h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Not Alambama in particular, more of the whole of the bomb-happy U.S.

I don't think Bomb happy is the right term, as they are not going out blowing things up. I thing trigger happy is a closer description.

But then I wouldn't classify the whole of the US as trigger happy either, I have met a lot of people from the States that are unhappy with Guns, gun laws and government policies overseas especially in the middle east.

I agree with that which is why I said the bomb happy America. Not the whole of America. Do you get bbc2(wales)

Don't get Welsh TV, am in bedfordshire so not much in regional (although I missed BBC Scotland last year and the live footie)

Why?

At this very moment theres a program about America and what the world thinks of it. Go on the bbc site/ america. It might be on english tv. Its worth a look.

The Alabama 3 are an excellent band. But then, they're from Glasgow. And there are not 3 of them.

Jim Lynn chose the name of Brunel because of the rivets, and if I remember correctly he chose Alabaster too. It's our own fault, for not picking one ourselves before he had to call them something to add to the drop down menu.

I assume that the chap (Jack) who invented Goo called it that, but we believe that it was the first Goo-ey GUI on the internet.

When Plain goes official could you get Jim to call it something beginning with D?

A - labaster
B - runel
C - lassic Goo
D - ?

Dull? Drab?

Daring! (set your own stylesheet)
Dangerous! (putting garbage in the stylesheet box breaks it)

Digibox?

Dreamy?

"Jim Lynn chose the name of Brunel because of the rivets, and if I remember correctly he chose Alabaster too."

This is true, sort of. I named it Brunel because it needed a name during development, and I thought Brunel worked because of the rivets. It was also suitably short - an important consideration for anything that's going to appear in a URL. The name stuck so we didn't try and think of another one.

Alabaster started life as 'Corporate' but needed a decent name so we had a straw poll in the office, lots of suggestions were made (my other one was Porcelain) and Alabaster was chosen. It's supposed to suggest white because of the contrast with the blue of goo. But, I have to confess, since I wasn't a big fan of the new skin (or the reasons for having it) my two suggestions were also peripherally related to toilets.

Goo didn't have an official name, because it started before we could do skins properly, but as far as I can remember, it was always referred to as Goo right from the initial concept - which involved Sean pouring the contents of a jar of 'Dinosaur Goo' artfully on a sheet of paper and photographing it. We used that as the raw concept, then Doctor Jack went away and played about with various tools, eventually coming up with the design we all know and love. But it was always referred to as Goo, almost by consensus. It's called 'Classic' in the URL simply because I thought goo was just a little too silly for a real name, so I did what every manufacturer does when they radically change their core product - call the old one Classic.

Wow. You have the same name as the guy that made the names for... Oh right. Thanks for that, its helped alot.

>>But, I have to confess, since I wasn't a big fan of the new skin (or the reasons for having it)

What reasons if you don't mind me asking?

I use alabaster because it is the most similar to everything else on my computer, so when I looked at the skins at first the rest of them hurt my eyes

I use Brunel bacause it's the only one I have any clue as to where the name comes from (before yesterday). Although time is an illusion and I have no evidence of it happening.

"What reasons if you don't mind me asking?"

It was felt that if our site looked a little more like every other site on the internet, we might be able to attract more investment. I naively assumed that being distinctive was an advantage...

I hate the wa people use words I can't understand.

That's interesting. Since the BBC, you don't need investments, eh? Then I don't suppose you'll need a new skin

I thought Brunel was post-BBC anyway...

Plain definitely is, however much Jim claims it's not a "real" skin.

The site's been around for, what, three and a half years? I think four skins in that time is pretty good. Perhaps aiming for one skin a year would be nice.

Well plain has other clear advantages (LD, Digibox), so I didn't mention them.

Brunel is post-BBC?

Oh, there are many and various reasons why people might want a new skin. When we joined the BBC, they accepted the existing site designs with gritted teeth, so we promised to create a new skin that more closely adhered to the BBC's style guidelines. The result was Brunel.