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INTERESTING IDEA !

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Vijay Bhagavath

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Jul 27, 1991, 8:06:00 PM7/27/91
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Hi fellow ircers :
I have an interesting idea !
Many companies having access to the Internet can use irc as a free desktop conferencing system. This is esp useful for research lab folks who want to discuss
new ideas , program plans, upcoming conferences, meetings etc, when they are
geographically apart in the country.
Does anyone have any other new uses of IRC ? . Its N^2 teleconferencing
capability has enormous latent potential !!!
A part of my current research is on media access protocols for
multimedia desk top conferencing systems using lightwave networks.
If anyone is doing similar work , please keep me informed on any
new R&D work in the broad area of multimedia lightwave networks.
Thanks
Vijay aka troff
Internet : bh...@ee.uta.edu
voice : (817) 794 5733

Mr. Smiley Face

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Jul 27, 1991, 11:14:37 PM7/27/91
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bh...@gnu.ai.mit.edu (Vijay Bhagavath) writes:
:)I have an interesting idea !
:)Many companies having access to the Internet can use irc as a free desktop conferencing system. This is esp useful for research lab folks who want to discuss
:)new ideas , program plans, upcoming conferences, meetings etc, when they are
:)geographically apart in the country.

Funny you should mention this... This is my prepared explanation to the
sys.admin at the astro department if he ever asks me why I have an irc
client set up on my astro account!

-Josh Laff :)
--
_______________________________________________________________________________
"Do you know how much damage it would | Josh Laff: e-mail to: |
do to the bulldozer if I simply just | smi...@uiuc.edu | # #
let it run over you?" |smi...@gnu.ai.mit.edu____| _ _
"No. How much?" |_____________________| | |#\_____/#|
"None at all." | (217) 328-1134 | \#######/

Benjamin Bernard

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Jul 28, 1991, 12:45:17 PM7/28/91
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In article <1991Jul28.0...@mintaka.lcs.mit.edu> bh...@gnu.ai.mit.edu (Vijay Bhagavath) writes:
>Hi fellow ircers :
>I have an interesting idea !
(interesting idea deleted)

>Does anyone have any other new uses of IRC ? . Its N^2 teleconferencing
>capability has enormous latent potential !!!
> A part of my current research is on media access protocols for
>multimedia desk top conferencing systems using lightwave networks.
>If anyone is doing similar work , please keep me informed on any
>new R&D work in the broad area of multimedia lightwave networks.
>Thanks
>Vijay aka troff
>Internet : bh...@ee.uta.edu
>voice : (817) 794 5733

There are far more useful things that could, and I imagine will, happen
to IRC. For example, specialized clients using CTCP could send scientific
data over the IRC. Yes, this can be done via InterNET without IRC, but it
takes longer to learn to use the raw InterNET protocols. A good example is
a set of amateur astronomers monitoring a comet. Or, better yet, my personal
plaaned use for IRC this fall. I am going to be an intern at a nature
preserve in Texas this fall. I will be using a computer at my office here
and another in Chicago (long story) to log data. I will also have a laptop
and an internet feed in Texas. I can either collect a day's data, then
Compu$erve it to my rommmate here, and have her log it into my computer here,
and do the same in Chicago, or I can have both computers connect up to IRC
each evening (easy Procomm script) and wait for ctcp messages from me in TX.
I have complete control of my DOS IRC clients from Texas (via coded CTCPs)
so I don't even need someone at the other end. I could do this as a BBS
system, but there is a higher probability of failure that way (longer story).

Another, less valuable, benefit: specialized IRC clients could manage
realtime multiplayer games. Nethack/rogue is one example. Chess, checkers,
backgammon, monopoly, pente, othello, D&D type games, all text-based games,
and many others could be converted to communicate via IRC. Dedicated
moderated channels could be used for game communications, or multiple CTCP
messages could serve the same purposes.

Live conferencing is also a real benefit. I have used it to hold online
conferences with heads of student groups around the country (though it
can be hard to follow with more than about 10 people).

At Harvard, many students used the IRC to keep track of events in the
Persian Gulf. The +report channel is an excellent example of the realtime
use of IRC.

Ben (Eleazar) ber...@husc9.harvard.edu

Greg Lindahl

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Jul 28, 1991, 5:00:14 PM7/28/91
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In article <1991Jul28....@husc3.harvard.edu> ber...@husc9.harvard.edu (Benjamin Bernard) writes:

>Another, less valuable, benefit: specialized IRC clients could manage
>realtime multiplayer games.

My gm automaton did this 2 years ago.

David J. Bianco

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Jul 29, 1991, 9:21:15 AM7/29/91
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In article <1991Jul28....@husc3.harvard.edu> ber...@husc9.harvard.edu (Benjamin Bernard) writes:

Another, less valuable, benefit: specialized IRC clients could manage
realtime multiplayer games. Nethack/rogue is one example. Chess, checkers,
backgammon, monopoly, pente, othello, D&D type games, all text-based games,
and many others could be converted to communicate via IRC. Dedicated
moderated channels could be used for game communications, or multiple CTCP
messages could serve the same purposes.

I'm working on a game like this now, actually. It will be
(if all goes well 8) an X based D&D type game. No working
title as of yet. If I can keep the traffic low, I plan to
allow it to connect to other players through an IRC server.
We'll have to wait and see on that part though. I'm interested
in hearing about other similar types of games, though. What
games can be played through IRC now?


Live conferencing is also a real benefit. I have used it to hold online
conferences with heads of student groups around the country (though it
can be hard to follow with more than about 10 people).

The systems staff here uses our own IRC server (not xanth.cs.odu.edu)
to keep in touch with each other while we are working. Since we
have people spread out over three labs and two systems rooms, it
provides a neat solution to the problem of "I need to talk to David.
Where is he?"

At Harvard, many students used the IRC to keep track of events in the
Persian Gulf. The +report channel is an excellent example of the realtime
use of IRC.

Yes, an excellent use. I was very much reminded of a network of
ham radio operators...

--
==========================================================
David J. Bianco -- Systems Dude & Xanth IRC admin...
Old Dominion University
Dept of Computer Science,
Norfolk, VA 23529

<bia...@cs.odu.edu> || <...!uunet!xanth!bianco>

"That's the short definition of Systems Engineer."
-- Geordi LaForge (Paraphrased)
==========================================================

Mike Stangel

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Jul 29, 1991, 1:40:45 PM7/29/91
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bia...@cs.odu.edu (David J. Bianco) writes:

>I'm working on a game like this now, actually. It will be
>(if all goes well 8) an X based D&D type game. No working
>title as of yet.

You don't even have the title working? Wow, you have a lot of
work ahead of you... =)

|~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~|~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~|
| "You've got wonderful bones, great eyes, and you | Mike Stangel |
| dress really interestingly." | m-st...@uiuc.edu |
| | koosh forever! |
`~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~'

Scott D. Yelich

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Jul 29, 1991, 10:30:17 PM7/29/91
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>>Another, less valuable, benefit: specialized IRC clients could manage
>>realtime multiplayer games.
>My gm automaton did this 2 years ago.

Greg, you're so awsome!

Now if the irc server code would only not put those stupid "dump
delays" in, there would be a lot more games in irc. But sending four
lines every two seconds is not my idea of throughput.

Scott

Darren Reed

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Jul 30, 1991, 4:55:34 AM7/30/91
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its the best solution to a problem which is far more reaching than
just allowing your 'bot or 'serv to work.

'serv's should be fully implemented using SERVICE status (not fully
working yet) and till it works properly should suffer the cramps
that normal users must suffer. 'bots are just vanity - havent seen
one which performs a useful function yet although its a close finish
between the 'bots and 'servs like SmileServ and ServServ.

You sound like a child the way you winge.

-avalon

David J. Bianco

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Jul 30, 1991, 9:17:42 AM7/30/91
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In article <1991Jul29.1...@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu> mas3...@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (Mike Stangel) writes:
bia...@cs.odu.edu (David J. Bianco) writes:

>I'm working on a game like this now, actually. It will be
>(if all goes well 8) an X based D&D type game. No working
>title as of yet.

You don't even have the title working? Wow, you have a lot of
work ahead of you... =)

Yeah, well, its on strike. It keeps mumbling something
about slave wages on a slow CPU or somesuch...

David

Carl von Loesch

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Jul 30, 1991, 3:58:09 PM7/30/91
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bia...@cs.odu.edu (David J. Bianco) writes:
>What games can be played through IRC now?

1. Initgame ('Guess the Initials')
on channel +initgame

2. Hunt the Wumpus
(by Wumpus)
/m gm join
[currently not running]

3. People Game
(by the lynx)
/m ppl hi
[currently not running]

3a. NickServ (Multiregister, request huge lists, /.whois everyone..)
(by argv)
/m nick...@service.de register
[grin, just kidding]

4. the Bartender
(by Bartender...?)
/m bartender sliiiide me a beer..
[not around lately]

5. Black Jack
(by BigCheese)
[gone for good i suppose]


I have two further games lying around in my archives.. unfinished ones.
One is a complete multiuser adventure game, halfway done, and the other
is a multi-user irc-to-mud client robot, crashes for some reason i was
too lazy to find out...
--
o+--------------------------------------------------------------------------+o
o| Carlo 'lynx' v. Loesch == loe...@informatik.uni-oldenburg.de |o
o| o=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=o || ly...@unirm1.it |o
o| the Internet lynx ;^) || 244661 at DOLUNI1 (.bitnet/.earn) |o
o| || loe...@uniol.uucp |o
`^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~'
I don't sign my email, that's the job of my .signature!

Greg Lindahl

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Jul 30, 1991, 5:33:31 PM7/30/91
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In article <65...@uniol.UUCP> Carl.vo...@arbi.informatik.uni-oldenburg.de (Carl von Loesch) writes:

>4. the Bartender
> (by Bartender...?)
> /m bartender sliiiide me a beer..
>[not around lately]

Actually the first bartender was written by Wisner and predates GM by
a few weeks. It was based on the card game code that used to be
distributed with the server. I don't think the card game ever worked
(WiZ? anyone?); Wisner's bartender just gave you a random drink if you
asked.

Benjamin Bernard

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Jul 30, 1991, 10:22:12 PM7/30/91
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Well, you have not looked very carefully. There are several which
perform somewhat useful functions (depending on your definitions
of useful). InitServ (my own modest effort) explains the rules of
+initgame to newcomers so they aren't quite so lost. UnixHelp
and EFFsomething both provide useful information. May not be
useful to you, but it can be to some.

As far as the delay times, as I understand it CTCP s not affected.
I have no evidence of that, but I have never noticed a problem. My
original post, way way way back, was suggesting the use of CTCP
messages for realtime games and such, not simple PRIVMSGs. Am I
right about CTCP and delay times?

Ben (Eleazar)

George McBay

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Jul 31, 1991, 10:52:18 AM7/31/91
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In article <1991Jul30....@husc3.harvard.edu> ber...@husc9.harvard.edu (Benjamin Bernard) writes:


>As far as the delay times, as I understand it CTCP s not affected.
>I have no evidence of that, but I have never noticed a problem. My
>original post, way way way back, was suggesting the use of CTCP
>messages for realtime games and such, not simple PRIVMSGs. Am I
>right about CTCP and delay times?
>
> Ben (Eleazar)

CTCP is affected, all CTCP is is PRIVMSG that begins and ends
with a ^A.

Mike Pelletier

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Jul 31, 1991, 11:43:46 AM7/31/91
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In article <1991Jul30....@husc3.harvard.edu>
ber...@husc9.harvard.edu (Benjamin Bernard) writes:
>In article <avalon.680864134@coombs>
ava...@coombs.anu.edu.au (Darren Reed) writes:
>>sc...@cs.odu.edu (Scott D. Yelich) writes:
>>
>>its the best solution to a problem which is far more reaching than
>>just allowing your 'bot or 'serv to work.
>>
>>'serv's should be fully implemented using SERVICE status (not fully
>>working yet) and till it works properly should suffer the cramps
>>that normal users must suffer. 'bots are just vanity - havent seen
>>one which performs a useful function yet although its a close finish
>>between the 'bots and 'servs like SmileServ and ServServ.
>>
>Well, you have not looked very carefully. There are several which
>perform somewhat useful functions (depending on your definitions
>of useful). InitServ (my own modest effort) explains the rules of
>+initgame to newcomers so they aren't quite so lost. UnixHelp
>and EFFsomething both provide useful information. May not be
>useful to you, but it can be to some.

Also, there's WebServ, which is an interface to the Webster's 7th edition
English Dictionary.

-WebServ- WebServ is an experimental service on IRC.
-WebServ-
-WebServ- Mr. Webster is here to assist you by looking up words in his
-WebServ- 7th edition dictionary. WebServ is still under development.
-WebServ- We welcome suggestions and bug-reports to web...@master.uio.no.
-WebServ-
-WebServ- WebServ is dedicated to Pheona.

One of the more useful services I've seen in my 1.5 years on IRC.
Also, IRCIIhelp is a very good service, well used by people who don't have
1.5 megabytes to spare to store the IRCII help pages on their local disk.

SmileServ, you say? If I was less polite, I'd auto-kill SmileServ and
LoveServ with a comment of "Utterly stupid waste of CPU cycles."

--
Mike Pelletier | "Wind & waves are breakdowns in the commitment of
The University of Michigan | getting from here to there, but they are the con-
College of Engineering | ditions for sailing. Not something to eliminate,
Student/Systems Admin | but something to dance with."

Markku Savela

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Aug 3, 1991, 3:27:11 PM8/3/91
to
In article <1991Jul31.1...@mintaka.lcs.mit.edu> g...@geech.gnu.ai.mit.edu (George McBay) writes:
> CTCP is affected, all CTCP is is PRIVMSG that begins and ends
>with a ^A.

Minor correction: CTCP is a sequence of bytes enclosed by two ^A's
within PRIVMSG/NOTICE and possible in any other message types that
have a "textual" parameter (like Kill comments). One PRIVMSG can
contain *both* normal text *and* one or more CTCP sections..

--msa
--
Markku Savela (sav...@tel.vtt.fi), Technical Research Centre of Finland
Telecommunications Laboratory, Otakaari 7 B, SF-02150 ESPOO, Finland

Darren Reed [Avalon]

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Jul 31, 1991, 6:47:08 AM7/31/91
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ber...@husc9.harvard.edu (Benjamin Bernard) writes:

>In article <avalon.680864134@coombs> ava...@coombs.anu.edu.au (Darren Reed) writes:
>>sc...@cs.odu.edu (Scott D. Yelich) writes:
>>
>>its the best solution to a problem which is far more reaching than
>>just allowing your 'bot or 'serv to work.
>>
>>'serv's should be fully implemented using SERVICE status (not fully
>>working yet) and till it works properly should suffer the cramps
>>that normal users must suffer. 'bots are just vanity - havent seen
>>one which performs a useful function yet although its a close finish
>>between the 'bots and 'servs like SmileServ and ServServ.
>>

[...]

>As far as the delay times, as I understand it CTCP s not affected.
>I have no evidence of that, but I have never noticed a problem. My
>original post, way way way back, was suggesting the use of CTCP
>messages for realtime games and such, not simple PRIVMSGs. Am I
>right about CTCP and delay times?

no.

-avalon

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