Dear lazyweb!

The moodle development chat has finally moved to Jabber from Skype, which means that I can mash it into irssi using bitlbee. However there's one last thing that stands out as a FIXME!

The developers are all used to Skype's icon set (h) and (ninja) and (y) and so on and those who have graphical clients (most of them) have managed to find Skype icon packs. Which means that a lot of the time, I'm left seeing these series of strings.

So, I was wondering, is there a way (an irssi plugin, perhaps) to do matching on other people's input (preferably restricted to a defined set of channels) that converts from a set of supported characters into their unicode equivalents. Or even just to a few plain characters. Obviously (mooning) and (ninja) and others are not going to be supported, but (h) definitely would be. I can't find one that matches (y) either, yet.

An exhaustive list of all the silly icons can be found here

Today I was whinging about how hot it was, and David helpfully came up with the following:

13:12 <lurbs> Menopause?

and then:

14:19 <Mjollnir`> HOT
22:21 <Mjollnir`> that was HOT
13:39 <Mjollnir`> FUCK ITS COLD
22:55 <Mjollnir`> it's COLD
14:57 <Mjollnir`> why is it so FUCKING COLD
09:22 <Mjollnir`> it's COLD
18:57 <Mjollnir`> HOT
19:28 <Mjollnir`> it's HOT
21:54 <Mjollnir`> COLD
15:51 <Mjollnir`> lurbs: HOT
10:26 <Mjollnir`> COLD COLD COLD
10:31 <Mjollnir`> why is it so FUCKING COLD
11:25 <Mjollnir`> TOO COLD
11:30 <Mjollnir`> COLD
11:31 <Mjollnir`> why is it so fucking COLD
14:22 <Mjollnir`> COLD
16:21 <Mjollnir`> it's COLD ffs
09:31 <Mjollnir`> why is it so COLD
13:56 <Mjollnir`> HOT
12:44 <Mjollnir`> SHIT HOT
15:42 <Mjollnir`> HOT
12:12 <Mjollnir`> HOT DOG
15:48 <Mjollnir`> HOT
20:26 <Mjollnir`> HOT
20:32 <Mjollnir`> HOT
13:33 <Mjollnir`> HOT
14:03 <Mjollnir`> did anyone else notice that it's fucking COLD
18:54 <Mjollnir`> HOT
10:11 <Mjollnir`> HOT
13:12 <Mjollnir`> TOO HOT


I maintain it is the air conditioning. I know I just had a birthday, but I was only 28, ffs.

Amused by the various announcements over on Planet Debian [0-3], about being called by IRC names in real life, I smirked to myself as people generally cannot actually pronounce my IRC name in real life (Mjollnir`). (The backtick is important. Actually no, it's not but I won't get rid of it especially now that I know how much it bugs Vex)

Some people I work with have bastardised this to "mojolojonor" which they happily roll off, usually when I walk into a room and one of them says, "it's a mojolojonor!"

But in general I am pretty safe.

However, in some places on the internet I go by penzilinha - this actually came from my sister and brother in law calling me "penzil" and then having the portuguese diminutive added. At the time I was learning Spanish, but penzilita didn't sound as nice as penzilinha.

However, I do certainly prefer to be referred to as Penny (which itself is of course shortened from Penelope) in person. And due to the unprounceability of Mjollnir`, it almost always happens. This all goes to show the best defense is a good offense.

0: http://madduck.net/blog/2008.04.04:nicknames/
1: http://blog.digital-scurf.org/2008/04/04#hello-my-name-is
2: http://chistera.yi.org/~adeodato/blog/entries/ ....
3: http://www.perrier.eu.org/weblog/2008/04/04#nick

Around work that I am a lizard....

From logs

14:59 <@luke> Mjollnir`: you are a reptile. But, yes, it is quite cold today
15:01 <@luke> oh, so, you're saying that Mjollnir` evolved from a reptile ?
15:01 <@IkeKrull> <Mjollnir`>I AM THE LIZARD QUEEN!
15:02 <@finlay> did Mjollnir` just say "I AM THE LIZARD QUEEN" !
15:03 * lingophile flees the frigid hands of the lizard queen
15:03 < Cuchullain> I don't know how come the lizard thing amuses me so much.
15:04 < Cuchullain> It's not cold - it's just that Mjollnir` is secretly a reptile.
15:04 < IkeKrull> you'd take advice from a reptile?
15:04 < IkeKrull> reptiles in hats? absurd!
13:37 <@luke> Mjollnir` is hot!?! What's happened to lizard lady?
14:04 <@IkeKrull> like the chameleon, the fearsome Mjollnir-lizard changes the colour of her scales to match her environment
17:37 <@IkeKrull> like the marine iguanas of the galapgos islands, the fearsome mjollnir lizard cools off by diving deep beneath the waves to nibble at algae before returning to the rocky shore to bask in the sun
17:45 <@matt> is Mjollnir` really a type of lizard?

I have given up fighting it.

I've blogged before about how now that Catalyst is on 4 floors, we're increasingly using irc as our communication medium inside the office.

We have an irc bot that creates links to the Work Request Management System out of certain phrases (eg WR#xx)

So, today:

17:23 <@karora> When networks go pear shaped I usually disable all the VPNs, get back to basics, and then build the whole house of cards back up again :-)
17:24 <@Mjollnir`> you're a house of cards
17:24 <@karora> Mjollnir`: wr39195
17:24 <@wormy> WRMS Link: https://wrms.catalyst.net.nz/39195 (and so's your face) - Finished
17:24 <@Mjollnir`> heh
17:24 <@Mjollnir`> oars

Pretty funny.

Looks like I forgot to do

/load /usr/share/irssi/scripts/mindreader.pl

I always lose at tab completion. It should know from ne<tab> which one of them I want.

Someone complained about how the nicks used in the work irc channel were ambiguous, and now we're all known by our gpg key ids instead.

I'm not entirely sure this is an improvement actually.

11:35 -!- You're now known as A30EC22B
11:35 <@A30EC22B> I bet you had to looks yours up, didn't you x6E9F4A14
11:35 <@A30EC22B> ?
11:35 * nem revokes x6E9F4A14
11:36 <@A30EC22B> x6E9F4A14: it's because x8f068012 knows his id already, I suspect
11:36 <@x8f068012> Of course I know my ID!
11:36 <@x6E9F4A14> I did
11:36 <@A30EC22B> x8f068012: I think you and I are the exceptions there
11:37 * x8f068012 has to type it in a lot.
11:37 <@x6E9F4A14> figgin' nutters ;-)
11:42 -!- waawaa is now known as xE0166221
11:42 -!- x8f068012 is now known as _8F068012
11:43 * _8F068012 wanted to be at the beginning of the list. Annoying that nicks cannot start with a digit, so I think this new world order will not catch on unless there are some patches to IRC...
11:44 <@_8F068012> No doubt A30EC22B is already blogging this one...

irc turned a bit backwards.

15:41 -!- Shiny is now known as ynihS
15:42 -!- karora is now known as arorak
15:42 -!- davidc is now known as otto
15:42 -!- ben is now known as neb
15:42 <@Mjollnir`> oh god
15:42 <@aawaaw> WIN
15:42 -!- You're now known as `rinllojM
15:42 <@`rinllojM> mine is best
15:42 <@ynihS> oh noes
15:42 -!- IkeKrull is now known as llurKekI
15:42 <@`rinllojM> try pronounce that
15:42 <@`rinllojM> lurker!
15:43 <@llurKekI> zomg its troo!
15:43 <@`rinllojM> you're troo
15:43 <@ynihS> `rinllojM: you're easer to tab complete now
15:43 <@richard> `rinllojM: no harder than it was
15:43 -!- mugwump is now known as pmuwgum
15:43 <@`rinllojM> richard: crap
15:43 -!- ian is now known as god
15:43 <@`rinllojM> richard: it was oarsum before
15:43 -!- god was kicked from #catalyst by `rinllojM [no you're not]
15:43 <@`rinllojM> :)
15:43 <@arorak> GMO s'ti lla oort!
15:43 -!- peterb is now known as bretep
15:43 <@aawaaw> lol
15:43 <@`rinllojM> ahahahahahahaha
15:43 <@`rinllojM> that's funny
15:43 -!- god [~ian@dolven.wgtn.cat-it.co.nz] has joined #catalyst
15:43 -!- mode/#catalyst [+o god] by matt
15:44 -!- arorak is now known as arorakay
15:44 <@navonod> omg! what have i unleashed
15:44 <@arorakay> ightray, imetay orfay ay ewnay ememay
15:44 <@Steve> D:
15:44 <@aawaaw> just for funzies
15:44 <@aawaaw> people using vim
15:44 <@aawaaw> ggVGg?
15:44 <@llurKekI> j00 h4v unl345h3d t3h b4ckw@rd5-h4x!
15:44 <@otto> Cvt Yngva vf sbe fvffvrf!
15:45 <@`rinllojM> it hurtsese
15:45 <@god> weird
15:45 <@chris> affen
15:45 -!- god is now known as dog
15:45 <@aawaaw> otto: lbh qnza evtug!
15:45 <@arorakay> owhay isay isthay odgay ersonpay anywayay?
15:45 <@dog> `rinllojM: :-p
15:45 <@bretep> siht fo trap i ma yhw gmo
15:46 <@neb> puck: phonelist needs updating
15:46 -!- bretep is now known as peterb
15:46 <@puck> neb: bags not


This blog entry was bought to you by the Work IRC Server kills productivity department.

Serious Monday morning -itis going on at work this morning:

10:56 -!- matt changed the topic of #catalyst to: (new topic still to be confirmed)
10:56 <@Mjollnir`> stupid mondays
10:56 -!- waawaa changed the topic of #catalyst to: you're a confirmed topic
10:56 -!- matt changed the topic of #catalyst to: so's your face
10:57 -!- waawaa changed the topic of #catalyst to: y'mum
10:57 -!- samc changed the topic of #catalyst to: IM IN UR SRS RACK, STEELIN UR DOMAINS
10:57 <@Mjollnir`> oh my god
10:57 * Mjollnir` blogs this
10:57 -!- waawaa changed the topic of #catalyst to: noooooo!
10:57 <@puck> Don't worry Mjollnir` you have like, 500 geek.nz domains, so you should be safe for a while
10:57 <@Grant> samc: was it an inadvertent rm -rf (I know all about those)
10:57 -!- Mjollnir` changed the topic of #catalyst to: IM IN UR #CATALYST, BLOGGING YOUR TOPICZ

11:32 <Ned_> <tr class="tightenable bottom"> ????
11:32 <Ned_> is phpwiki calling me fat! ?

Now that Catalyst is spread over three floors, intra-office irc has become the primary means of communication. As such I am trying to streamline all instant messaging protocols into irc. Bitlbee has helped with that a lot (although I haven't managed to get it to do gmail yet).

So I have one internal Catalyst irc session. Now that Mahara irc is on freenode, I have a freenode session. There are a couple of other networks I visit occasionally.

So now I am running one one irssi (having finally given up on bitchx) inside screen. It connects to every irc server I need it to, and bitlbee running on localhost, which is channeling icq (and hopefully soon, gmail).

This means I am running everything in one window. Except Skype! I hardly ever use anything except the instant messaging in Skype. In fact, my work machine hasn't been set up for it. So why can't I channel that into bitlbee and visit it in irssi? It makes me sad. There seem to be a lot of people wanting it. There's even a Bitlbee bug for it.

It seems to be held up by the fact that Skype on Linux is about 10 years behind Skype on everything else. Ass.

I'm trying to write a tricky query that I can't get my head around... so in true open source style I have 3 or 4 people in a discussion on irc trying to figure it out using a paste bot

Much fun!

I was walking up the street grumping about my car not getting its warrant and bumped into a herd of sysadmin and played fingers on head at them. The irc conversation when we all got back to our desks went as follows:

<dave2> wait, there's hate for sysadmins because your car is teh suck?
<dave2> do we support your car now too..? I'd need to see the SLA :P
<davidc> Could be tricky to deal with a time based SLA. Damned thing could be anywhere.
<davidc> On call person sleeps in the back seat?
<dave2> Penny's car SLA: missing 1 wheel, 4 hour response, 1 week to restore, 2 or more wheels, 2 hour response, 1 week to restore; on fire, 1 hour response, much laughter

You're talking about how you like chow on irc, and you start typing things like:

<Mjollnir`> chown = mmmm

<nem> chown me tasty food

<davidc> chown penny chow?

<nem> chmod +tasty lunch

#catalyst - stamping out productivity since late last year sometime.