Installation of anything on text-based machines remains difficult. However, i hope this post will be of use to anyone out there. This short and incomplete guide helps you to to use dircproxy (a constant-online-tool for your constant-online-server) for IRC. Ingredients are macirssi, dircproxy and a linux box somewhere. Result: running macirrsi as you’ve always done, while always remaining online. Sounds good?

Although configuration options are limitless, most of the time you want to keep it simple. Here is the 4-step deal:

Installation of dircproxy

Installation of DircProxy for various common linux-platforms is a piece of cake. Just log into your machine and tell your package manager you want to use dircproxy. I can’t help you for that. But it might be something like:

apt-get install dircproxy

Telling dircproxy what servers to use

The dircproxy config file is located in your home directory: me@awesemebox:~# .dirproxyrc (where ~ is your home directory or username)

Dircproxy uses “connection classes”: little annoyances which we will get out of the way quickly. You need to know two things: the address of your server and a password. Server addresses are commonplace when connecting to an IRC server; therefore i’ll skip that subject and go straight to the password.

The password is something you create yourself. It is specified per connection: and has to be unique per connection. Just use something you’d remember, such as “OMFGQuakeNet” or something. This way you know what password belongs to what connection.

A strange thing with this password, is that it has to be stored “secure”. Therefore you have to run a script, accompanied with dircproxy that will convert your password into something unreadable. Try this:

dircproxy-crypt OMFGQuakeNet

Now specify your connection class at the bottom of the file. Like this:

connection {
   server "irc.quakenet.org"
   password "Go5XjCYTdnZOI"
}

That’s all. There is no need to specify channels, nicknames or any other thingy. You can leave your dircproxy configuration and log out of your unix machine. Or you could check out one of the gazillion options of the dircproxy configuration file and make it more secure. Whatever suits you best. I think i’m ready to connect macIrssi to the proxy. This will allow me to see what is going on in Quakenet.

Actually connecting to dircproxy

Configuring macIrssi is actually a two step process: the last remaining two steps. First you have to tell that you want to use a proxy. Second you have to add a password to your configuration file. I’m expecting you’re using macIrssi for quite a while, and connect to a lot of servers. You do not need to destroy or alter your configuration heavily.

Connecting to the proxy

While using macIrssi, type in the following commands in the console window.

/SET use_proxy ON
/SET proxy_address irc.bouncer.org
/SET proxy_port 5000
/SET proxy_string_after conn %s %d
/SET -clear proxy_string /SET -clear proxy_password

That was the first step. You’ve just set you wanted to use a proxy (or dircproxy) or whatever. Its okey now and please forget about these settings. Please Quit MacIrssi and continue.

Joining servers and channels

While MacIrssi has a great graphical userinterface, it is has no edit field for proxy-server passwords. I expect this to be resolved in some next version. Untill then, we have to look at another dull text-screen for a while.

Your macirssi configuration file is located at ~/irssi/config (where ~ is your username or home directory)

Open the macIrssi configuration file in any text editor and you’re ready to make the final adjustment. Its just adding one single line to your Quakenet server configuration and you’re done.

A strange thing, here, is that you have to enter your password non-encrypted. Just make a “password = ” section in your server config for the aprorpiate server. Then add your password. Like so:

{
address = "irc.quakenet.org";
chatnet = "ircquakenetorg";
password = "OMFGQuakeNet";
port = "6667";
use_ssl = "no";
ssl_verify = "no";
autoconnect = "yes";
},

Save the file and lets check if it works. Start macIrssi. Just wait a few seconds and… you’re connected to your favorite channels using your own nickname and settings. Enjoy!

References

1. http://www.irssi.org/documentation/startup (chapter 10)
2. http://code.google.com/p/dircproxy/wiki/HowtoConfigureClient
3. http://code.google.com/p/dircproxy/wiki/DircproxyInstallation
4. http://code.google.com/p/dircproxy/wiki/ManDircproxy (Verbose DircProxy Manual)
5. http://www.sysctl.co.uk/

The Stitch Liveshow is a weekly broadcast playing different musical genres each time. It’s not live, not a show, not weekly, not broadcasted and Stitch is fictional. Follow the Stitch Liveshow on Twitter.

HARDSTYLE: a blend happy of melodies and beats at 150 bpm, with 56 seconds of intro, 8 bars filled with anticipation and instant party time. Every song features the same keyboard, effects but different kicks. Its a contest to squeeze as much bass and sound into a song. Selecting a variety of tracks is possible, even though the majority follows the same format and style.

Early hardstyle sucked beyond belief. Tracks tend to build up until, at the moment of climaxing, a break kicks in. And here is what happened to me: I started to prepare to dance again, shouting… but instead of the whole room going batshit insane everybody stood there watching as I went totally mad. AWKWARD! This not only happened to me, thats why the format changed probably.

Todays hardstyle is reliable. No more anti-climaxes, so you can actually dance to it and lose your mind. Because the majority of the tracks follow the same format, its actually easy to decide if you like it. Do you like one track? Then you’ll like em all. Still it was hard to select the right tunes: I don’t want my set to become boring, and I do want to have some sort of progression in my mix. That happened. Enjoy your hardstyle.

Total playing time: 2:35:23 (> two and a half hour, ^^ mixing and recording seemed like 5 minutes)

Download

• uber fast Download: right click, save as. (sponsored by: vexocide.org)
• regular fast Mirror: right click, save as.

Filesize: 372,9 MB, 320 kbit.

Tracklist

1. Alphaverb – The Otherside (Original Mix)
2. Ivan Carsten – You Try To Play Me
3. Razor DJ – Feeling Inside (Original)
4. Abyss and Judge – Hardstyle Revolution (Showtek rmx)
5. Activator – Figalicious
6. Geck-O – Give Me Some Heat
7. Noisecontrollers – Surge Of Power
8. B-Front & Frontliner – Magic
9. Max Enforcer Feat. The Rush – Fade TO Black (Official Black 2010 Anthem)
10. Frontliner – Sunblast
11. Showtek ft MC DV8 – Electronic Stereo-Phonic
12. Activator – Move Your Feet
13. Zatox – Drop The Track
14. Bass Modulators – Nrgizer
15. Degos & Re-Done – Salsa
16. Max B. Grand & Djanny – Arancia Meccanica
17. Carniflex Ft. Tim – Forever Hard
18. Beat Providers – Abandoned
19. The Beholder & Max Enforcer – Be Amazed (Hard Bass 2009 Anthem)
20. B-Front & Frontliner – Become The Sky
21. Digital Punk & MC Jeff – Keep It Bouncing
22. Ruhann – Don’t Be Afraid
23. Geck-O – Instant Fame
24. Hardstyle Masterz vs Max Enforcer – Rambo Is A Pussy
25. DJ Thera – The Test 2.0 (Crypsis Remix)
26. Technoboy meets Ruffian – The Undersound
27. Miss Tess-X – X-Love (Original Mix)
28. Frontliner & B-Front – Godz Powerrr!
29. Grandmaster Q – Dwarf
30. Josh & Wesz – Lipservice Radio
31. Gostosa – Sutra
32. Noizecontrollers And Toneshifterz – Empire Of The Sun
33. Dozer – Robin’s Revenge
34. Vyolet – Magic
35. Robin Clark – Wiseman
36. Joshua Hiroshy – Endovene (Stitch Totally Fucked Up Mix)