TITLE:I.R.C. (RAW 4) PALETTE:0113 0989 0789 0aa8 3 I.R.C. I.R.C. stays for Internet Relay Network and is a program running under Internet which let the users chat, in real time, with many other Ircers. It can sound not much interesting but there are some points to underline. Internet is the biggest Net of the world, universities from all over the planet are connected to it and Irc let you talk (free, if you call from your university) with Americans, Australians, Koreans, Finns, Norvegians, Swedes, Germans, Spanish, Dutch, Japanese, Israeli, French, Swiss, Canadians, Danes, Belgians, English, Icelanders, Italians and so on. What you write on the keyboard is showed (once you have pressed return) on the screen of all the people on the channel you are, they can reply you, comment or act according to what you have said, in a word communicate. Everyone on Irc has his own nickname, which indicates who is saying what. I have talked about channels, well, Irc is divided in many channels, everyone with its own topic and name, what you write, actually, is not seen by ALL the freaks that are using Irc in that moment, but only by the ones who are in the same channel you are. You see also who is entering and who is leaving your channel, you can join or create new channels with the arguments and restrictions you want whenever you want. There is also the possibility of sending a message only to a user in IRC (this message will be seen only by him), of kicking out guys from your channel, of "multitasking" in more than one channel, and so on (this program has really many commands). But, you can ask me, what is the use of Irc? Well, there are few real practical uses. Irc is the exaltation of the comunication, the realm of chatting, the place where people can simulate personalities and situations. According to the channel where you are, you are supposed to talk about the relative topic. 3SOME CHANNELS.1 Here follows a little list of some channels names (they are more than 100, they can contain from 1 to 20-30 Ircers for a total of 400-550 users). 2#oldpub1 (the symbol # is a part of the name), where chaps simulate to be in a pub, drinking, boozing, puking, dancing or just chatting (the strange and absurd thing here is that when the atmosphere is the right one, nobody talks about the fact that the beer you are drinking is not real). 2#Hotsex, #Hottub1 and many other, are channel where you make it by net (or I suppose so, I don't attend them much) Anyway, considering the fact that they are quite crowded, they should be funny (I don't think there are so many maniacs on Irc). 2#42, #tuebingen, #france, #italia, #nippon1 are channels where usually is speaken a local language (Finnish, German, French, Italian, Japanese in these cases), actually they are open to everybody (except #42 where only Finns can talk) but tend to be used by people who speak that language. 2#init_game, #poker, #tp1 are games channels, here people try to play (especially quiz). 2#annaE, #natasha, #mau1 can be examples of channels created by single users (there is no problem in creating on own channel) where are expected to go their friends or just who like to chat quietly. There are also computer related channels, like 2#atari1 (not very crowdy),2 #hack (not that hard hack) and...yes you guessed it2 #amiga, and it's a bloody cool channel! (later on that). 3THE ATMOSPHERE.1 Well, the nice thing of Irc is that everybody (well, almost) is quite friendly. The smiles dictionary (you know the cute faces like :-) ) is very used, whenever you enter in a channel you greet and are greeted (well, it doesn't happen so often), and you soon earn Irc friends, who recognize you by your nick (and Internet Address, which can be seen by everybody and give the idea from where you are connected) and with whom you can talk about things deeper than the usual chat of the moment. On Irc you can also be insulted and insult (maybe is easier to do it just in front of the terminal), the fact here is if that is considered real insult or just an Irc joke. There are people who can get angry for what is said, and people who don't consider offensive what is said only via a net and not live, matters of points of views. 3THE PEOPLE AROUND.1 Americans, Germans, Australians, Japanese, Finns and also Italians are the majority (at least when I am logged in, during the day hours for Europe) and, believe it or not, girls are not so rare. You can wonder how can you know if you are talking with a girl. Well, with the address is written an ircname (longer than the nick) which can reveal her identity. Anyway there are really some Irc love stories around. I can say more, if you are a girl you can be sure of being approached by many many boys, with less or more friendly intentions. I happen to use the account of a girl for Irc and often I receive messages from unknown people who want to chat with be. You can be sure that they wouldn't if they saw a male name in my address. Anyway, the problem, as you can understand, is that, if you are trying to flirt with a girl, you actually don't know how she looks (and the same for her) and this can be a good reason for the many Irc relations around... 3THE #AMIGA CHANNEL.1 Here it is, in this channel you find many many germans talking about "serious" things such as system programming, hardware problems, internet use and so on. Among these good guys there are some skilled programmers, whose utilities can be found in the PD world. There are also demo scene guys, more or less "easy" to meet. Who? Well, there are Doctor Psi/Zenith, Estrup/Static Bytes, Quark/Illusions, Vectorman/Cryptoburners, Perplex/Offence, Buddha and Mnemotronic/Spreadpoint, Jaz and Celebrandil/Phenomena, Billy the Kid and Macno/Grace (well, I had to say that) and members of Infocorner, Digitech, Errors, SkidRow, Level 4, Razor 1911, Alcatraz, MSM, Megawatts and others. There are also guys who were in groups and have left the scene (the age of the Ircers is at least 19). Discussions with these people are often funny and range from demo comments to coding tips, from friendly insults to common chat, from demential remarks to philosophical sentences. 3THE ADDICTIVE POWER OF IRC.1 Irc is a drug, it can destroy all your will and leave you in front of a monitor for hours, day after day, until you realize that you have also to study something and leave the incredible world of planetary chat. The fact is that it is really funny, interesting and nice to chat with completely unknown people with their own culture and language, way of acting and thinking. It has the same pleasures of swapping letters but you can make it real time, with many people at the same moment, free and without waiting. For me it is another hobby, which has only the use of earning new friends (yes, at the same "degree" of friendship of a mail contact) and communicate. For other people it can also be something useful and informative. 3REALITY AND IRC.1 In this fake and blind world everybody could play a part he can't play in real life. Not seeing who you are talking with can be a way to communicate more freely and sicerely but also the occasion of cheating about yourself and your personality. I wonder how many fuckers in Irc are fuckers in real life, how many play a part which, for phisycal aspect or shyness, can't play in their real life. Under this point of view Irc can be the best way to live and dream in an own world, where values and charts can be changed at own advantage. Of course you can play the part of the philosopher or the maniac, of the cinical or the ironical, of the serious and the playboy but the real "cheat" is when you don't show that actually you are acting a role, a character, a "type", which has only the role of keeping on a funny chat. So, what are you doing here? If you have somehow access to Internet, if you study in a university where Irc can be used, just try it. You will be brought in a totally new world, worth, at least, a look.