In-system chat

[nfreader]

Like IRC. Messages persist as long as a pilot is in the system.

[nfreader]

THE WRONG WAY:
Ping a PHP script with jQuery ($.load on a timeout), that PHP script will execute a db query for any new messages. Our jQuery bit will append any messages to the message log.

THE RIGHT WAY:
Separate application, js templates, one o-dem fancy nosql engines.

[nfreader]

However, the first way could be used to populate the notification bar. The question is how resource intensive it is to do a DB query (every second * every active session).