<html> <body> Hello Everyone: This is a reminder of the Pianotech Inter-Relay Chat (IRC) held twice a week live on the Internet. Come have a virtual coffee and talk shop or just chat for a while.  Information on how to join us can be found below. Chat times are Tuesday and Thursday evenings from about 8pm-1am Eastern Standard/Daylight Time for North America and Greenwich Mean Time (which is Tuesday mornings in North America) for those in Europe and points East. There is an International Sunday chat as well, taking place Sunday mornings for those in North America and Sunday Evening for those closer to Greenwich. The #pianotech channel is carried on the family-oriented and comparatively safe "Starlink-IRC" network. Starlink-IRC supports the #pianotech channel with a browser-based Java chat as well as WEB-TV. 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: <a href="http://www.starlink-irc.org/" eudora="autourl"> http://www.starlink-irc.org/</a> and select the "Web Portal Page". At the centre click on "Java Chat". Click on "No Channel", Put a nickname into the appropriate box (don't put anything in the others) on the screen that comes up,  and click on Connect. Type:   /join #pianotech  into the box, press <ENTER> and you should be in. 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: <a href="http://www.musselwhite.com/pub/piano/" eudora="autourl"> http://www.musselwhite.com/pub/piano/ </a>Complete information about the IRC channel can be found on the "Official #Pianotech WWW Page" at: <a href="http://www.musselwhite.com/ircpiano.html" eudora="autourl"> http://www.musselwhite.com/ircpiano.html </a>Many thanks to Kathleen and David Vanderhoofven for developing the page. For detailed information on Starlink-IRC including how to connect with your browser or through WEB-TV please go to: <a href="http://www.starlink-irc.org/" eudora="autourl"> http://www.starlink-irc.org/ </a>If anyone has any questions, please EMail  me 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 as well as Sundays (or ANY time!) in #pianotech on Starlink-IRC. <x-tab>        </x-tab><x-tab>         </x-tab>John </body> </html>