The more, the merrier

here seems to be further growth in IRC lately, as the number of networks grew and we got quite a few new users in our network.

IRC is not new, it’s almost four decades old. IRC is simple enough that many client applications exist, many ircd (deamon) applications exist, and it’s not too hard to deploy and maintain.

Techrights plans

his coming week Techrights turns 20. Originally I thought about doing something very special for that day. Then I realised that it would be rather superficial and dumb. Throwing parties would not be in the “spirit” of that site and it would be better to devote the whole year, as a team, to endeavours associated with site improvement.

We already have some ideas and projects underway.

HTTP:

HTTPS:

wenty-two-year-old sites or blogs are rarely still active (or online at all). My personal site (not in this domain) turns 25 next year, but this blog is 22.

With about 7 days left in this month, the traffic this month is the heaviest (or highest) this year. The blog’s readership has also gone up, as I write here more regularly again.

When I resumed regularly blogging (here, not elsewhere) I didn’t know if it would catch on. It’s no longer 2004 and many people waste away their lives in social control media.

I wish more people would start or resume blogging. It takes more time (to choose words carefully, add links and so on), but it tends to pay off.

There’s nobody to talk to

ARLIER this week I said I would visit (in person) Manchester City Council to discuss issues with browser compatibility in their Web site.

I finally did so yesterday afternoon. As planned, I brought pen and some papers in order to take notes.

I arrived at about 1PM. Prior to that I went to Heron House (registration office) to ask for directions. As a slight divergence, because Heron House also houses GCHQ, I couldn’t help but notice about 4 people, some with heavy firearms, at the front entrance (I assumed due to high perceived threat from Russian or Islamic terrorists). I don’t think I saw anything like that before in Heron House. Worrying? Maybe.

Back on topic, so the folks in Heron House kindly and politely directed me where to go (another building, just across the road). The person at the entrance was just some useless (unaware of what his job was) contractor, but once at the first floor their staff was very helpful. There was hardly a queue. That’s good!

Heron House was OK, unlike before. The other building was more hostile, as they seem to interpret complaints (about service/disservice) or unhappy customers as a threat and then prematurely escalate in order to intimidate ‘dissenters’. To their credit, they quickly deescalated owing to staff that realised they had over-reacted. I’ll come back to this point at a later point. Also to their credit, there was no queue and quite a few people at the desk (3 ladies).

The “final destination”, Manchester City Council Customer Service, wasn’t technical and that’s fine. I tried to ask where I can speak to technical staff or, if feasible, file a report about the site. They insisted this was not possible and that was obviously a lie. It was either laziness or obstruction.

I explained to them, politely, that both my wife and I didn’t use Chrome or Chromium-based browsers and thus, like “disabled people”, we were excluded or left out. I explained to them that tens of thousands of people in Manchester alone probably find themselves in the same position as us and being technical and willing, I wished to do something to correct this. I moreover explained that what the Manchester City Council does – even if by contracting a rogue or clueless third party – leads many people to frustration and forces many users to abandoned perfectly capable Web browsers. I added that unwittingly the Manchester City Council helped American monopolies cement monoculture on the Web and this was easily fixable (if only I could raise this issue with the correct person/department).

This led nearly nowhere. I told them that those companies were “hiding” from feedback as it would be “costly” to handle it. I said that certainly someone at Manchester City Council (which is where I already was) could handle this but layers or bureaucracy or procedures prevented them from being contacted.

In the next parts I’ll explain two attempts to reach the right department and why it’s anything but assured.

Customer services everywhere have deteriorated. Impersonal authorities and companies would become the ‘norm’ unless challenged.

80 users online

HE tracker has been back up for over a week and it shows that we have a steady community that after 18+ years is still online and still chatting in real time.

This has significantly lessened our dependence on E-mail. I probably send out an average of just 1-2 E-mails per day, closer to 1 than to 2.

IRC has always been relevant and it still is.

It hurts it

his year I think it’s my 32^nd year in IRC. I love IRC, but I’m not very “good at it”. I don’t know many of the functionalities (I collaborate with people who do), I make a ton of typos in IRC (it’s very informal anyway; maybe it ought to be that way), and I’ve only dealt with one ircd in my entire lifetime: ergo.

This morning someone told me IRC was dying; I pushed back and showed data that suggested otherwise.

I was told the users are “bots”; but that is hardly new.

IRC will be around for many years to come. Too many people still love it. ‘Too many’ people who use it are my age or younger. They won’t die any time soon.

Breaks and more

oday Durian stayed here until 6:40PM. It was already dark, but Durian is very young so his instincts are different. He eventually left as I had given him everything he wanted. I managed to curate many links today. I also published many articles and I’ll try do do the same tomorrow. Feeding the birds gives me almost 50 breaks per day. That seems like a good form of exercise, with occasional nags to force me to have recess.

I’m quite pleased to see audience size has grown a lot this month. I can see what sort of topics interest more people and research these more.

Tomorrow I shall publish “Production Freeze at the European Patent Office (Opposing Monarchy, Institutional Maladministration and Corruption)”.

It’s an epic scandal it’s a disgrace that media does not cover it.