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

I'd just like to start by saying what a wonderful job you guys are doing! The site is great, whatever nags I may have about it!

What I really came here to ask you is how does one get rid of a reseacher number....I joined originally as researcher U39772 E_G_Mel but for some obscure reason lost in the mists of time I no longer use or have the password to that number.

It seems a shame for it to go to waste and I want to know if you can either delete it or pass it on to a newbie (though this would completely muck up the numbering system).

Failing either of these how can I find out my password for it so I can use it as an alter ego type thing?

TIA

Mel

P.S I don't suppose you could tell me when these accounts were started * s nicely at jim* though I understand completely if you're too busy.

Just to say how well you guys are coping with the overload the site is taking in the wake of DNA's death.

I didn't realise quite how bad it was till I brought up the whose online list to see about 100 people on line with at least 1/3 new this week.

Keep up the good work, I'm thinking of you!

Mel

Thanks.

Things seem to have quietened down a bit on this side, hope things are a bit more easy going where you are

Mel

Erm this doesn't need immediate attention just something we were thinking about, would it be possible to make forums printer friendly, that way people could catch up on a forum without having to be online and paying huge phone bills!

As I said it's not something that needs doing I was just wondering whether it would be possible?

Mel * ing _very_ nicely at Jim *

P.S congrats on the good work btw. How's the mother to be doing? Be sure to keep us posted if the little one makes an early arrival

If you mean printer friendly as in showing more than 20 posts, we keep the number down because the more posts that are displayed, the slower the system becomes. There are some dodgy algorithms in the code which mean some conversations would take several minutes to process given our current technology.

In the future, I'd hope we can improve this, but for right now, it'll stay how it is. However, if you switch to single-page forums (preferences page) you should be able to print out the posts reasonably easily. Alabaster is more printable than Goo as well.

And Mother is doing fine, still waiting. Believe me, as soon as *anything* happens, it'll be on h2g2. We're having the baby at home, so I can be online with news and pictures any time (unlike at hospital where I have to wait until I go home to upload anything). So expect news as it happens, and (as an outrageous abuse of personal privilege) pictures of the new baby as soon as she arrives.

Abuse it as much as you like I love baby pics!

When I say printer freindly I mean you can go to almost a complete text version of a thread! That way you can print it out without pictures and full width and stuf.

Mel

Well, sometime we'll do an AvantGo version of the site, which will be text-only, and will probably be much printer friendlier (as well as being geared towards offline reading).

I'll start work as soon as the BBC buy me a PDA.

Cool what sort do you want?

I've got a psion 5 which I occasionally use at the weekends with my mobile but at 9600 it is so slooooow! But hey beggars can't be choosers!

I really ought to get a browser which will handle Java though so I can log into h2g2 but then I know my phone bill will be HUGE!

Mel

I'm getting a Compaq iPaq 64M Colour one. I thought I'd get a good one if I'm going to be using it a lot.

And any AvantGo site would probably be free of javascript.

That would be cool, how would you do things like the search facility and the forums?

Mel

You could do forums up to a point - reading them would be OK. Posting might be a problem - I don't yet know how AvantGo solves the posting problem, but I can think of ways to do it that might work.

Search would only work if you were connected. In offline mode you'd download a selection of articles or a set of conversations so you could read them.

If you connected over a mobile, then you could read and post as normal, and search if you wanted to.

Sounds really cool, when are you likely to get your PDA? Soon

Mel

It should be soon - I have to chase up the people who ordered it. It was out of stock when I ordered it last month.

I can imagine that must be really frustrating! I know what it's like to want to get on with something/play with a new toy ( ) and it just wont arrive!

Mel

Hows the waiting game going?

I bet Bernedette is getting a bit fed up by now!

Ahhh well better late than early in this case!

Mel

Well, still no baby, but I did get my iPAQ last week. Now I'm trying to set up an AvantGo development environment. Not easy behind the BBC firewall.

You slip it in so calmly! I bet you're on the edge of your seat and jump every time the phone rings really!

Why is avant go so difficult behind the BBC firewall? Is it something to do with the fact that they don't support it or is it security reasons?

Mel

it's because of the way AvantGo bundle up HTML pages in channels. To sync up, you have to connect to their server, which will request the pages from your server. If you're behind a firewall they can't fetch your pages.

The solution, apparently, is to run a development AvantGo server locally, which we apparently do, but it's not working at the moment.

Sounds like a fairly complicated solution, but I'm sure if anyone can get it working you guys can!

Mel