Internet questions thread

Patient7 · September 13, 2008, 02:38:57 PM

I don't know about anyone else but a few times I'm on the internet and I notice things that make me say, "I have no idea what that's about." So I have started this thread so hopefully, everyone can get some questions answered by our more savvy users.

First off, What with the red links on Wikipedia? I see these links, I can guess they're to another article, but why is it red? What makes them different from articles? I'd click on one, but I don't want to get charged for anything or crap like that.

Anybopdy else with questions or answers?

Menard · September 13, 2008, 02:55:35 PM

Quote from: Patient7 on September 13, 2008, 02:38:57 PM
First off, What with the red links on Wikipedia? I see these links, I can guess they're to another article, but why is it red? What makes them different from articles? I'd click on one, but I don't want to get charged for anything or crap like that.

I had not noticed those before, but the red links are for entries which don't exist. They seem to be for proper names and specific topics for which there is no entry, but someone can click on them and add an entry, thus increasing the entries.

Rev. Powell · September 13, 2008, 02:59:16 PM

The answer to your question is available in this Wikipedia article.

Psycho Circus · September 13, 2008, 03:06:32 PM

What the hell is ROFLCOPTER?

Rev. Powell · September 13, 2008, 03:28:52 PM

Quote from: Circus_Circus on September 13, 2008, 03:06:32 PM
What the hell is ROFLCOPTER?

or

?

Psycho Circus · September 13, 2008, 03:30:32 PM

Okay.........................

Patient7 · September 13, 2008, 07:18:12 PM

Karma towards Menard and Rev. Powell for ending the mistique of those dreaded links, and here I was thinking they were for pages that are nsfw.

Trevor · September 14, 2008, 06:24:35 AM

Quote from: Rev. Powell on September 13, 2008, 03:28:52 PM
Quote from: Circus_Circus on September 13, 2008, 03:06:32 PM
What the hell is ROFLCOPTER?

or

?

BTM · September 27, 2008, 09:01:00 AM

What I want to know is why is it on some pages I get this weirdass symbol instead of an apostrophe. (ie, contraction words like can't, won't etc).

Menard · September 27, 2008, 11:57:47 AM

Quote from: BTM on September 27, 2008, 09:01:00 AM
What I want to know is why is it on some pages I get this weirdass symbol instead of an apostrophe. (ie, contraction words like can't, won't etc).

Because there is not an apostrophe in HTML. There are codes that are used to tell a browser that an apostrophe, or other special characters, are there, and the browser should translate that, but sometimes that doesn't work properly, either due to the browser or, more likely, due to the script or a spacing error, and you instead get the code that represents the apostrophe to the browser rather than the apostrophe.

You can see a list of special characters and their codes here: http://www.utexas.edu/learn/html/spchar.html

Rev. Powell · September 27, 2008, 07:07:09 PM

I thought I had answered Circus' question about ROFLCOPTER in a seperate post, but it looks like I forgot to hit "post" or something.

The serious answer to your question is on this page: http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=roflcopter]

Urban dictionary can be a useful site. I wouldn't get half the Internet slang if I didn't check it.

BTM · September 27, 2008, 10:27:25 PM

Ever get the feeling that there a lot of really cool, kickass, ultimately wonderful internet sites that have just about everything you could ever want out there that you simply CAN'T FIND for some reason or other?

I get that sometimes, but maybe it's just some kind of paranoia on my part.

Menard · September 27, 2008, 10:46:26 PM

Quote from: BTM on September 27, 2008, 10:27:25 PM
Ever get the feeling that there a lot of really cool, kickass, ultimately wonderful internet sites that have just about everything you could ever want out there that you simply CAN'T FIND for some reason or other?

I get that sometimes, but maybe it's just some kind of paranoia on my part.

I use a wonderful invention called a search engine.

Unfortunately, due to competition among webmasters to get traffic and listings, keyword loading is the rule of the day and with as many websites as there are Google and other search engines can't have humans scouring each website individually to determine if it fits for its keywords.

I have searched through all pages of results from Google searches before to find what I wanted; yes, that would be over 50 pages of results and over 500 links. If you are serious about searching, you need to go through at least the first 10 pages of search results, and if you are really serious, at least 20. Much beyond that and you are going to run into a lot of duplicate and culled links; though I have on occasion found a resource beyond that, but not often.

One of the best places to find stuff is simply a forum dedicated to what you are trying to find. The best way to find that is to do a Google search for the forum you want; say 'webmaster forum' for a webmaster forum, 'movie forum' for a movie forum, etc. You can be more specific and search for something like 'mp3 forum' to find a forum where they may trade mp3 files. You are probably most likely to find something by finding a forum with that interest and asking if somebody has it, knows of a site that interest you, etc.

CheezeFlixz · September 28, 2008, 11:31:57 AM

I keep thinking one day I'm going to go online and just get a page that says ...

"The Internet is closed."

BTM · September 28, 2008, 10:20:06 PM

Quote from: CheezeFlixz on September 28, 2008, 11:31:57 AM
I keep thinking one day I'm going to go online and just get a page that says ...

"The Internet is closed."

Ah, don't worry, that will never happen. Even in the midst of a zombie apocalypse where the TV stations are being tightly controlled by the government, local ISPs will somehow miraculously still be running!

:)