I couldn’t find any relevant documentation in regards to installing irssi on Mac OS X, so I thought I’d post some instructions for future reference and to assist any of those out there that wish to try irssi. For those that don’t know, irssi is a powerful text-based IRC client that can be run on Unix-like systems which include the likes of Mac OS X and its BSD counterparts, as well as distributions powered by the Linux kernel. The most useful feature - in my opinion - is the irssi-proxy function which allows for irssi to be run on a server inside GNU Screen (to act as a daemon and maintain a consistent IRC connection), acting as a bouncer/proxy for other clients to connect. In other words, say you had a iPhone or another Mac with an IRC client; you could configure these clients to connect to the proxy, and it would act as one consistent IRC session. If you were to disconnect either of the clients, the server providing the irssi-proxy would continue to be connected to IRC. Plugins can also be installed to even allow for backlogs, making this setup extremely powerful and useful. But enough of talking about it, let’s install it!

Few, if any formats, have lasted as long as the humble gramophone record. Even with the entry into mainstream by modern devices such as the iPod, the record has maintained a foothold with disc jockeys and young students, like myself. While compact disc sales have stayed in a steady decline over the past decade, sales of records have grown steadily, with the format refusing to die. The fact is, vinyl records are here to stay.

Personally, vinyl records are my format of choice. I have a large collection of records in my room with my turntable and vintage hi-fi stereo. While I’m out on the go, I’m like everyone else – I use an iPod. With this setup, I have the experience of vinyl at home, and out on the go I have my library with me in a totally accessible format. The trend recently when purchasing new vinyl records is that they usually come with a free MP3 download of the same album – there are a few catches though.

Of all of the bundled MP3 offers I have seen with records, the offer is only available in the United States, even if the same record was sold in another country, such as Australia or the United Kingdom. If you can redeem the offer, the downloads are usually only of 256 Kbit/s quality – good enough for most people, yet not for all. And if you buy a second-hand record, or a new record without a MP3 copy bundled, you don’t have a digital copy for your iPod. Yes, you can quickly download a copy off a BitTorrent site (not that I condone that), or legally, you can download it off iTunes, but some bands only release a vinyl copy, or it may be a rare record. In these cases, you’ll have to digitize it, and luckily, it’s not hard.