User:AliceWicker/sandbox

Saaaaaandboooooox

Stuart Harris has written several works on the use of IRC (internet relay chat) and other internet mediums. His most renowned work on the subject, "The irc Survival Guide; talk to the world with Internet Relay Chat" he explained how to use five basic commands to make "irc" a viable and valuable communication source. He also taught how to:

discover the identities of almost everyone logged in; develop a circle of international friendships; master those five basic commands in five minutes; use irc channels for effective business meetings; use a cypher to make your conversation secure; start your own irc channel and make your own rules; deal with such hazards as flamers, war-bots, and netsplits; exchange data files such as personal pictures.

While irc is swiftly becoming an obsolete technology, due to a multitude of other, easier to use chat clients becoming available, it has not reached that point yet. At the point of writing this, "Mibbit" (one of many irc clients) had 10616 users online and active. However during the mid-1990s, when Harris' book was published, irc was the latest in a fast growing line of communication technologies. The downside of irc was the complicated language required to create commands (actions). However, Harris' book was written with the intention of using five simple commands to make the most of an otherwise complicated client, for those who have no background in computer or internet programming.

In her paper "Curtain Time 20:00 GMT; Experiments with Virtual Theater on Internet Relay Chat" Brenda Danet says this of Stuart Harris' version of Hamlet, Hamnet:

"...gross reduction of the length of the text and caricaturization of plot and action, along with transformation of hallowed Renaissance poetry into late 20th century colloquial prose and even lowly slang ... transform the play into a kind of typed Punch and Judy show"  Arrrghhhhh! [50]