Posted on

Hide the annoying IRC bits in Xchat

I’m a big fan of Xchat (Windows version), an IRC client I’ve used for over a decade in Linux, Mac OS X and Windows. Here’s some tricks that you might find useful if you use IRC:

Hide the join/part/quit messages. If your IRC channel is busy you’ll know how annoying these are. The xkcd wiki has instructions for other IRC clients.

All channels: /set irc_conf_mode on
One channel: Right click on a channel, “Settings->Hide join/part messages” (src)

Hide the “UserX is known as UserY” messages. Users have scripts or use ZNC that will rename themselves when they go away or disconnect from the proxy. On a busy channel this can generate a huge amount of text.

Settings > advanced > text events

highlight “change nick”
in text box below, highlight that text and delete
press enter
click “ok” (src)

Many more tips here of course but I think the first tip above is the most useful, at least for me!

Posted on

Linux Ubuntu Dapper to Edgy – no problem

I upgraded my Ubuntu 6.06 install to the new Edgy soon after it’s release using the simple command gksu "update-manager -c". Several hours later, and after clicking on a few dialog boxes to update files in /etc/, I’m not running Ubuntu Edgy on my desktop box.

Initially I wondered where Firefox 2.0 was hiding, but on my upgraded system it’s /usb/bin/firefox.ubuntu so it’ll live alongside version 1.5. I also noticed that when saving files in the GIMP the filename would disappear when I clicked on a new folder in the “bookmark” folder of the Gnome file dialog. Once I noticed, ctrl-c to record the filename and ctrl-v to paste it in again worked fine. I rename my files when saving so it’s not much of a hardship.

My machine seems slightly faster but I haven’t delved too deeply into what has been upgraded but Firefox, xchat, terminal, GIMP and Gthumb all work fine! Did your upgrade go as well?