Volume 2, Number 9, February 26, 2002
From The Editor:This week I have only three words to write - TEAM CANADA RULES! :)
Post Of The Week:This week the editor decided to hunt for a post of the week. This is a post by AussieMike and was written quite a few posts back in the threads. But his message bears repeating. We're hoping you agree and again, well said AussieMike!
"So here we are again. Some of us for a third time. We have lost our home. Blame is being laid. People are calling eachother names. Fingers are being pointed every which way. Dirty laundry is being aired.
It seems that we have forgoten the most important part of an online comunity. It's not the code, not the URL, not the site or the inteface.
IT'S THE PEOPLE!
AIH is down. The thought that I would lose my cyber home made me physically ill. (I'm fine now.) I've invested just under two years as part of an online comunity. I've been forced to migrate twice. I love this comunity, and the people that are a part of it. If we lose it again, I'll migrate again. A fourth, fifth, hundredth time. What
ever it takes, to be with you people.
Now is the time to rebuild. If your house is destroyed by fire, flood, earthquake, or whatever, you rebuild. The code for our site was pulled from under us. There are people here who can write code. AIH will be back. Seeing people post "Never again, I quit," saddens me. I hope that when the shock wears off, they will be back.
Gather 'round, message a friend. Wait and watch the rebirth of our comunity. I've seen it before, it's worth it."
Michael Keogh (AussieMike)
Click here for a pic of the first cloned cat, 'c.c.'!
Dilbert's Corner:
Although it seems like we have entered a quiet time, there is a lot of activity going on in the background. The development team is busily working to create new graphics and the software to run the database. I am very encouraged by a lot of the ideas that Peter and John are coming up with. The graphics that GreyEyes is working on will make Ask It Here a much more visually appealing place. I think you will be impressed with what they come up with. It's frustrating not knowing ASP+ because I would love to be in there working on code and trying to get AIH back up and running as quickly as possible. My management style is to get the best people possible then let them do what they think is right. Let's all give them the encouragement they need.
Ass Ackwards ASP Assonances - AIH DevTeam News:
Arrrgh! Why haven't they got AIH up again? It can't be _that_ hard, can it? Well, speaking from experience (I've written two database enabled sites, am working on my own and another for a client, and right now, of course, I'm working on Ask-It-Here) - Yes, it can. You'll have to bear with us as we work out what the original site did, and then convert it to a new technology. Why bother doing this? Well, it completely prevents any accusations of 'stealing' the old code - since we have re-written it, we can't be stealing it.
You can be sure that there is a great team working on Ask-It-Here. John Frazer has demonstrated an excellent grasp of the requirements needed to understand and implement a complex site like this, and of course our own GreyEyes is doing the graphics (Some nice site mock-ups, I have to say - good work Debs). We are getting a lot of input from Dilbert and God on what the site should be capable of doing.
Abraham Lincoln was once reported to have said, "If given six hours to chop down a tree, I would spend four of them sharpening the axe." Whether this was fictitious or not, it is meant to highlight the benefits of good preparation. We are currently in the preparation stages of the project - not a lot appears to happen, and people begin to wonder what is going on. However, once the preparation is over and work begins things go much smoother after the foundations of the project have been well laid. We are currently planning to have something sort of working at the start of March - no guarantees, but check this space.
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Peter Street
Web Developer / Manager
LazerFX Productions
www.lazerfx.co.uk (Under Construction)
Yahoo Groups Tips&Tricks: AIH Yahoo Polls Group!
What do you want in the new AIH? New colours? New layout? How about new emoticons? Something else? Go to http://ca.groups.yahoo.com/group/AIHpolls/polls and answer the polls. Be part of history in the making....;)
The Target:
This week's Targets are Fatboy and Ocelotl!
Fatboy
Hello, everyone! I'm Darren, a 30-year-old single white Australian male currently living in Sydney, the state capital of New South Wales.
I was born in 1971, and I am the eldest of three. My sisters are my best friends, and the two most important people in my life.
I had a pretty good childhood, and in my early teens I decided that I wanted to become a writer as an adult. At the age of 20, I graduated from the University of Canberra as a Bachelor of Arts (Professional Writing).
Instead of becoming a writer, though, my uneven working life has included employment as a supermarket shelf-filler, kitchenhand, department store sales assistant, bank teller, data-entry operator and IT consultant. I was also unemployed for an 8-month period – but being a bank teller was much worse.
I am currently employed as a technical writer for an international IT company. Funnily enough, I didn't learn technical writing at all while at university – but I like it a lot.
When I'm not working, I can be found mostly at AIH. When I’m not at AIH, I’m either at the movies, reading books or comics, surfing the Net, or playing computer/video games. As well, I’m a keen 'trivia-night' player every Tuesday evening at a Sydney pub.
I began my online life as Fatboy in May 2000 when I joined WHquestion, and I haven't looked back. Through sites like WHquestion, KnowPost and AIH, I have met a wide range of fascinating people from all over the world, and I have gained and learned a lot through "Q&A sites" and "online knowledge databases" which are really wonderful communities.
Long live AIH! I don't know where I'd be without it.
Ocelotl
Hi, AIH pals, My full name is Juan José Galván Bautista, I'm mexican born, live at Mexico City and I want to share a bit of my thought to you through this A-mail interview.
1) What is the one thing you do better than anyone else you know?
I'm quite good on hand working with electronics, I don't know much people that can say can repair a surface mount card with a soldering pencil, but I had to do it several times. I'm also quite good at tests, any kind of tests.
2) What was the happiest moment in your life?
I can't choose a single happiest moment, since I've had several, like when I was on the coordination group of my University at the 1991 Eclipse, or when I finished my BS, or when I got my first job, or the first time a product I designed ran into mass production... I don't know.
3) What is your ultimate job, and what is the worst job you've ever done?
My dream job would be being an astronomical instumentation specialist, and not just that, to be the best of my home country. As a task it requires a lot of work and study, but I think I have everything neccesary to accomplish that. As for the worst job, I remember once that I gave maintenance to a huge pneumatic shear. The night before beggining the job I couldn't sleep well, and when I finally cached some sleep, I had bad dreams about cutted parts of body. It took me several days to call that work finished, because I had to take care in checking everything trice before even pluging the shear.
4) What accomplishment in your life are you most proud of
To finish the maintenance of that shear and call it a success ;-) I'm not sure, life has been a feat constantly, and I've grown to stay up to the task.
5) Do you have a 'most embarrassing moment'?
Right now, answering these questions, I have one ;-) No, I'm not embarrased of anything I've done so far, or perhaps it is just that I don't want to remember... No, I can't.
6) What's your speciality in the kitchen?
I'm still in the process of learning, since there are lots of things to know about REAL mexican food, but I liked when I got those so well beaten eggs that I couldn't beleive they were hand made.
7) What is your motto?
If your problem has a solution, why do you worry?, and if it doesn't have one, why do you worry?
8) Do you know your next-door neighbours' names?
Yes, I do, but won't tell ;-) Okay, on one side there are Ms. Concepción, her sons David, Gustavo, Andres, Hilda, her husband and Daniel. At the other there are Rocio, Estela, and her sons Daniela and Axel.
Sorry if I don't give last names, I want that little piece of privacy.9) What is the most important thing you've learned so far?
All human being have the innate hability fall into stupidity, the idea is to realize that possibility and fix the damage as soon as possible.
10) What's the last non-fiction book you read?
I'm in the process of finishing one. "Handbook for contemporary citizen" by Ikram Antaki for the second time. Is dense stuff, because it has lots of quotes from philosophers af all times. It is also an analysis of contemporay politics and citizen behavior. I don't know if it has been translated to a language different from Spanish, but I recommend the reading.
11) Name a random act of kindness you did for someone (that they never found out about)
I won't, I want to keep the secret.
12) Your favorite sport: Would you rather A) Play it. B) Watch it on TV. C) Be a spectator with great seats.
Definitively A. As a matter of fact I've played it whenever possible.
13) A man has been rescued after 30 years on a desert island where he has had absolutely no contact with the outside world. You can tell him one thing. What would you tell him?
Welcome back to the jungle. Yes, we are still making wars on beans.
14) Happiness is ----------.
Freedom, accomplishment of our goals.
15) Do you have any hidden talents
Well, it is not at all hidden, but none of you know that I'm quite good at doing voice doubling. I even wanted to make it a proffession, but I couldn't pay the school.
16) Describe your ideal vacation
I can't specify, since I'm not a frequent traveler, and I don't have to go too far to go to a paradisiac place, but I'd like to know Spain, all that history, all those places...
17) What kind of museums do you like
I'm a museum fan, and we have lots of very good museums here. We have the National Anthropology Museum, the Viceroyal Museum, the National History Museum and Gallery, the Interventions Museum, and several other museums, that are listed here
18)What is it you would like to accomplish in life?
There are a lot of things I want to do, but time is what is needed to do all. I prefer to go a step at the time. I have long term goals, but short term plans. Life is something you have to do a second at the time.
19) What is your favourite part of AIH? Your least favourite part?
The favourite part... Almost everything. The least favourite part... The blockings, the hate rages.
20) What would you like to see included in The Arrow
Well, as it is now it represents nearly a 100KB document... But It would be good to mention some little known facts contributed by some users, i. e. 'Did you know that Vanadium was discovered by a Spanish Mineralogist in 1803 in Mexico City' or something like that.
Great Quotes? Who uttered this week's Great Quote? Answer at the bottom of this newsletter."Yes, my research encompassed two bags of Oreos (2 for $5 sale, combined with a "Buy One, Get One Free" sale on gallons of milk) tested over a period of three weeks. Of all of Oreos tested, only one was lost to overexposure to milk. Even that was easily retrieved due to the convenient proximity of a nearby fork.
Give it a try. It's one of those things like digital cable, DVDs, and democracy, where you don't realize just how badly you need it until you see it in action yourself."*editor's note - who said we aren't technologically oriented at AIH??*
Useful Freebie by SamHill:Howdy friends and neighbors! This week we've got a whole collection of way cool goodies from Karen Kenworthy. I first discovered her PowerTools a year ago and have been using some of them ever since. I'm particularly fond of her Cookie Viewer and Countdown Timer but there are plenty of other useful items here, and if you want something a little more fun then take a look at her PowerToy, and teach your computer to talk, sing and dance. All of these programs are very solidly built, pleasing to the eye, compatible with all versions of Windows and of course, absolutely free. Enjoy! Sam
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Copyright © 2002 TheArrow.
Doctor X (captaindefenestrator) uttered this week's Great Quote!
