Site Information
CONSTRUCTION, OPERATION AND MAINTENANCE OF THIS SITE
Now for a brief word about the way this site works. The author info is in the “disclaimer” file, accessible from the highlighted line below. Dave constructed this site on a Pentium II 333 machine running Windows 98 displayed on a Viewsonic 17″ monitor running at 1024×768 in 24-bit true color. He used Claris Homepage 3.0 and checked it in Netscape 4.51, accessing the Net through a US West-provided DSL running at a nominal 256K. He subscribes to the Homepage user group and receives its daily posting, which he has found to be a font of good info.
He has tried to follow their advice in the matters of JPEG compression for faster loading, unfailing use of the spell-checker, avoiding unnecessary Web folderol (he uses tables instead of frames) and employing a single, Net-wide font (default in Netscape is ‘none’; in Homepage is ‘Ariel 12’). He does check his links for viability every so pretty frequently. He has eschewed their advice, however, as it pertains to checking his page in every conceivable format on every manufactured machine and every released browser. He’s looked at it a couple of times on his wife’s Mac and has seen that the pages sort of run off to the side and you need to use the arrow key at the bottom of the screen, which is a pain in the neck (and wrist). He’s noticed that some of the graphics load kind of slowly on a 19.6 phone modem. He’s seen some of the fonts go a little nuts and he’s noticed a few pictures that are out of whack or load slowly. His efforts to review his site on Explorer 5.0 (which he has installed) have been hampered by the usual Microsoft-related problems; eg: 404 not found, server doesn’t respond, site closed due to government feedback, and the other difficulties presented by having shot one’s mouth off at lunch over Microsoft’s unusable and unstable support site and his adamant refusal to have Explorer installed as his default browser
When Dave chooses to reflect on his site, it occurs to him that he started using a computer in 1982 and that, after all these years, all the money spent, all the useless, antediluvian, unnecessary, winky, pocket-pen-protected, down-in-the-basement, propeller-beanied information stored in his Ginko-loaded brain and his feeble attempts at mastering all the outdated, complicated, vertical-learning-curve software, the whole deal is just an unmonitored mailing list accessible by you, the great what-ever, and his process is just the use of a glorified typewriter to generate largely unedited, poorly-proofed extemporaneous copy. He tries to make sure the periods are in the right places and the prose flows so you can get whatever you want from his efforts. But, in the end, what it comes down to, I mean, in the David Frishberg sense, if you don’t like it, hit the back button.
As far as updating, editing and staying current are concerned, well, let’s face it. Dave gets a few orders a week for cds, but otherwise this page is an exercise in ego-enhancement; an expensive, but enjoyable bully pulpit where he gets to say whatever he wants as long as he bears in mind there are vengeful and vindictive people out there who would shoot him if they could figure out the physical location of his PO box, and from which he receives no financial emolument and therefore exhibits a concomitant lack of enthusiasm for revision.
He has received a few complaints from users who have seen the errors and anomalies invisible to most viewers. For all of these, and for that of which he remains blissfully unaware, Dave begs the pardon of the misused masses of knowledgeable accessors, the 2400 bps Mosaic users and the unwashed Luddites and urges them to watch the papers for specials on Pentium II 333 machines running Windows 98 and Netscape 4.51 and to check with their local phone providers and ISP’s for a DSL. Equipped with these, you might possibly see things the way I do, which illumination would, of course, make this a better world for all of us.