Pianotech Live Chat

[John Musselwhite]

Hello Everyone:

There is something new in the piano technicians live chat world. We have
changed "servers" as it were to a new network called "Starlink". Starlink is
a family-oriented network and has no "unsavoury" channels and it also should
be easier for you to connect to.

The instructions to reach Starlink are basically the same as the undernet
and the same program can be used.  I'll post a more complete list of servers
later, but here are two reliable North American Starlink Servers:

Roseburg.or.us.starlink.org
aspen.co.us.starlink.org

I realize you've all seen this before, but we've had a pretty good turn-out
of late and a reminder never hurts.

Piano technicians have our own live chat channel on the Undernet called
"#pianotech". The Undernet is part of "Inter Relay Chat" (IRC) and is
available to most people with internet access these days. All you need to
join us is an IRC chat "client" such as mIRC or Netscape Chat and a ppp
(graphical) internet connection. Unfortunately, users of Compuserve  may not
be able to access the channel due to their connection type.

We have set up Tuesday evenings from about 21:00 EDT to midnight as a time
for us to meet. All are welcome at any time as you never know who may show
up on any day or any time. The room is open at all times (Saturday mornings
seem to be a good time to find people there as well) and if no one is there,
wait around a bit and someone usually shows up.

To join us, load up your chat client (there are many IRC clients out there
for all computers) and if you're running it for the first time, answer the
questions it asks. Choose a nickname (it will tell you if the "nick" is
already in use once you connect and then let you change it), and connect to
a Starlink server. I'll post a more complete list of servers later, but here
are two reliable North American Starlink Servers:

Roseburg.or.us.starlink.org
aspen.co.us.starlink.org

There are also servers in Europe and Australia with more to come.

Once you have connected to the server, use your software to "Join" the
channel called #pianotech  (all IRC channels have a pound sign # in front of
the name).  If you have problems send me EMail (I should get it within a
couple of minutes) and I will do my best to help.

So far, we've had participants from England, South Africa, Australia,
Mexico, Argentina, Portugal and of course, Canada and the United States.
Some have been interested piano players but others have been technicians as
well. It's been fascinating hearing about unusual piano problems and
situations in far-away places!

If you do join us, one of the "nicks" that you will see there is "@Starbot".
For those unfamiliar with it, Starbot is not a participant, but a program
(called a "bot") which keeps the basic information about #pianotech and a
number of other registered channels. "Starbot" will not respond if you
attempt to converse with it, so just ignore it and wait a while for someone
else to show up.

If anyone has any questions, just EMail me unless you feel the group might
be interested. Live chat is a great way to exchange ideas or just spend some
time in friendly conversation with like-minded people.

We're hoping to see some of you there on Tuesday evenings (or ANY night!)
in  #pianotech on our new Starlink connection!

			John

John Musselwhite, RPT
Calgary, Alberta Canada
musselj@cadvision.com