h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

hellllllooooo prufrock!
the first time i read your name i mixed up the letters a bit and i though it was a verry bad word...heheheh - what does your name mean?
-saffire

dear saffire, I stole my name from a poem by TS Eliot called "The Love Song of J.Alfred Prufrock" which is one of my favorite poems.

Yup, as I remember, the Romans, after conquering the Greeks, decided that the Greek gods were all pretty cool, and so renamed them and used almost all the same myths. I think that Apollo was Apollo in Greek and in Rome, though. I could be wrong.

doncher all think that this place should have a proper chat place, rather than relying on this rather slow method of communication? I know h2g2.com are rather fond of collecting every single word we type, but aint it just a little bit silly?

i think apollo is apollo in greek and roman mythology...
does anyone have aol instant messenger? its a load of fun...and WAY too time-consuming
-saffire

no but I have MSN and I think they can read each other can't they.

what is your aol user name?

My aol and aim screen name is MrJavaW. Which means you could eMail me (if you like) at [email protected], but I don't check that nearly as often as I should... but you could go ahead and stick me on your instant messanger thing so that you could know when to avoid me.

sweet! mine is safffffire (five f's)...and im on ALL the time
-saffire

what about sleep?

Sleep? Vastly overrated.

But what about IRC? (I'm also ffmike on EfNet)

???

irc? efnett?
no comprendo.....

Je suis accord avec Saffire, je ne comprende pas "irc" et "efnett". Expliquez, s'il vous plait? Merde, je parle français encore!

I'm with Saffire, I don't understand "irc" and "efnett". Explain, if you please. $#!*, I'm speaking french again!

Well, you see, it's like this...AOL and MSN and ICQ didn't invent online messaging. There's the thing called Internet Relay Chat (IRC) which is run in a decentralized fashion by lots of noncommercial folks. Actually, there are a lot of different IRC networks. The one I hang out on is called EfNet. Currently, as I write this, there are something over 50,000 users logged on to EfNet. I'm hanging out in one particular channel (that's what IRC calls chat rooms) and talking to half a dozen people in private conversations.

If you're interested, you just need an IRC client to get started. The best one is named MIRC, and you can download it from http://www.mirc.co.uk/. It's shareware, so you can try before you buy.

Once you get it downloaded, the help should get you going pretty fast...or leave me a note here and I'll try to answer questions. One thing you need to do when logging on is pick a server. If you want to find me, pick any one of the EfNet servers. If you have trouble finding an EfNet server that will let you log on, try using irc.freei.net, which is open to pretty much anyone.

Once you're on, typing "/query ffmike" in any window should open a chat window with me. Or type "/join #frogpond" to find the channel I usually hang out in.

very interesting...

now would we have to pay $$$ for this irc service?
-saffire

Nope, once you've got the software and are online, IRC is free. The only charge is whatever your ISP is charging you to be online. And the software is shareware, so you can try it without paying for it. Although I use MIRC, there are also freeware IRC clients -- so if you've got an unlimited connection it can be completely free.

I shall have to look into this...

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Where's the butter?