Postscript: Back when I wrote this in 1999, my website was handcoded, as were all the websites of my interweb friends.

So it came that people would hide semi-secret messages in comment tags amongst the HTML. The message was invisible in the web browse, but would show up when the webpage source was viewed.

No one really advertised when they’d done a hidden message, but those in the know knew to check the source for the telltale <---comment tags---> that hide the messages.

At the time I was working as an HTML editor, so I spent much of the day staring at HTML. So I thought, why not write an entire piece in a comment tag? So that’s what this is all about.

Does it even work with newfangled blog software? We’ll see.

What is the most hated, most ridiculed HTML tag? The tag that is only used when demonstrating how not to make a kewl web page. The tag that has been described as “a blatant scar on the purity of a structural language.”

Yes, it’s the <blink> tag.

It’s an easy target to make fun of, like viagra is. The source of many lame jokes. But I don’t think anyone’s really given much thought to what can be done with <blink>. Everyone’s seen the bad web pages with way too much text blinking. “Ban the blink tag,” people say. But equally bad web pages can be designed without using the blink tag. Should HTML itself be banned?

The blink tag can be used for good effect, to draw your attention to something that needs attention to be paid to it.

Making a whole block of text blink makes it unreadable, but this should be obvious. Just as bold, italics and underlining large amounts of text make it more difficult to read, so does blink. These three styles should be used sparingly for emphasis and the same applies with blink.

However back in 1996 when the blink tag was first introduced people got overexcited and did stupid things with it which tarnished the blink tag almost beyond redemption.

The blink tag can be abused, but then so can the font tag. It’s not the tag, it’s the person designing the web page that does bad stuff.

The blink tag is the epitome of evil. It is a tag that has the potential to be used to good effect with a bit of creative thought.

Don’t join the masses in dissing the blink tag, when you really mean bad use of the blink tag.

I’m pissed off with guys on IRC.

For ages I had avoided the supposed joys of IRC simply because I couldn’t come up with a nick that I didn’t hate. Then one night I came up with “Rosia”. In some languages it means “Russia”, but it was meaningless to me when I thought it up. Don’t ask to me pronounce it.

So I joined IRC using undernet and everything was fine, that is until the messages started. A query box pops up with “hi” in it. So I respond with “Hi” back. Then the guy responds with ” r u m or f”. If I was The Artist Formerly Known as Prince, I might be impressed by people who use letters and numbers for words, but I’m not. I like the English language, and I like words. I like capital letters too.

So anyway, the “conversation” continues and the questions from him continue: “how old r u?”, “what do u look like?”, “what are your measurements?”. I’m supposed to answer stuff like “I’m 18, tall, slim, long blonde hair, 36, 24, 36″. But that’s not real. I don’t own a tape measure so I wouldn’t have a clue what my “measurements” are. It’s not like I have an actual daily need to know my waist measurement.

It seems that the average net-sex guy needs to hear that I’m a gorgeous 18 year old babe, even though I’m not. He doesn’t seem to be too interested in anything other than what I physically look like. I mean, I could be a serial killer or a rocket scientist, but all he’d care is if I had big boobs.

I’ve thought about changing my nick to something gender neutral, but I’m not sure I want to do that. I want things to be different. I want to be able to go on IRC without guys assuming that just because my nick is vaguely female, that I’m a hot wet horny babe.

I saw this unusual message on my ISP’s technical updates web page:

Sun outages affecting satellites

We are currently experiencing sun outages at approximately 12:50pm daily as the sun tracks across the sky and ends up directly behind our satellite.

So let’s get this straight. It’s not the satellite that is experiencing outages caused by the sun, but it’s the sun that’s having the outages.

Well, then I think someone ought to get hold of the sun’s bandwidth provider and let them know that they are not very happy with the poor level of service that this “sun” is offering.

It’s also interesting to note that the sun is observed as travelling across the sky. Just like that ancient Polynesian legend about Maui and his brothers beating the sun up so it’d slow down when it travelled across the sky.

I think Maui should be contracted as a solution provider to do some consultancy work in getting the sun to stop messing up the satellite.

Word needs to get around that poor customer service will not be tolerated from celestial bodies. If they can not measure up, then another sun provider will be used.