The network is Freenode (chat.freenode.net), while our room is #boingboing.
To connect you’ll need an “IRC Client,” dozens of which are available for almost every computing platform, including mIRC, Trillian, and X-Chat 2 for Windows; X-Chat Aqua and Colloquy on OS X; and IRSSI and other favorites on Linux and other UNIXish environments. You can also use the Chatzilla plug-in for Firefox or simply use the Freenode java applet to connect.
To register your nickname, which gives you the ability to send private messages and reserve your name from use by others, type “/msg NickServ register [choose a password]” when connected to the Freenode server. Don’t share your password with anyone!
To wonder if IRC is an antiquated old protocol far past its prime, consider that Douglas Rushkoff was lamenting its death in ’96. Boing Boing Gadgets loves to serve you Yesterday’s Future Today!
Is the next step in future retro Majordomo mail expert systems? Perhaps boingboing still have theirs lying around, waiting to tell you about schwa, burning man or FSOL
IRC is dead like UseNet. Oh wait….
Dingo, funny enough, FSOL’s still putting out albums and Burning Man is bigger than ever. So you might be right!
Everybody always seems to forget that Opera has an IRC client built in. No hassling with plugins for Firef*x or even stand-alone applications. It is just there and works like a charm.