irc posts

Filed under: Macintosh, Social Software, Beta

Adium releases 1.4 beta with IRC and Twitter support

by Jay Hathaway May 18th 2009

My favorite chat client for OS X just keeps getting better. Adium 1.3.4. has been released, and it offers some major performance improvements, especially where Facebook Chat is concerned. It's also likely the last Adium release that will work on OS X 10.4 Tiger. As nice as it is to get stable updates to Adium, 1.3.4 is overshadowed by the release of 1.4 beta, which includes support for Twitter and IRC.

1.4b also has a ton of other improvements and fixes, especially in the area of group chats, including the ability to use separate styles for individual and group message windows. Why do group chats matter so much? Well, for one thing, Twitter for Adium runs in a group chat window, so the devs likely had to get that part of the interface running smoothly to roll out Twitter support. The impressive full list of changes and a download of the latest beta can be found at beta.adium.im.

Tags: adium, chat, IM, IRC, OS X, OsX, twitter

Filed under: Fun, Internet, Web services, Social Software, Web

Omegle lets you have unfulfilling chats with strangers

by Jason Clarke Apr 7th 2009

There was a time, long ago, when chatting with strangers was one of the more impressive things you could do online. Things have changed since the days of 14.4 baud modems ... or have they?

Now, rather than using IRC to meet new friends that you can actually stay in contact with if you so choose, a recently released site called Omegle created by an 18 year-old high school senior named Leif K-Brooks offers the opportunity to chat with anonymous random strangers.

Given the general level of discourse online, and how much it improves when people have a shroud of anonymity, it should come as no surprise that chats on Omegle rarely turn out to be fulfilling experiences. Omegle is plagued by spammers and trolls, and though K-Brooks claims he is taking the issue seriously and attempting to do something about it, a perusal through his first-and-only blog post's comments shows that he has a long, long way to go.

Still, there's something mildly compelling about Omegle. If you have sensitive sensibilities, you're probably best to steer clear until some level of control is exerted over user behavior, but if you're immune to the ugliest your online brethren have to offer, have at it.

[via Switched]

Tags: anonymity, chats, discourse, irc, omegle, trolls

Filed under: Internet, Beta

Firefox 3.5 will support IRC through Mibbit

by Brad Linder Mar 19th 2009

Mibbit is a web-based IRC client that lets you log onto pretty much any IRC server from the comfort of your web browser. Typically the first thing you need to do is visit mibbit.com. But that's about to change, because Mozilla is adding Mibbit support to the next version of Firefox.

If you download a recent nightly build of Firefox 3.5, you'll find a new option for "irc" in the applications setting in the options dialog. From the drop-down menu, you can select Mibbit or designate a desktop IRC client. Now when you enter an IRC server in your URL bar, Firefox should automatically launch Mibbit. Just make sure the address starts with "irc://" or "ircs://" and you should be good to go.

Tags: firefox-3.5, irc, mibbit

Filed under: Internet, Web services, web 2.0

Mibbit: Web-based IRC client makes IRC look easy

by Brad Linder Apr 14th 2008

Mibbit is a new IRC client that -- wait, they still make IRC clients? While AOL, MSN, Google, Skype and others dominate the world chat scene these days, once upon a time IRC or Internet Relay Chat was king. And while IRC doesn't get much attention these days, it's still alive, kicking, and useful if you need a multi-user chat system for communicating with co-workers, open source project developers, or anonymous folks you might want to trade files with.

So what makes Mibbit different from old school IRC clients? It's web-based, which means you can run it from anywhere. But despite the fact that you can run Mibbit from your web browser, you get all of the features you'd expect from a desktop based IRC client, and then some.

There's a search engine that lets you find channels by keyword. You can change the color scheme, and even use a built in translator to communicate with users in different languages. Each new channel or server screen opens in a new Mibbit tab, and if you're running Mibbit in a tabbed browser, you'll get cute little alerts like "Server stuff!" or "People said stuff!"

There's even a Mibbit widget that you can install on your web site to let visitors chat with you via IRC.

[via WebWare]

Tags: chat, irc, mibbit

Filed under: Developer, Internet, Productivity

Kill IRC repetition with the xkcd ROBOT9000

by Lisa Hoover Jan 17th 2008

If you're an IRC user, then you know the only thing more annoying than seeing the same comment repeated in rapid succession by four different people is seeing it repeated in rapid succession by 24 different people. The more members there are in an IRC channel, the more likely it is that someone just joining will ask a question that was asked moments before their arrival. Add to that the number of people "LOL"ing "+1"ing each other and the signal-to noise ratio quickly becomes deafening.

In an attempt to stop the madness, Randall Munroe (of xkcd fame) and his friend zigdon have coded a rather awesome little bot and named it ROBOT9000. It's designed -- get this -- to mute the messaging ability of anyone who says anything that's already been said in the channel within the past two years (boy, those xkcd guys mean business.).

Randall and zig are still tweaking the code but you can snag the initial version if you want to try it out in your own channel. They've also set up an IRC testing channel if you want to just play around with the bot. Just don't say "hi all" when you log in. You've been warned.

Tags: bot, chatter, IRC, mute, no talking, randall munroe, robot9000, xkcd

Filed under: Internet, Linux, Open Source

Ubuntu Open Week: Learn about Ubuntu Linux through online workshops

by Brad Linder Oct 11th 2007

Canonical is set to release Ubuntu 7.10 Gutsy Gibbon on October 18th. The following week, the Ubuntu Community is hosting an Ubuntu Open Week, which is essentially a series of online workshops for anyone who's ever had a question about the popular Linux distribution and how its community works.

You can talk to some of the project's key developers, engage in a Q&A with founder Mark Shuttleworth, and learn more about the Ubuntu community. If you want to learn more about a particular Ubuntu project or if you'd like to find out about becoming a developer or tester, this is a great way to get started.

The sessions will all take place on IRC. You'll need to visit the #ubuntu-classroom channel on irc.freenode.net. If you need a refresher on how to use a Windows or Linux IRC client, the organizers have even put together a handy page explaining how to join the chats.

Ubuntu Open Week runs from Monday, Oct 22nd through Saturday, Oct 27th.

Tags: chat, irc, ubuntu, ubuntu-7.10, ubuntu-open-week

Filed under: Internet, Windows, Macintosh, Linux, E-mail, Mozilla, Open Source

SeaMonkey 1.0 Internet suite released

by Jordan Running Jan 31st 2006

One of the Mozilla foundation's lower-profile projects is SeaMonkey, the modern incarnation of the old Mozilla Suite. SeaMonkey is an all-in-one bundle consisting of a modern web browser, e-mail and newsgroup client, an IRC client, and an HTML editor. Today its first major release--1.0--hit the streets. You can download it for all major platforms from the SeaMonkey web site or check out the release notes to see what's new.

Tags: browser, chat, e-mail, html, irc, mozilla, news, newsgroups, seamonkey

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