ibiblio services/changes announcement list

[cmpalmer AT metalab.unc.edu (Cristóbal M. Palmer)]

 == Executive Summary ==

  o an explanation of IRC is in the second major paragraph below
  o ibiblio has an official home on the freenode IRC network: #ibiblio
  o point your IRC client to chat.freenode.net and /join #ibiblio
  o if you're looking for an IRC client,
    try pidgin: http://pidgin.im/download/
    or xchat: http://www.xchat.org/download/
  o if you're an Ubuntu Linux user,
    you already have Gaim:
    Applications >> Internet >> Gaim Internet Messenger

 == Full Text ==

Greetings ibiblians!

If you're read the FAQ, you may have noticed this entry:

http://www.ibiblio.org/faq/?sid=2#23

But at some point along the way that channel fell by the wayside. I've
decided to revive the channel, and while the channel will continue to
be officially "unsupported"--that is, it's not the official way to get
help if you need it--it will be the official IRC channel for
ibiblio. Freenode staff have been kind enough to allow me to
re-register the channel, and I've set up an infobot--ibotlio--that
will help with things like answering common questions and logging.

But some of you are wondering: what on earth is IRC? Well, IRC is an
acronym standing for Internet Relay Chat. Basically it's the
predecessor to ICQ, AIM, Google Talk and all the rest. IRC is best for
group discussions, ie. chat rooms. It's very simple, lacking the bells
and whistles of newer chat systems, but it's historically important
and still very much alive and useful. I'll crib from the wikipedia
entry on IRC (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IRC): IRC gained prominence
when it was used to report on the Soviet coup attempt of 1991
throughout a media blackout. It was previously used in a similar
fashion by Kuwaitis during the Iraqi invasion. Relevant logs are
available from ibiblio archive:
http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/academic/communications/logs/

So you see, IRC and ibiblio go way back! I think it's important that
we have a presence on freenode for a variety of reasons which I'll be
happy to talk about some other time. :) If you're still lost but
interested, try the wikipedia article linked to above. I hope to see
many of you in #ibiblio in the near future. As always, if you have
questions or problems, visit http://www.ibiblio.org/help/

Cheers,
-- 
Cristóbal Palmer
ibiblio.org systems administrator