Newbies guide to IRC using Hexchat

When you first open Hexchat and dialogue box will open with a list of networks that the package maintainers thought would be good to put in the list. Two good irc networks are Libera, which is mostly channels for open source software and tech related things and Rizon. You might want to change the default nicks under User Information to what you want you call yourself on irc.

If you select irc a network and click edit you can find a menu that lets you set more options, if you untick Use global user information you can select a different nick name and user name for that network than what's in global informattion there by selecting a different for that network, if you'd like a different one or your usual nick is taken. To join a channel

/join #channel

where channel is the name of the channel you want to join. If the channel doesn’t exist it will start a new one and you’ll have ops in it. Being a op in a irc channel allows you to kick people from the channel and ban them, which prevents them from joining the channel.

If you want to leave a channel, type

/part #channel

or you can even type /close

If you don’t know of a channel on the irc network your connected to you can get a list of channels from the menus. Click the server menu and then click channel list once you’re here click download list. Some servers wont allow you to download the list right away. They might make you wait a minute. 

You might want to register your nick with nickserv to keep your nick. You want to do this because some channels wont allow you in them if your nickname isnt registered. It will ask you for an email and a password you’d like to use with it. If you want to know more about using nickserv see this blog post. 

If you want to start a private mesesage with someone, type

/query nick

Where nick is the nickname of the person you want to have a PM with.  

How to use nickserv on IRC

To start registeration with nickserv on a IRC network type into your IRC client(Hexchat in this example) 

/query nickserv

It’ll open a new window to interact with the bot. All IRC networks have a different syntax so I wont go into how to register with one here. 

Type help for a list of commands, the one you want for registering is:

help register

Which will bring up instructions on how to register your nickname. 

For any command in nickserv you don’t understand I suggest you type help before them all. Explore each command. If a nickserv bot has an option to hide things on your nick I suggest you enable those. You can hide info from appearing such as your email address from showing up if someone did something like “info” on your nickname. Some IRC networks by default will expose your email address.  

Discord glows in the dark, I dont think it's safe to use

After reading this page. I'm probably not going to use Discord anymore. I knew it glowed in the dark, but I never thought it glowed that much. By some of what I read on that site it's basically like having a virus running on your system just having the client open. The following is a quote from the page that concerned me:

"Discord has been confirmed to monitor the open processes on your operating system. This is a spyware feature known as a "process logger" that is generally used to record your program usage habits. This was confirmed by the CTO of Discord in a Reddit thread.[2] In the same thread, the CTO also elaborates that this spyware feature (the monitoring of processes) is mandatory for several features of the platform. The CTO and a Discord engineer go on to claim that Discord does not use the process logger to send records of the open processes on the user's computer.

The test to prove that Discord logs processes was done again by the writer with procmon on 4/11/2019 with the features: "Use data to customize my Discord Experience" and "Display currently running game as a status message" turned off. Discord did NOT log all of the processes open this way. However, when setting the "Display currently running game as a status message" turned on, the behavior described in[2] was replicated. You can see that behavior here:"

Even though I dont care much for privacy(I use Google services), that just creeps me out. That's beyond what I'm willing to tolerate anymore.   

The internet is over stimulating, you should take breaks

With any psychologically stimulating activity you should take breaks from it even if you enjoy it. Set a timer for 2 hours, after the 2 hours has elapsed stop doing what you're doing and then sit around doing nothing for at least an hour. Do this throughout the day. If you sit around and do nothing your brains default mode network is engaged more and it helps you learn and relax. This would be really beneficial for you if you're studying, at least that's a theory, I'm not sure what told me that. 

Hammering our brains with information constantly isnt healthy because our brains didnt evolve to have so much information going through it. You tend to be more flaky if you're constantly busy.

Some of the things you can do while doing nothing is meditating or writing in your journal. Though most of the time should be spent being totally idle. Set your phone on do not disturb and leave your computer alone.

If you simply dont have the time to break up 2 hour sessions of using your computer you could try 20-30 minutes breaks. Work out a time that works out for you.

How to install the Yay aur helper on Arch Linux

It's possible to install aur packages without the help of an aur helper, but it can simplify the process. This is how to install the aur helper. 

The first thing you have to do is make sure you have the headers for your kernel installed, which if you were following the installation wiki you have already. The headers for your kernel will be different depending which kernel you have installed. 

Install the following packages with pacman, they will get the utilities needed to build yay. 

    sudo pacman -S git base-devel

Then do the following:

    cd /tmp
    git clone https://aur.archlinux.org/yay-git.git
    makepkg -si

Not sure I want to use Discord anymore

I've been considering not using Discord anymore do to security and privacy concerns. Mostly about the former. Discord is a poorly coded mess of software and I've been dumb for using it. I'm probably opening myself up for attack using it. I could mitigate that running it in a web browser rather than running discords app on my computer. I'm not even sure I want to use discord on my phone either. 

Before fall of last year I didnt use Discord much even though I had an account because it was an insult to my senses. I found it overwhelming and I couldnt find people to talk to that i actually liked. I've gotten used to the app, though i still find is overwhelming at times and a lot of the people still annoy me. The majority of servers I've come across were full of Zoomers and people younger than that. I think people my age mostly use other stuff like IRC, the more technical ones that I can relate to. Though nowadays Rizon IRC is full of edgelords, or maybe it always was full of edgelords. Though Discord has their fare share of them as well. 

As for privacy concerns, that's only a minor concern of mine because I'm aware companies are going to be up your butt no matter what you do. Discord glows in the dark. They collect all kinds of information on you. I'm not really worried about that too much, though some 1337 haxor could come by and get that information and use it. I'm not worried about Discord employees themselves I'm more worried about the haxors which is what everyone using the program should be concerned about. Since when companies collect information it's stored somewhere and it can be leaked.

American Truck Simulator is great when I’m too brain dead to do much else

When I first started playing American Truck Simulator I joked with someone that in order to have fun playing this game Id probably have to have a frontal lobotomy. Though after playing the game a little bit it’s a bit fun, a nice way to relax when I’m otherwise too scatter brained to do much. It’s a nice mindless game, that’s not mindless at the same time. You got to be careful driving the truck. 

When I talked about the game on IRC some former truck drivers pointed out discrepancies where it’s not totally realistic. For example, tractor trailers are designed not to go above 55 mph or so, yet the trucks in the game can go up to the speed limit in some places up to 80mph or more. Ironically before I knew this Id never drive the truck at the upper speed limit because it got twitchy and hard to control and I was afraid I was going to crash. 

This is a video of me playing the game:

A lot of people are addicted to the internet and dont know it

The internet is so integrated in our lifestyles nowadays that people are addicted to it without even realizing it. People check their phones a lot and cant go a moment without being bored. Especially now that we have smart phones. For some people these have been part of their lives while they were growing up. For some of these people they are terminally online and addicted to the internet without even knowing it. It's true for anyone nowadays, even people that grew up in a time when we didnt have an internet so engaging, or even no internet at all.

The internet is so activating to the brain and so engaging, that it can be very addictive if used too much. I've been using the internet a lot since I was 14 years old. Pretty much everything I do involves a computer. I've been trying to get out of that, like doing a lot my writing with pen and paper. I find it relaxing to write that way. Sometimes I try to have a internet holiday where I forbid myself from using the internet for a day. I want to try to forbid myself from using the internet for an entire week sometime because I think it would be healthy to be without it. Take a break now and then.

There's a myth of a dopamine detox, . You cant "detox" from dopamine it doesnt work that way. 

One way to combat an over reliance on certain technologies is try to find ways to live without them. Like let yourself be bored. If you're waiting at the doctors clinic just sit there and be in the moment. 

Being bored is good for your mental health even though it can feel painful if you're used to being constantly amused. If you're on the bus just watch the scenery go by. Dont use your phone on the bus, dont even talk to anyone on the phone while you're on the bus. Just be there. You dont need to be constantly connected to people and it's not very healthy to feel the need to be constantly in contact with the world.

It's easy to consume too much caffeine when you drink it using pop such as Pepsi Zero. (Called Pepsi Max in some regions) 

In a 710 ml bottle you find a grocery store of Pepsi Zero there is 138mg of caffeine in one bottle. If you buy these in a 6 pack it's easy to consume more caffeine than you intended. 

If you have a high tolerance to caffeine and arent sensitive to it this is fine. Though caffeine is an addictive substance, mostly psychologically because it activates dopamine and blocks adenosine receptors. 

These are the neurotransmitters that signal to your brain that it's time to sleep which is the precursor to melatonin which your brain fires off at night. Caffeine hijacks this.  Sleep is important to memory and learning so you should only consume caffeine in the morning until the late afternoon and never in the evening or night. 

My weird way of interacting with Twitter

When ever I browse my twitter feed I lazily click around because I have a hard time concentrating a lot because I am overwhelmed. So I find myself using heuristics more than the average person to curtail unwanted conversations. I'll read a sentence of a post and if the user sounds like a total idiot and I never want to hear from them again it triggers the "idiot flag" to TRUE. That person is muted. There's also a flag for "NOT WANT" that gets flagged to TRUE.

Sometimes I like to use computer metaphors to describe my internal dialogue to describe it, though usually to no one except to myself. I might be muting future conversations that may be good, though it's for the best. It makes me twitter feed very chill. The algorithm seems to mute people for me nowadays without my intervention. 

People complain about drama and trolls on Twitter, but I never see them. Twitter is very peaceful for me, even boring. I dont stay long on it, except to make a few replies here there and maybe some tweets of my own.