After running the ZNC IRC Bouncer for about four months now I am pleased to say this is the easiest, and most stable IRC bouncer I have used to date. I have had many people ask so I thought I would write up a simple blog post on some tips, tricks and features of ZNC.

If you do not already have ZNC install please follow the installation guide on the ZNC wiki at http://znc.in. This wiki contains almost everything you need to know. I highly recommend you read the wiki. It is well worth it. Don’t worry windows fans there is a Windows version for you

One of the best things about ZNC is that it can buffer conversations in channels and play them back next time you connect. If you are like me this feature can have it’s up’s and down’s. I am connected to three IRC networks and close to 70 channels. If ZNC were to use it’s default buffering/playback settings my clients would scream for help when I connect. Don’t worry a simple command in the ZNC status window will solve all that.

/msg *status setbuffer <#channel> <linecount>

If this looks like gibberish let me explain. /msg *status will send a msg to the ZNC status module. Setbuffer is the tells the status module you want to set a new buffer for…. you guessed it <#channel> lastly <linecount> is the number of lines you would like ZNC to buffer and play back to you on connect (default is 50 lines). Mess around with these settings to make them just right. The smaller the buffer the quicker your clients will connect.

So by now if you have read the wiki you are wondering what modules you should load and setup. Well mostly this is up to you. However I have made a list of the most common and useful along with a few any iPhone user must have.

awaynick – Allows ZNC to change your nick name when the last client disconnects from the ZNC server.
chansaver – Join a channel and ZNC will remember it and join you to that channel each time your client connects.
kickrejoin – Simple enough rejoins a channel when you are kicked. Be warned this script does not take into account if you have been banned. If ZNC ever gets stuck in an endless loop trying to join a channel just type /part <#channel> in the ZNC status window to remove the channel from chansaver.
nickserv – Authenticates your nickname with nickserv.
Prowl – Allows ZNC to send messages to Prowl for the iPhone when you get highlighted or PM’ed.
Colloquy – Sends Push notifications to the Colloquy application when you get highlighted or PM’ed.

That really about sums it up. If you do have anymore questions about ZNC or having trouble with the initial setup leave a comment or join our live chat.

As many of you might know I work for a large electronics retailer. While at work on Tuesday I was pleasantly surprised by a Microsoft rep. entering the store and talking about Windows 7. This (from my perspective) was unheard of and the service desk and computer sales associates were very impressed, myself included. The rep. came in told us about some of the key features of Windows 7 and talked to us about ExpertZone a way for retail employees to take a few simple courses and get a free copy of windows 7 before it’s launch.

I could go on about the details but that is not really want I wanted to discuss. What is more that obvious is that Microsoft is becoming aware that the happier you make the people selling your product the better you are in the long run. To better explain this lets take a blast to the past.

During the month’s before the Windows Vista launch I knew very little about Vista. We were given very little training materials and did not even get a computer to demonstrate the product until a week before it’s launch. This made it very difficult to not only explain the features of Vista it made Microsoft out as the bag guy right from the start.

My point is that we did not like it because we knew little about it and in turn would quickly agree with any customer or fellow employee that said the almost famous term “Vista Sucks”.

I do commend Microsoft for taking the time to realize that the people at the bottom of the food chain, the sales associates, can change the outcome of the product and that training is key when releasing something new. I hope Microsoft continues this approach to all it’s future releases. With Windows 7 being the great OS that it is and Microsoft playing their cards right they might just be back in the game of OS wars.

Comments? Questions? I would love to hear them.

I have decided to give you a very interesting post for the day. You might be asking wtf is this guy talking about? A business paradox?

Let me explain. Say you own a small business and your business sells ties. Say that across the street a larger tie selling business pops up and is offering ties at a cheaper rate and is more innovative at selling ties. You might think how the hell am I going to compete with this larger and more powerful tie company?

You could always copy the ideas of the larger tie company and offer similar if not identical services but then you risk getting ridiculed and called a “copier”. Not to mention the inevitable lawsuit that would follow for “copying” ideas.

The best solution would be to think up new and improved ideas, right? This would require thinking outside the box and what some think would be countless hours of time formulating innovation. Honestly you would end up thinking to hard and spending all that time for nothing. Trust me I have been down this road and it does not end well.

So what if I said you could beat out your competition just by stealing? Now before you go off and call the popo. I am not talking about stealing ties from your competition. I am talking about stealing ideas. This does not mean you need to go all Mission Impossible. It means stop thinking about how other tie companies are beating you and think about how other companies not in direct competition with you are doing their business.

In this example lets use a a fictional company called Buy Club. The Buy Club stores give shoppers memberships that allow them to exclusively shop their stores and get discounted prices. Why could you not just steal the membership idea for your business and offer something innovative your competitors don’t? Thus solving the Business Paradox

I strongly feel that most people try so hard to find out what “thinking outside the box” means and not really thinking outside the box. I am sure if you look at some of the most innovative ideas in business you can narrow the origin of said ideas to many companies across many fields. Overall thinking outside the box is more literal then we might think. Think outside your own market and steal ideas from other markets. In the end making you the innovator by not constricting your ideas to one field.

Thoughts, ideas? Leave a comment!

What the hell is Snow Leopard? I keep hearing that it’s just a service pack or not worth the $29 dollars and more recently I have been hearing that Microsoft is laughing at it’s imperfections. Hey Microsoft take a quick look at Windows 7 because it is far from perfect.

However this does not answer the question. Is Snow Leopard a big deal for all the Mac fanboys and fangirls or is it just some elaborate scheme to exploit money from the population to gain revenue and profit. Let’s admit Apple has been down some bumpy roads lately. Just look at the app store’s developer relations and you can see just a few potholes at 1 infinite loop.

I see no reason why Snow Leopard could not have been a free upgrade. Some even say the feature enhancements could have been delivered via software updates and the processes simplified by spanning it over a few months. I am sure that some would argue and say “Well the core architecture has changed and thus well worth the twenty-nine dollar upgrade.

Lets get serious! We are still far from perfecting the 64-bit model and even further from utilizing it’s full potential. When would a consumer ever need to allocate 2 exabytes of memory. As I see it this is the only real upgrade to Snow Leopard as most other upgrades were already offered via hacking or cracking Leopard or using 3rd party software.

Overall I see this as a pathetic attempt to either 1) Represent that they are still ahead of Microsoft by releasing an incremental upgrade before the launch of Windows 7. 2) Add long wanted features to a seemingly identical Operating System to gain a fair amount of profit (Five Million Copies * $29.99 = $66 million in revenue). Regardless I am highly disappointed in Snow Leopard and expected more from Apple.

If you are still debating on getting the upgrade. I would hold off until the 3rd party developers make better use of the 64-bit model and unleash the full power of Grand Central Dispatch.

Agree? Disagree? Leave your comments.

Geekologist.net has always been a very interesting project for me. I have learned many things about social networking, blogging, and connecting. So far with Geekologist I have been doing everything in my power to gain site hits and improve the overall “view” of the site in hopes to “strike it rich”. What I have learned is that you just can’t have a great looking site and a great content to become overwhelmingly popular.

My new approach is going to be more laid back and direct. I am going to post what I enjoy or cool things I find online that I would like to share. I am calling this venture Technobabble.

The site will still retain all it’s original posts and comments. I just feel it is about time I start just making content and stop thinking about “what is good”, “what is bad”, “what will get me the most hits”. In the end thinking like that just takes the fun out of it.