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#9706 11/03/00 11:36 PM
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here we have gutters in the streets and gutters on our roofs; context makes all the difference.


#9707 11/04/00 04:35 PM
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Actually my interpretation of the word may be more personal than national. I looked it up in the dictionary and it gives gutters around the bottom of a sloping roof as the first entry and gutters for rainwater at the side of the road as a second entry.

It's more about the first image that comes into my head probably because we had a gutter that was inclined to fill up with leaves, thus causing a flood of water through the bay window ceiling - I have obviously been deeply sensitised!


#9708 11/06/00 06:23 AM
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Regarding Maverick's use of the term "orientate": I recommend melting the suet in a large pot.


#9709 11/06/00 10:56 AM
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Father Steve biog:
Occupation: Judge (the other part of the time)

Interesting to see what passes for justice in your neck of the woods!

Oh no, forgot we weren't allowed to have fun here!


#9710 11/06/00 02:08 PM
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It seems to me that the majority of us agree on at least
these two things: 1.) We really enjoy this Board, overall;
2.) it is extremely time-consuming recently.

It occurs to me that one very simple way that the time could be decreased would be if the screens would change
faster. Sometimes the change is pretty quick, but a lot of the time, it takes several seconds--sometimes half a minute or more.

It this just my computer? If not, is there something that can be done to or at the site to increase the speed? Anu?


#9711 11/06/00 02:24 PM
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just my computer?

No, Jackie, same goes for me on a pretty fast machine (tho' still narrow bandwidth line). Figured this is the inherent weakness of the net in practice; correct this, someone?


#9712 11/06/00 09:10 PM
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old hand
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It this just my computer? If not, is there something that can be done to or at the site to increase the speed? Anu?

This can depend on how you're looking at the posts. If you have it in threaded view and have to go to a new site for each post, you're wasting a lot of time. With flat view you can see any number of posts per page, thus decreasing the transition time. Also, don't bother letting pages that you've already seen fully load. As soon as you see the numbers for additional pages, you can click on the appropriate one. When you're going back to the category index you can just back through all of the previous pages without waiting for each page to reload.


#9713 11/06/00 10:01 PM
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I think that I'm quite lucky because I tend to look at the board first thing in the morning which is long before America wakes up and turns on all those zillion computers. I usually get through the volume reading very quickly as it switches between pages very quickly. When I use the computer at night (now its nearly 11pm, so 3-7pm USA time) it is much slower.

What I would really prefer is the option to load the pages of the threads in reverse order, so I can look at the most recent posts quickly. I use threaded mode in the first instance (as that shows me where the new posts are), then once I'm in a thread I find it works (for me) fastest to go straight back into flat mode and then "show all" immediately. This means that I can move up and down quickly as the replies do not always relate to the previous post. If I get really lost, I turn back to threaded for a while but I find it slow to load individual messages one at a time. Once I've downloaded all the pages I can turn off my connection and read off line if there are lots of posts.

#9714 11/07/00 05:02 AM
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Most of the self-honest people who wander into my courtroom are more interested in mercy than justice.


#9715 11/07/00 02:57 PM
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the option to load the pages of the threads in reverse order

Jo - here's a quick handy hint (well, if I'm understanding you correctly):
Edit your profile so that Default Sort Order is Descending Date.
This will mean that the most recent posts get shown first.

Incidentally, I don't like Flat Mode at all. You lose the structure of the thread and the ability to respond to particular points. It would be fine if a thread really were a linear progression, but that's only occasionally the case. More often a tree structure is most meaningful.

HTML/HTTP (i.e. The Web) is very much geared up for downloading "little and often". Threaded Mode caters for that scenario better, so in theory at least should provide better performance

As people may have noticed , I have been known to respond almost simultaneously to posts at different points in the same thread. I see no problem with this as long as the responses relate to the appropriate "sub-thread" and aren't repetitious. However, in Flat Mode this kind of thing can look strange, and (worse) thoughtless.

Another Tip: in Threaded Mode, you don't have to wait for the entire thread to download except on the first view. After that you can hit the Stop button on your browser as soon as the new post appears. Then hit the Back button to view the thread again.

I really do mean to get all these Tips together at some point! But it'll have to wait a week or so...

Busy Fisk


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