1 00:00:04,400 --> 00:00:07,800 Speaker 1: Welcome to tex Stuff, a production from I Heart Radio. 2 00:00:12,039 --> 00:00:15,320 Speaker 1: Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, 3 00:00:15,600 --> 00:00:19,239 Speaker 1: Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with I Heart Radio 4 00:00:19,280 --> 00:00:21,640 Speaker 1: and I love all things tech. And it is Friday. 5 00:00:21,720 --> 00:00:24,599 Speaker 1: That means it is that it's time for a classic episode. 6 00:00:25,320 --> 00:00:30,000 Speaker 1: And this episode originally published on March two thousand and fourteen. 7 00:00:30,360 --> 00:00:33,559 Speaker 1: It is titled time for an I r C Chat. 8 00:00:34,040 --> 00:00:37,639 Speaker 1: I hope you guys enjoy. Let's listen. In long time 9 00:00:37,680 --> 00:00:40,400 Speaker 1: listeners of tech Stuff might be thinking, we already did 10 00:00:40,440 --> 00:00:43,240 Speaker 1: an episode on I r C, and you are completely correct. 11 00:00:43,320 --> 00:00:45,519 Speaker 1: Jonathan and Chris did one of those way back on 12 00:00:45,680 --> 00:00:50,280 Speaker 1: June called what is I r C? But it was 13 00:00:50,320 --> 00:00:52,800 Speaker 1: it was more of a basic overview of what the 14 00:00:52,800 --> 00:00:55,160 Speaker 1: service is and how it came about and how people 15 00:00:55,280 --> 00:00:57,800 Speaker 1: use it. We wanted to go a little bit more 16 00:00:57,800 --> 00:01:00,360 Speaker 1: into the history of I r C. Thanks Mo Splee 17 00:01:00,480 --> 00:01:04,080 Speaker 1: to an idea from listener Addie Um that's at Addie 18 00:01:04,080 --> 00:01:06,840 Speaker 1: cyrom One on Twitter, who said, can you do an 19 00:01:06,840 --> 00:01:09,920 Speaker 1: episode on I r C? And we said sure, yeah. 20 00:01:09,959 --> 00:01:12,440 Speaker 1: I just want to make it clear that I listened 21 00:01:12,560 --> 00:01:15,560 Speaker 1: to that podcast from and I have no memory of 22 00:01:15,640 --> 00:01:19,240 Speaker 1: ever saying those words, and I it sounds like I'm 23 00:01:19,240 --> 00:01:22,200 Speaker 1: making a joke, but I was, like I, I clearly 24 00:01:22,240 --> 00:01:25,479 Speaker 1: recognized my voice, but there is nothing in my brain 25 00:01:25,600 --> 00:01:27,520 Speaker 1: that held onto the fact that I did an episode 26 00:01:27,560 --> 00:01:30,640 Speaker 1: about I r C already. So we if you did 27 00:01:30,720 --> 00:01:33,319 Speaker 1: listen to that episode and you have a better memory 28 00:01:33,360 --> 00:01:36,200 Speaker 1: than I do, some of this might sound familiar, but 29 00:01:36,560 --> 00:01:39,600 Speaker 1: go with us, all right, So let's start our our 30 00:01:39,760 --> 00:01:42,520 Speaker 1: journey down memory lane, and and also open up a 31 00:01:42,600 --> 00:01:44,240 Speaker 1: few other doors on the way if I can make 32 00:01:44,280 --> 00:01:49,400 Speaker 1: some metaphors. So what exactly is I r C. Well, 33 00:01:49,440 --> 00:01:52,680 Speaker 1: as we have mentioned even just in the past couple 34 00:01:52,680 --> 00:01:54,840 Speaker 1: of minutes, here, it stands for Internet Relay check Weight. 35 00:01:54,920 --> 00:01:57,960 Speaker 1: I have no memory, Jonathan, this is becoming a problem. 36 00:01:57,960 --> 00:02:00,320 Speaker 1: I know that you're off caffeine today. Better it might 37 00:02:00,320 --> 00:02:02,200 Speaker 1: be the issue. Yeah, I gave up caffeine and now 38 00:02:02,320 --> 00:02:05,560 Speaker 1: now I'm all sorts of messed up, y'all. So yeah, 39 00:02:05,600 --> 00:02:09,000 Speaker 1: it's it's actually a platform for real time chat on 40 00:02:09,040 --> 00:02:11,560 Speaker 1: the Internet. And it's text based. It's not you know, 41 00:02:11,760 --> 00:02:14,360 Speaker 1: voice or video or anything like that. This is actually 42 00:02:14,560 --> 00:02:18,120 Speaker 1: typing in your little type type. It's a it's a 43 00:02:18,160 --> 00:02:21,640 Speaker 1: type of instant messenger. Might be a phrase that people 44 00:02:21,680 --> 00:02:23,880 Speaker 1: are more familiar with these days, although I would argue 45 00:02:23,919 --> 00:02:26,919 Speaker 1: that most instant messengers are probably based on I r C. Yeah. 46 00:02:26,960 --> 00:02:30,160 Speaker 1: I r C is also group based, as opposed to 47 00:02:30,200 --> 00:02:33,720 Speaker 1: a one on one discussion. You would It's almost like 48 00:02:33,800 --> 00:02:37,480 Speaker 1: if you were to go to a physical location where 49 00:02:37,520 --> 00:02:40,320 Speaker 1: the people at a physical location are all all interested 50 00:02:40,400 --> 00:02:43,280 Speaker 1: in a particular topic, and you walk through the door 51 00:02:43,400 --> 00:02:45,959 Speaker 1: and you join the conversation. Except in I r C 52 00:02:46,160 --> 00:02:48,400 Speaker 1: you can actually be in multiple rooms at the same time, 53 00:02:48,440 --> 00:02:51,680 Speaker 1: having multiple conversations about multiple topics, right, because you're going 54 00:02:51,680 --> 00:02:55,840 Speaker 1: through a server. Yeah, a server that has multiple different 55 00:02:55,880 --> 00:02:59,600 Speaker 1: kind of rooms, virtual rooms, or or channels exactly. And 56 00:02:59,639 --> 00:03:02,880 Speaker 1: each channel has its own name. Uh. Most of the time, 57 00:03:02,960 --> 00:03:05,400 Speaker 1: the channel name kind of gives you an idea of 58 00:03:05,400 --> 00:03:07,680 Speaker 1: what the subject is some of them. Some of them 59 00:03:07,680 --> 00:03:11,720 Speaker 1: are general subjects. They're pretty straightforward. It's uh, yeah, like 60 00:03:11,800 --> 00:03:15,840 Speaker 1: hashtag firefly fans. I guess that would be people who 61 00:03:15,919 --> 00:03:19,440 Speaker 1: really enjoy bugs that light up at night. That clearly 62 00:03:19,560 --> 00:03:23,680 Speaker 1: must be it to to connect to these kind of spaces, 63 00:03:23,720 --> 00:03:27,280 Speaker 1: you have to use a program, a client, an app YEP. 64 00:03:27,720 --> 00:03:30,600 Speaker 1: So you've got this client server relationship the servers what 65 00:03:30,720 --> 00:03:33,880 Speaker 1: houses the connections, and the client is what you use 66 00:03:33,960 --> 00:03:36,480 Speaker 1: to have your computer connect to the server. And these 67 00:03:36,520 --> 00:03:39,160 Speaker 1: days there are many much clients, yeah, and lots and 68 00:03:39,200 --> 00:03:43,440 Speaker 1: lots of servers too, So the clients exist for all 69 00:03:43,520 --> 00:03:47,360 Speaker 1: sorts of different operating systems. So you're not going to 70 00:03:47,400 --> 00:03:49,640 Speaker 1: be left out, you know, if you're if you're saying, 71 00:03:49,640 --> 00:03:52,480 Speaker 1: but I use a Mac, how could I participate in 72 00:03:52,520 --> 00:03:55,200 Speaker 1: this wonderful world that is I r C. First of all, 73 00:03:55,200 --> 00:03:58,640 Speaker 1: I'd say, well, you're about a decade late to this party, 74 00:03:58,880 --> 00:04:01,360 Speaker 1: more than a decade later, it turns out. But also 75 00:04:01,360 --> 00:04:04,120 Speaker 1: I would say, don't worry, because every operating system has 76 00:04:04,160 --> 00:04:06,600 Speaker 1: a host of clients you can choose from. Many have 77 00:04:06,960 --> 00:04:09,760 Speaker 1: very different capabilities that are built in. Some of them 78 00:04:09,960 --> 00:04:12,480 Speaker 1: are more intuitive than others. And there are also lots 79 00:04:12,520 --> 00:04:15,000 Speaker 1: and lots of servers on them. And UH. The other 80 00:04:15,160 --> 00:04:17,440 Speaker 1: interesting things is that the servers can connect to each 81 00:04:17,440 --> 00:04:19,919 Speaker 1: other to form networks. And in fact, that's how I 82 00:04:20,040 --> 00:04:24,320 Speaker 1: r C got started. It started with an a network originally, UH, 83 00:04:24,360 --> 00:04:27,599 Speaker 1: and then eventually reached the world that we're in today 84 00:04:27,640 --> 00:04:30,960 Speaker 1: where you have all these different servers UH and networks 85 00:04:31,000 --> 00:04:33,200 Speaker 1: that some of them are not connected to each other. 86 00:04:33,279 --> 00:04:35,599 Speaker 1: So in other words, there may be channels on one 87 00:04:35,640 --> 00:04:38,960 Speaker 1: server that you really like and channels on another server 88 00:04:39,160 --> 00:04:41,359 Speaker 1: that you really like. Those two servers aren't connected, so 89 00:04:41,440 --> 00:04:44,280 Speaker 1: you have to connect to either one separately in order 90 00:04:44,320 --> 00:04:47,200 Speaker 1: to access the stuff that you want exactly. Yeah, it's 91 00:04:47,200 --> 00:04:49,360 Speaker 1: not like you can just jump from channel to channel 92 00:04:49,400 --> 00:04:52,480 Speaker 1: if those servers have no connection between them. And uh 93 00:04:52,600 --> 00:04:55,880 Speaker 1: so it's meant for, like we said, group discussions, you know, 94 00:04:56,160 --> 00:04:58,839 Speaker 1: having a big group conversation. There are ways that you 95 00:04:58,880 --> 00:05:02,799 Speaker 1: can send private message is went forth um, and to communicate, 96 00:05:02,839 --> 00:05:05,440 Speaker 1: you just type your text into a little text field. 97 00:05:05,440 --> 00:05:07,560 Speaker 1: Think of a divided window. So the window on the 98 00:05:07,600 --> 00:05:10,880 Speaker 1: top is sort of the ongoing conversation within that channel, 99 00:05:11,320 --> 00:05:14,120 Speaker 1: and the window below, it's very narrow, is really a 100 00:05:14,120 --> 00:05:16,520 Speaker 1: text field for you to type in. And then you 101 00:05:16,520 --> 00:05:18,840 Speaker 1: can also enter in commands I r C commands. We 102 00:05:18,880 --> 00:05:21,800 Speaker 1: talked a lot about I r C commands in the 103 00:05:22,720 --> 00:05:25,520 Speaker 1: two thousand ten episode, so I highly recommend you go 104 00:05:25,560 --> 00:05:27,760 Speaker 1: and check that out if you're really interested. For one thing, 105 00:05:28,200 --> 00:05:31,480 Speaker 1: the commands are dependent upon what client you use because 106 00:05:31,920 --> 00:05:35,480 Speaker 1: the different systems use slightly different phrasing. Yeah, just imagine that, 107 00:05:35,720 --> 00:05:37,920 Speaker 1: you know, think of it as evolution, and at one 108 00:05:38,000 --> 00:05:42,200 Speaker 1: point all these different client philosophies split and then evolved 109 00:05:42,200 --> 00:05:44,920 Speaker 1: on their separate pathways, which is actually exactly what happens, 110 00:05:45,000 --> 00:05:48,080 Speaker 1: which we will talk about. Yeah, so that's the basic 111 00:05:48,839 --> 00:05:51,360 Speaker 1: way that these things work. So so let's talk about 112 00:05:51,360 --> 00:05:55,000 Speaker 1: how this actually came to happen. It all started way 113 00:05:55,040 --> 00:05:59,800 Speaker 1: back in y'all when when we mentioned that you are 114 00:06:00,120 --> 00:06:02,440 Speaker 1: or twenty years too late, we were not really kidding 115 00:06:02,560 --> 00:06:04,039 Speaker 1: um and and for the record, on all of this 116 00:06:04,160 --> 00:06:06,080 Speaker 1: history stuff that we're about to talk about, there are 117 00:06:06,200 --> 00:06:08,960 Speaker 1: a bunch of vaguely conflicting reports about all of it 118 00:06:09,000 --> 00:06:11,800 Speaker 1: because no one was really documenting it at the time. 119 00:06:12,120 --> 00:06:14,000 Speaker 1: No one was expecting this to be something that someone 120 00:06:14,040 --> 00:06:16,560 Speaker 1: would be sitting in a podcast room talking about. It's 121 00:06:16,600 --> 00:06:19,160 Speaker 1: It's the way a lot of things unfold eventually is 122 00:06:19,200 --> 00:06:22,520 Speaker 1: that unless there was someone who was officially a chronicler, 123 00:06:23,200 --> 00:06:29,360 Speaker 1: uh you just get you know, kind of time is estimations. So, 124 00:06:29,480 --> 00:06:32,480 Speaker 1: for example, the birth of I. R. C Is often 125 00:06:32,560 --> 00:06:36,640 Speaker 1: said to be sometime around the end of August nine, 126 00:06:37,520 --> 00:06:40,720 Speaker 1: but we don't remember what the day was because the 127 00:06:40,760 --> 00:06:49,000 Speaker 1: operative person um one yarco a k A whiz Karen, 128 00:06:49,320 --> 00:06:53,560 Speaker 1: I'm gonna go I think it's I. I think it's okay. 129 00:06:53,640 --> 00:06:56,080 Speaker 1: So here's the thing, guys, he's finished. There are a 130 00:06:56,120 --> 00:06:58,880 Speaker 1: lot of Finnish people involved in the development of I 131 00:06:59,040 --> 00:07:03,440 Speaker 1: r C, and we are Americans who have a vast 132 00:07:03,480 --> 00:07:06,360 Speaker 1: ignorance on the way to pronounce Finish names. Lauren has 133 00:07:06,400 --> 00:07:10,400 Speaker 1: done her best to to decipher this. I have not, 134 00:07:11,360 --> 00:07:14,400 Speaker 1: and hilarity shall ensue. Now. I want to extend all 135 00:07:14,440 --> 00:07:16,800 Speaker 1: my apologies to my Finnish friends who are going to 136 00:07:17,440 --> 00:07:20,280 Speaker 1: cringe every time I mangle a name. But just no, 137 00:07:20,440 --> 00:07:24,520 Speaker 1: it's not at a malice. It's just from ignorance. Yea 138 00:07:25,160 --> 00:07:28,560 Speaker 1: yea ignorance um. But so at any rate, he was 139 00:07:28,600 --> 00:07:32,840 Speaker 1: working at the University of Aulu in Finland, and he 140 00:07:32,880 --> 00:07:36,400 Speaker 1: was working specifically in the Department of Information Processing Science, 141 00:07:36,800 --> 00:07:39,400 Speaker 1: and he thought, you know, I want to include some 142 00:07:39,480 --> 00:07:45,160 Speaker 1: sort of chat functionality in this BBS service software that 143 00:07:45,200 --> 00:07:49,520 Speaker 1: I am installing BBS bulletin board system. So this is 144 00:07:49,600 --> 00:07:52,360 Speaker 1: sort of the predecessor to you know, these were like 145 00:07:52,360 --> 00:07:55,120 Speaker 1: those those local networks that you could log into. It 146 00:07:55,160 --> 00:07:57,760 Speaker 1: wasn't an Internet, it was something that you could dial 147 00:07:57,880 --> 00:08:02,480 Speaker 1: directly into a BBS and get a net like uh services, 148 00:08:02,520 --> 00:08:06,520 Speaker 1: including things like messaging an email, but it was usually 149 00:08:07,920 --> 00:08:11,120 Speaker 1: restricted just to that BBS. So in other words, again 150 00:08:11,240 --> 00:08:13,840 Speaker 1: it was they were like little islands as opposed to 151 00:08:13,920 --> 00:08:17,800 Speaker 1: a global internet. Yeah, there was usenet, which was a 152 00:08:17,800 --> 00:08:22,200 Speaker 1: little bit more expansive and had more group discussion kind 153 00:08:22,240 --> 00:08:25,320 Speaker 1: of functions. But but one of the ideas that Yorko 154 00:08:25,480 --> 00:08:28,320 Speaker 1: had was that he really wanted to to integrate that 155 00:08:28,400 --> 00:08:32,080 Speaker 1: into a real time chat capacity, right, and he started 156 00:08:32,080 --> 00:08:35,160 Speaker 1: looking around for inspiration u and one of them was 157 00:08:35,280 --> 00:08:38,160 Speaker 1: a bit chat client that was developed by a friend 158 00:08:38,200 --> 00:08:41,320 Speaker 1: of his. He actually started borrowing parts of multi user 159 00:08:41,400 --> 00:08:44,720 Speaker 1: chat programs that were written by other people, including then 160 00:08:44,920 --> 00:08:47,240 Speaker 1: tell me if I get this one wrong, or key 161 00:08:47,600 --> 00:08:53,199 Speaker 1: yes your key, I don't know, Copala no, I got 162 00:08:53,200 --> 00:08:56,840 Speaker 1: that one wrong, and Yoka Peel and uh. So his 163 00:08:56,960 --> 00:09:01,800 Speaker 1: friends had been working on similar ideas for other implementations, 164 00:09:02,280 --> 00:09:05,600 Speaker 1: and at the end of August, n r C was 165 00:09:05,640 --> 00:09:09,440 Speaker 1: switched on and it lived on a single computer, so 166 00:09:09,679 --> 00:09:13,800 Speaker 1: just one computer in the world running the server software 167 00:09:13,920 --> 00:09:19,880 Speaker 1: for i r C. So then you had this group 168 00:09:19,920 --> 00:09:25,120 Speaker 1: of friends campaigned the university to eventually allow them to 169 00:09:25,160 --> 00:09:28,360 Speaker 1: release this code to a wider audience because technically the 170 00:09:28,400 --> 00:09:32,480 Speaker 1: code belonged to the university itself. And I love the 171 00:09:32,520 --> 00:09:36,559 Speaker 1: way that the that Yarko talks about the the development. 172 00:09:36,600 --> 00:09:39,800 Speaker 1: He says, once it got up to ten users, I 173 00:09:39,920 --> 00:09:42,480 Speaker 1: knew that I wanted to let other people have a 174 00:09:42,600 --> 00:09:46,720 Speaker 1: crack at this, and I thought ten on the Internet 175 00:09:46,800 --> 00:09:49,319 Speaker 1: was very I mean, it wasn't really the Internet yet. 176 00:09:49,360 --> 00:09:52,160 Speaker 1: The Internet was a yeah, the Internet was was just 177 00:09:52,280 --> 00:09:56,760 Speaker 1: the realm of research organizations and universities. No one outside 178 00:09:56,760 --> 00:09:59,280 Speaker 1: of that really had much access to it. Besides it 179 00:09:59,320 --> 00:10:03,160 Speaker 1: was some government agencies as well, but you know, we 180 00:10:03,640 --> 00:10:06,600 Speaker 1: plebians out in the real world didn't have any access 181 00:10:06,640 --> 00:10:10,080 Speaker 1: to it. The Worldwide Web was more than a decade away, 182 00:10:10,160 --> 00:10:12,920 Speaker 1: so this was you know, this was early early days, 183 00:10:13,120 --> 00:10:15,880 Speaker 1: so ten was actually a significant number. Just I just 184 00:10:15,960 --> 00:10:18,040 Speaker 1: joke about it because I think of our discussion about 185 00:10:18,040 --> 00:10:20,360 Speaker 1: Twitter from a few weeks ago about how the five 186 00:10:20,400 --> 00:10:23,760 Speaker 1: thousand number was so small. But yeah, ten people. So 187 00:10:23,800 --> 00:10:26,520 Speaker 1: he just he convinces the university to allow them to 188 00:10:26,720 --> 00:10:31,160 Speaker 1: release this code to some other people, and they started 189 00:10:31,320 --> 00:10:34,920 Speaker 1: getting it installed in other universities in Finland first and 190 00:10:35,000 --> 00:10:39,400 Speaker 1: they joined on and then looked at other countries as well. 191 00:10:39,600 --> 00:10:43,400 Speaker 1: But there were some issues there right there, there were 192 00:10:43,400 --> 00:10:48,640 Speaker 1: a few like inter country connectivity issues apparently. Uh yeah, 193 00:10:48,679 --> 00:10:51,199 Speaker 1: because I mean at this point, again, internet is not 194 00:10:51,240 --> 00:10:55,000 Speaker 1: a real thing, right right, Yeah yeah. Yrkill remembers there 195 00:10:55,000 --> 00:10:59,440 Speaker 1: being specific problems connecting his his networks in Finland with 196 00:10:59,679 --> 00:11:03,480 Speaker 1: US networks, but this wouldn't go on for very long. Yeah. Yeah, 197 00:11:03,600 --> 00:11:06,080 Speaker 1: there were improvements in the infrastructure going on at the 198 00:11:06,160 --> 00:11:08,880 Speaker 1: same time as I r C starting to catch on 199 00:11:09,040 --> 00:11:12,400 Speaker 1: in popularity. In fact, by November of that year, of 200 00:11:13,679 --> 00:11:17,960 Speaker 1: universities in Colorado and Oregon would become connected to the 201 00:11:18,080 --> 00:11:20,360 Speaker 1: I r C network. Um they would set up their 202 00:11:20,400 --> 00:11:23,560 Speaker 1: own servers and and hook everything up together, so it 203 00:11:23,640 --> 00:11:26,360 Speaker 1: was no longer solely finished and what it was just 204 00:11:26,400 --> 00:11:33,680 Speaker 1: getting started. I couldn't help myself. UM and uh Jorco 205 00:11:33,760 --> 00:11:35,880 Speaker 1: had connected with some people through m I T S 206 00:11:35,920 --> 00:11:38,319 Speaker 1: network and distributed a couple of copies and it basically 207 00:11:38,320 --> 00:11:40,080 Speaker 1: just went wild. I mean like he did. He didn't 208 00:11:40,280 --> 00:11:42,840 Speaker 1: distribute it physically to all of these people that ended 209 00:11:42,880 --> 00:11:45,680 Speaker 1: up setting up their their their own versions. But yeah, 210 00:11:45,679 --> 00:11:47,880 Speaker 1: it's actually kind of funny, like the story about the 211 00:11:47,920 --> 00:11:52,280 Speaker 1: Colorado coming online. As I understand it, one of the 212 00:11:52,360 --> 00:11:56,400 Speaker 1: other UH universities in Finland there was a user who 213 00:11:56,440 --> 00:11:58,320 Speaker 1: was very interested in it, who then passed it on 214 00:11:58,360 --> 00:12:01,240 Speaker 1: to someone who was at in Colorado, who then uh, 215 00:12:01,320 --> 00:12:03,760 Speaker 1: you know, so it was it was growing organically. It 216 00:12:03,840 --> 00:12:06,360 Speaker 1: wasn't like a planned out this is how we're rolling 217 00:12:06,400 --> 00:12:09,079 Speaker 1: this out. It was it was a viral. Yeah. He 218 00:12:09,480 --> 00:12:11,280 Speaker 1: was just like, hey, check out the school thing that 219 00:12:11,320 --> 00:12:13,360 Speaker 1: I made, and and all of a sudden he would 220 00:12:13,400 --> 00:12:16,640 Speaker 1: see it pop up in other places. So that was 221 00:12:16,679 --> 00:12:19,400 Speaker 1: August to November. It took very little time at all. 222 00:12:19,480 --> 00:12:24,280 Speaker 1: By mid there were forty servers worldwide. Uh, and by 223 00:12:24,400 --> 00:12:28,480 Speaker 1: nineteen ninety the average number of active servers so forty 224 00:12:28,520 --> 00:12:31,800 Speaker 1: servers worldwide that not all of them are necessarily active 225 00:12:31,800 --> 00:12:35,400 Speaker 1: all the time. So by the number of active servers 226 00:12:35,400 --> 00:12:38,400 Speaker 1: and the number of active users at any particular given 227 00:12:38,400 --> 00:12:41,400 Speaker 1: time was still pretty modest. We're talking twelve users and 228 00:12:41,440 --> 00:12:44,599 Speaker 1: thirty eight servers. Granted, the original code for I r 229 00:12:44,679 --> 00:12:47,480 Speaker 1: C really only accounted for some hundred users to be 230 00:12:47,520 --> 00:12:50,880 Speaker 1: connected all at the same time. And uh. Furthermore, according 231 00:12:50,920 --> 00:12:53,640 Speaker 1: to some numbers around that same time, there were only 232 00:12:53,679 --> 00:12:57,160 Speaker 1: three million people worldwide who even had access to the Internet. 233 00:12:57,240 --> 00:12:59,360 Speaker 1: So right and and doing something like if you've ever 234 00:12:59,440 --> 00:13:02,080 Speaker 1: connected to a BBS in the old days. A lot 235 00:13:02,120 --> 00:13:05,320 Speaker 1: of those original bbs has only had capacity for a 236 00:13:05,360 --> 00:13:07,880 Speaker 1: couple of people to connect at a time. So for 237 00:13:07,960 --> 00:13:10,680 Speaker 1: something to have the capacity to allow a hundred people 238 00:13:10,679 --> 00:13:13,920 Speaker 1: to communicate simultaneously was a huge deal. It was it 239 00:13:13,920 --> 00:13:17,000 Speaker 1: would turn out to not be scalable really all, which 240 00:13:17,080 --> 00:13:20,199 Speaker 1: created many problems down the line. Yes. In fact, so 241 00:13:20,240 --> 00:13:24,200 Speaker 1: in August, that's when one of these problems starts to 242 00:13:24,240 --> 00:13:26,520 Speaker 1: rear its head, and that the I r C community 243 00:13:26,559 --> 00:13:31,720 Speaker 1: suffers its first schism, but not the last one. Hey, guys, 244 00:13:31,720 --> 00:13:34,080 Speaker 1: we'll chat some more about I r C in just 245 00:13:34,160 --> 00:13:44,120 Speaker 1: a moment, but first let's take a quick break. So 246 00:13:44,840 --> 00:13:50,120 Speaker 1: in this corner you have the traditional I C community, 247 00:13:50,880 --> 00:13:52,880 Speaker 1: and on the other corner you had a group that 248 00:13:53,040 --> 00:13:55,880 Speaker 1: just they you know, they didn't want people to tell 249 00:13:55,960 --> 00:13:58,720 Speaker 1: him what to do. They wanted they wanted freedom from 250 00:13:58,800 --> 00:14:03,480 Speaker 1: rules rules of four squares. Man, I don't know if 251 00:14:03,520 --> 00:14:07,679 Speaker 1: they actually used that voices, that's exactly how people talk 252 00:14:07,720 --> 00:14:12,360 Speaker 1: to I'm old enough to remember, I see. So So 253 00:14:12,480 --> 00:14:16,680 Speaker 1: these two groups split and the kind of anarchists, the 254 00:14:16,720 --> 00:14:19,640 Speaker 1: anarchists sort of side founded a net which stood in 255 00:14:19,680 --> 00:14:21,840 Speaker 1: fact for anarchist net. Yes, and the rest of it 256 00:14:21,880 --> 00:14:25,000 Speaker 1: became known as e f net, which stands for Aris 257 00:14:25,000 --> 00:14:28,000 Speaker 1: Free Network e r I s Aris Free network and 258 00:14:28,080 --> 00:14:31,480 Speaker 1: why because the server that a net was founded on 259 00:14:31,680 --> 00:14:35,600 Speaker 1: was named Aris dot Berkeley dot e d U. So, 260 00:14:35,880 --> 00:14:38,120 Speaker 1: in other words, you had one group of people who 261 00:14:38,120 --> 00:14:40,160 Speaker 1: are like, we kind of want the freedom to do 262 00:14:40,200 --> 00:14:42,280 Speaker 1: whatever we like, because we don't like these rules where 263 00:14:42,320 --> 00:14:45,000 Speaker 1: you say we can't do things like take over someone's 264 00:14:45,040 --> 00:14:48,400 Speaker 1: channel just because they weren't smart enough to block us 265 00:14:48,400 --> 00:14:51,480 Speaker 1: from and since they're not smart enough, they should not 266 00:14:51,520 --> 00:14:53,720 Speaker 1: be allowed to run that channel. I should be allowed 267 00:14:53,760 --> 00:14:55,760 Speaker 1: to run it and do whatever I want. I'm being 268 00:14:55,880 --> 00:14:58,240 Speaker 1: I'm certainly adding a little more motivation here than there 269 00:14:58,280 --> 00:15:01,480 Speaker 1: was probably in the literature. But that's kind of how 270 00:15:01,520 --> 00:15:03,920 Speaker 1: I do things. Well, I mean, you are you are 271 00:15:03,960 --> 00:15:06,000 Speaker 1: being snarky, But first of all, snark is what you do. 272 00:15:06,120 --> 00:15:08,160 Speaker 1: Snark is what both of us do. Snark is what 273 00:15:08,240 --> 00:15:12,200 Speaker 1: tech stuff does. We embrace it. We do. Um, but uh, 274 00:15:12,600 --> 00:15:15,360 Speaker 1: the folks who are on that that a net did 275 00:15:15,440 --> 00:15:20,360 Speaker 1: really enjoy exploiting um what was called nick colliding and 276 00:15:20,400 --> 00:15:23,360 Speaker 1: this is um. Yeah, so here's the thing, Like you 277 00:15:23,360 --> 00:15:26,720 Speaker 1: would choose a nickname when you log into a channel 278 00:15:26,920 --> 00:15:29,160 Speaker 1: or or a server to to chat with other people, 279 00:15:29,160 --> 00:15:31,760 Speaker 1: and this nickname represents who you are. You can choose 280 00:15:31,800 --> 00:15:35,160 Speaker 1: any nickname you want given the character limit of that 281 00:15:35,280 --> 00:15:38,840 Speaker 1: that's supported by that particular client and server. So one 282 00:15:38,880 --> 00:15:41,360 Speaker 1: thing that could happen is that if you try to 283 00:15:41,440 --> 00:15:44,840 Speaker 1: choose what you know, another person's nickname, the system would 284 00:15:44,880 --> 00:15:47,120 Speaker 1: generally prevent you from doing that, saying that that name 285 00:15:47,200 --> 00:15:51,400 Speaker 1: is already taken. But if you were able to orchestrate 286 00:15:51,480 --> 00:15:53,960 Speaker 1: an event or take advantage of an event where everyone 287 00:15:54,040 --> 00:15:56,320 Speaker 1: is kicked out of a room and then you rejoin 288 00:15:56,440 --> 00:15:58,320 Speaker 1: that room or channel, I should say, everyone's kicked out 289 00:15:58,320 --> 00:16:00,760 Speaker 1: of a channel, you rejoined that channel before the operator 290 00:16:00,880 --> 00:16:04,120 Speaker 1: or OP can join that channel, and you name yourself 291 00:16:04,200 --> 00:16:07,520 Speaker 1: the OPS name. You could end up giving yourself OP 292 00:16:07,600 --> 00:16:11,720 Speaker 1: powers for that channel, and you prevent the rightful OP 293 00:16:12,040 --> 00:16:15,480 Speaker 1: from being able to take hold. And so that's nick colliding. 294 00:16:15,480 --> 00:16:17,920 Speaker 1: It's when these nicknames collide. In One way that that 295 00:16:17,920 --> 00:16:19,720 Speaker 1: would happen is you would have what what's called a 296 00:16:19,800 --> 00:16:23,360 Speaker 1: net split. A net split is when uh you have 297 00:16:23,840 --> 00:16:27,160 Speaker 1: two servers that are connected to a network that are 298 00:16:27,240 --> 00:16:30,360 Speaker 1: running the same sort of channel, and some people are 299 00:16:30,360 --> 00:16:32,440 Speaker 1: on one server, some people are on the other server, 300 00:16:32,520 --> 00:16:34,520 Speaker 1: but they're all in the same chat room. But then 301 00:16:34,600 --> 00:16:38,840 Speaker 1: somehow a connection between those servers breaks and then you 302 00:16:38,920 --> 00:16:42,280 Speaker 1: end up having two instances of that same channel. So 303 00:16:42,360 --> 00:16:44,680 Speaker 1: you've got half the people in one and half the 304 00:16:44,680 --> 00:16:47,600 Speaker 1: people in the other. So let's say that I'm a jerk. 305 00:16:48,080 --> 00:16:50,320 Speaker 1: I mean, it's easy to say, right, So I'm a jerk. 306 00:16:51,160 --> 00:16:53,680 Speaker 1: I've lugged into the mansion. I'm hold on, it's gonna 307 00:16:53,720 --> 00:16:55,960 Speaker 1: take me a second. Yeah, I know, it's okay. There's 308 00:16:56,000 --> 00:16:58,720 Speaker 1: you're in the forest. There's a tree, all right. So Lauren, 309 00:16:58,760 --> 00:17:01,480 Speaker 1: you're an OP and I'm a and I've logged into 310 00:17:01,800 --> 00:17:04,359 Speaker 1: the channel and right now I'm not being too jerky, 311 00:17:04,480 --> 00:17:07,040 Speaker 1: so you haven't booted me or anything like that. But 312 00:17:07,080 --> 00:17:09,640 Speaker 1: there's a net split, and you and your group are 313 00:17:09,680 --> 00:17:12,080 Speaker 1: in one server. I'm on another server, so we're on 314 00:17:12,119 --> 00:17:15,359 Speaker 1: separate ones. I say, uh, there's been a net split. 315 00:17:15,400 --> 00:17:18,159 Speaker 1: I shall change my name, yes, exactly, I'll change my 316 00:17:18,240 --> 00:17:21,200 Speaker 1: name to Lauren's name. And so I changed my nickname. 317 00:17:21,520 --> 00:17:24,920 Speaker 1: And then when the servers are reunited and it tries 318 00:17:24,960 --> 00:17:28,520 Speaker 1: to reconcile these two worlds into one because you have 319 00:17:28,560 --> 00:17:32,120 Speaker 1: two people with the same nickname, the nicknames collide, thus 320 00:17:32,240 --> 00:17:35,760 Speaker 1: Nick colliding, and it boots both people out of the channel. Now, 321 00:17:35,920 --> 00:17:38,119 Speaker 1: because I'm a jerk, and because I've planned for this, 322 00:17:38,400 --> 00:17:40,600 Speaker 1: I've already got another window open, so i can log 323 00:17:40,800 --> 00:17:43,880 Speaker 1: right back in using Lauren's nickname again. And Lauren, because 324 00:17:43,880 --> 00:17:47,199 Speaker 1: she wasn't expecting this because she was being decent, is 325 00:17:47,440 --> 00:17:49,840 Speaker 1: locked out of her own channel. That's kind of nick 326 00:17:49,880 --> 00:17:53,080 Speaker 1: colliding in a you know, in a nutshell, and that's 327 00:17:53,080 --> 00:17:55,240 Speaker 1: the sort of stuff these guys like to do. So 328 00:17:55,640 --> 00:17:57,879 Speaker 1: they started up their own party. They say, well, you know, 329 00:17:57,960 --> 00:18:00,160 Speaker 1: the e f net people for some reason don't find 330 00:18:00,200 --> 00:18:02,919 Speaker 1: this nearly as entertaining as we do, so we're gonna 331 00:18:02,920 --> 00:18:06,679 Speaker 1: make our own party. However, a net would not last 332 00:18:07,040 --> 00:18:10,320 Speaker 1: very long, and in fact, most users chose to go 333 00:18:10,400 --> 00:18:15,879 Speaker 1: with e f net instead, saying this anarchy thing doesn't 334 00:18:15,880 --> 00:18:18,439 Speaker 1: sound like it's a lot of fun or very you know, 335 00:18:18,720 --> 00:18:21,200 Speaker 1: a productive does Everyone being nice seems to make a 336 00:18:21,280 --> 00:18:25,720 Speaker 1: lot more sense, right, So then we have a unified 337 00:18:26,080 --> 00:18:29,439 Speaker 1: network e f net again. So it started off as 338 00:18:29,440 --> 00:18:32,359 Speaker 1: a unified network, had that one schism, A net did 339 00:18:32,359 --> 00:18:35,520 Speaker 1: not last very long. We're back to unified. However, then 340 00:18:35,600 --> 00:18:38,560 Speaker 1: you have a second splintering, which is when some users 341 00:18:38,880 --> 00:18:42,119 Speaker 1: left e f net to form tub net, which was 342 00:18:42,280 --> 00:18:47,040 Speaker 1: mostly kind of a The tub net folks were saying, look, 343 00:18:47,240 --> 00:18:49,960 Speaker 1: you need to fix things so that net splits happen 344 00:18:50,200 --> 00:18:55,520 Speaker 1: less frequently. They are, they're disruptive, you, it's it's ruining 345 00:18:55,520 --> 00:18:58,280 Speaker 1: the experience, right. The way that people react to net 346 00:18:58,280 --> 00:19:00,520 Speaker 1: splits is not the problem. The fact that year having 347 00:19:00,600 --> 00:19:02,760 Speaker 1: net splits at all is something that really needs to 348 00:19:02,800 --> 00:19:06,119 Speaker 1: be worked on more exactly. And so it wasn't so 349 00:19:06,200 --> 00:19:08,800 Speaker 1: much a disagreement with policy as it was we need 350 00:19:08,840 --> 00:19:12,600 Speaker 1: to improve this platform. So they left and uh tough 351 00:19:12,600 --> 00:19:15,040 Speaker 1: net had about five servers and around a hundred users, 352 00:19:15,040 --> 00:19:18,280 Speaker 1: but it didn't stay around very long either. People kind 353 00:19:18,280 --> 00:19:21,240 Speaker 1: of might kind of reabsorbed. Yeah, um and and again, 354 00:19:21,320 --> 00:19:25,359 Speaker 1: basically all of these were really scalability issues, um, which 355 00:19:25,400 --> 00:19:27,760 Speaker 1: which Jerko himself actually listed as being just about the 356 00:19:27,800 --> 00:19:29,640 Speaker 1: only thing that he would go back and change if 357 00:19:29,640 --> 00:19:31,679 Speaker 1: he had it to all do over again. Right. But 358 00:19:31,800 --> 00:19:34,320 Speaker 1: you know, again, hindsight being twenty, it was a lot 359 00:19:34,359 --> 00:19:36,440 Speaker 1: harder to imagine this back when you were doing something 360 00:19:36,440 --> 00:19:41,679 Speaker 1: where you had ten people on absolutely so an event, 361 00:19:41,760 --> 00:19:44,320 Speaker 1: a world event happens that ends up making i r 362 00:19:44,400 --> 00:19:49,720 Speaker 1: C a very useful utility for a certain population. That 363 00:19:49,840 --> 00:19:53,080 Speaker 1: was when the Gulf War broke out and you started 364 00:19:53,119 --> 00:19:55,679 Speaker 1: seeing lots of people using i r C to communicate 365 00:19:55,720 --> 00:19:59,239 Speaker 1: about the war, sharing news stories, sharing information as they 366 00:19:59,240 --> 00:20:01,480 Speaker 1: got it because different parts of the world we're getting 367 00:20:01,520 --> 00:20:05,080 Speaker 1: reports earlier than other parts, and everyone wanted to know 368 00:20:05,119 --> 00:20:07,879 Speaker 1: what was going on. And this was when they were 369 00:20:07,880 --> 00:20:10,280 Speaker 1: seeing the height of their popularity in their early days. 370 00:20:10,280 --> 00:20:13,240 Speaker 1: And keep in mind, again we're talking modest numbers. So 371 00:20:13,280 --> 00:20:15,280 Speaker 1: when we tell you how many users at the higher 372 00:20:15,320 --> 00:20:18,840 Speaker 1: their popularity, don't snicker, right, because for the first time 373 00:20:18,840 --> 00:20:22,200 Speaker 1: in history, it was it was about three concurrent users 374 00:20:22,240 --> 00:20:25,639 Speaker 1: at any given moment, and that that was a big deal. Uh, 375 00:20:25,720 --> 00:20:27,720 Speaker 1: you know, kind of similar to how we were saying 376 00:20:27,720 --> 00:20:30,760 Speaker 1: in the Twitter episode about how how people were so 377 00:20:30,840 --> 00:20:34,800 Speaker 1: impressed by the ability that this that this software gave 378 00:20:34,840 --> 00:20:38,320 Speaker 1: them to tune into live reporting about an issue, same 379 00:20:38,400 --> 00:20:42,879 Speaker 1: same thing. Yeah, yeah, exactly, So it was you know, really, 380 00:20:43,200 --> 00:20:46,560 Speaker 1: to me, what this says is it's it's it's a 381 00:20:46,760 --> 00:20:50,040 Speaker 1: premonition about what the Internet will be and how it 382 00:20:50,040 --> 00:20:52,439 Speaker 1: will be important and how people will use it to 383 00:20:52,480 --> 00:20:57,320 Speaker 1: communicate these important ideas in real time. Across the entire globe, 384 00:20:57,720 --> 00:21:01,320 Speaker 1: and even though it was very tiny, particularly compared to 385 00:21:01,359 --> 00:21:03,879 Speaker 1: something as enormous as the Internet, it was kind of 386 00:21:03,920 --> 00:21:07,080 Speaker 1: a proof of concept in many ways. So then another 387 00:21:07,119 --> 00:21:09,239 Speaker 1: split happens, but this one was not It was an 388 00:21:09,280 --> 00:21:12,240 Speaker 1: amicable split. It wasn't something where a bunch of people 389 00:21:12,240 --> 00:21:16,160 Speaker 1: were really upset. A user who used the nickname wild 390 00:21:16,320 --> 00:21:20,119 Speaker 1: Thang and yes that is how it's spelled, created a 391 00:21:20,160 --> 00:21:24,720 Speaker 1: test network to develop bots. So these are automated accounts. 392 00:21:24,720 --> 00:21:28,760 Speaker 1: Often they will create admins that are bots, and the 393 00:21:28,800 --> 00:21:31,840 Speaker 1: admin bots really are just there to scan for anything 394 00:21:31,880 --> 00:21:34,720 Speaker 1: that would be objectionable and react to it so that 395 00:21:34,760 --> 00:21:37,440 Speaker 1: if someone's typing in all caps, the bot can step 396 00:21:37,480 --> 00:21:39,800 Speaker 1: in and say, please, don't type in all caps. People 397 00:21:39,800 --> 00:21:42,080 Speaker 1: were much more sensitive about that in these early days 398 00:21:42,080 --> 00:21:44,840 Speaker 1: of Internet. Yeah, you know, because it was considered shouting. 399 00:21:44,880 --> 00:21:47,119 Speaker 1: And no, no, I mean it's still considered shouting. But 400 00:21:47,200 --> 00:21:49,680 Speaker 1: it's kind of funny these days. I think back back then, 401 00:21:49,920 --> 00:21:52,920 Speaker 1: if you're if your handle is drunk hulk, it's hilarious. 402 00:21:53,200 --> 00:21:56,320 Speaker 1: Well but at any rate times yes, okay, that's fair. 403 00:21:56,680 --> 00:22:02,600 Speaker 1: It's not not always hilarious, but frequently so the this 404 00:22:02,600 --> 00:22:07,000 Speaker 1: this approach, this Uh, this split to create this area 405 00:22:07,040 --> 00:22:09,560 Speaker 1: where they could test out bots. It was really just 406 00:22:09,640 --> 00:22:11,840 Speaker 1: men as a testing ground, but more and more people 407 00:22:11,880 --> 00:22:14,119 Speaker 1: wanted to join it to kind of play around with 408 00:22:14,200 --> 00:22:17,160 Speaker 1: things and test things out and see what else was possible. 409 00:22:17,440 --> 00:22:21,320 Speaker 1: And that is how the undernet was born. And uh, 410 00:22:21,359 --> 00:22:25,280 Speaker 1: it actually had some really useful goals. It wasn't just 411 00:22:25,520 --> 00:22:28,200 Speaker 1: about playing with bots and seeing what you could program 412 00:22:28,280 --> 00:22:32,240 Speaker 1: to to do. It also involved ways of registering channels 413 00:22:32,280 --> 00:22:36,359 Speaker 1: to users so that nick colliding was less of a problem. 414 00:22:36,520 --> 00:22:39,159 Speaker 1: The idea being that if you register the channel to 415 00:22:39,280 --> 00:22:42,800 Speaker 1: a user and you had some form of verification like 416 00:22:42,840 --> 00:22:45,600 Speaker 1: a password, that would really cut down on people being 417 00:22:45,600 --> 00:22:50,000 Speaker 1: able to take over a channel without authorization. So it 418 00:22:50,119 --> 00:22:52,600 Speaker 1: actually exists in parallel with the f net. It's not 419 00:22:52,640 --> 00:22:54,840 Speaker 1: trying to compete or anything. It's just it's just kind 420 00:22:54,840 --> 00:22:58,520 Speaker 1: of a like almost like a sandbox where people can 421 00:22:58,560 --> 00:23:01,639 Speaker 1: test out things. And uh, that's where I r C 422 00:23:01,920 --> 00:23:04,960 Speaker 1: really stopped being a united network and becomes a platform 423 00:23:04,960 --> 00:23:07,520 Speaker 1: that runs on different networks. This is the first time 424 00:23:07,560 --> 00:23:10,200 Speaker 1: we start seeing something that can survive on its own 425 00:23:10,240 --> 00:23:12,160 Speaker 1: and doesn't. It's not just a flash in the pan, 426 00:23:12,480 --> 00:23:17,800 Speaker 1: you know. Splinter group, So by May, the i r 427 00:23:17,840 --> 00:23:20,840 Speaker 1: C protocol is made available to the general public. It's 428 00:23:20,840 --> 00:23:23,719 Speaker 1: no longer just something that's being spread from uh, you know, 429 00:23:23,880 --> 00:23:27,520 Speaker 1: one one enthusiast to another. Now it's available for anyone. 430 00:23:28,200 --> 00:23:33,600 Speaker 1: And the summer of nineteen Uh, we get a fork 431 00:23:33,880 --> 00:23:36,520 Speaker 1: in under net. So we've talked about splintering with e 432 00:23:36,760 --> 00:23:40,399 Speaker 1: f net. Now undernet itself forks and another group called 433 00:23:40,520 --> 00:23:44,000 Speaker 1: down net d a l n et is born and 434 00:23:44,440 --> 00:23:49,159 Speaker 1: it was really trying to bring more stability and security 435 00:23:49,320 --> 00:23:51,960 Speaker 1: to the i r C platform exactly. And a lot 436 00:23:52,000 --> 00:23:55,240 Speaker 1: of their their improvements were made by a guy named 437 00:23:55,240 --> 00:24:01,199 Speaker 1: Brian morpher Smith. So again looking to improve the platform. Uh. 438 00:24:01,400 --> 00:24:03,920 Speaker 1: I think these splits are looked upon with much more 439 00:24:04,000 --> 00:24:06,960 Speaker 1: fondness by people. You know, everyone was trying to make 440 00:24:07,000 --> 00:24:10,959 Speaker 1: it better as opposed to having having like deep philosophical 441 00:24:11,080 --> 00:24:15,960 Speaker 1: disagreements within the community. Uh. And then in undernet would 442 00:24:15,960 --> 00:24:18,640 Speaker 1: split again, but this time it was it was one 443 00:24:18,680 --> 00:24:23,000 Speaker 1: of those UM system problems, infrastructure problems. Uh. You see, 444 00:24:23,040 --> 00:24:25,720 Speaker 1: there was a server in Australia that was part of 445 00:24:25,760 --> 00:24:29,520 Speaker 1: the undernet, but connecting from Australia to the rest of 446 00:24:29,560 --> 00:24:32,919 Speaker 1: the world there was a lot of lag, so huge 447 00:24:32,960 --> 00:24:36,240 Speaker 1: delays you would type something in, you'd hit enter, it 448 00:24:36,280 --> 00:24:39,119 Speaker 1: would take you know, several seconds for it to to 449 00:24:39,320 --> 00:24:42,720 Speaker 1: transfer over. By then whatever, the topic of conversation has 450 00:24:42,840 --> 00:24:46,960 Speaker 1: changed dramatically. Everyone thinks that you're being either obtuse or 451 00:24:47,040 --> 00:24:50,000 Speaker 1: just really slow. But it turns us just because there's lag. 452 00:24:50,440 --> 00:24:53,679 Speaker 1: So there was a conscious decision to split from the 453 00:24:53,800 --> 00:24:57,679 Speaker 1: undernet UH and to create a new Australian based network 454 00:24:57,720 --> 00:25:01,840 Speaker 1: called oz org. So so this was again another one 455 00:25:01,840 --> 00:25:04,480 Speaker 1: of those beneficial splits that that was really done for 456 00:25:04,520 --> 00:25:07,439 Speaker 1: the good of the community rather than due to UH 457 00:25:07,520 --> 00:25:10,720 Speaker 1: inter community arguments. Exactly. Yeah, it's really I mean it was. 458 00:25:10,880 --> 00:25:13,040 Speaker 1: It was sad in a way because it meant that 459 00:25:13,080 --> 00:25:16,760 Speaker 1: the Australians became kind of you know, insulated from everybody 460 00:25:16,800 --> 00:25:20,760 Speaker 1: else and everyone else was denied the pleasure of Australian company. 461 00:25:20,800 --> 00:25:24,400 Speaker 1: But it was due specifically to technological you know, shortcomings 462 00:25:24,400 --> 00:25:28,240 Speaker 1: that had nothing to do with philosophical disagreements. Our next 463 00:25:28,280 --> 00:25:30,720 Speaker 1: item on the list, however, is very much one of 464 00:25:30,760 --> 00:25:34,240 Speaker 1: those angry philosophical disagreements. Yes, this is what is called 465 00:25:34,520 --> 00:25:38,800 Speaker 1: the Great Split, which you know, I've had a few 466 00:25:38,800 --> 00:25:40,879 Speaker 1: of those in bowling and they are really a pain. 467 00:25:41,480 --> 00:25:44,879 Speaker 1: But this happened in July of nine six. I r 468 00:25:45,000 --> 00:25:48,720 Speaker 1: c net splits off from e f net and uh 469 00:25:49,200 --> 00:25:51,400 Speaker 1: I are s net and e f net are are 470 00:25:51,480 --> 00:25:55,720 Speaker 1: still kind of like these odds. Yeah, there's so it 471 00:25:55,760 --> 00:25:58,080 Speaker 1: was over generally, it was over a disagreement on how 472 00:25:58,160 --> 00:26:02,960 Speaker 1: to handle operational issue, right. It was basically a culmination 473 00:26:03,119 --> 00:26:06,440 Speaker 1: of all of those old arguments over how NICK collisions 474 00:26:06,480 --> 00:26:09,840 Speaker 1: should be handled and over exactly how much power ops 475 00:26:09,840 --> 00:26:12,639 Speaker 1: and admins should have in their in their channels. It 476 00:26:12,680 --> 00:26:15,080 Speaker 1: was really to try and define these roles in different 477 00:26:15,080 --> 00:26:17,440 Speaker 1: ways because as it turns out, we'll talk about a 478 00:26:17,480 --> 00:26:20,600 Speaker 1: little bit a little bit later about how the definitions 479 00:26:20,640 --> 00:26:23,680 Speaker 1: of operators versus admins it's a little money depending upon 480 00:26:23,760 --> 00:26:27,959 Speaker 1: which service you're using, um. And also the capabilities that 481 00:26:28,040 --> 00:26:31,240 Speaker 1: ops and admins have are different depending upon you know, 482 00:26:31,320 --> 00:26:34,560 Speaker 1: the actual servers and clients that are being used. So 483 00:26:35,240 --> 00:26:37,680 Speaker 1: there were some disagreements and we ended up having the 484 00:26:37,760 --> 00:26:42,280 Speaker 1: split I r C net actually more out of coincidence 485 00:26:42,320 --> 00:26:45,240 Speaker 1: than planning. It wound up being I mean, I mean 486 00:26:45,320 --> 00:26:48,000 Speaker 1: cultural and geographical and and both of those. I mean, 487 00:26:48,000 --> 00:26:50,280 Speaker 1: there are a few servers that the jump ship one 488 00:26:50,320 --> 00:26:52,280 Speaker 1: way or another, but yeah, most of the ones in 489 00:26:52,359 --> 00:26:55,399 Speaker 1: I r C net are in Europe and Australia and Japan, 490 00:26:55,440 --> 00:26:56,800 Speaker 1: and most of the e F net ones are in 491 00:26:56,840 --> 00:26:59,840 Speaker 1: the US. So it ended up kind of just being 492 00:26:59,840 --> 00:27:02,840 Speaker 1: on that dividing line. It wasn't it wasn't like US 493 00:27:03,000 --> 00:27:05,640 Speaker 1: versus everybody else. It just kind of that's just kind 494 00:27:05,640 --> 00:27:08,640 Speaker 1: of how it shook out. And since then, multiple networks 495 00:27:08,680 --> 00:27:12,479 Speaker 1: have appeared running on I r C. So you had 496 00:27:12,560 --> 00:27:18,160 Speaker 1: this unified network, although it's very very tiny comparatively speaking. Uh, 497 00:27:18,200 --> 00:27:20,040 Speaker 1: and now that you have a bunch of separate networks. 498 00:27:20,320 --> 00:27:23,360 Speaker 1: At its height of popularity, which was a long time 499 00:27:23,400 --> 00:27:26,440 Speaker 1: ago in two thousand three, I r C had one 500 00:27:26,720 --> 00:27:30,879 Speaker 1: million users. As of January, that had dropped to about 501 00:27:30,920 --> 00:27:35,200 Speaker 1: four thousand, but it's still not terribly shabby and it's 502 00:27:35,200 --> 00:27:37,760 Speaker 1: still used quite a bit by a lot of I mean, 503 00:27:37,800 --> 00:27:39,520 Speaker 1: there are a lot of communities I go to where 504 00:27:39,560 --> 00:27:43,160 Speaker 1: I r C chat rooms are incorporated into the experience, 505 00:27:43,200 --> 00:27:47,000 Speaker 1: like like sites that do streaming video where they'll do 506 00:27:47,160 --> 00:27:50,359 Speaker 1: some forum a broadcast if they don't have a native 507 00:27:50,440 --> 00:27:54,000 Speaker 1: chat client that's part of that service. I r C 508 00:27:54,240 --> 00:27:56,439 Speaker 1: is the way that almost all of them go, and 509 00:27:56,520 --> 00:27:59,880 Speaker 1: that includes big names, like big companies all the way 510 00:27:59,880 --> 00:28:02,480 Speaker 1: to down too little independent operators because it's an open 511 00:28:02,600 --> 00:28:05,320 Speaker 1: source approach. We've got a little bit more to say 512 00:28:05,359 --> 00:28:07,320 Speaker 1: about i r C, but before we get to that, 513 00:28:07,400 --> 00:28:18,199 Speaker 1: let's take another quake break. Okay, so we're back, and 514 00:28:18,240 --> 00:28:21,159 Speaker 1: now i'd kind of like to talk about the hierarchy 515 00:28:21,400 --> 00:28:23,920 Speaker 1: of things that you know, like the people who are 516 00:28:24,000 --> 00:28:28,400 Speaker 1: on I r C, because before the break we mentioned 517 00:28:28,440 --> 00:28:31,800 Speaker 1: that there's a little bit of confusion in the ranks 518 00:28:31,880 --> 00:28:35,240 Speaker 1: of what an OP versus an ADMIN is and how 519 00:28:35,560 --> 00:28:38,920 Speaker 1: much control they have over what's going on. Right, So, 520 00:28:39,960 --> 00:28:43,440 Speaker 1: for one thing, operator is used by some services for 521 00:28:43,520 --> 00:28:46,360 Speaker 1: two different things. An operator might be a person who 522 00:28:46,400 --> 00:28:50,040 Speaker 1: has complete control of the server which has all the 523 00:28:50,080 --> 00:28:53,080 Speaker 1: stuff running on it, or just complete control over the 524 00:28:53,160 --> 00:28:57,680 Speaker 1: channel like a specific UH chat room exactly, so you 525 00:28:57,720 --> 00:29:01,120 Speaker 1: could have multiple channels on a single erver UH. And 526 00:29:01,120 --> 00:29:04,240 Speaker 1: then the operator is the person who could either be 527 00:29:04,320 --> 00:29:07,280 Speaker 1: in charge of everything or in charge of justice specific channel. 528 00:29:07,520 --> 00:29:10,760 Speaker 1: Another frequent term is admin that tends to be someone 529 00:29:10,760 --> 00:29:14,400 Speaker 1: who's in charge of a channel. So these are people 530 00:29:14,440 --> 00:29:18,520 Speaker 1: who have extra commands at their disposal beyond the ones 531 00:29:18,640 --> 00:29:21,960 Speaker 1: that any user has, and these commands allow you to 532 00:29:22,000 --> 00:29:25,120 Speaker 1: do lots of different things that make it useful, uh, 533 00:29:25,160 --> 00:29:28,160 Speaker 1: in order to have things run smoothly on your channel. So, 534 00:29:28,440 --> 00:29:32,080 Speaker 1: for instance, you can mute people, which is often useful 535 00:29:32,360 --> 00:29:36,120 Speaker 1: if someone is being particularly probably yeah, and you don't 536 00:29:36,160 --> 00:29:38,360 Speaker 1: want to just boot them and ban them, maybe you 537 00:29:38,440 --> 00:29:40,959 Speaker 1: mute them so that they don't even know that, Like, 538 00:29:41,200 --> 00:29:42,920 Speaker 1: they don't know that their stuff is not showing up, 539 00:29:42,920 --> 00:29:45,840 Speaker 1: so they're still typing wildly, but none of it's coming through, right, 540 00:29:45,880 --> 00:29:48,360 Speaker 1: so everyone else is blissfully ignorant. I mean sometimes that's 541 00:29:48,360 --> 00:29:51,320 Speaker 1: easier because you know, booting booting someone, which is another 542 00:29:51,320 --> 00:29:52,920 Speaker 1: thing they can do. They can kick people out of 543 00:29:52,920 --> 00:29:56,400 Speaker 1: a room, which generally speaking, booting does not disconnect you 544 00:29:56,440 --> 00:29:59,480 Speaker 1: from I r C, but it will disconnect you from 545 00:29:59,480 --> 00:30:03,880 Speaker 1: that channel. You often will then have either a ban 546 00:30:04,080 --> 00:30:06,000 Speaker 1: on the channel so you can't go back into it, 547 00:30:06,520 --> 00:30:08,360 Speaker 1: or um, you know, you can go back in, but 548 00:30:08,440 --> 00:30:11,120 Speaker 1: then the OP will give you a stern warning and 549 00:30:11,160 --> 00:30:12,840 Speaker 1: say if you do this, I will ban you from 550 00:30:12,880 --> 00:30:15,560 Speaker 1: the server, which means you don't you know, you don't 551 00:30:15,560 --> 00:30:19,120 Speaker 1: just get banned from the channel but the server itself. Uh. Now, granted, 552 00:30:19,120 --> 00:30:21,560 Speaker 1: there are ways around that if you're particularly trollish and 553 00:30:21,560 --> 00:30:23,880 Speaker 1: you want to take extra effort to really be a 554 00:30:23,880 --> 00:30:27,280 Speaker 1: pain in the patucas, but you know that's what the 555 00:30:27,360 --> 00:30:30,600 Speaker 1: mute buttons for. Also, you can do moderated discussions. So 556 00:30:30,640 --> 00:30:33,040 Speaker 1: a moderated discussion is where you have an admin who 557 00:30:33,560 --> 00:30:36,360 Speaker 1: picks who gets to talk. When this is really useful 558 00:30:36,440 --> 00:30:39,040 Speaker 1: if you wanted to do something like a question answer 559 00:30:39,120 --> 00:30:43,720 Speaker 1: session and you have someone who is addressing a group 560 00:30:43,720 --> 00:30:45,880 Speaker 1: of people and then wants to take in questions, but 561 00:30:45,920 --> 00:30:48,320 Speaker 1: you can't just be flooded by them, uh, and admin 562 00:30:48,400 --> 00:30:50,920 Speaker 1: may take on the role of moderator who then picks 563 00:30:51,000 --> 00:30:53,760 Speaker 1: the person who will ask the question in text and 564 00:30:53,760 --> 00:30:56,680 Speaker 1: in the person you know whoever's answering will then address that. 565 00:30:57,520 --> 00:31:00,280 Speaker 1: So that's also very useful. And there are other ends 566 00:31:00,280 --> 00:31:05,040 Speaker 1: as well. There's some UM confusion about what operators exactly 567 00:31:05,160 --> 00:31:08,040 Speaker 1: can cannot do. There are people who essentially ascribe them 568 00:31:08,080 --> 00:31:11,000 Speaker 1: godlike powers and they could do anything they wanted, and 569 00:31:11,040 --> 00:31:14,240 Speaker 1: that's not entirely true. There's some great UM resources on 570 00:31:14,320 --> 00:31:16,800 Speaker 1: i RC dot org if you want to go there 571 00:31:16,800 --> 00:31:20,560 Speaker 1: and check it out. There there's frequently ask question guides 572 00:31:20,600 --> 00:31:23,960 Speaker 1: that will answer everything, including one about what exactly cannon 573 00:31:24,040 --> 00:31:27,560 Speaker 1: op and can't and OP do to try and demystified 574 00:31:27,600 --> 00:31:29,440 Speaker 1: a little bit. It's an entertaining read, so I would 575 00:31:29,440 --> 00:31:32,520 Speaker 1: recommend it. So let's talk a little bit about them. 576 00:31:32,560 --> 00:31:35,680 Speaker 1: What's actually under the hood, How is this actually working? 577 00:31:36,120 --> 00:31:38,080 Speaker 1: This is where we get into the tech of the 578 00:31:38,120 --> 00:31:42,760 Speaker 1: tech stuff. And yeah, so it's open protocol. We mentioned 579 00:31:42,760 --> 00:31:47,360 Speaker 1: it earlier, and it relies on TCP. That's transmission controlled protocol, right, 580 00:31:47,480 --> 00:31:50,600 Speaker 1: And that's one of the two biggies that were created 581 00:31:50,680 --> 00:31:54,680 Speaker 1: by the Power Team events SURF and bob Con, the 582 00:31:54,720 --> 00:31:57,000 Speaker 1: other being i P, Y T c P, I P 583 00:31:57,160 --> 00:31:59,240 Speaker 1: are the big ones. You know, you probably have heard 584 00:31:59,280 --> 00:32:03,880 Speaker 1: them before. These are essentially the rules that create the 585 00:32:04,120 --> 00:32:09,040 Speaker 1: the traffic guidelines for data across networks. Well, without these rules, 586 00:32:09,440 --> 00:32:14,000 Speaker 1: computers wouldn't have a standardized approach to sending and receiving data, 587 00:32:14,080 --> 00:32:16,480 Speaker 1: and you wouldn't be able to have this incredible packet 588 00:32:16,520 --> 00:32:20,560 Speaker 1: switching network out there where you can send stuff across 589 00:32:20,560 --> 00:32:23,440 Speaker 1: the network and not worry if a computer or ten 590 00:32:23,520 --> 00:32:26,920 Speaker 1: computers or a hundred computers go down in the process 591 00:32:26,960 --> 00:32:30,000 Speaker 1: as long as whichever computer is the destination is still 592 00:32:30,040 --> 00:32:33,680 Speaker 1: active because it can reroute, so right, right, Although this 593 00:32:33,720 --> 00:32:36,000 Speaker 1: does mean that it's not technically part of the Worldwide 594 00:32:36,000 --> 00:32:39,240 Speaker 1: Web exactly. Of course, there are web based clients that 595 00:32:39,480 --> 00:32:43,800 Speaker 1: let you log into I r C. Right, yeah, you 596 00:32:43,840 --> 00:32:47,520 Speaker 1: want you don't necessarily these days need to download an 597 00:32:47,520 --> 00:32:50,160 Speaker 1: I r C client to your computer and then run 598 00:32:50,240 --> 00:32:53,920 Speaker 1: that as a separate program. Uh, for particular websites. Not 599 00:32:54,000 --> 00:32:57,600 Speaker 1: obviously you're not necessarily going to be able to visit 600 00:32:57,680 --> 00:33:00,400 Speaker 1: any channel anywhere. But you know, I was meant the 601 00:33:00,480 --> 00:33:04,160 Speaker 1: idea of that moderated discussion. Uh, So if you're going 602 00:33:04,200 --> 00:33:09,080 Speaker 1: to say a streaming site, I'll use a real example. So, um, 603 00:33:09,120 --> 00:33:14,280 Speaker 1: there's uh, there's a web podcast publication company called the 604 00:33:14,320 --> 00:33:17,320 Speaker 1: frog Pants Network run by a guy named Scott Johnson. 605 00:33:17,480 --> 00:33:20,400 Speaker 1: He does a lot of really funny podcasts. He streams 606 00:33:20,400 --> 00:33:23,560 Speaker 1: his podcasts live, he records somebody streams them live, and 607 00:33:23,600 --> 00:33:25,760 Speaker 1: he invites people to come into this chat room and 608 00:33:25,800 --> 00:33:29,840 Speaker 1: participate in a discussion. So, uh, that would allow you. 609 00:33:29,840 --> 00:33:33,080 Speaker 1: You go to the website where the the video is streaming, 610 00:33:33,080 --> 00:33:35,480 Speaker 1: and just underneath it is this little web based I 611 00:33:35,680 --> 00:33:38,000 Speaker 1: r C client and all you do is type in 612 00:33:38,080 --> 00:33:40,240 Speaker 1: whatever nickname you want to use and hit enter, and 613 00:33:40,280 --> 00:33:42,360 Speaker 1: then away you go, and you can make as many 614 00:33:42,680 --> 00:33:47,600 Speaker 1: goofy jokes as you like, which Scott uh encourages that's 615 00:33:47,600 --> 00:33:50,080 Speaker 1: the kind of world he lives, and I appreciate it 616 00:33:50,160 --> 00:33:53,640 Speaker 1: so anyway that that's an example. But yes, it's it 617 00:33:53,640 --> 00:33:56,600 Speaker 1: itself is not part of the world Wide Web. It 618 00:33:56,680 --> 00:34:00,360 Speaker 1: predates the World Wide Web, so that's important to him. Member, 619 00:34:00,520 --> 00:34:02,680 Speaker 1: And you know, I know that most people these days 620 00:34:02,720 --> 00:34:04,920 Speaker 1: have a grasp on that. I just remember a time 621 00:34:05,720 --> 00:34:09,000 Speaker 1: when Worldwide Web and Internet were synonymous to most people, 622 00:34:09,680 --> 00:34:11,440 Speaker 1: Like you know, if they thought of the Internet, they 623 00:34:11,440 --> 00:34:15,120 Speaker 1: were thinking Worldwide Web. They weren't They didn't realize that email, FTP, 624 00:34:15,320 --> 00:34:17,960 Speaker 1: all these other protocols are also part of it, right 625 00:34:18,040 --> 00:34:21,920 Speaker 1: right then they existed in layers, yes, exactly. So to 626 00:34:22,120 --> 00:34:25,680 Speaker 1: log in, like we said, you'd launch that client an appy, 627 00:34:25,920 --> 00:34:28,280 Speaker 1: and you would direct it to the appropriate server because 628 00:34:28,280 --> 00:34:30,120 Speaker 1: there are different ones. Like you, if you've got an app, 629 00:34:30,160 --> 00:34:33,160 Speaker 1: that's just all it is is just running this program. 630 00:34:33,239 --> 00:34:35,520 Speaker 1: It needs to know where you're where to point it, 631 00:34:35,600 --> 00:34:37,360 Speaker 1: like you have to tell it there are many different 632 00:34:37,360 --> 00:34:39,239 Speaker 1: servers that I might have access to. And then once 633 00:34:39,239 --> 00:34:41,040 Speaker 1: you got to that server, then you would have to 634 00:34:41,080 --> 00:34:43,080 Speaker 1: try and you know, find the right channel. You might 635 00:34:43,080 --> 00:34:45,480 Speaker 1: look through a list of channels and designate the specific 636 00:34:45,520 --> 00:34:48,440 Speaker 1: one you want to join. You could join multiple channels 637 00:34:48,480 --> 00:34:51,200 Speaker 1: and then switch between them so that you're part of 638 00:34:51,280 --> 00:34:54,080 Speaker 1: multiple conversations all at the same time. And some servers, 639 00:34:54,080 --> 00:34:56,759 Speaker 1: depending on which one you have logged into, UM might 640 00:34:57,160 --> 00:35:00,439 Speaker 1: ask you to create a user name and even a password. Yeah, 641 00:35:00,480 --> 00:35:02,919 Speaker 1: so instead of just coming in under a nickname, because 642 00:35:02,920 --> 00:35:05,360 Speaker 1: some of them will just assign you a random string 643 00:35:06,239 --> 00:35:08,359 Speaker 1: like a nine digit number. Right, I feel like like 644 00:35:08,600 --> 00:35:12,520 Speaker 1: you are web visitors eight seven b Q four. Well, 645 00:35:12,560 --> 00:35:16,280 Speaker 1: that's a great catchy name. But you can also designate 646 00:35:16,280 --> 00:35:19,359 Speaker 1: your your nickname or user name, and like like Lauren said, 647 00:35:19,360 --> 00:35:21,120 Speaker 1: some of them will also allow you to create a 648 00:35:21,160 --> 00:35:23,640 Speaker 1: password which will protect your nickname so that no one 649 00:35:23,680 --> 00:35:25,680 Speaker 1: else can have it. From that. From that, right that 650 00:35:25,800 --> 00:35:29,799 Speaker 1: nick duplication thing, which usually only works on some of 651 00:35:29,840 --> 00:35:31,680 Speaker 1: them are server wide, but a lot of them are 652 00:35:31,719 --> 00:35:34,560 Speaker 1: just channel specific. So in other words, there could be 653 00:35:34,600 --> 00:35:36,840 Speaker 1: someone in another channel posing as you and being a 654 00:35:36,840 --> 00:35:40,640 Speaker 1: total jerk. Uh. That's my excuse for having multiple personalities 655 00:35:40,680 --> 00:35:42,719 Speaker 1: on an I r C server where one of me 656 00:35:42,840 --> 00:35:45,839 Speaker 1: is really friendly and one of me is not. I'm complex. 657 00:35:47,520 --> 00:35:51,640 Speaker 1: So since it's a client server architecture and it's not 658 00:35:51,719 --> 00:35:55,120 Speaker 1: on this distributed network, that's where you are able to, 659 00:35:55,520 --> 00:35:58,360 Speaker 1: you know, access lots of different stuff, but only the 660 00:35:58,360 --> 00:36:00,960 Speaker 1: stuff that's available on that server. Like we were saying earlier, 661 00:36:01,520 --> 00:36:03,960 Speaker 1: if there are channels that you want to visit, but 662 00:36:04,040 --> 00:36:06,920 Speaker 1: that server doesn't host those channels, you're out of luck. 663 00:36:06,960 --> 00:36:09,200 Speaker 1: I mean, you create a channel maybe if you have 664 00:36:09,760 --> 00:36:12,399 Speaker 1: the permissions to do that, but you might not be 665 00:36:12,440 --> 00:36:14,480 Speaker 1: in with all of your buddies, similar to like like 666 00:36:14,520 --> 00:36:16,719 Speaker 1: World Warcraft or something like that. You have to all 667 00:36:16,800 --> 00:36:19,480 Speaker 1: join up in the same right to play the same game, right, 668 00:36:19,520 --> 00:36:21,920 Speaker 1: because those servers have a limitation on how much they 669 00:36:21,920 --> 00:36:25,160 Speaker 1: can support and once you reach that, that's it. So 670 00:36:25,440 --> 00:36:28,319 Speaker 1: uh yeah, it's you know, that's also where the the 671 00:36:28,360 --> 00:36:30,960 Speaker 1: net split thing comes into play, because if you do 672 00:36:31,040 --> 00:36:33,440 Speaker 1: have multiple servers connected together that are running the same 673 00:36:33,480 --> 00:36:35,840 Speaker 1: channel and they split, that's where you get that problem 674 00:36:35,920 --> 00:36:39,279 Speaker 1: is talking about earlier, where the actual audience splits up 675 00:36:39,640 --> 00:36:42,120 Speaker 1: and you end up with talking to just a fraction 676 00:36:42,200 --> 00:36:47,399 Speaker 1: of the room. Right, Although the servers can be connected together, Yeah, yeah, 677 00:36:47,480 --> 00:36:49,759 Speaker 1: you can connect a lot of them together. That's where 678 00:36:49,800 --> 00:36:51,600 Speaker 1: you know, that was the whole idea behind the original 679 00:36:52,120 --> 00:36:54,400 Speaker 1: I r C network. It's just it's funny because if 680 00:36:54,400 --> 00:36:56,640 Speaker 1: you look at I r C today, you wouldn't think 681 00:36:56,680 --> 00:36:59,200 Speaker 1: of it as starting as a unified network because there's 682 00:36:59,239 --> 00:37:02,280 Speaker 1: so many different servers and networks out there. So today 683 00:37:02,360 --> 00:37:04,440 Speaker 1: it just looks like it was something that grew into 684 00:37:04,560 --> 00:37:07,480 Speaker 1: like it started out as islands all growing separately, but 685 00:37:07,520 --> 00:37:11,200 Speaker 1: in fact it was one land mass that later broke 686 00:37:11,280 --> 00:37:13,880 Speaker 1: into separate islands. But but yeah, but you can you 687 00:37:13,880 --> 00:37:17,640 Speaker 1: can connect those islands back to one another retroactively these 688 00:37:17,680 --> 00:37:19,799 Speaker 1: days if you want to. If an OP wants to 689 00:37:20,000 --> 00:37:25,319 Speaker 1: give his or her users access to a greater number 690 00:37:25,360 --> 00:37:27,879 Speaker 1: of channels, sure, yeah, yeah, I mean, you know, as 691 00:37:27,880 --> 00:37:29,920 Speaker 1: long as you're all running the same I r C 692 00:37:30,160 --> 00:37:33,799 Speaker 1: server software, you're you're good to go. Once in a while, 693 00:37:33,880 --> 00:37:36,360 Speaker 1: like we said, you get those broken connections, that's a bummer. 694 00:37:36,440 --> 00:37:40,440 Speaker 1: And also lag is an issue. Um, there are times 695 00:37:40,480 --> 00:37:44,719 Speaker 1: where lag will be a particular problem and you find 696 00:37:44,760 --> 00:37:48,800 Speaker 1: it frustrating to communicate. There's an actual command slash ping 697 00:37:49,280 --> 00:37:51,920 Speaker 1: that will tell you how long the delay is between 698 00:37:51,920 --> 00:37:54,680 Speaker 1: when you type something in and when it respond When 699 00:37:54,719 --> 00:37:56,279 Speaker 1: how long it takes a message to go from the 700 00:37:56,320 --> 00:37:58,600 Speaker 1: server and from the server back to you. You can 701 00:37:58,640 --> 00:38:01,920 Speaker 1: also ping other users to find out how long it 702 00:38:01,960 --> 00:38:04,520 Speaker 1: takes for a message to go from you to that 703 00:38:04,560 --> 00:38:06,839 Speaker 1: person and from the person back to you. So that way, 704 00:38:06,840 --> 00:38:09,120 Speaker 1: if you're doing these little private messages off to the side, 705 00:38:09,520 --> 00:38:12,279 Speaker 1: you know, if someone's not responding to you and maybe 706 00:38:12,360 --> 00:38:15,400 Speaker 1: because they just they're they're lagging, Yeah, you can understand 707 00:38:15,400 --> 00:38:17,759 Speaker 1: whether you have in fact lost connection or if there's 708 00:38:18,360 --> 00:38:20,800 Speaker 1: a leg or or if they're just ignoring you. Yes, 709 00:38:20,920 --> 00:38:23,840 Speaker 1: like if you get the instead of a lag message, 710 00:38:23,840 --> 00:38:26,320 Speaker 1: it just says I'm washing my hair. Just take the 711 00:38:26,400 --> 00:38:30,360 Speaker 1: hint because I don't have hair. Guys, I tell you 712 00:38:30,360 --> 00:38:32,680 Speaker 1: I'm washing my hair, it just means I don't want 713 00:38:32,680 --> 00:38:37,040 Speaker 1: to talk anyway. So if you listen to that episode 714 00:38:37,080 --> 00:38:39,239 Speaker 1: we talked about earlier, we go into a lot more 715 00:38:39,280 --> 00:38:42,839 Speaker 1: detail about the different commands that are available to your 716 00:38:42,880 --> 00:38:46,120 Speaker 1: basic user and explained that why you know, the ones 717 00:38:46,120 --> 00:38:48,480 Speaker 1: that you might find on one version, like the undernet, 718 00:38:48,520 --> 00:38:50,960 Speaker 1: are different than e F net, that are different than 719 00:38:51,040 --> 00:38:53,359 Speaker 1: I r C Net, because like we said, these all 720 00:38:53,440 --> 00:38:56,399 Speaker 1: evolved separately once they split off from each other, and 721 00:38:56,480 --> 00:38:59,799 Speaker 1: you know, it's been all several decades since they were 722 00:38:59,840 --> 00:39:02,840 Speaker 1: for introduced. Yeah, yeah, I find that I find it 723 00:39:02,880 --> 00:39:05,320 Speaker 1: really interesting that it all of this time has passed, 724 00:39:05,360 --> 00:39:07,720 Speaker 1: and that it is still in use, perhaps not widely 725 00:39:07,719 --> 00:39:10,640 Speaker 1: in use now that there are many other options that 726 00:39:10,760 --> 00:39:15,799 Speaker 1: are pretty widely populated. But Jarko himself once once said 727 00:39:16,480 --> 00:39:20,759 Speaker 1: in a talk with the Undernet Public Relations Committee, Um, 728 00:39:20,800 --> 00:39:23,760 Speaker 1: what makes I r C special is a sense of anonymity. 729 00:39:24,000 --> 00:39:26,319 Speaker 1: The only things that you often know of the other 730 00:39:26,360 --> 00:39:30,480 Speaker 1: person are those that you can conclude from the discussions. Right, So, 731 00:39:30,640 --> 00:39:33,480 Speaker 1: for example, you may conclude that they have a shared 732 00:39:33,520 --> 00:39:35,919 Speaker 1: interest in a particular topic, assuming that they are being 733 00:39:35,960 --> 00:39:40,919 Speaker 1: genuine when they joined that that channel, because you know trolls, sure, 734 00:39:41,000 --> 00:39:42,839 Speaker 1: but but but other other than that, you know, it's 735 00:39:42,920 --> 00:39:44,960 Speaker 1: it's not like this is linked to your Facebook or 736 00:39:45,000 --> 00:39:48,839 Speaker 1: your Twitter or other personally identifiable information. You don't even 737 00:39:48,880 --> 00:39:51,359 Speaker 1: necessarily have to use a user name that you're going 738 00:39:51,400 --> 00:39:53,680 Speaker 1: to put in use anywhere else on the Internet. Right, 739 00:39:53,719 --> 00:39:56,360 Speaker 1: you might be able, you might feel more free to 740 00:39:56,600 --> 00:40:00,800 Speaker 1: express thoughts that you otherwise would feel would be uh, 741 00:40:01,120 --> 00:40:03,840 Speaker 1: you'd be judged upon, you know, not not even in 742 00:40:03,880 --> 00:40:06,720 Speaker 1: a trollish way, I mean just being honest and upfront. 743 00:40:06,719 --> 00:40:09,480 Speaker 1: And maybe maybe you're looking for friends who can support 744 00:40:09,520 --> 00:40:11,760 Speaker 1: you in something that you don't really feel comfortable talking 745 00:40:12,080 --> 00:40:15,000 Speaker 1: to the folks around you. I mean that happens, so 746 00:40:15,480 --> 00:40:18,680 Speaker 1: it certainly has a valuable place. And like I said, 747 00:40:18,719 --> 00:40:21,120 Speaker 1: I still use I r C. I mean, I still 748 00:40:21,600 --> 00:40:24,200 Speaker 1: uh joined these conversations. There are shows that I have 749 00:40:24,320 --> 00:40:26,239 Speaker 1: been a guest on that have used I r C 750 00:40:26,400 --> 00:40:30,160 Speaker 1: chat rooms. I love having that available and seeing what 751 00:40:30,239 --> 00:40:34,560 Speaker 1: the live audience is saying during the show. Usually there's 752 00:40:34,600 --> 00:40:37,040 Speaker 1: a lag of about you know, ten seconds or so 753 00:40:37,120 --> 00:40:39,759 Speaker 1: between what what we do on the video and when 754 00:40:39,760 --> 00:40:41,600 Speaker 1: people see it and are able to respond to it. 755 00:40:42,239 --> 00:40:44,880 Speaker 1: So but it's still I mean, if a good show 756 00:40:44,960 --> 00:40:50,120 Speaker 1: that does this, they'll actually incorporate user responses and and 757 00:40:50,160 --> 00:40:52,399 Speaker 1: they call people out and and and you know, give 758 00:40:52,440 --> 00:40:54,760 Speaker 1: them credit or or you know, shame them publicly, depending 759 00:40:54,840 --> 00:40:58,719 Speaker 1: upon the the appropriate response. But it's it's one of 760 00:40:58,760 --> 00:41:02,200 Speaker 1: those things that enriches Internet experience. Absolutely. Yeah. I have 761 00:41:02,360 --> 00:41:05,359 Speaker 1: very fond memories of it from um probably about two 762 00:41:05,400 --> 00:41:07,360 Speaker 1: thousand four to two eight, I think is when I 763 00:41:07,400 --> 00:41:09,880 Speaker 1: was using m I r C, which is the Microsoft 764 00:41:09,960 --> 00:41:13,320 Speaker 1: client for it. I hope you guys enjoyed that classic 765 00:41:13,320 --> 00:41:16,120 Speaker 1: episode of tech Stuff. If you have any suggestions for 766 00:41:16,239 --> 00:41:19,239 Speaker 1: future topics I should cover, let me know the best 767 00:41:19,280 --> 00:41:21,080 Speaker 1: way to do that. Is to hop over to Twitter 768 00:41:21,440 --> 00:41:24,799 Speaker 1: and use the handled text stuff h s W I'll 769 00:41:24,880 --> 00:41:32,960 Speaker 1: talk to you again really soon. Text Stuff is an 770 00:41:32,960 --> 00:41:36,680 Speaker 1: I heart Radio production. For more podcasts from my heart Radio, 771 00:41:37,000 --> 00:41:40,160 Speaker 1: visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever 772 00:41:40,280 --> 00:41:41,800 Speaker 1: you listen to your favorite shows.