"Every week, I often include a link to an IRC channel for support or additional information about whatever I'm writing about. I don't intend to stop doing that, but it has occurred to me that not everyone reading the column is IRC-literate.
"Until now, that is. After reading this brief primer on IRC, my dweebs, you will be fluent in the lingua francois of the online world (read: le typo) and be able to chat with the best of them. You'll also be a little bit closer to earning your IRC Wilderness Survival merit badge. In certain states, you may also have whiter teeth and a faster burn-rate for fat.
"Internet Relay Chat. IRC. Like other flavors of real-time chatting, its primary draw is its ability to scratch an itch right now, thank you very much. It was born in the late 1980's. August of 1988, to be exact. It spread from Finland to MIT's legendary AI Lab, and then elsewhere..."
