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

Questions of the universe: Shawn, why is your planet spinning so quickly? And why do the thingies that you call "puddings" resemble chocolate chip cookies with grass on their heads? Hmmmmm

OK, why does the planet spin so quickly...? Because money makes the world go round and HSBC accidentally paying £2000 into the Visa and Mastercard accounts have set it off at a fair rate of knots.

As for the Christmas puds... that's what us English types call biscuits with grass on them. It's a Limey delicacy.

Mmmmmmmmm.

Ah, yes, the English WILL make a pudding (or a pie) out of anything. So, how do you get the little pudding graphic, then?

Just put this line of text inbetween the paragraph you want. To get the gif to scroll, use the marquee instruction. the "/marquee" at the end stops everything else after it from scrolling too... so any text you put in will scroll too... so I've put a "merry xmas" message in, but you could put anything in there.
Have a very Merry Christmas from billypilgrim's home from home...

...your message here, which will follow the puddings along...


Copy and paste the above.

Ahh, but will my piddly little computer from the dark ages be able to process that...? (what sarcasm?)

Aw, hon. I think you need to upgrade your web browser. Time to log onto Netscape and get the new version of thingy for Mac (is it Navigator or Communicator) so you can see things in format.

Yes... join us...

Hey Billypilgrim, are you dissing my puddin'? huh? huh?

It's bizarre, I thought the marquee tag only works in Netscape. Well, I'm using IE and it's working alright. Wiiierrd. Perhaps Microsoft have got their act together.

YOU MENTIONED THE DARK LORD!!! Save us all.... Well, I'll stay faithful to my Mac and Netscape Navigator, puddins or no puddins. Erm, and by the way... who are you?

Who am I? I don't know. I just keep randomly appearing in strange places.
Oh yeah I remember. I'm the geezer that drew the pudding smiley. Among others. Feel free to nick them.
I'm nearly converted to the Mac myself to tell the truth... my PC has been randomly resetting itself without any warning all night. And the only reason why I use IE is that Netscape has compatability problems in Windows. M*******t are taking over my PC!! AAaaarghh!!!
*Chokes and dies*

Just checked out your home page, and I can see that you are a lot more into this computer thing than I am. Ah, well. If you need someone to convert you back from the dark side, I'm your woman. The Mac is all-around a better system, I think. Doesn't crash much (although some web sites will bring it down.) There can be a problem getting software, if you're into gaming or whatnot, I suppose. And they are a bit more expensive. But the new G4 chip (I have a G3 myself) is supposed to make the Pentium III look like your dad's hand-held calculator. Plus, they have all those funky commercials.... And mine talks to me in a dozen different voices, if I want it to. Which I don't, cuz it's freaky.

ARGH !!! NO GAMES !!!

(Faints on floor and waits for Mac game support...)

I intend to get an AMD chip for my computer as soon as I can, because they are:
1. More powerful than Intel chips.
2. About one quarter of the price.
3. More reliable.
4. Have better 3D support.

Either that, or shoot my computer and get a Mac and a Dreamcast. Hmm... I could live with that... probably a bit on the expensive side though.

Isn't DNA meant to be mad about Macs?

(Oh, Shawn, stop being so melodramatic. )

And to Ian.... Who, what where...? Pardon my cluelessness, but what is DNA (well, other than the stuff that makes us tick.)

I say shoot your PC and get a Mac. The ATI Rage graphics card is supposed to beat the Voodoo Card hands-down, and rumor has it that the gamers are getting back on board with Mac because of it. The thing you must remember when looking at Macs is that you can't directly compare the speed in Mhz to a PC. Mac apps tend to use a lot less RAM to do the same things. They tend to be cleaner and tighter and therefore faster, so a PC that looks by the specs to be much faster than a Mac may in fact be slower.

And now I sound like I know what I'm talking about, and I really don't. Honest. Shawn is much more of a tech-head than I am, but he is a PC fan, God bless him. (sigh) Can I help it if he's been misled?

I went for PC because of the games (I got rid of a PlayStation because of it) but I see Quake 3: Arena is out for Mac too...

...but Linux is a tighter OS than MacOS. It supports 3D card acceleration too. Maybe one day we will all live in peace and harmony with our computers, and the world will live in a clean -[two hours later]- and that's what I think.

What was the subject again...?

DNA: Douglas Noel Adams, the demi-god of this site.
I swapped an ATI Rage card for a Voodoo 3 card in my PC...
not so high resolution, but much better 3D capabilities.
However, I assume that the Mac ATI Rage card you mentioned is a later and better version than the one I had.

I'm not much of a gamer, so I wouldn't know. And now that you mention it, I believe Douglas Adams spoke at one of the big Mac Expos about a year ago. Yes, cuz I recall forwarding the article about it to Shawn, since I know he's a Douglas Adams fan, and I was trying to convert him over from the Dark Side at the time.

I've been thinking about computers a lot in the last few days... and I've decided that when I've saved enough money I'm going to buy an iMac DV (or whatever those letters are). It looks very nice and helpful. I'll use it for my internet connection, video and image editing, and watching DVD movies; and use my PC for everything else. (programming, games, etc.)
However I don't know anyone in real life who uses an iMac. Does anyone here? Are they worth it?
I don't even know what this forum is meant to be about. I bet it's not iMacs though.

OK, the forum was set up after I visited the Buddhist temple on Lantau Island last year (near Hong Kong) and Beth recommended "The Tao Of Pooh And The Te Of Piglet" (a really good book). I always considered myself a humanist and Taoism reinforces my thoughts. No God, no need for wars, just like John Lennon said. It's what I believe but I was putting across the idea that you believe what's comfortable for you and that's fine as long as you don't persecute anyone. Just think of all that wise stuff Confucious said, and that's what it's all about.

As for the DV... it stands for Digital Video. Mac have released the iMac DV-SE (special edition) with 64 Megs of SDRAM, better USB and Firewire support and lovely clear design. The extra RAM you buy fits into an easily accessed panel on the monitor. I wouldn't mind one myself. The standard DV only has 32MB of RAM, so it's worth paying that extra. Maybe in a few years when they bring one out with the GeForce ATI card inside. Mmmmmmmm... nice.

Macs are friendly, as a rule. They even smile at you every day when you turn them on (the "Happy Mac" icon lets you know all your extensions are loading properly; you don't want to see "Sad Mac and the Chimes of Doom", and fortunately I never have.

My father has an iMac, but just the little basic one. It's very fast (the Mac OS is quite quick) and chipper. I only know what I've read in the reviews about the DV one. Does it have the G4 chip? That's supposed to be superfast.

Two drawbacks w/ the iMac: you're sort of stuck with a small monitor (although I'm sure you could hook a second monitor,which would probably be helpful for video editing. You could run your toolbar off the one, and have the complete image on the other. At least, that's what my friend Gus the graphic designer does with his Mac.) And the little round mouse is a pain in the ass. You could always buy a different mouse, of course. It can also be difficult to find software and peripherals for Macs, but of course you can order on-line and have it at your door in two days.

Why not go all out and by a G4 minitower? Well, except for the obvious drawback of price... check out http://www.apple.com/ for all the details.