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

you might or might not know that a lot or researchers get to H2G2 useing a digibox,
this is useing E-MAIL on the TV cable box instead of a PC
our bigest problem is that the memery on the digibox is very small so we can not get into long conversations ( normaly 15 posts at the most )
but we have got around this by trying to use the 360 skin,
but it soon changes back to the H2G2 skin

This what I whant to know

how many of you will be willing to put

CLICK HERE TO SEE THIS PAGE IN 360
With the Uxxxxxx being Your own number


on your page so we can visit your page and join in some of the conversations
you can change the size and the colour
but you get the jist of the code

it wont take up much room on your page
But it will make a big differencs to us who use the digibox

if you will do it for us then if you could tell us here >> A849134 so we know whos box is digibox friendly, we would be very greatfull

thank you

manda

BTW emmily, know we can get here

er why not use the plain text version? For example http://www.bbc.co.uk/cgi-bin/education/betsie/parser.pl/0005/www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/F19585?thread=217110&skip=0&show=20 Is the link to this thread. OK it is a longer URL, initially and uses frames but once you're in surely it is just a matter of following the links? CH

Not sure I got that link right, as normally it doesn't have frames at all, but there is an option in the new skin to view as text only.

CH

Ar! Further experimentation indicates it don't like my "frames" setting under my normal Goo preferences.

Apart from that it all works fine, I keep meaning to try it on my Psion (again limited memory, no hard drive etc)

CH

Hmm, nice idea One problem with that though is that mine, and probably quite a few peoples now, pages are completely different in different skins.... if you look at my page using 360 you loose all the H2G2 info and just get a brief intro, which was basically done to avoid confusing the heck out of anyone from another DNA site who happened to stumble across my page....


Having said that, in the top, left hand corner of each page when using Brunel there is a line of text which says "Text only"... Have you tried that?

hi...

i've just tried the "text only" thingy... doesn't work for digiboxes as expected...

the ONLY way for digibox users to access every conversations they want is by using 360 or alternatively dna/hub...

if not, they can only access conversations with up to 15 posts [if they're lucky]... and that's if they haven't given up unplugging the machine everytime they get a frozen screen...

BTW with 360 and/or dna/hub and their preferences on frames the risk of frozen screen is drastically reduced too...

the fact that, if we use the 360 skins, it might change the intro of some of the spaces we want to access the conversations from is not a problem; we use the 360 trick to access conversations from a page which we have already viewed in one of h2g2 skins...

it might be also a good thing for ACEs and GURUs to add a digibox friendly link on their space as it will be easier for digibox users to access their conversations...

on a more personal note it's nice to see a PC user's space with the 360 link... it's a friendly touch towards digibox users... and with the emminent changes in LeisureDistrict there will be more digibox users in need of a new virtual home very soon... and being able or not to access all conversations might make THE difference between them staying and contributing to h2g2 or just being discouraged and not staying...

i hope i haven't been rude butting in this way but i do feel that it would be a shame that more digibox users give up because of this problem stopping them to enjoy this site fully when it could actually be prevented...

all the best...

loup

Can you not switch to 360 on any page by typing 360 instead of h2g2 in the Address? Is there an address on the screen in digibox mode? That way you the digibox user have control.

I'd just like to add, please don't think any of us are anti-digibox users... just the opposite, we're just trying to find another solution for you which doesn't involve having to try to get hundreds of researchers to change their personal spaces


whisky

Hi Gnomon
there is no address bar on a digibox cannot even cut and paste,the only thing we can do on the digibox is Click on things

Hi Whisky
we dont think you are anti-digibox and the more sujestions the better,one of them might turn out tb be the final answer to all our problems
but up to yet the best way ( but it is slow and frustrating ) is to use the 360 trick

manda

You remembered that this time Manda

Before I was blessed with getting this pc....one suggestion to help digibox users..was to have 10 posts per page instead of 20..that never happened..
Since the new smileys have been added..I've noticed my digibox tends to crash when I go to smiley page..I keep meaning to do a 30 second unplug..to ensure memory is at maximum..&..see if it still happens..do you know if the smiley page is causing digiboxes to crash?..

Emmily

Hi Whiskey....
have some ..........I think that's what I drove you to the last time we had conversation about digiboxes and what they can do....

Emmily

I remember it well....


I don't suppose you can create Javascript commands on them either?

Jims old 'Make it Goo' button would have been ideal here with a little adjustment

javascript:{var%20s;%20s=location.href;%20location.href=s.replace(/\/h2g2\//i,'/360/');}

If there was someway of turning that into a button on a digibox browser you'd be laughing!

hi again...

i can understand what you mean but how are we going to explain that to newbies?!... it's hard enough for a newbie who is a PC user to get to grip with the system, but for one who came here through a digibox it's even worse...

i've seen many researchers putting in their space some links they think will be useful to the new ones... THIS one would also be very useful and it would help making h2g2 more a digibox friendly environment than it is at the moment [which it isn't anyway...]...

we could go back to some arguements i read about the fact that the yikes button doesn't work for digibox users if you want but that would not solve anything...

at the end of the day it has to be up to the researchers if they want to add the link to their space or not but they cannot make that decision unless they know about the digibox users problem first, so we still need your help to make them aware of it...

thanks for your time...

loup

emmily: when i access conversations with 360 and my preferences on frames i rarely crash...

talk later....

loup

Uh, why not get the Eds to introduce the 360 skin (or the hub skin) as a selectable h2g2 skin (along with Brunel, Alabaster and the God-like Goo?
Can't think that that would be too much of a problem as that is an official DNA skin.

Then you just set your preferences to the 360/hub skin and everything is fine.

If people do decide to put a link on their home page, they shouldn't use the code give in the 1st Posting, because those FONT tags are not recommended. FONT doesn't work on all browsers, and changing the colour can lead to illegible text in some skins. You just put a link and leave the skin to sort out what colour it turns up as.

HI Loup....
It's not a problem for me anymore....I simply use pc access for long conversations..I just wondered if the smiley page was a common problem..you and manda communicate most with digibox users so I figured you would know....

Emmily

I've put that question to the h2g2 feedback page
F615?thread=217333

This next post may sound like I'm trying to wriggle out of the problem, but I'm not really,I'm just trying to offer a few choices and hopefully improve things for you...

When people get WebTV settop boxes, are they advertised as giving internet access?... If so, you have a fairly large group of people already here using H2G2 who have been sold something that, from where I'm standing, appears not to be suitable for the job for which it was sold... which I reckon is a breach of consumer regulations... Why not try to get as many digibox users together as you can and try to sort this problem out at the source... i.e. start harassing the digibox suppliers until they provide you with something that does what it says on the box!

hi emmily....

the solution to accessing long conversations: pc access?!.. erm... ...... obviously those who like me intend to contribute on a big scale to h2g2 will have to eventually take that step... [guess what i have been asking santa for christmas?!... hehe...] but the information i gave you could be useful for newbies with digibox being ACEd by any of you... preferences set on frames is an important tips to reduce frozen screens... [talking about that i had a try at brunel... erm... that was frozen screens a gogo there...]

no problems REPORTED about the smiley pages... tho' problems have been encountered with some entries such as "who posts where"...
we have noticed that some digiboxes behave differently than others at times... mine has been tamed at the moment this is why [through the 360 link] i can contribute to this conversation as much as i want...

as for tube's suggestion, yep this is a great idea but until something is done [if something is done] we still need as many digibox friendly userspaces as possible...

as i said before with the changes in LeisureDistrict there is going to be quite a lot of digibox users looking for a new virtual home soon...

talk soon...

loup