,520
Speaker 1: don't type in all caps. People were much more sensitive

394
00:21:33,520 --> 00:21:36,280
Speaker 1: about that in these early days of internet. Yeah, you know,

395
00:21:36,320 --> 00:21:38,600
Speaker 1: because it was considered shouting. And no, no, I mean

396
00:21:38,600 --> 00:21:41,320
Speaker 1: it's still considered shouting. But it's kind of funny these days.

397
00:21:41,359 --> 00:21:43,639
Speaker 1: I think back back then, if you're if your handle

398
00:21:43,680 --> 00:21:48,600
Speaker 1: is drunk hulk, it's hilarious. Well but at any rate, yes, okay,

399
00:21:48,680 --> 00:21:53,280
Speaker 1: that's fair. It's not not always hilarious, but frequently so

400
00:21:53,520 --> 00:21:59,080
Speaker 1: the this this approach, this uh, this split to create

401
00:21:59,160 --> 00:22:01,960
Speaker 1: this area where they could test out bots. It was

402
00:22:02,000 --> 00:22:04,000
Speaker 1: really just men as a testing ground, but more and

403
00:22:04,080 --> 00:22:06,359
Speaker 1: more people wanted to join it to kind of play

404
00:22:06,400 --> 00:22:08,960
Speaker 1: around with things and test things out and see what

405
00:22:09,040 --> 00:22:13,000
Speaker 1: else was possible, and that is how the undernet was born.

406
00:22:13,600 --> 00:22:17,439
Speaker 1: And uh, it actually had some really useful goals. It

407
00:22:17,560 --> 00:22:20,080
Speaker 1: wasn't just about playing with bots and seeing what you

408
00:22:20,119 --> 00:22:23,919
Speaker 1: could program to to do. It also involved ways of

409
00:22:23,960 --> 00:22:27,600
Speaker 1: registering channels to users so that nick colliding was less

410
00:22:27,600 --> 00:22:31,280
Speaker 1: of a problem. The idea being that if you register

411
00:22:31,359 --> 00:22:33,640
Speaker 1: the channel to a user and you had some form

412
00:22:33,720 --> 00:22:37,800
Speaker 1: of verification, like a password, that would really cut down

413
00:22:37,800 --> 00:22:41,240
Speaker 1: on people being able to take over a channel without authorization.

414
00:22:41,920 --> 00:22:45,040
Speaker 1: So it actually exists in parallel with the f net.

415
00:22:45,080 --> 00:22:47,240
Speaker 1: It's not trying to compete or anything. It's just it's

416
00:22:47,280 --> 00:22:50,800
Speaker 1: just kind of a like almost like a sandbox where

417
00:22:50,800 --> 00:22:54,119
Speaker 1: people can test out things. And uh, that's where i

418
00:22:54,280 --> 00:22:57,200
Speaker 1: r C really stopped being a united network and becomes

419
00:22:57,200 --> 00:22:59,840
Speaker 1: a platform that runs on different networks. This is the

420
00:23:00,160 --> 00:23:02,680
Speaker 1: time we start seeing something that can survive on its

421
00:23:02,680 --> 00:23:04,920
Speaker 1: own and doesn't it's not just a flash in the pan,

422
00:23:05,240 --> 00:23:10,560
Speaker 1: you know, splinter group. So by May the i r

423
00:23:10,600 --> 00:23:13,560
Speaker 1: C protocol is made available to the general public. It's

424
00:23:13,600 --> 00:23:16,479
Speaker 1: no longer just something that's being spread from uh, you know,

425
00:23:16,640 --> 00:23:20,240
Speaker 1: one one enthusiast to another. Now it's available for anyone.

426
00:23:20,960 --> 00:23:26,359
Speaker 1: And the summer of nineteen uh, we get a fork

427
00:23:26,640 --> 00:23:29,280
Speaker 1: in under net. So we've talked about splintering with e

428
00:23:29,520 --> 00:23:33,160
Speaker 1: f net. Now undernet itself forks and another group called

429
00:23:33,240 --> 00:23:36,760
Speaker 1: down net d a l a et is born and

430
00:23:37,200 --> 00:23:41,919
Speaker 1: it was really trying to bring more stability and security

431
00:23:42,040 --> 00:23:44,720
Speaker 1: to the I r C platform exactly. And a lot

432
00:23:44,760 --> 00:23:47,920
Speaker 1: of their their improvements were made by a guy named

433
00:23:48,000 --> 00:23:53,959
Speaker 1: Brian morpher Smith, so again looking to improve the platform. Uh.

434
00:23:54,119 --> 00:23:56,640
Speaker 1: I think these splits are looked upon with much more

435
00:23:56,760 --> 00:24:00,320
Speaker 1: fondness by people. Everyone was trying to make it better

436
00:24:00,359 --> 00:24:04,760
Speaker 1: as opposed to having having like deep philosophical disagreements within

437
00:24:04,800 --> 00:24:09,520
Speaker 1: the community. Uh. And then in undernet would split again,

438
00:24:09,680 --> 00:24:11,879
Speaker 1: but this time it was it was one of those

439
00:24:12,119 --> 00:24:16,119
Speaker 1: UM system problems, infrastructure problems. UH. You see there was

440
00:24:16,240 --> 00:24:19,080
Speaker 1: a server in Australia that was part of the undernet,

441
00:24:19,480 --> 00:24:22,720
Speaker 1: but connecting from Australia to the rest of the world

442
00:24:23,080 --> 00:24:26,159
Speaker 1: there was a lot of lag, so huge delays. You

443
00:24:26,160 --> 00:24:29,639
Speaker 1: would type something in, you'd hit enter, it would take

444
00:24:29,960 --> 00:24:32,920
Speaker 1: you know, several seconds for it to to transfer over

445
00:24:32,960 --> 00:24:36,840
Speaker 1: By then whatever, the topic of conversation has changed dramatically.

446
00:24:36,880 --> 00:24:40,959
Speaker 1: Everyone thinks that you're being either obtuse or just really slow.

447
00:24:41,160 --> 00:24:44,200
Speaker 1: But it turns out just because there's lag. So there

448
00:24:44,280 --> 00:24:47,800
Speaker 1: was a conscious decision to split from the undernet UH

449
00:24:47,800 --> 00:24:51,640
Speaker 1: and to create a new Australian based network called ozorg.

450
00:24:53,160 --> 00:24:55,640
Speaker 1: So so this was again another one of those beneficial

451
00:24:55,800 --> 00:24:57,600
Speaker 1: splits that that was really done for the good of

452
00:24:57,640 --> 00:25:02,480
Speaker 1: the community rather than due to h intric community arguments. Exactly. Yeah,

453
00:25:02,480 --> 00:25:04,720
Speaker 1: it's really, I mean it was. It was sad in

454
00:25:04,760 --> 00:25:07,199
Speaker 1: a way because it meant that the Australians became kind

455
00:25:07,200 --> 00:25:10,880
Speaker 1: of you know, insulated from everybody else and everyone else

456
00:25:11,000 --> 00:25:14,000
Speaker 1: was denied the pleasure of Australian company. But it was

457
00:25:14,160 --> 00:25:17,879
Speaker 1: due specifically to technological you know, shortcomings, had nothing to

458
00:25:17,920 --> 00:25:22,080
Speaker 1: do with philosophical disagreements. Our next item on the list, however,

459
00:25:22,280 --> 00:25:26,000
Speaker 1: is very much one of those angry philosophical disagreements. Yes,

460
00:25:26,080 --> 00:25:30,760
Speaker 1: this is what is called the Great Split, which you know,

461
00:25:30,880 --> 00:25:32,520
Speaker 1: I've had a few of those in bowling and they

462
00:25:32,560 --> 00:25:35,879
Speaker 1: are really a pain. But this happened in July of

463
00:25:36,000 --> 00:25:39,639
Speaker 1: nine six I r c net splits off from e

464
00:25:39,800 --> 00:25:43,200
Speaker 1: f net and UH I are seen that and e

465
00:25:43,320 --> 00:25:47,760
Speaker 1: f net are are still kind of like these Yeah,

466
00:25:48,040 --> 00:25:50,600
Speaker 1: there's it was over generally, it was over a disagreement

467
00:25:50,640 --> 00:25:54,920
Speaker 1: on how to handle operational issues, right. It was basically

468
00:25:54,920 --> 00:25:58,320
Speaker 1: a culmination of all of those old arguments over how

469
00:25:58,440 --> 00:26:01,719
Speaker 1: NICK collisions should be handled and over exactly how much

470
00:26:01,840 --> 00:26:05,080
Speaker 1: power ops and admins should have in their in their channels.

471
00:26:05,280 --> 00:26:07,480
Speaker 1: It was really to try and define these roles in

472
00:26:07,520 --> 00:26:10,160
Speaker 1: different ways, because, as it turns out, we'll talk about

473
00:26:10,160 --> 00:26:12,760
Speaker 1: a little bit a little bit later about how the

474
00:26:12,800 --> 00:26:16,159
Speaker 1: definitions of operators versus admins it's a little money depending

475
00:26:16,240 --> 00:26:20,560
Speaker 1: upon which service you're using UM and also the capabilities

476
00:26:20,600 --> 00:26:24,000
Speaker 1: that ops and admins have are different depending upon you know,

477
00:26:24,080 --> 00:26:27,320
Speaker 1: the actual servers and clients that are being used. So

478
00:26:28,000 --> 00:26:30,439
Speaker 1: there were some disagreements and we ended up having the

479
00:26:30,520 --> 00:26:34,199
Speaker 1: split I r C NET actually more out of uh

480
00:26:34,440 --> 00:26:37,840
Speaker 1: coincidence than planning. It wound up being I mean, I

481
00:26:37,840 --> 00:26:40,760
Speaker 1: mean cultural and geographical and and both of those. I mean,

482
00:26:40,760 --> 00:26:42,880
Speaker 1: there there are a few servers that the jump ship

483
00:26:42,920 --> 00:26:44,919
Speaker 1: one way or another, but yeah, most of the ones

484
00:26:45,000 --> 00:26:47,760
Speaker 1: in I r C net are in Europe and Australia

485
00:26:47,760 --> 00:26:49,320
Speaker 1: and Japan, and most of the e f net ones

486
00:26:49,359 --> 00:26:52,199
Speaker 1: are in the US. So it ended up kind of

487
00:26:52,240 --> 00:26:54,960
Speaker 1: just being on that dividing line it wasn't. It wasn't

488
00:26:55,000 --> 00:26:58,080
Speaker 1: like us versus everybody else. It just kind of that's

489
00:26:58,119 --> 00:27:00,480
Speaker 1: just kind of how it shook out. And since then,

490
00:27:00,560 --> 00:27:04,000
Speaker 1: multiple networks have appeared running on i r C. So

491
00:27:04,960 --> 00:27:08,520
Speaker 1: you had this unified network, although it was very very

492
00:27:08,640 --> 00:27:11,600
Speaker 1: tiny comparatively speaking. Uh, and now that you have a

493
00:27:11,600 --> 00:27:14,880
Speaker 1: bunch of separate networks. At its height of popularity, which

494
00:27:14,960 --> 00:27:17,960
Speaker 1: was a long time ago in two thousand three, i

495
00:27:18,160 --> 00:27:22,480
Speaker 1: r C had one million users. As of January, that

496
00:27:22,520 --> 00:27:27,080
Speaker 1: had dropped to about food but it's still not terribly

497
00:27:27,080 --> 00:27:30,000
Speaker 1: shabby and it's still used quite a bit by a

498
00:27:30,000 --> 00:27:31,480
Speaker 1: lot of I mean, there are a lot of communities

499
00:27:31,520 --> 00:27:33,520
Speaker 1: I go to where I r C chat rooms are

500
00:27:33,520 --> 00:27:38,280
Speaker 1: incorporated into the experience, like like sites that do streaming

501
00:27:38,359 --> 00:27:41,919
Speaker 1: video where they'll do some forum a broadcast if they

502
00:27:41,960 --> 00:27:45,840
Speaker 1: don't have a native chat client, that's part of that service.

503
00:27:46,359 --> 00:27:48,280
Speaker 1: I r C is the way that almost all of

504
00:27:48,280 --> 00:27:51,720
Speaker 1: them go, and that includes big names like big companies

505
00:27:52,240 --> 00:27:54,880
Speaker 1: all the way down to little independent operators because it's

506
00:27:54,880 --> 00:27:57,960
Speaker 1: an open source approach. Now we've got more to say

507
00:27:58,000 --> 00:28:00,800
Speaker 1: about i r C, but before where we get into that,

508
00:28:00,880 --> 00:28:04,920
Speaker 1: let's take a quick break to thank our sponsor Okay,

509
00:28:04,960 --> 00:28:06,800
Speaker 1: so we're back, and now I'd kind of like to

510
00:28:06,840 --> 00:28:10,439
Speaker 1: talk about the hierarchy of things that you know, like

511
00:28:10,480 --> 00:28:14,480
Speaker 1: the people who are on I r C. Because before

512
00:28:14,520 --> 00:28:17,159
Speaker 1: the break we mentioned that there's a little bit of

513
00:28:17,320 --> 00:28:21,000
Speaker 1: a confusion in the ranks of what an ops versus

514
00:28:21,040 --> 00:28:24,920
Speaker 1: an ADMIN is and how much control they have over

515
00:28:25,160 --> 00:28:29,080
Speaker 1: what's going on. Right. So, for one thing, operator is

516
00:28:29,200 --> 00:28:32,920
Speaker 1: used by some services for two different things. An operator

517
00:28:33,000 --> 00:28:35,320
Speaker 1: might be a person who has complete control of the

518
00:28:35,359 --> 00:28:39,080
Speaker 1: server which has all the stuff running on it, or

519
00:28:39,320 --> 00:28:43,440
Speaker 1: just complete control over the channel like a specific UH

520
00:28:43,600 --> 00:28:47,120
Speaker 1: chat room exactly, so you could have multiple channels on

521
00:28:47,160 --> 00:28:49,880
Speaker 1: a single server. Uh. And then the operator is the

522
00:28:49,920 --> 00:28:53,280
Speaker 1: person who could either be in charge of everything or

523
00:28:53,320 --> 00:28:56,520
Speaker 1: in charge of justice specific channel. Another frequent term is

524
00:28:56,560 --> 00:28:59,320
Speaker 1: admin that tends to be someone who's in charge of

525
00:28:59,360 --> 00:29:04,160
Speaker 1: a channel. So these are people who have extra commands

526
00:29:04,200 --> 00:29:08,080
Speaker 1: at their disposal beyond the ones that any user has.

527
00:29:08,320 --> 00:29:10,560
Speaker 1: And these commands allow you to do lots of different

528
00:29:10,600 --> 00:29:13,600
Speaker 1: things that make it useful, uh in order to have

529
00:29:13,640 --> 00:29:16,720
Speaker 1: things run smoothly on your channel. So, for instance, you

530
00:29:16,720 --> 00:29:20,600
Speaker 1: can mute people, which is often useful if someone is

531
00:29:20,600 --> 00:29:24,200
Speaker 1: being particularly probably yeah, and you don't want to just

532
00:29:24,240 --> 00:29:26,600
Speaker 1: boot them and ban them. Maybe you mute them so

533
00:29:26,640 --> 00:29:29,360
Speaker 1: that they don't even know that, like, they don't know

534
00:29:29,400 --> 00:29:31,160
Speaker 1: that their stuff is not showing up, so they're still

535
00:29:31,160 --> 00:29:33,560
Speaker 1: typing wildly, but none of it's coming through, right, so

536
00:29:33,640 --> 00:29:36,320
Speaker 1: everyone else is blissfully ignorant. I mean sometimes that's easier

537
00:29:36,360 --> 00:29:39,080
Speaker 1: because you know, booting booting someone, which is another thing

538
00:29:39,120 --> 00:29:40,920
Speaker 1: they can do. They can kick people out of a room,

539
00:29:41,240 --> 00:29:44,320
Speaker 1: which generally speaking, booting does not disconnect you from I

540
00:29:44,440 --> 00:29:47,680
Speaker 1: r C, but it will disconnect you from that channel.

541
00:29:48,080 --> 00:29:51,880
Speaker 1: You often will then have either a van on the

542
00:29:51,960 --> 00:29:54,760
Speaker 1: channel so you can't go back into it, or um,

543
00:29:54,800 --> 00:29:56,600
Speaker 1: you know, you can go back in, but then the

544
00:29:56,600 --> 00:29:59,239
Speaker 1: OP will give you a stern warning and say if

545
00:29:59,280 --> 00:30:01,000
Speaker 1: you do this, I will and you from the server,

546
00:30:01,520 --> 00:30:03,840
Speaker 1: which means you don't. Yeah, you don't just get banned

547
00:30:03,840 --> 00:30:06,719
Speaker 1: from the channel, but the server itself. Uh. Now, granted,

548
00:30:06,760 --> 00:30:09,160
Speaker 1: there are ways around that if you're particularly trollish and

549
00:30:09,200 --> 00:30:11,480
Speaker 1: you want to take extra effort to really be a

550
00:30:11,520 --> 00:30:14,920
Speaker 1: pain in the patucas, but you know that's what the

551
00:30:15,000 --> 00:30:18,240
Speaker 1: mute buttons for. Also, you can do moderated discussions. So

552
00:30:18,280 --> 00:30:20,760
Speaker 1: a moderated discussion is where you have an admin who

553
00:30:21,160 --> 00:30:23,959
Speaker 1: picks who gets to talk when this is really useful

554
00:30:24,040 --> 00:30:26,680
Speaker 1: if you wanted to do something like a question answer

555
00:30:26,720 --> 00:30:31,320
Speaker 1: session and you have someone who is addressing a group

556
00:30:31,360 --> 00:30:33,480
Speaker 1: of people and then wants to take in questions, but

557
00:30:33,520 --> 00:30:35,960
Speaker 1: you can't just be flooded by them uh and admin

558
00:30:36,000 --> 00:30:38,560
Speaker 1: may take on the role of moderator who then picks

559
00:30:38,640 --> 00:30:41,360
Speaker 1: the person who will ask the question in text, and

560
00:30:41,400 --> 00:30:44,280
Speaker 1: then the person you know whoever's answering will then address that.

561
00:30:45,120 --> 00:30:47,880
Speaker 1: So that's also very useful. And there are other commands

562
00:30:47,880 --> 00:30:52,680
Speaker 1: as well. There's some UM confusion about what operators exactly

563
00:30:52,760 --> 00:30:55,640
Speaker 1: can cannot do. There are people who essentially ascribe them

564
00:30:55,720 --> 00:30:58,600
Speaker 1: godlike powers and they could do anything they wanted, and

565
00:30:58,640 --> 00:31:02,000
Speaker 1: that's not entirely true. There's great UM resources on i

566
00:31:02,160 --> 00:31:04,520
Speaker 1: RC dot org if you want to go there and

567
00:31:04,600 --> 00:31:08,280
Speaker 1: check it out. There there's frequently ask question guides that

568
00:31:08,320 --> 00:31:11,880
Speaker 1: will answer everything, including one about what exactly cannon op

569
00:31:12,000 --> 00:31:15,240
Speaker 1: and can't and OP do. To try and demystify a

570
00:31:15,280 --> 00:31:17,640
Speaker 1: little bit, it's and entertaining reads. I would recommend it.

571
00:31:18,040 --> 00:31:20,760
Speaker 1: So let's talk a little bit about them. What's actually

572
00:31:20,800 --> 00:31:24,000
Speaker 1: under the hood, How is this actually working? This is

573
00:31:24,000 --> 00:31:26,440
Speaker 1: where we get into the tech of the tech stuff.

574
00:31:27,000 --> 00:31:30,880
Speaker 1: And yeah, so it's open protocol. We mentioned that earlier,

575
00:31:31,080 --> 00:31:35,000
Speaker 1: and it relies on TCP, that's transmission controlled protocol, right,

576
00:31:35,120 --> 00:31:38,240
Speaker 1: and that's one of the two biggies that were created

577
00:31:38,320 --> 00:31:43,560
Speaker 1: by the Power Team events SURF and Bob con Y.

578
00:31:43,840 --> 00:31:46,000
Speaker 1: T c P i P are the big ones. You know,

579
00:31:46,080 --> 00:31:49,000
Speaker 1: you probably have heard them before. These are essentially the

580
00:31:49,120 --> 00:31:55,480
Speaker 1: rules that create the the traffic guidelines for data across networks.

581
00:31:55,520 --> 00:31:59,080
Speaker 1: We know. Without these rules, computers wouldn't have a standardized

582
00:31:59,120 --> 00:32:02,400
Speaker 1: approach to sending and receiving data, and you wouldn't be

583
00:32:02,440 --> 00:32:05,640
Speaker 1: able to have this incredible packet switching network out there

584
00:32:06,080 --> 00:32:08,959
Speaker 1: where you can send stuff across the network and not

585
00:32:09,080 --> 00:32:12,840
Speaker 1: worry if a computer or ten computers or a hundred

586
00:32:12,880 --> 00:32:16,000
Speaker 1: computers go down in the process as long as whichever

587
00:32:16,080 --> 00:32:19,000
Speaker 1: computer is the destination is still active because it can

588
00:32:19,160 --> 00:32:22,000
Speaker 1: reroute so right right, Although this does mean that it's

589
00:32:22,040 --> 00:32:25,400
Speaker 1: not technically part of the Worldwide Web. Of course, there

590
00:32:25,440 --> 00:32:29,240
Speaker 1: are web based clients that let you log into i

591
00:32:29,440 --> 00:32:33,000
Speaker 1: r C. Right, Yeah, you want, you don't necessarily these

592
00:32:33,040 --> 00:32:36,440
Speaker 1: days need to download an i r C client to

593
00:32:36,560 --> 00:32:39,560
Speaker 1: your computer and then run that as a separate program,

594
00:32:39,680 --> 00:32:44,040
Speaker 1: uh for particular websites, not obviously. Uh, you're not necessarily

595
00:32:44,040 --> 00:32:46,800
Speaker 1: going to be able to visit any channel anywhere. But

596
00:32:46,880 --> 00:32:50,840
Speaker 1: you know, I was mentioning the idea of that moderated discussion. Uh,

597
00:32:50,920 --> 00:32:53,720
Speaker 1: So if you're going to say a streaming site, I'll

598
00:32:53,840 --> 00:32:58,120
Speaker 1: use a real example. So, um, there's Uh there's a

599
00:32:59,120 --> 00:33:03,600
Speaker 1: web podcast publication company called the frog Pants Network run

600
00:33:03,640 --> 00:33:05,640
Speaker 1: by a guy named Scott Johnson. He does a lot

601
00:33:05,680 --> 00:33:09,280
Speaker 1: of really funny podcasts. He streams his podcasts live, he

602
00:33:09,360 --> 00:33:12,120
Speaker 1: records somebody streams them live, and he invites people to

603
00:33:12,160 --> 00:33:14,920
Speaker 1: come into this chat room and participate in a discussion.

604
00:33:15,360 --> 00:33:18,000
Speaker 1: So uh, that would allow you. You go to the

605
00:33:18,000 --> 00:33:21,520
Speaker 1: website where the the video is streaming, and just underneath

606
00:33:21,520 --> 00:33:23,920
Speaker 1: it is this little web based I r C client

607
00:33:24,520 --> 00:33:26,560
Speaker 1: and all you do is type in whatever nickname you

608
00:33:26,600 --> 00:33:28,840
Speaker 1: want to use and hit enter, and then away you go,

609
00:33:29,040 --> 00:33:31,920
Speaker 1: and you can make as many goofy jokes as you like,

610
00:33:32,240 --> 00:33:36,200
Speaker 1: which Scott uh encourages. That's the kind of world he

611
00:33:36,280 --> 00:33:40,080
Speaker 1: lives and I appreciate it. So anyway, that that's an example.

612
00:33:40,160 --> 00:33:43,400
Speaker 1: But yes, it's it itself is not part of the

613
00:33:43,440 --> 00:33:46,720
Speaker 1: World Wide Web. It predates the world Wide Web. So

614
00:33:46,760 --> 00:33:49,080
Speaker 1: that's important to remember. And you know, I know that

615
00:33:49,360 --> 00:33:51,280
Speaker 1: most people these days have a grasp on that. I

616
00:33:51,320 --> 00:33:55,360
Speaker 1: just remember a time when Worldwide Web and Internet were

617
00:33:55,400 --> 00:33:58,400
Speaker 1: synonymous to most people, Like you know, if they thought

618
00:33:58,440 --> 00:34:00,640
Speaker 1: of the Internet, they were thinking Worldwide Web. They weren't.

619
00:34:00,920 --> 00:34:04,000
Speaker 1: They didn't realize that email, FTP, all these other protocols

620
00:34:04,000 --> 00:34:06,800
Speaker 1: are also part of it, right right then they existed

621
00:34:06,880 --> 00:34:10,960
Speaker 1: in layers, yes, exactly. So to log in, like we said,

622
00:34:11,000 --> 00:34:14,200
Speaker 1: you'd launched that client an appy, and you would direct

623
00:34:14,280 --> 00:34:16,640
Speaker 1: it to the appropriate server because there are different ones.

624
00:34:16,680 --> 00:34:18,879
Speaker 1: Like you, if you've got an app, that's just all

625
00:34:18,920 --> 00:34:21,360
Speaker 1: it is is just running this program. It needs to

626
00:34:21,360 --> 00:34:23,560
Speaker 1: know where you're where to point it, like you have

627
00:34:23,600 --> 00:34:25,640
Speaker 1: to tell it. There are many different servers that might

628
00:34:25,680 --> 00:34:27,640
Speaker 1: have access to and then once you got to that server,

629
00:34:27,760 --> 00:34:29,719
Speaker 1: then you would have to try and you know, find

630
00:34:29,760 --> 00:34:31,400
Speaker 1: the right channel. You might look through a list of

631
00:34:31,480 --> 00:34:34,040
Speaker 1: channels and designate the specific one you want to join.

632
00:34:34,760 --> 00:34:37,239
Speaker 1: You could join multiple channels and then switch between them

633
00:34:37,480 --> 00:34:40,120
Speaker 1: so that you're part of multiple conversations all at the

634
00:34:40,160 --> 00:34:42,560
Speaker 1: same time. And some servers, depending on which one you

635
00:34:42,600 --> 00:34:45,759
Speaker 1: have logged into, UM might ask you to create a

636
00:34:45,840 --> 00:34:48,759
Speaker 1: user name and even a password. Yeah, so instead of

637
00:34:48,800 --> 00:34:50,960
Speaker 1: just coming in under a nickname, because some of them

638
00:34:51,000 --> 00:34:54,399
Speaker 1: will just assign you a random string like a nine

639
00:34:54,400 --> 00:34:57,839
Speaker 1: digit number, right, like, like you are web Visitors eight

640
00:34:57,920 --> 00:35:02,560
Speaker 1: seven b Q four. That's a great catchy name. But

641
00:35:02,719 --> 00:35:05,600
Speaker 1: you can also designate your your nickname or user name,

642
00:35:05,800 --> 00:35:08,000
Speaker 1: and like, like Lauren said, some of them will also

643
00:35:08,040 --> 00:35:10,279
Speaker 1: allow you to create a password which will protect your

644
00:35:10,320 --> 00:35:12,560
Speaker 1: nickname so that no one else can have it. From that.

645
00:35:12,600 --> 00:35:16,120
Speaker 1: From that, right that nick duplication, which usually only works

646
00:35:16,200 --> 00:35:19,000
Speaker 1: on some of them are serverwide, but a lot of

647
00:35:19,000 --> 00:35:21,839
Speaker 1: them are just channel specific. So in other words, there

648
00:35:21,840 --> 00:35:24,160
Speaker 1: could be someone in another channel posing as you and

649
00:35:24,200 --> 00:35:27,120
Speaker 1: being a total jerk. Uh. That's my excuse for having

650
00:35:27,200 --> 00:35:30,080
Speaker 1: multiple personalities on an I r C server where one

651
00:35:30,120 --> 00:35:31,880
Speaker 1: of me is really friendly and one of me is not.

652
00:35:32,640 --> 00:35:38,799
Speaker 1: I'm complex. So since it's a client server architecture and

653
00:35:38,840 --> 00:35:42,279
Speaker 1: it's not on this distributed network, that's where you are

654
00:35:42,320 --> 00:35:45,520
Speaker 1: able to, you know, access lots of different stuff, but

655
00:35:45,640 --> 00:35:47,719
Speaker 1: only the stuff that's available on that server. Like we

656
00:35:47,719 --> 00:35:50,759
Speaker 1: were saying earlier, if there are channels that you want

657
00:35:50,760 --> 00:35:54,080
Speaker 1: to visit, but that server doesn't host those channels, you're

658
00:35:54,080 --> 00:35:56,319
Speaker 1: out of luck. I mean, you create a channel maybe

659
00:35:56,400 --> 00:35:59,400
Speaker 1: if you have the permissions to do that, but you

660
00:35:59,480 --> 00:36:01,680
Speaker 1: might not be in with all of your buddies, similar

661
00:36:01,719 --> 00:36:03,799
Speaker 1: to like like World Warcraft or something like that. You

662
00:36:03,920 --> 00:36:06,400
Speaker 1: have to all join up in the same to the

663
00:36:06,480 --> 00:36:09,000
Speaker 1: same game, right, because those servers have a limitation on

664
00:36:09,040 --> 00:36:11,640
Speaker 1: how much they can support and once you reach that,

665
00:36:11,640 --> 00:36:14,960
Speaker 1: that's it. So uh yeah, it's you know, that's also

666
00:36:15,080 --> 00:36:18,040
Speaker 1: where the the net split thing comes into play because

667
00:36:18,080 --> 00:36:20,440
Speaker 1: if you do have multiple servers connected together that are

668
00:36:20,520 --> 00:36:22,960
Speaker 1: running the same channel and they split, that's where you

669
00:36:22,960 --> 00:36:26,160
Speaker 1: get that promised talking about earlier, where the actual audience

670
00:36:26,239 --> 00:36:29,239
Speaker 1: splits up and you end up with talking to just

671
00:36:29,280 --> 00:36:33,279
Speaker 1: a fraction of the room. Right, Although the servers can

672
00:36:33,320 --> 00:36:36,200
Speaker 1: be connected together. Yeah, yeah, you can connect a lot

673
00:36:36,239 --> 00:36:37,880
Speaker 1: of them together. That's where you know, that was the

674
00:36:37,920 --> 00:36:40,879
Speaker 1: whole idea behind the original I r C network. It's

675
00:36:40,880 --> 00:36:42,640
Speaker 1: just it's funny because if you look at I r

676
00:36:42,680 --> 00:36:45,440
Speaker 1: C today, you wouldn't think of it as starting as

677
00:36:45,480 --> 00:36:48,160
Speaker 1: a unified network because there's so many different servers and

678
00:36:48,200 --> 00:36:50,719
Speaker 1: networks out there, so today it just looks like it

679
00:36:50,800 --> 00:36:53,279
Speaker 1: was something that grew into like it started out as

680
00:36:53,360 --> 00:36:56,560
Speaker 1: islands all growing separately. But in fact it was one

681
00:36:56,920 --> 00:37:00,960
Speaker 1: land mass that later broke into separate islands. But but yeah,

682
00:37:00,960 --> 00:37:03,000
Speaker 1: but you can you can connect those islands back to

683
00:37:03,040 --> 00:37:06,680
Speaker 1: one another retroactively these days if you want to. If

684
00:37:06,680 --> 00:37:11,880
Speaker 1: an opp wants to give his or her users access

685
00:37:11,960 --> 00:37:14,879
Speaker 1: to a greater number of channels, sure, yeah yeah. I mean,

686
00:37:15,080 --> 00:37:16,759
Speaker 1: you know, as long as you're all running the same

687
00:37:17,120 --> 00:37:19,920
Speaker 1: I r C server software, you're you're good to go.

688
00:37:20,800 --> 00:37:22,480
Speaker 1: Once in a while, like we said, you get those

689
00:37:22,480 --> 00:37:26,920
Speaker 1: broken connections, that's a bummer. And also lag is an issue. Um,

690
00:37:26,960 --> 00:37:31,480
Speaker 1: there are times where lag will be a particular problem

691
00:37:31,520 --> 00:37:34,840
Speaker 1: and you find it frustrating to communicate. There's an actual

692
00:37:34,880 --> 00:37:38,440
Speaker 1: command slash ping that will tell you how long the

693
00:37:38,480 --> 00:37:41,200
Speaker 1: delay is between when you type something in and when

694
00:37:41,200 --> 00:37:43,480
Speaker 1: it respond When how long it takes a message to

695
00:37:43,480 --> 00:37:46,000
Speaker 1: go from the server and from the server back to you.

696
00:37:46,000 --> 00:37:49,200
Speaker 1: You can also ping other users to find out how

697
00:37:49,200 --> 00:37:51,640
Speaker 1: long it takes for a message to go from you

698
00:37:51,800 --> 00:37:53,839
Speaker 1: to that person and from the person back to you.

699
00:37:54,080 --> 00:37:56,000
Speaker 1: So that way, if you're doing these little private messages

700
00:37:56,040 --> 00:37:58,680
Speaker 1: off to the side, you know, if someone's not responding

701
00:37:58,680 --> 00:38:02,200
Speaker 1: to you, it may be because they just they're they're lagging. Yeah,

702
00:38:02,360 --> 00:38:04,760
Speaker 1: you can understand whether you have in fact lost connection

703
00:38:04,880 --> 00:38:07,239
Speaker 1: or if there's right a leg or or if they're

704
00:38:07,239 --> 00:38:09,960
Speaker 1: just ignoring you. Yes, Like if you get the instead

705
00:38:10,000 --> 00:38:12,879
Speaker 1: of a lag message, it just says I'm washing my hair.

706
00:38:13,480 --> 00:38:16,680
Speaker 1: Just take the hint because I don't have hair. Guys,

707
00:38:17,600 --> 00:38:19,879
Speaker 1: I tell you I'm washing my hair, it just means

708
00:38:19,920 --> 00:38:23,120
Speaker 1: I don't want to talk anyway. So if you listen

709
00:38:23,200 --> 00:38:26,399
Speaker 1: to that episode we talked about earlier, we go into

710
00:38:26,400 --> 00:38:29,320
Speaker 1: a lot more detail about the different commands that are

711
00:38:29,360 --> 00:38:33,279
Speaker 1: available to your basic user and explained that why you know,

712
00:38:33,400 --> 00:38:35,480
Speaker 1: the ones that you might find on one version like

713
00:38:35,520 --> 00:38:38,120
Speaker 1: the undernet, are different than e f net, that are

714
00:38:38,160 --> 00:38:40,600
Speaker 1: different than I r C net because like we said,

715
00:38:40,640 --> 00:38:43,480
Speaker 1: these all evolved separately once they split off from each other.

716
00:38:43,840 --> 00:38:47,239
Speaker 1: And you know, it's been all several decades since they

717
00:38:47,280 --> 00:38:50,399
Speaker 1: were first introduced. Yeah, yeah, I find that I find

718
00:38:50,400 --> 00:38:52,480
Speaker 1: it really interesting that it all of this time has

719
00:38:52,520 --> 00:38:54,799
Speaker 1: passed and that it is still in use, perhaps not

720
00:38:54,920 --> 00:38:58,160
Speaker 1: widely in use now that there are many other options

721
00:38:58,200 --> 00:39:02,920
Speaker 1: that are pretty widely pop pulated. But Jarko himself once

722
00:39:02,920 --> 00:39:08,399
Speaker 1: once said, in a talk with the Undernet Public Relations Committee, um,

723
00:39:08,440 --> 00:39:11,400
Speaker 1: what makes I r C special is a sense of anonymity.

724
00:39:11,600 --> 00:39:13,919
Speaker 1: The only things that you often know of the other

725
00:39:14,000 --> 00:39:18,080
Speaker 1: person are those that you can conclude from the discussions. Right, So,

726
00:39:18,239 --> 00:39:21,080
Speaker 1: for example, you may conclude that they have a shared

727
00:39:21,120 --> 00:39:23,560
Speaker 1: interest in a particular topic, assuming that they are being

728
00:39:23,600 --> 00:39:28,560
Speaker 1: genuine when they joined that that channel, because you knows sure.

729
00:39:28,600 --> 00:39:30,480
Speaker 1: But but but other other than that, you know, it's

730
00:39:30,520 --> 00:39:32,600
Speaker 1: it's not like this is linked to your Facebook or

731
00:39:32,640 --> 00:39:36,480
Speaker 1: your Twitter or other personally identifiable information. You don't even

732
00:39:36,480 --> 00:39:38,960
Speaker 1: necessarily have to use a user name that you're going

733
00:39:39,040 --> 00:39:41,319
Speaker 1: to put in use anywhere else on the internet. Right,

734
00:39:41,360 --> 00:39:44,000
Speaker 1: you might be able, you might feel more free to

735
00:39:44,200 --> 00:39:48,440
Speaker 1: express thoughts that you otherwise would feel would be uh,

736
00:39:48,760 --> 00:39:51,480
Speaker 1: you'd be judged upon, you know, not not even in

737
00:39:51,480 --> 00:39:54,320
Speaker 1: a troll ish way. I mean just being honest and upfront.

738
00:39:54,360 --> 00:39:57,120
Speaker 1: And maybe maybe you're looking for friends who can support

739
00:39:57,160 --> 00:39:59,360
Speaker 1: you in something that you don't really feel comfortable talking

740
00:39:59,680 --> 00:40:02,640
Speaker 1: to the folks around you. I mean that happens. So

741
00:40:03,080 --> 00:40:06,279
Speaker 1: it certainly has a valuable place. And like I said,

742
00:40:06,320 --> 00:40:08,720
Speaker 1: I still use I r C. I mean, I still

743
00:40:09,239 --> 00:40:11,840
Speaker 1: uh joined these conversations. There are shows that I have

744
00:40:11,920 --> 00:40:14,680
Speaker 1: been a guest on that have used I RC chat rooms.

745
00:40:14,840 --> 00:40:18,760
Speaker 1: I love having that available and seeing what the live

746
00:40:18,840 --> 00:40:22,640
Speaker 1: audience is saying during the show. Usually there's a lag

747
00:40:22,760 --> 00:40:25,600
Speaker 1: of about, you know, ten seconds or so between what

748
00:40:25,600 --> 00:40:27,879
Speaker 1: what we do on the video and when people see

749
00:40:27,920 --> 00:40:30,279
Speaker 1: it and are able to respond to it. So but

750
00:40:30,400 --> 00:40:33,239
Speaker 1: it's still I mean, if a good show that does this,

751
00:40:33,920 --> 00:40:38,480
Speaker 1: they'll actually incorporate user responses and and they call people

752
00:40:38,520 --> 00:40:40,680
Speaker 1: out and and and you know, give them credit or

753
00:40:40,800 --> 00:40:43,279
Speaker 1: or you know, shame them publicly, depending upon the the

754
00:40:43,320 --> 00:40:46,840
Speaker 1: appropriate response. But it's it's one of those things that

755
00:40:47,000 --> 00:40:50,920
Speaker 1: enriches Internet experience absolutely. Yeah. I have very fond memories

756
00:40:50,960 --> 00:40:53,600
Speaker 1: of it from um probably about two thousand four to

757
00:40:53,640 --> 00:40:55,439
Speaker 1: two thousand eight, I think is when I was using

758
00:40:55,680 --> 00:40:59,359
Speaker 1: m I r C, which is the Microsoft client for it. Yeah. Yeah, yes,

759
00:40:59,760 --> 00:41:03,120
Speaker 1: So anyway, that's kind of our our overview again of

760
00:41:03,400 --> 00:41:06,240
Speaker 1: r C with a deeper look than the previous episode.

761
00:41:06,239 --> 00:41:09,120
Speaker 1: I hope you enjoyed it. If you have any suggestions

762
00:41:09,120 --> 00:41:12,680
Speaker 1: for future topics, whether it's brand new technology that's just

763
00:41:12,840 --> 00:41:15,640
Speaker 1: on the cusp of being adopted widely, or something that's

764
00:41:15,680 --> 00:41:17,920
Speaker 1: been around for a really long time, we love talking

765
00:41:17,920 --> 00:41:20,000
Speaker 1: about all of it, So just drop us a line

766
00:41:20,000 --> 00:41:21,560
Speaker 1: and tell us what you would like us to cover.

767
00:41:21,920 --> 00:41:25,640
Speaker 1: Our address is tech stuff at Discovery dot com, or

768
00:41:25,760 --> 00:41:28,960
Speaker 1: you can let us know on Facebook, Twitter, or Tumbler

769
00:41:29,400 --> 00:41:32,360
Speaker 1: or handle it. All three is text stuff hs W

770
00:41:32,800 --> 00:41:35,320
Speaker 1: and Lauren and I will talk to you again really

771
00:41:35,360 --> 00:41:41,760
Speaker 1: soon for more on this and thousands of other topics.

772
00:41:41,880 --> 00:41:43,359
Speaker 1: Does it has to work? Dot Com