What does the IRC thingy do?

The IRC portion of the game is pretty much the same as a stand-alone IRC client - to chat over IRC.

It has limited functionality, but if you have a quick question about the game it can be your best bet if somebody's around. If you want you can also connect with a real IRC client to irc.ambrosia.net channel #uplink.

If I'm there, you'll generally find out

Quote

kickme: AAH! THEY'RE TRACING YOUR COMPUTER!!!