FIRST Chat!

[phrontist]

There is a new and nicely established IRC channel for the discussion of all things FIRST. If you are familiar with IRC the channel can be found at:

irc.freenode.net - #firstrobotics

For those of you who don't have/want an IRC client you can use this handy java interface.

Now, some questions I anticipate I'll get:

What about TigerBolt/Webchat/All Those Others?

If you drop by these you'll notice they have been devoid of any notable activity for ages.

So how is this better than previous attempts?

We've got quite a few admins, a well written bot or two, and most importantly it's on a real IRC network (freenode).

Why was this created?

(As it has been explained to me) There had be many quasi-organized AIM-based chats and they were simply to hectic due to AIM's lack of moderation features and it's general inferiority to IRC.

What do you have to do with this?

Uh, I just want more people around to talk to. (We have about 10 steady users now)

[Mike]

Yeah, phrontist's wrote a nice bot in perl, and I'm attempting to write one in PHP, so it should start to get fun when we get the bots talking to each other =P

[Greg Marra]

I just try to get the bots to break. I guess that makes me a beta tester.

[Ryan M.]

Originally Posted by Mike

Yeah, phrontist's wrote a nice bot in perl, and I'm attempting to write one in PHP, so it should start to get fun when we get the bots talking to each other =P

Maybe I'll hack a quick C++ thing up just to make annoying comments.

[phrontist]

Actually, I'm looking for suggestions for bot features, if anybody has any interesting ideas. So far it has...

1. A karma system (http://robby.phrontist.org) - If you say robots++ or robots-- it adds or subtracts karma-points for that concept. Simple, amusing.
2. Autokick on a few select troll keywords
3. Stupid commands like !party and !kirby
4. An interface to the bc calculator application, so you can say things like !calc 2^(pi*50) or !calc help

[Goobergunch]

/me wonders if his old nick registration on Freenode is still valid.

-NickServ- Password accepted - you are now recognized

Apparently it is....

[Heretic121]

um... is there any reason we are using freenode compared to a more used IRC like quakenet!?! cause im on quakenet 24/7 for gaming on MIRC... so its hard for me to switch inbetween networks =/

[phrontist]

Originally Posted by Heretic121

um... is there any reason we are using freenode compared to a more used IRC like quakenet!?! cause im on quakenet 24/7 for gaming on MIRC... so its hard for me to switch inbetween networks =/

Two things:

1. Freenode is one of the more popular networks, beaten out by EFnet and DALnet. I'd be suprised if quakenet were more popular
2. If you have a good client, you can be on multiple networks at once. I do not know of any clients that do not support this. Get a better one if yours does not, there are plenty of them.

UPDATE: mIRC definately supports multiple networks! You can't even tell the channels are on different servers for crying out loud!

[Goobergunch]

If you're wondering how to do multiple networks on mIRC, the way I do it is by going to File --> Recent Servers --> New Server Window. This will give me a second server window, which I can connect to a separate network than my first server window.

[Ashley Christine]

Ashley equals very upset and annoyed.

I mean, its awesome that you guys are trying to get everyone to chat and into because not everyone uses AIM.

But, I happen to be an active AIM chatter, but, I have tried IRC that you gave mulsiple times, and my computer just likes to be well, how can I put this, it just doesnt work. Internet explorer has issues on my computer and Firefox seems not to support many things.

So now I am very sad, and yes, I have tried many things to fix my computer, I am good with computers.

I DONT LIKE BEING LEFT OUT!

[I am gone for a week and no one does AIM anymore ]

[wilshire]

yeah i am still having problems configuring a good IRC client. Though I use AIM all the time when I am not on vacation. Always looking for new buddies.

[Goobergunch]

Incidentally, if you use gaim for your AIM client, you can configure it to connect to IRC as well - it's under "Accounts".

[Gadget470]

If anyone needs help configuring mIRC, send me a PM and I can walk you through it

[Ashley Christine]

Fine you guys, I gave into your little wants!

I hate you all

I am on IRC now. ::sigh::

[Clark Gilbert]

Anyone know what this means?

[22:01] Connecting...
[22:01] Unable to connect : java.net.SocketException : Software caused connection abort: connect

It's been a long while since I've tried to join one of these FIRST chats and I've never seen this problem. I've tried it with the web based chat, x-chat, and mirc.