def connect(self):
        ''' activates the connection object '''

        if not HAVE_ZMQ:
            raise errors.AnsibleError("zmq is not installed")
        
        # this is rough/temporary and will likely be optimized later ...
        self.context = zmq.Context()
        socket = self.context.socket(zmq.REQ)
        addr = "tcp://%s:%s" % (self.host, self.port)
        socket.connect(addr)
        self.socket = socket    

        return self
activates the connection object