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

Good luck, sea! Hi, Professor! Let's have a Phil, and brace ourselves for the New Year!

Sea, in New Zealand you can read if you have gained acceptance to university courses via the Internet. When you apply you are issued with a pin number that enables you to access your private information on the universities website. All national exam results (not just universities) are posted and accessed in the same way. Written confirmation is still posted out in the normal way as well.

I guess America is not as wired as it likes to think it is. I won't mention election technology and Florida

...the few people without web access can ring an 0900 number and access the information in the same way - by using their pin number.

*sea wishes she lived in new zealand*

[sea] actually, i've heard a lot of good things about new zealand: beautiful area, terrific schools.... i might consider living there someday.

*sea pauses and thinks for a moment*

[sea] what is the national language there?

The same as yours without out the American accent - think educated Australian. The native Maori language is undergoing a bit of a rennaisance - in much the same way as the Welsh language in Wales.

Hullo, everyone! Sorry for being off-line for so long!

I fear that I didn't have time to shop for everyone here. Instead, I brought homemade pies. I've got an apple, a pumpkin, a pecan and a lovely southwestern mincemeat E made.

Hope you all had a lovely holiday!

And, sea, I hope that you hear soon. I can remember how nervous I was waiting for my acceptance letter. I'm sure that you'll get in.

G7

I call dibs on a slice of peecan pie!

*goes into the kitchen and starts cutting the pie.*

G7

A sailor. Cap'n Flytrap, the sign on the boat said.

Professor, don't forget your onyx goblets!

Is there a hear-by date, sea, after which you can stop twitching?

*out in the garden one can hear the sound of bells, as a gust of wind blows the snow into the air*

Geeks and Geekesses, I have a web question. A question about publishing one's website. This question is evidently so elementary that I cannot find it as a topic or FAQ question anywhere.

I have finished creating a set of webpages in Dreamweaver. I am ready to publish them, inadequate as they may be. Refinements can come later. Password and User ID are all set up, ftp host has been entered. I have my own domain name. I am now paying to have it hosted by Mindspring. So what's the destination for my pages? The way the book describes it, I think they must be referring to having a bit of free webspace from one's ISP. They say that the host directory will be /www.

Well, will it, even when you have your own domain? Does the www directory automatically already exist, from when I started paying for web hosting? Is my domain a thing or a concept? Should philosophy majors do web design? I can't do anything until I understand how this works. They call me a slow learner.

*sea has no idea what lil is talking about as to the web thing, so she'll just reply to earlier questions*

[sea] lil: there is no official hear-by date, but i think the traditional time period is two months from the application deadline (which was nov 15). gwe7n: thank you for the confidence... i really hope i get in, since NYU is my first choice college! loony: so new zealanders have accents like australians? cool! i am totally moving there someday... i LOVE guys with foreign accents, and austrailian ones are very sexy!!! (yes, horomone-enraged teenager talking! so what!)

FLAP FLAPP

Huh! New door.

*scurries under a sofa, looks around red eyes glowing*

I want some eggnog.

{[B17]}

Morning, Styx...good to see you!

Cap'n Flytrap, eh? A pirate, do you suppose? If Violets' diet is not monitored, she may become HUGE! *ox imagines a long ship totally covered with vines and toothy blooms sailing silently under a full moon*

/* Suddenly appears, summoned by the existential web crisis (does this make me a geek?) */

The directory may be called "www", but they could call anything they like. Often it is called "public_html". Easiest thing to do is leave that bit blank for now, click the connect button and you will see the files and directories that are in your "home" directory - one of them should be the right one and it should have a name that makes sense. Once you know what it is, fill in the name in the box you left blank before. Mindspring should also have provided you with specific directions, somewhere.

Well, now that I'm here, can I help myself to some eggnog?

*Lil personally pours d'Elaphant some eggnog, sprinkles it with fresh ground nutmeg and sets it before him. She does the same for Styx. Zeppo, meanwhile, has flopped down companionably with the unau and blue orangutang*

Mindspring said www. But my problem was, I thought they were talking about personal web spaces. And your answer suggests to me that I am getting close to what will answer my underlying question. Is it the case then, that, whether it's personal web pages or a proper myname.com, the structure is the same?

What does it say about my understanding of the net if I didn't assume that to begin with, I wonder. Matina, may I have some tea and whatever you've baked that smells so good. Ah, mbougatses with some of Looney's apples! d'Elaphant, please try one. It is nice of you to visit at last!

ox, it was a ferry or excursion boat of some kind on the main river that runs into h2g2 proper, the downtown part. I'm not sure it was for humans, cos it was at a dock that may have been used by those rat-ants.

It is done.

[URL removed by moderator]
Expect it to change as constructive criticisms roll in!

*Lil goes off to finally get something to eat*

*includes Zeppo in group cuddle*

*falls asleep, surrounded by Springie, Ook, Dio and Zeppo*

Lil, I love the site! I like that anonymous water color about the boats. Wait, it was water color, right? I must admit that I'm not much of an artist or art expert, but I liked the page.

Although, I couldn't read some of the stuff. Some of the pictures or words are in the same place as each other making them a bit difficult to see. Other than that, though, it's a great page. One of these days I'm actually going to bother to...

*Looks around, and gulps*

Okay, I'll admit it. I don't know HTML. Sue me.

BTW, speaking of art, I've got some presents for everyone...

*Affy pushes some buttons on his watch, and several worker droids come up the lift carrying a crate. Affy opens the crate, and pulls out several famous paintings: The Mona Lisa, The Rock, various pictures of melting clocks, dogs playing poker, what appears to be a velvet Elvis, a few mechanical sketches of Leonardo DeVinci, Starry Night, some of Monet's Water Lilies, and many others. Affy grins*

I call 'em the "Multi-Production Artwork Players". The MPAPs are exact reproductions of famous paintings and sketches, with one big advancement. Look here...

*Affy points at a few simple buttons and data ports on the frame of the paintings*

These paintings are the most advanced holigrams open to the public at this point in time. You can upload and play any painting you wish. Just look...

*Affy pushes an arrow shaped button on a picture of Water Lillies under a bridge, and it rapidly changes to a radical lookin Picasso*

Anyway, I've got one for everyone. I know they aren't really fancy, and that they don't currently have many paintings loaded into them, but they're fun to have around the house. Oh, and you'll find a digital camera attached to all of them. You can use this to take a non-flash photo of any piece of art you would like to display in the frame, and the connect it to the data port to upload it. Anyway, here they are. Hope you like 'em.

*Walks out, pausing just long enough to hand an Illumynite crystal carved in the shape of a bird to Chloe*

Couldn't read some of the stuff? Aha! Something I did not check for was how it looked in different resolutions. I bet I need to convert all the frames to tables or something.

Affi, this is quite something! *inspecting frame and watching as a Goya is followed by a Renoir* I think that would best go at the top of the gallery. Actually *as the worker bots pick up Lil's gift and carry it round the corner* this would be exactly the right kind of thing to use in my gallery reorganisation. Have each contributor select a thumbnail that will initialise the frame...

*Chloe, meanwhile, has gone off to her little room with the illuminyte bird*