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

Hmmmm, Bruce after reading your stuff on strictXML I didn't think that a, javascript was going to be allowed any more and b, you couldn't put code comments in any more either. Not that I do either . Oh and I prefer the numbers as you know what you see is what you get, not what the system designer thought to call pink or orange

Telegrams were stopped here years ago. I think you still can get the moden equivalent a telemessage, but goodness knows how.

*wanders in and picks up all his CC's that he has left recently. grabs a comfy chair and sits down*
Hello all, any tea left in the pot Lil?
I just noticed something about the Users popup window, it is now in ascending researcher number, so that I nearly always appear at the top, due to my unfeasibly low number(relatively)

Sorry to dissapoint, but I've just gone to http://www.h2g2.com/online at 22:45GMT on 2000-06-08 and you're at the bottom of the list Babel! with someone listed as new this week at the top

Well it's nice to have everybody back. Even if the nephew won't be back till Monday.
*checks pot* Urgh! Creosote!
*goes to kitchen to make more* I'd like a fresh cup myself.

Looney, Brills Content is a magazine about journalism, both paper, tv, radio and e. Check out http://www.brillscontent.com and see what you think. I read it all the way through and it is a substantial monthly, large format. The bias is toward American journalism, of course, but foreign correspondence gets full treatment. And even if you don't know the subject in question, like presenter Bryant Gumbel in the latest issue, the material is informative, interesting and even dishy.

*brings back fresh tea and donuts fetched in by Sad Ampton*

On my way

Ok, Phil, I see it is back to normal again
So Garius wasn't able to do much for Ampton when he took him down to the lab earlier, then Lil? Oh well. Sad faces all round then.

Ampton was only just recently recalibrated by Affi a week or so ago after the Mindspring affair, and maybe Garius doesn't know how Affi wants him equilibriated, or how how his declinations should be metabulated. More tea?

Brill's looks interesting Lil. I will check it out later when I am not (allegedly) working. Do you subscribe to it?

I can answer one of the questions being asked on the site. Can online journalism make money? Yes, when the media companies buy the telecoms.

I especially liked this bit.
A note to our readers:
Brillscontent.com is undergoing reconstructive surgery. Join our mailing list and we'll e-mail with site updates. (Sorry for the old-school technology.)

Babel, I think we are all concerned about Ampton. Wrings hands.

Tea yes, definately! if there is one thing that stays the same around here, it's the fact that I can get a decent cup of tea, whenever I drop by here And look...*does the old 'and as if by magic'*...I brought you a special packet of Kit-kats, they are orange flavoured and quite yummy!

I do indeed subscribe. This is the magazine whose premier issue exposed Kenneth Starr leaking infobits to the press. Stellar start! They have an independent ombudsman who examines the previous issue for shortcomings and reports in full, and the meatiest letters section you ever saw.

Anybody see Gargleblaster around today?
*sigh* my POP3 server is timing out again. My ISP have no idea why, but they're working on it anyway. *imagines circle of gurus with long beards, looking concerned*

Lil sez;
*sigh* my POP3 server is timing out again. My ISP have no idea why, but they're working on it anyway. *imagines circle of gurus with long beards, looking concerned*

I sez;
I imaginge a bunch of guys arguing first over who's turn it is to get the pizza in, second who changed the server config and third how to fix it.



Hope that whatever they do works soon for you. Will call back later.

LOL!

But I'm reminded of sad news. Jeff MacNelly, one of America's best contemporary political cartoonists died this morning of a heart attack at age 52. One of the characters in his comic strip was a computer techie, who always wore a pointed hat and a robe with moons and stars all over it.

My stuff on strict XML & javascript?? - I think you've mistaken me for Mark Moxon @ http://www.h2g2.com/A355547

Though h2g2 has plans to disable javascript it hasn't happened yet. When it does the script colour trick will stop working - whether or not you use hex colour values. My guess is that font colour attributes will disappear about the same time.

Code comments - it's comments within comments that screw up. In particular the '-' character inside a comment. I like comments - but then I spend a bunch of time looking at other peoples code when it blows up

Hex colour values - cool - I don't like posting an explanation of relative RGB colour values & the hexadecimal number system so I stick to easy to understand examples in case any novices are reading - those who know what they're doing know about the hex numbers & can substitute them. And the problem raised was about setting the background colour to "gold" rather than #8B7500, #CDAD00, #EEC900 or #FFD700 ...

have fun
;^)#
Anyone want to debate the comment "what you see is what you get, not what the system designer thought to call pink or orange" in regard to the technicalities of colour matching on 'puter monitors - starting with the relative luminosity RBG x & y phosphor values, hardware whitepoint measurement, the effects of ambient light & adjusted whitepoint values, individual RGB gamma values, not to mention the contrast & colour saturation settings & ranges on your monitor?
I think the system designer still gets a fair say in what colour you see

Well, after that I think I will go and lie down for about 8 hours.
Night all

Somebody looking for me?

Well, armed with Bruce's telegram, I'll be off corrupting my homepage. As I've said, I think the new skin is rather unattractive, but I keep it because it is so much more sensibly laid out than the classic goo. Anyway, I have to give more color to my homepage now... cure that corporate look. I'm afraid it'll probably look pretty ugly with the classic goo wrapped around it, but there's no way to make it universally pretty, and I have to see it more than y'all do, so it'll look best in alabastard (nice name, there).

I surrender.

It is fundamentally impossible to create a look that is halfway legible in both skins. I think they designed it that way on purpose. If I lay down a light-colored background, then everything disappears off my homepage in Classic that I don't directly control: my user name, all my forum descriptions, article names, etc. Lay down a dark one, and the same thing happens in alabastard. I'm staying with the alabaster only because of the convenient way they arrange things... but wouldn't it have been so much nicer if they could've rearranged things and still kept the old color scheme? Sigh...

We'll have to wait for further colour scemes to come along. And I'll work through all my existing graphics to make them more background independent. Shame. I liked having them "embedded" with wide fades.

Bruce's list of colour vagaries doesn't include the degree of slope of one's notebook screen... Well, the Italics have a point. It's one thing when the users want total autonomy over the content of their user pages, and be able to do anything they want, but then when the same users start bitching because their tricks don't work right...

Tomorrow I'll clean up my own code some more on my user page -- gotta convert the yellow text to green or something. And put Redbeard's fine graphic down.

Well, I got rid of all my colored text, and put in those stupid s to seperate things. It's fine for a Guide page, but its not what I wanted to do with my homepage. Oh well, I'll quit bitching about it now...

Well if you can't bitch among friends, where can you?
I have a third set of mugs ready to put up, will do it tomorrow. And then I go to work on the Atelier page. Much to do.

By the way GB, do you have a personal mug?

*begins to clean down IIEM and change filters*
I'll be off for the evening then, I think.
*gives counter a final wipe, makes sure that cake remains and leftover buns are in the coldcase*

See y'all tomorrow!

Well, it had to happen, the way I've been posting and posting. It's after midnight and I've been painting for several hours till my eyes are nearly crossed ... and I got my fora switched. Come to think of it, I don't know whether you've ever been to the cafe, Gargleblaster.

*calls CONTINUITY ALERT down on herself* Right. There is no IIEM or coldcase in this thread. *Pulls curtains*

But really, good night and not before time. I'm not ready to have Ook in here.