New Web Host Server

You got to this temporary page from the gateway (root) page of barelybad.com.  From its inception in late 1996 till now this Web site was hosted on AOL's servers, and the URL was members.aol.com/barelybad.  As of now, May of 2002, I have switched to a different Web host server, I will be dropping my account with AOL soon, and the new URL is simply barelybad.com.

Here are a few things you might want to know about this relocation to a new server.

I have my own domain name now (namely barelybad.com), so the URL to any page is now easier to remember and significantly shorter.  For example, a page that was at members.aol.com/barelybad/filename.htm is now at barelybad.com/filename.htm.

If in your Web browser(s) you have set any bookmarks or favorites to the AOL URLs, this is the time to update them.  Replace "members.aol.com/barelybad" with "barelybad.com."  In the unlikely event you have links on your own Web site to any of the pages of my old URL, now is certainly the time to update them as well.

For those of you looking for the starting page of the essay on crosswords, the old URL was members.aol.com/xwdbarelybad/xwd.htm, and the new URL is barelybad.com/crossword.htm, or you can simply click Crossword in the navigation bar at the top or bottom of this and every other page.
  
The new server is much bigger, which means I can now more freely add larger files, such as the new penguins.mpe, which is 399,004 bytes.  On the old server a file that size would have reduced my free space by a whopping 60%.  On the new server it reduces it by less than 2%.  Consequently, I will be adding such larger files more and more.  Furthermore, I no longer have to shrink the image files just to save server space, so I can show them to you in more detail and more often in color.  I'm afraid this means that those of you with dial-up connections might find the occasional slow file, although a good 99% of the pages have been specifically designed to be fast-loading.

There is one minor exception, and that's the guestbook.  The guestbook continues to reside on AOL, which means it might be inexplicably slow to load.

Update of December 16, 2006: I have now disposed of AOL altogether, even for the guestbook.  The new guestbook now resides on the new server and uses new and better software.

The new server is more reliable.  The AOL server operated correctly only sporadically, whereas in the many dozens of months since I've been using the new server it has been a veritable rock of stability.

The new server is faster, a lot faster.  It's not only faster for me to edit and add to but, more importantly, it's faster for you as my honored guest.  You may now be sure that any slowdown in your enjoyment of or displeasure with this site results from your connection to it, not the new server, which is actually good news if you think about it.

The new server allows me to add some features that will make better use of the newest state of Internet technology, as well as to get rid of some old features that, as it turns out, were unalterably flawed.  For example, I'll be adding discussion groups so that you can interact with other visitors on the subjects that have generated a significant degree of interest and debate.  Now, rather than communicating only with me through e-mail, anyone who goes to a discussion-group page can communicate with everyone else who did.

And I will be able to phase out such undesirable features as hover buttons in favor of crisper, more bulletproof code.  You'll find that the new version is just altogether cleaner around the edges.  That's not to say it's perfect.  If you find a problem, or what you even suspect is a problem, please do .

Update of January 1, 2004: All those nasty hover buttons that required a one-time loading of the Java run-time environment have finally been eradicated.  They worked fine, but they were slow.  Now it's all fast.

Update of November 1, 2004: I moved a few miles closer to you, and as a result my e-mail address changed today too.  The old address, johnnyg@kc.rr.com, is no longer funct.  Instead, use .

Update of November 7, 2004: I have now altered all references to e-mail addresses so they show up just fine on these pages and when you click them but they're practically immune to harvesting by spambots.  Try it anywhere on this site and you'll see.

To try it now, click here --> <-- and you'll see that your mail utility opens up and fills in this pretend e-mail address and a pretend topic.  And if you pause your mouse over the link, a Tool Tip will appear.  But if you check the code behind this page you'll see that nowhere do those terms appear.  Sc*ew them spammers!

Finally -- not that you should care -- all these benefits that accrue to us end up costing $60 less each year.