Every influenza virus that has ever infected man started out as a "bird flu". H5N1 is the next one coming down the pike. It already has the title of the most devastating pandemic animal illness in recorded history, and with a >60% case fatality rate, it promises to keep that title when it goes pandemic in the human population.
H5N1 has gone human to human numerous times. There have been several family clusters where one family member became ill from contact with an infected bird and spread it to other family members who in turn spread it to even more people. The incidence of caregivers becoming infected by patients is also growing. When relatives come to care for sick family members or accompany them to the hospital, they have become ill themselves. To date there has been documented direct human to human transmissions in Turkey, Egypt, Vietnam, Indonesia, and Thailand.
The most common source of infection is infected birds. But birds are not the only carriers. In China H5N1 is known as the "birds and beasts flu". The virus infects wild and domestic birds, a huge list of mammals (including humans), and it has been found in fish. Research is showing it can be carried and transmitted by insects such as flies and mosquitoes. This virus is very hardy - much stronger than our garden variety yearly flu strains that can live up to 72 hours on hard surfaces. H5N1 lives for 37 days at 98 degrees F and indefinitely when frozen. News reports from affected countries are blaming human infections on cats, dogs, rabbits, pigs, flies, dust, drinking water, swimming in lakes, fertilizing house plants, visiting a zoo, having surgery, walking past a healthy chicken, a neighbor's pet caged bird, cracking an egg in the palm of the hand and numerous cases of making dinner with fresh or frozen chicken.
When you look at how few people have been infected so far, understand that this flu is just getting started. These incidents are like bubbles coming to the surface in a pot of water that has just been set down on a flame. One bubble, then another, and another, until the whole pot is a rolling boil - and the most devastating pandemic mankind has ever seen.
Take the time to learn WHY the experts are so frightened of H5N1. NO ONE has immunity to this disease. It can be transmitted by just about every living thing. It lives in water and on surfaces and in the air much longer than the common cold. More than 60% of the people who get it die. If you are between the ages 14 and 35 and healthy, that rate goes up to 89%. Most of the people who have survived to date did so because they received intensive health care to keep them from drowning from the cytokine storm that floods their lungs with fluid - and we do not have a small fraction of 1% of the ventilators and respiratory therapists we will need during a pandemic.
DirecTV came out and set it all up. The signal was always in the high 90s and we had an excellent picture, WHEN we had a picture. But honestly, during the rainy Florida summers, we did not have TV. It didn't just blink off for a few minutes during a thunderstorm. As soon as the sky turned grey we'd lose signal on all but a few local channels, and it would stay out. It was not at all unusual to lose tv for the entire day, and often several days in a row. Trust me, I called them about it and they just shrugged it off - yeah, you lose signal in the rain. After my year's contract was up I got cable and have no problems.
For a short time I had satellite and lived under the flight path for a local airport. Planes flying overhead do block out the signal for a moment. It just pauses and scrambles the picture, but occasionally it happens at a moment when someone is saying something important. "Important News Bulletin for residents of FUZZZZZZZZZZZ more on tonights news at 6."
The biggest problem was not having television during cloudy weather - it doesn't have to be raining where you are, there just has to be enough moisture in the sky to block reception. What good is TV if you don't have it on rainy days when the kids are inside? I dropped satellite when my term was up and will never go back.
SearchIRC orginally sorted results by the size of the channel, but users complained that irrelevant results were being shown - primarily because the largest channels on IRC are humongous warez channels. For example, a search for "chat" would return a gazillion pages of huge warez channels that had "no chat allowed" in the topic.
When the subject of size vs relevancy was put to a vote, the overwhelming majority of SearchIRC users voted for returns sorted by relevancy. Now results are sorted by a complex algorithm to find those most relevant to your search term.
netsplit.de is great for network statistics, but a very poor channel search. They do not list all networks, or all channels on the networks they do list, but they do list "metanetworks". A metanetwork is a network that has more than one name. Metanetworks have clued in that most IRC search sites do not personally visit the network before listing it, so they apply under several different names. The same physical network might have 5 names, and the same channels will be listed 5 times on the IRC search site. The last time I checked, netsplit.de listed 70 networks SearchIRC recognizes as "metanetworks". Since netsplit.de does not gather data as frequently as SearchIRC, and their results are sorted by size, its very easy for duplicate channels to go unrecognized, buried on different pages of the results.
ChatScan was an Israeli enterprise that claimed 10 million in funding. They joined a bot to IRC channels. The bot broadcast live channel text to their website. The idea was, people could scan down a list of pre-selected channels, see which had interesting conversations, then go and join them - or just watch from the website.
Users who found what they thought was private conversation up on the web were outraged. IRC channel owners and admins agree with you 100% - they considered this unwanted and unauthorize intrusion a gross invasion of privacy, and banned the bots. The bots came back on new IPs and were banned again. When they came back on a variety of IPs, IRC admins got together and put up a list so everyone could be sure to ban every last one.
Logging and archiving classes, guest speakers, technical chats and special events is a great idea, IF the people putting on said event WANT it logged. But those who do, already put the transcripts up on the web.
IRC networks compete for users. Users definitely will not stay on networks or in channels if they think there is a chance of casual conversation being logged. Doesn't matter if Google tries, or some new startup. It won't fly.
Google runs a serious risk of adding a bunch of dead or irrelevant links to their database.
Additionally, what would such a link do? The vast majority of Google visitors do not have an IRC client loaded on their computers..
Go to http://SearchIRC.com
Search for a channel by keyword in the name or topic, just like you'd search for a website on Google.
SearchIRC gathers data constantly on many networks, hourly for the small nets. (But don't think its a matter of joining every network and running/list - its far, far more complicated than that.) They have a freshness rating for every channel, they tell you if its new or established, and they have recently added reviews so you can see what others think about the channel too.
You can most definitely join the channel right from the website. Click on the name of the channel and a java client will launch and bring you right into the chat. If you have an irc:// compliant client like mIRC on your computer, that you prefer to use, just click on the "irc://" to join.
By cataloging all known IRC channels and letting users search through them in much the same familiar manner as Google finds websites, then giving users one click access to those channels, SearchIRC effectively eliminates barriers that separate IRC nets.
That means, access to 700,000+ chatrooms can be found on one website, and even the most inexperienced user can join with one click.
IRC has always shown very strong, steady growth. Since the closure of MSN, the userbase of IRC has gone from 900,000 concurrant connections to 1,200,000 - 1,400,000 connections - that is users on IRC, right now. This number varies little 24/7. Even considering bots, its fair to say that approximately 24 million people per day use IRC worldwide.
IRC is not a "small" part of the internet... but the rules on IRC are not the same as the web.... as so many have found out. A fair number of very well funded websites have made assumptions about IRC, and found themselves thrown on the dot.com funeral pyre for their arrogance.
As a long time IRC junkie, and a big fan of SearchIRC, I am watching this with interest.
I know that users spam IRC channels and topics with urls (usually sounding like porn sites) that contain viruses and trojans. People visit the site, get infected, and their computer is backdoored.
Jason, since you run SearchIRC, you can answer - doesn't SearchIRC has some method to filter out most, if not all, dangerous urls?
[I]So if I am looking for a channel where I can ask a question about something, google will point me towards the right server and channel that I can get into.[/I]
SearchIRC.com does all of this. It was created because Google and other search engines ignored IRC. Other irc search sites have sprung up since SearchIRC opened, but they don't put the effort needed into the project, which shows in their outdated, incomplete and incorrect information.
IRC channels are identified by the name of the channel, and also by a "topic", a 2 or 3 sentence long description of the channel. Channel moderators set the topic to tell people what is currently happening in the channel, make comments, post urls, etc. SearchIRC lets you search through all known (and they list around 700,000) IRC channels by keyword or term. They also have a small channel directory so you can find a channel by subject as well as keyword relevance.
As Google will soon learn, IRC isn't quite the same animal as the web.
Slashdot Mirror
H5N1 has gone human to human numerous times. There have been several family clusters where one family member became ill from contact with an infected bird and spread it to other family members who in turn spread it to even more people. The incidence of caregivers becoming infected by patients is also growing. When relatives come to care for sick family members or accompany them to the hospital, they have become ill themselves. To date there has been documented direct human to human transmissions in Turkey, Egypt, Vietnam, Indonesia, and Thailand.
The most common source of infection is infected birds. But birds are not the only carriers. In China H5N1 is known as the "birds and beasts flu". The virus infects wild and domestic birds, a huge list of mammals (including humans), and it has been found in fish. Research is showing it can be carried and transmitted by insects such as flies and mosquitoes. This virus is very hardy - much stronger than our garden variety yearly flu strains that can live up to 72 hours on hard surfaces. H5N1 lives for 37 days at 98 degrees F and indefinitely when frozen. News reports from affected countries are blaming human infections on cats, dogs, rabbits, pigs, flies, dust, drinking water, swimming in lakes, fertilizing house plants, visiting a zoo, having surgery, walking past a healthy chicken, a neighbor's pet caged bird, cracking an egg in the palm of the hand and numerous cases of making dinner with fresh or frozen chicken.
When you look at how few people have been infected so far, understand that this flu is just getting started. These incidents are like bubbles coming to the surface in a pot of water that has just been set down on a flame. One bubble, then another, and another, until the whole pot is a rolling boil - and the most devastating pandemic mankind has ever seen. Take the time to learn WHY the experts are so frightened of H5N1. NO ONE has immunity to this disease. It can be transmitted by just about every living thing. It lives in water and on surfaces and in the air much longer than the common cold. More than 60% of the people who get it die. If you are between the ages 14 and 35 and healthy, that rate goes up to 89%. Most of the people who have survived to date did so because they received intensive health care to keep them from drowning from the cytokine storm that floods their lungs with fluid - and we do not have a small fraction of 1% of the ventilators and respiratory therapists we will need during a pandemic.
The pot is on the stove and its bubbling away.
It just makes sense to prepare.
DirecTV came out and set it all up. The signal was always in the high 90s and we had an excellent picture, WHEN we had a picture. But honestly, during the rainy Florida summers, we did not have TV. It didn't just blink off for a few minutes during a thunderstorm. As soon as the sky turned grey we'd lose signal on all but a few local channels, and it would stay out. It was not at all unusual to lose tv for the entire day, and often several days in a row. Trust me, I called them about it and they just shrugged it off - yeah, you lose signal in the rain. After my year's contract was up I got cable and have no problems.
For a short time I had satellite and lived under the flight path for a local airport. Planes flying overhead do block out the signal for a moment. It just pauses and scrambles the picture, but occasionally it happens at a moment when someone is saying something important. "Important News Bulletin for residents of FUZZZZZZZZZZZ more on tonights news at 6." The biggest problem was not having television during cloudy weather - it doesn't have to be raining where you are, there just has to be enough moisture in the sky to block reception. What good is TV if you don't have it on rainy days when the kids are inside? I dropped satellite when my term was up and will never go back.
When the subject of size vs relevancy was put to a vote, the overwhelming majority of SearchIRC users voted for returns sorted by relevancy. Now results are sorted by a complex algorithm to find those most relevant to your search term.
netsplit.de is great for network statistics, but a very poor channel search. They do not list all networks, or all channels on the networks they do list, but they do list "metanetworks". A metanetwork is a network that has more than one name. Metanetworks have clued in that most IRC search sites do not personally visit the network before listing it, so they apply under several different names. The same physical network might have 5 names, and the same channels will be listed 5 times on the IRC search site. The last time I checked, netsplit.de listed 70 networks SearchIRC recognizes as "metanetworks". Since netsplit.de does not gather data as frequently as SearchIRC, and their results are sorted by size, its very easy for duplicate channels to go unrecognized, buried on different pages of the results.
ChatScan was an Israeli enterprise that claimed 10 million in funding. They joined a bot to IRC channels. The bot broadcast live channel text to their website. The idea was, people could scan down a list of pre-selected channels, see which had interesting conversations, then go and join them - or just watch from the website.
Users who found what they thought was private conversation up on the web were outraged. IRC channel owners and admins agree with you 100% - they considered this unwanted and unauthorize intrusion a gross invasion of privacy, and banned the bots. The bots came back on new IPs and were banned again. When they came back on a variety of IPs, IRC admins got together and put up a list so everyone could be sure to ban every last one.
Logging and archiving classes, guest speakers, technical chats and special events is a great idea, IF the people putting on said event WANT it logged. But those who do, already put the transcripts up on the web.
IRC networks compete for users. Users definitely will not stay on networks or in channels if they think there is a chance of casual conversation being logged. Doesn't matter if Google tries, or some new startup. It won't fly.
Go to http://SearchIRC.com
Search for a channel by keyword in the name or topic, just like you'd search for a website on Google.
SearchIRC gathers data constantly on many networks, hourly for the small nets. (But don't think its a matter of joining every network and running /list - its far, far more complicated than that.) They have a freshness rating for every channel, they tell you if its new or established, and they have recently added reviews so you can see what others think about the channel too.
You can most definitely join the channel right from the website. Click on the name of the channel and a java client will launch and bring you right into the chat. If you have an irc:// compliant client like mIRC on your computer, that you prefer to use, just click on the "irc://" to join.
By cataloging all known IRC channels and letting users search through them in much the same familiar manner as Google finds websites, then giving users one click access to those channels, SearchIRC effectively eliminates barriers that separate IRC nets.
That means, access to 700,000+ chatrooms can be found on one website, and even the most inexperienced user can join with one click.
IRC has always shown very strong, steady growth. Since the closure of MSN, the userbase of IRC has gone from 900,000 concurrant connections to 1,200,000 - 1,400,000 connections - that is users on IRC, right now. This number varies little 24/7. Even considering bots, its fair to say that approximately 24 million people per day use IRC worldwide.
IRC is not a "small" part of the internet... but the rules on IRC are not the same as the web.... as so many have found out. A fair number of very well funded websites have made assumptions about IRC, and found themselves thrown on the dot.com funeral pyre for their arrogance.
As a long time IRC junkie, and a big fan of SearchIRC, I am watching this with interest.
I know that users spam IRC channels and topics with urls (usually sounding like porn sites) that contain viruses and trojans. People visit the site, get infected, and their computer is backdoored. Jason, since you run SearchIRC, you can answer - doesn't SearchIRC has some method to filter out most, if not all, dangerous urls?
[I]So if I am looking for a channel where I can ask a question about something, google will point me towards the right server and channel that I can get into.[/I] SearchIRC.com does all of this. It was created because Google and other search engines ignored IRC. Other irc search sites have sprung up since SearchIRC opened, but they don't put the effort needed into the project, which shows in their outdated, incomplete and incorrect information. IRC channels are identified by the name of the channel, and also by a "topic", a 2 or 3 sentence long description of the channel. Channel moderators set the topic to tell people what is currently happening in the channel, make comments, post urls, etc. SearchIRC lets you search through all known (and they list around 700,000) IRC channels by keyword or term. They also have a small channel directory so you can find a channel by subject as well as keyword relevance. As Google will soon learn, IRC isn't quite the same animal as the web.