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IRC logs from the beginning of the Gulf War (1991)

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Re: IRC logs from the beginning of the Gulf War (1991)

#31
post #5

I wonder if the IRC logs from the Iraq War (round 2) will ever be declassified and released. IRC is used pretty extensively by the military for communications (generally just called "mIRC", since people associate it so strongly with the official military client), and there were a bunch of different channels on different networks to discuss operations in realtime. http://publicintelligence.net/tactical-chat/

Military client? mIRC is shareware:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MIRC

Re: IRC logs from the beginning of the Gulf War (1991)

#32

Archived SomethingAwful thread from 9/11/2001: http://www.truegamer.net/SA_911/911%20SATHREAD/ http://www.truegamer.net/SA_911/911%20SATHREAD/wtc01.html > WATCH BUSH START A FUCKING WAR

Pro tip: increment the number in the second URL to see other pages of the discussion thread.

[deleted]

Re: IRC logs from the beginning of the Gulf War (1991)

#33
post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it would be good to have a map and timeline like that going back to the 10th century. Because I think that people _really_ could use some perspective.

Kind of an unified, explorable map of historical events, in which you can see how the borders looked like, could see various information overlays like trade routes, major wars, events, etc.? It's quite an endeavour but I believe a worthy one, and I hope a project like that will start soon. This could have tremendous effect on people. It's BretVictoresque stuff, things that could expand the space of thoughts we have,…

I toyed with this idea for my senior thesis back in college (and obviously never did it). My idea was to somehow identify specific geographic references in Wikipedia and correlate them with as specific a point in time as is possible, based on the context of the surrounding article, using the links between articles to show how people, events and places were related across time and space, somehow visualizing those connections.

(note all the "somehows")

In the end I took on a similar but much less difficult problem but the original idea has always been at the back of my mind.

Re: IRC logs from the beginning of the Gulf War (1991)

#34
post #31
post #5

I wonder if the IRC logs from the Iraq War (round 2) will ever be declassified and released. IRC is used pretty extensively by the military for communications (generally just called "mIRC", since people associate it so strongly with the official military client), and there were a bunch of different channels on different networks to discuss operations in realtime. http://publicintelligence.net/tactical-chat/

Military client? mIRC is shareware: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MIRC

I think he meant mIRC (the shareware software) is the official IRC client of the military.

Re: IRC logs from the beginning of the Gulf War (1991)

#35
I remember very clearly sitting in my first math class in my first term of college, talking about the Gulf War when it started. I was 18 at the time. The big concern we had was another Vietnam, dragging on for years with a new draft. There was a lot of talk on campus about that, until it became clear the war was not going to last long.

Re: IRC logs from the beginning of the Gulf War (1991)

#36
post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it would be good to have a map and timeline like that going back to the 10th century. Because I think that people _really_ could use some perspective.

Kind of an unified, explorable map of historical events, in which you can see how the borders looked like, could see various information overlays like trade routes, major wars, events, etc.? It's quite an endeavour but I believe a worthy one, and I hope a project like that will start soon. This could have tremendous effect on people. It's BretVictoresque stuff, things that could expand the space of thoughts we have,…

I have wanted this for a few years now. This would definitely put things in perspective and make lots of people (and me!) understand history much better.

Too bad I am not competent enough to actually build something like this. I would definitely be up for helping out, though.

Re: IRC logs from the beginning of the Gulf War (1991)

#38
post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it would be good to have a map and timeline like that going back to the 10th century. Because I think that people _really_ could use some perspective.

Kind of an unified, explorable map of historical events, in which you can see how the borders looked like, could see various information overlays like trade routes, major wars, events, etc.? It's quite an endeavour but I believe a worthy one, and I hope a project like that will start soon. This could have tremendous effect on people. It's BretVictoresque stuff, things that could expand the space of thoughts we have,…

For immediate satisfaction you might search history map of the world on YouTube. There are plenty of videos. At the other extreme you might buy an historical atlas. In between there are sites like http://www.chronoatlas.com/

Re: IRC logs from the beginning of the Gulf War (1991)

#39

Archived SomethingAwful thread from 9/11/2001: http://www.truegamer.net/SA_911/911%20SATHREAD/ http://www.truegamer.net/SA_911/911%20SATHREAD/wtc01.html > WATCH BUSH START A FUCKING WAR

From the thread: > Now this is weird, since last week was the first showing of that X-files spin-off "The Lone Gunmen" in Austalia. The plot of the first one was that some government group was going to fly a plane into the World Trade Centre. Life imitates art? Eee... WHAT? I always read that WTC was the kind of event that no one ever imagined it could possibly happen until after the incident.

I always read that WTC was the kind of event that no one ever imagined it could possibly happen until after the incident.

There were two aspects to 9/11 which surprised people. First, that it was four planes which were hijacked: For security screeners to allow one armed hijacker onto a plane may be poor luck, but for armed hijackers to get onto four planes looks like carelessness. (With apologies to Oscar Wilde.)

Second, while the prospect of planes crashing into towers had been considered -- and in fact all modern skyscrapers are designed to survive such an impact -- the aftermath of 9/11 was the first time the prospect of aircraft fuel being used to bring down a skyscraper was ever widely contemplated. If the two planes which hit the WTC hadn't been carrying enough fuel to reach LAX, the fires would not have burned for long enough to bring the towers down.

Re: IRC logs from the beginning of the Gulf War (1991)

#40
post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Explain please?

IRC protocol spec limits message length to 512 bytes, I know only of a single implementation that lets you go above that and many clients crash or otherwise break if you go above it.

Most clients will break it up into multiple messages no?
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