Don't panic! This is only a website...
Simply read the text.
When you see something highlighted like this it
is a hyperlink. Click on it to jump to what it says.
Pictures add value, but if you prefer a faster ride and you don't have broadband, this site is pretty much usable without pictures.
It is expected that you'll have a screen size of at least 800 x 600 and 256
colours or more. The site works in 640x480 with minimal scrolling. Whether
it works in 16 colours depends upon the quality of your software. It works
well in RISC OS.
This site may look weird with large screen sizes in the order of 2000x1200.
It may be a boon for DTP and software development, but do you really need
that sort of screen size for web browsing?
32,000 colours, 64,000 colours, and 16,000,000 colours (give or take a few)
are all okay.
This site uses standard GIF and standard baseline JPEG. If you don't know what the difference is, rest assured that your software will understand them.
You will find no Java, JavaScript, RealAudio, streaming video, or anything
else on this site. Mostly it is flat text with some pictures.
Some Flash has 'leaked' in, but this is designed to extend what is already
available, not to replace it.
Those of you used to seeing jazzy 'designed' sites may find this 'blah'. Too bad. I believe the content is more important than pretty animations.
You will find most of this writing to be in an informative chatty style. This is neither a lecture nor a textbook, it is me to you. You are here because you have an interest in this stuff and not because it is required reading for some coursework. Most of the texts go on for several screenfuls so grab a beer, work your way down the page, and take it all at a leisurely pace. There's no rush and no test at the end.
Heed the warnings. I try for humour rather than being patronising, but the warnings are important. Unless you have a death wish, in which case perhaps you do want to hold onto a metal dish fixed to your chimney in the middle of a raging thunderstorm...?
Some of this information is of a more technical nature. The very content of
some of these pages demand it. You cannot discuss putting a little fan into
a Digibox without geeking out.
The best advice I can offer is if you don't understand it, skip it...
One of the big no-nos in web page design is long pages which you need to scroll to read. Well, sorry people but practically every page here is long and requires scrolling. All relevant information has been collected into topics and each topic has a page. I feel this is more organised than splitting it to satisfy some obscure aversion to scrolling. The way I see it, if you don't have the patience to scroll through a long document then you sure as hell won't have the patience to align your own satellite dish!
I think this covers everything, so click the link below to return to the main menu or close this window if you opened this page 'in a new window'...