Jabber Services

Making your life easier

Please note that our Jabber server is currently in the trial stage. It might be unavailable at times, and connection details might change. We apologise for any inconviniences this will cause.

Dictionary

We provide an english dictionary service that uses dict.org. To use it, simply add dictbot_netsoc@tcdnetsoc.org to your contact list. To look up a word, send a single line containing define <word>. I.e., to look up a word "hinny", send a message define hinny to dictbot_netsoc@tcdnetsoc.org, and the definition will be sent back to you in a few seconds.

The dictionary allows using other options, like searching by parts of words, and using soundalike lookups. To get a full list of options, send help to the bot.

RSS Aggregator

RSS is an easy way for you to keep updated automatically on websites you like. Instead of you having to go to websites to see if they've written a new article or feature, you can use RSS (which stands for Really Simple Syndication) to get them to tell you every time they have something new.

Many regularly updated sites (such as news sites, blogs, etc.) provide RSS feeds (or channels) that contain information about latest content published on the site. Generally, you need to have a program called a News Reader to make use of RSS feeds. Netsoc provides a Jabber-based News Reader available on tcdnetsoc.org. Simply add rss_netsoc@tcdnetsoc.org to your contact list to be able to use it.

Then go to your favourite site and find a link to their RSS feed. Your should be able to find a feed by searching for "RSS" on it. Some sites might offer serveral RSS feeds with different content in them. When picking one, give preference to a "headlines" feed -- our RSS reader might not be compatible with the other types of feeds.

For example, on BBC News, you can find the RSS feeds by clicking on "RSS Version" link at the bottom of the site, and then picking an appropritate feed. We picked "News Front Page" feed.

Once you have a feed you want to subscribe to, simply open a chat to rss_netsoc@tcdnetsoc.org and send the following message: sub <feed url>. For example, we can issue a command sub http://news.bbc.co.uk/rss/newsonline_uk_edition/front_page/rss091.xml. Soon, you should start receiving alerts when the feed is updated.

You can see a list of feeds you're subscribed to by sending a list message to the bot. If you wish to unsubscribe from a feed, look up its number in the list output (it's at the beggining of each line, in square brackets) and issue a del <feed number> command, i.e. del 1.

You can see the entire list of commands you can use with the bot by sending it a help message.

Talk on Intersocs IRC Channel

You can talk on Intersocs IRC Channel from your Jabber client, if you are so inclined. Here we provide instructions on how to do this with Psi, your mileage with other Jabber clients might vary.

Choose "Service Discovery" from the Psi icon. Right-click on "IRC Gateway" line and choose "Join" in the menu. Leave host as intersocs.tcdnetsoc.org, enter #intersocs into the "room" field, and pick whatever nick you like. Then click "Join" and you're in. Note, that this will provide you with basic no-frills IRC support. None of the nicer options are supported. You can set up private chat people, however.

Netsoc Jabber service has been made possible thanks to help from Bytemark Hosting. Bytemark provides dedicated virtual Linux machines (that means you alone have root on your very own machine) at affordable prices. We wholeheartly recommend their service.