Pianotech Live Chat

[John Musselwhite]

August 9, 2000

Hello everyone!

The twice-weekly Pianotech live chats have been a great success over the 
past few years, with active participants from many parts of the 
globe.  Thanks to all of you who join in with us and we hope to see more 
people in the future, even if it's just to say hello some day!

There have been some problems lately with the network on which the 
#pianotech channel is carried, and as a result we have moved the channel 
from "Starlink" to "Starlink-IRC".  This change will be effective 
immediately, although the old network will be monitored and participants 
directed to the new network. Starlink-IRC supports the #pianotech channel 
with a browser-based Java chat as well as WEB-TV.

To those who are regular participants it means a simple change in the 
program that you're using. The new server's address is: 
irc.starlink-irc.org  so all you have to do is paste that address in place 
of the address you currently use.

To those who do not wish to learn (or load) another program or have had 
problems connecting with us in the past, connecting to the live chat is 
also simple if your browser supports "Java" as most modern browsers do. Go 
to: http://www.starlink-irc.org and page down to the section that says 
"Three Ways to Get Connected". Select "Java Chat" or link through one of 
the servers near you. Follow the directions and join #pianotech. Direct 
links will be provided in the future to make it even easier.

This is an excellent opportunity to interact with other technicians 
worldwide in real time. On either of the two nights you may run into many 
people whom you may know from these lists and from conventions. Discussions 
range from shop talk about tools and techniques to piano design and of 
course, using the Internet. Additional public and private "rooms" can be 
set up instantly for mini-technicals if required without having to leave 
the #pianotech channel.

The #pianotech "ftp" site, with MIDI files, pictures and other materials 
used in current and previous discussions can be found at: 
http://www.musselwhite.com/pub

For those with WWW access, complete information about the IRC channel can 
be found on the excellent "Official #Pianotech WWW Page" at:

http://www.clandjop.com/~dkvander/ircpiano.html

Regular participants can have their information on the page by sending the 
info to David at mailto:dkvander@clandjop.com
Many thanks to Kathleen and David Vanderhoofven for developing and hosting 
the page.

For detailed information on Starlink-IRC including how tonnect with your 
browser or through WEB-TV please go to: http://www.starlink-IRC.org/

If anyone has any questions, please EMail myself or David unless you feel 
the list participants 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 Tuesday and/or Thursday evenings (or ANY 
night!)  in  #pianotech on Starlink-IRC.