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| Graham 2002-05-25 06:26:12 | Well, I followed the link in Stephen's sig and I must say that this is one weird place you've got here  Oh yes, and because there's no test forum, I want to see how these avatars work  |
| Thomas King 2002-05-25 06:47:45 | They don't work stormingly well. I'm meant to have a small rotating duck, but it has ceased being visable, and it never rotated. Stephen's is meant to be animated, but I can't see it move. I think something's odd somewhere. Grank grank! |
| Graham 2002-05-25 07:45:56 | Well I can see your duck getting dizzy so it obviously works sometimes  The whole universe is odd.... |
| Thomas King 2002-05-25 07:51:15 | Hmm. I now see the duck again, but its a stator of a duck. Not even a trace of spin. Yes, the whole universe is odd. I just often come across the bits that are't (like physics). That's why this board fills up with ducks. Grank grank! |
| Stephen Brooks 2002-05-26 11:35:26 | Tom your duck is broken again. It just appears as a blank "no image" box with "Picture of Thomas King" written in it. [edit] Oh great. Now it's COMPLETELY vanished. Err the case of the diappearing ducks. [/edit] |
| Thomas King 2002-05-26 12:45:33 | I'm just not duck-lucky. Grank grank! Oh yeah, I remember now. I took away the picture because I got fed up with its lack of rotation. |
| Thomas King 2002-05-28 07:45:21 | quote: Errr you spasmodic pipe-dwelling drongo, that's like saying "You've switched the light off, so you can't see anything" or "You've jumped off a 60 storey building, so you're dead". You don't see the pictures animating, because they aren't animating. Well, gosh. That's a surprise. The actual fact that I haven't disabled gifs must be beside the point. Grank grank! |
| Nimrod 2002-05-28 07:50:13 | Pray tell, what is a drongo, and how does one go about identifying the spasmodic pipe-dwelling variety? |
| Stephen Brooks 2002-05-28 08:58:52 | quote: What happens if you rightclick and save the image to disk and then load it separately into IE? "As every 11-year-old kid knows, if you concentrate enough Van-der-Graff generators and expensive special effects in one place, you create a spiral space-time whirly thing, AND an interesting plotline" |
| Chris Johnson 2002-05-28 09:23:51 | [QUOTE]Originally posted by Thomas King: that's like saying "You've switched the light off, so you can't see anything" QUOTE] No its not. Its like you saying "The bulb has blown, I can't see anything" and me saying "No, you've just turned it off". Whether you did turn it off or not, I don't actually care. [edit] Hmm odd there seem to be a number of viruses that fodge with animated gifs, but most replace them with some porn or something - have you scanned recently? [/edit] |
| Stephen Brooks 2002-05-28 10:06:31 | Uh, no as far as I know Tom HASN'T scanned for viruses recently. I had a conversation where he was saying "Err that's odd, my computer is going all odd and slow and intermittantly freezing for short lengths of time" or some such, and I said "Well you are running both Outlook AND Kazaa, basically the two most-targeted programs for viruses currently. Try doing a sweep of your HDD with a viruscheck." Then Tom said "Ererer I think I have Norton Antivirus around here _somewhere_" (but obviously wasn't using it). "As every 11-year-old kid knows, if you concentrate enough Van-der-Graff generators and expensive special effects in one place, you create a spiral space-time whirly thing, AND an interesting plotline" |
| Thomas King 2002-05-29 10:46:57 | Yes, but the computer oddness was caused by winamp3 taking up 98% of my processor and depriving windows of the 45% it needs to actually run. Grank grank! |
| Muon Juice 2002-06-24 08:29:09 | quote: Since no one else chooses to reply perhaps I may be permitted to do so. Please forgive my detailed answer. A drongo is a rare bird possessing less than one-quarter of the intelligence of the extinct and much-lamented dodo. Indeed, the drongo would also be extinct but for certain fortuitous peculiarities of its nature, habitat and behaviour. As to nature, the drongo of all species is a beast at once so ugly, so evil-smelling, and so evil-tasting as to have no natural predators. Also, these scrawny bags of bones are so small and insubstantial as to be overlooked even by desperate carnivores; they simply are not worth engaging the gag-reflex. As to habitat, drongos are to be found where people of sane character are reluctant to tarry: Komodo Island is one such place. As to behaviour, there exist no reliable reports of this, since all witnesses of their behaviour in the wild remain sedated and under close psychiatric observation and are unavailable for comment. You have asked about the species which has been most often observed (sightings: only 11 since 1872). The only two facts known about it are preserved in the words, "spasmodic" and "pipe-dwelling". "Pipe-dwelling" refers to the drongo's habit of building nests which by reason of their material (a fine white clay) and shape reminded 19th century observers of Meerschaum pipes. "Spasmodic" refers to their convulsive movements which, because they seem to conceal some terrible significance, are said to be peculiarly distressing, and may be related to the mental breakdowns which are observed in the poor unfortunates who have attempted to study them. Indeed, nearly all of these formerly promising naturalists when found were heard muttering, "Oh God, The spasms! Stop them! Oh, the spasms!" over and over. As a result, since 1956, it has been illegal to film their behaviour for more than two minutes, or to allow observers in the wild to remain in their presence for more than that period of time. I hope that helps, Nimrod. |
| Stephen Brooks 2002-06-24 14:57:40 | I suspect that "Muon Juice" is just "Chris Johnson" under a different name, though I could be wrong. "As every 11-year-old kid knows, if you concentrate enough Van-der-Graff generators and expensive special effects in one place, you create a spiral space-time whirly thing, AND an interesting plotline" |
| Muon Juice 2002-06-24 16:22:07 | quote: Funny, Brooks. I thought the response would be from this Chris Johnson to accuse me of being you under another name. Scroll up; King called Johnson a drongo, Nimrod asked what a drongo is, and since no one answered him, I provided the required explanation. It is one which I don't believe anyone would want to design and apply to himself, but that cannot be helped; it is what they are like. Drongos are not among the more delightful or cuddly creatures on the planet. I am neither Johnson nor Brooks. Nor Nimrod nor King, for that matter. I'm just the closest thing this site has to an expert on the wild drongo. By the way, the site looks good. Nice layout, clean looking, a range of interests, and a sense of humour. I'll be back. Muon Juicee |
| Thomas King 2002-06-25 03:16:06 | A sense of humor? Where? I've been looking for one for years. Grank grank! |
| Stephen Brooks 2002-06-26 15:38:08 | Errr I seem to have hidden it BENEATH the title-bar so it's not downloadable. That's dumb. "As every 11-year-old kid knows, if you concentrate enough Van-der-Graff generators and expensive special effects in one place, you create a spiral space-time whirly thing, AND an interesting plotline" |
| Muon Juice 2002-07-02 08:49:57 | quote: It may well be that you hid it there originally, and you may think it was dumb, but it doesn't matter any longer. It is my sad duty to report to you that the reason I was able to see the site's sense of humour is that a wild drongo, which I have been tracking for some months, had come to the site a few weeks ago and dragged the humour into plain view. Since I have reason to believe this drongo is nesting somewhere in this site in accordance with their habits in choosing a habitat (described in my earlier posting here), I did not consider it appropriate to point this out to you, for the safety of the drongo. I assumed that either you knew it was nesting here and had chosen to do the decent thing and not mention it, or you were ignorant of the drongo's presence, in which case you might endanger it if I told you of it. This act by the drongo is why I was able to report seeing the sense of humour in question on your site in a previous message. Unfortunately, I must report with great sadness that only a few hours ago, the mystery of why the drongo was dragging the site's humour around was solved. I witnessed her (it is a she-drongo) shredding the site's sense of humour and mixing certain choice pieces with the rare white clay that forms the main ingredient of her nest (yes, she is a pipe-dwelling drongo). Other pieces, I watched her eat in that peculiar way that drongos have of eating shredded humour. The reason for this behaviour, which you doubtless find puzzling, is that your resident drongo is "with eggs", to borrow a phrase. She therefore needs both supplementary nourishment and nesting material enhancements. Humour is one of the favourite materials of propagating drongos for both these tasks. Sorry to be the herald of temporarily bad news concerning the site's sense of humour, but take heart. At least your site is still a safe place for drongos to breed, and by the time this female has laid her eggs, you'll find that the humour seeds in her exreta will have germinated, and the site will be more full of humour than before. You probably will be unable to hide it all under a title-bar even if you want to do so. I hope that clarifies a few things. By the way, if you do happen to notice the drongo (or her mate or her offspring at any time) please pretend not to notice. They are very shy, being very sensitive socially. If you embarrass a drongo, it "blushes" by infusing its feathers with a lavender pigment that unfortunately also makes it unattractive to other drongos. Throws their whole sex-life out of kilter, which as you will appreciate, would endanger them even more than they already are. Thanks. Muon Juice |
| Lord Groundhog 2004-09-26 17:09:04 | quote: And if one old thread dredged up from the grave is a good idea, perhaps two will be better. This thread especially interests me because these posts may be the weirdest things I've ever read while awake, and also because now, at last, I know what a "drongo" is. Odd how none of my bio. teachers ever talked about them. They sound more interesting than ducks, parrots or turkeys. I'm sure we all would have worked harder if we could have studied drongos. So here's another old-new thread for you, Stephen. "Share and enjoy!" |
