The Scribbles of Anlarye

I’ve written about a few of these topics in the past and I’m sure they will be revisited again in the future. In our modern world connected as we are through the technology of the internet. There is still a need for text only based real time chatting between 2 or more people.

Text only based chatting has many advantages over both voice or video methods of communication. Far less bandwidth is needed is the biggest advantage. It can work on even the worst internet connections and the slowest of PCs.

In the days of Dial-up internet, were AOL was the king of providers, they had a multitude of chatrooms for many topics and communities across their membership. And outside of AOL and accessible to it, and all other providers were the many servers and networks of Internet Relay Chat (IRC).

During the height of IRC’s popularity it had over a million users signed in across the multitude of networks and servers. Today, with the rise of Social Media, this number has been reduced to a quarter of what it once was.

A vast majority of IRC users are now found on the Discord service. It has a number of similarities to IRC that allows users to feel “at home” there. However there are a lot of differences too between the 2 platforms.

Here are some of the similarities and differences:

Discord has a native “pretty” interface. Granted IRC does not but it’s totally depends on which IRC client one uses to access IRC.

Discard has audio and visual communications options. IRC does not have these functions at all. They are left to other services to provide them.

Discord has Avatars and Profiles. Although IRC at its base level does not. There are IRC clients that provide similar functions.

Both services have bots running on them in multiple channels performing a multitude of various tasks.

Discord requires registration in order to use it. IRC does not require registration, but many networks and servers have registration available and it’s recommended.

Discord has the ability to create channel threads. Topics that filter out of the main channel discussion into a sub-channel without leaving the channel. IRC does not have this unique ability. In IRC one would have to chat privately or form a separate channel with the smaller number of users.

Both services offer the ability to chat privately between users.

IRC is independent. There are networks and stand alone servers. Each one is unique. Discord “servers” are all part of Discord and ran on the same equipment as all others.

This one fact can lead to a single point of failure for Discord. If the Discord service goes down. All of the Discord “servers” are down. Not true at all with IRC since each server and network are independent of one another.

And with the independence, IRC is individually owned. Where as Discord is corporately owned and could change any aspect of its service with a board member vote. Including making the entire service a paid service. Or even closing it down completely forever.

On Discord you can @mention another user of the “server” you are connected to and they would be notified of the mention. IRC doesn’t have this as a built-in function. However, like other functions that are built-in to Discord, many IRC clients have similar functions.

On Discord, if you join a “server”, you are automatically in all the channels save for ones that are role restricted which can cause unwanted notifications of chats. On IRC when you connect to a server you only join the channels you want to join or none at all.

With IRC, anyone can create a new channel just by joining it. And that person gets admin rights in that channel automatically. If there is registration available and the user desires they can register the channel and make it permanent. But on Discord, only Admins can create new channels. It’s the same role given to create, destroy, or modify any channel so it’s not given out to everyone.

Discord has a history feature. Once you join a “server” and are in the channels you can infinitely scroll up to see what was previously said in that channel by anyone. On IRC, there is a +H mode that can be set on some servers or networks that allow a similar functionality but it’s usually not infinite.

Discord admins have the ability to delete chats in a channel. IRC doesn’t have this ability. Once the chat is there it’s there. But new users generally wont see it because of the lack of history available. Users of Discord can also edit their posts, while IRC doesn’t have this ability.

Bots are on both services as previously mentioned. And bots are very handy to have to provide functions and features that aren’t part of the system. With Discord, you have to have Dev permissions to create a bot. And that bot cannot run on a regular member’s account. Doing so would get the bot and user banned from Discord. On IRC however, there are a variety of scripting options available. Some are based on the client program use to connect to IRC and others are dependent on the bot being used. And you can run scripts from your own client as well.

This is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to comparing IRC and Discord. Just looking at this list the favor leans towards IRC over Discord despite some of its unique features. Many Discord features can be duplicated or simulated in IRC with a bit of scripting or simple options enabled on one’s client program.

I will always be an IRC enthusiast. After all I have ran my own IRC network/server for 25 years. And in this day and age of cancel culture, the freedom of an IRC server is just what is needed.

I am sad to say that I have lost a few IRC channels to Discord. And looking at those Discord “servers” I could have over a 1000 users on my IRC network if they stayed or came back.

But if you are looking for a place to have an online real-time text based chat. I’m happy to help you get setup on IRC. You can connect via a browser at https://web.communiti.chat or point you favorite IRC client program to irc.commuinit.chat and get setup to go.

With the official election just around the corner thoughts and concerns about the integrity of our elections abound. There have already been reported instances of fraud in the ongoing early voting period. How many of these instances are there and how many have yet to be discovered.

From non-citizens voting and other ineligible persons to down right fraudulent ballots being accepted and tabulated without verification. These issues should concern everyone no matter what political party they may or may not be affiliated with on the voter rolls.

We can have election integrity again. But first the 2024 election must be without any of the irregularities that plagued the 2020 election. To gain election integrity the following must be done:

• Voter ID must be in all 50 states and all US territories.
• No ballot should be tabulated prior to election day.
• All early and absentee ballots must be authenticated.
• All ballots must be tabulated within 24 hours of the polls closing. We have the technology to do this. It shouldn’t take weeks.
• All mail-in ballots must be postmarked and they must be received by election day before the polls close. No exceptions to this rule.
• All vote tabulating machine software code must be open sourced and reviewable on demand at anytime.
• In the absence of any block-chain voting software, any tabulating machine must not be connected to the internet while the polls are open and the votes are being tabulated.
• All ballots counted must be observed by independent observers.

And lastly to further insure election integrity the voter rolls themselves must be regularly scrubbed to insure only legitimate voters are registered.

Magic, in gaming and fiction, is usually defined as power from somewhere else. While Psionics is defined as power from within and no outside source at all.

For may years there have been gamers and others who state that the Force of the Jedi in Star Wars is an example of psionics. But this would be incorrect since the definition of the Force is an energy field created by life that surrounds everything and binds it all together. That is really magic.

Thus the Force of Star Wars is space-magic. And this form of magic, when practiced by the Jedi or the Sith, is done without material components. At times we do see both verbal and somatic components in the use of Force powers by the Jedi and the Sith but not always.

There are other Force traditions that do use material components that give them an edge when using their Force spells (powers). So it only reinforces the true nature of the Force.

Additionally, magic is sometimes separated into two categories. The world’s most famous role-playing game does this, and calls these categories arcane magic and divine magic.

Given that the Force has a Will of it’s own and calls to those who have a connection to it. Then the Force is of the Divine magic category. And this too falls into Star Wars canon as the Force is a religion of sorts.

Another example is the Wizarding World and what it calls magic is nothing of the kind. The source of a Wizard or Witch’s power doesn’t come from someplace else it comes from within. They are born with talent that can be trained. This is psionics by the established definition.

Their power is hidden behind magical trappings and decorations. Traditions run deep and are old. But many Wizards are capable of casting “wandless magic” and even non-verbal magic. Some traditions of the Wizarding World specialize in such types of magic. And what is a Wizard’s wand? Nothing more than a psionic amplifier or resonator. This is why it is so important.

Even in the world’s most famous role-playing game there is one arcane spellcaster that doesn’t fit the mold. The Sorcerer.

A Sorcerer’s arcane power comes from within the sorcerer himself. Long ago some outside agent caused the change in the Sorcerer’s bloodline but that outside agent doesn’t play a part now. A Sorcerer is really a Psionic user as his power is his and internal to him.

Biden is high on drugs. You can tell just looking at him.
I’m glad the moderators are cutting mics when the time is up. I applaud that and love it.
Biden hasn’t spoken the truth at all in this. So many things that are just made up. I’m sure Biden believes them but the man has dementia or something and isn’t in touch with reality.
Trump won this one hands down.

And for the record. I am against “American Democracy” and any other form of Democracy.
I am also for sun-setting Medicare/Medicade, Social Security. These are very Socialist institutions and not the responsibility of the Government

We will need to take out the Security guard on the platform. Someone should be near him.

We can use stun grenades and stun the whole lot of them when the Imps and their hostage disembark. (no launcher)

This keeps the fire-fight to a minimum.

We need transport. The speeder bikes wont work with the target and the hostages for a get-away. We need a speeder of some kind that can hold all of us. Possibly have it at the taxi port area. It might be a real taxi or it could be something else.

We also need to have the transponder changed too. That way we can just get off planet fast and into Hyperspace.

Jump should be pre programmed.

The mission was successful. The hostages were rescued. The Imps dispatched. And the Hero’s got away.