# XKCD made me happy today!

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-made-me-happy-today/515164>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [October 26, 2009, 11:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-made-me-happy-today/515164 "2009-10-26T11:34:15Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 20\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/half_man_half_wit/32/21766_2.png) [@Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Half_Man_Half_Wit)\
**Post date:** [October 26, 2009, 11:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-made-me-happy-today/515164/1 "2009-10-26T11:34:15Z")

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With its homage to the [shutting down of GeoCities](http://www.xckd.com/). I mean, it’s got everything – animated background, broken HTML tags, annoying ani-gifs, ‘under construction’, netscape-style broken images, random web awards… It’s beautifully done, really. Never thought I’d get nostalgic for atrocious web design… Reminds me of the X-Files fan page I made when I was around 14 (though I think that was on CompuServe’s free hosting service). Those were the days, man.

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**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\
**Post date:** [October 26, 2009, 11:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-made-me-happy-today/515164/2 "2009-10-26T11:54:46Z")

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Beautiful. So well executed.

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**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\
**Post date:** [October 26, 2009, 11:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-made-me-happy-today/515164/3 "2009-10-26T11:58:30Z")

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Part of what makes it funny is there are a ton of people (well, at least me) who wouldn’t even have noticed.

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**Author:** ![Unintentionally\_Blank](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/unintentionally_blank/32/5418_2.png) [@Unintentionally\_Blank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Unintentionally_Blank)\
**Post date:** [October 26, 2009, 12:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-made-me-happy-today/515164/4 "2009-10-26T12:10:53Z")

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Whoa.

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**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\
**Post date:** [October 26, 2009, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-made-me-happy-today/515164/5 "2009-10-26T12:59:42Z")

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> [@Khadaji](#):
>
> Part of what makes it funny is there are a ton of people (well, at least me) who wouldn’t even have noticed.

Me, too. Never even noticed the background, just went straight to the comic.

Having had it brought to my attention, I have to say that it’s absolutely perfect. I feel like it’s 1996 again.

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**Author:** ![mr.jp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/48db29/32.png) [@mr.jp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mr.jp)\
**Post date:** [October 26, 2009, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-made-me-happy-today/515164/6 "2009-10-26T13:07:02Z")

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It was great. I especially like the page counter with a lot of zeros.

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**Author:** ![Mr.Miskatonic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mr.miskatonic/32/310_2.png) [@Mr.Miskatonic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Miskatonic)\
**Post date:** [October 26, 2009, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-made-me-happy-today/515164/7 "2009-10-26T13:10:42Z")

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Ah, the broken HTML tag…memories…

I sometimes cannot believe what was on the web in its infancy.

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**Author:** ![IvoryTowerDenizen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ivorytowerdenizen/32/17937_2.png) [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)\
**Post date:** [October 26, 2009, 1:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-made-me-happy-today/515164/8 "2009-10-26T13:14:39Z")

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I was going to post this. It was great!

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**Author:** ![Savannah](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b3f665/32.png) [@Savannah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Savannah)\
**Post date:** [October 26, 2009, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-made-me-happy-today/515164/9 "2009-10-26T13:45:31Z")

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I saw it too! Very cute. Well done, sir.

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**Author:** ![Mahna\_Mahna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e47c2d/32.png) [@Mahna\_Mahna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahna_Mahna)\
**Post date:** [October 26, 2009, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-made-me-happy-today/515164/10 "2009-10-26T13:47:47Z")

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I’d forgotten how annoying those damned blink tags were! Absolutely perfect… the only thing missing is the big animated “Sign My Guestbook!” logo.

It’s kind of like running into a Facebook profile for the most annoying kid in your high school class, and suddenly feeling all warm and fuzzy and nostalgic about the way he used to pick his nose in math class and his scuzzy b.o. 🙂

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**Author:** ![Electronic\_Chaos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Electronic\_Chaos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Electronic_Chaos)\
**Post date:** [October 26, 2009, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-made-me-happy-today/515164/11 "2009-10-26T13:49:07Z")

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I especially love the X(KCD)10 banner at the very bottom. I was just thinking about how those infernal banners and pop-ups used to be everywhere, and now I haven’t seen one in at least 7 years or more.

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**Author:** ![dangermom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e274bd/32.png) [@dangermom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dangermom)\
**Post date:** [October 26, 2009, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-made-me-happy-today/515164/12 "2009-10-26T14:08:02Z")

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Thanks! I get it on google reader and never go to the site.

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**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\
**Post date:** [October 26, 2009, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-made-me-happy-today/515164/13 "2009-10-26T14:40:16Z")

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That was incredible. But my GeoCities site from 1997 never looked like that. No sir.

No really, it didn’t. It was quite lame though.

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**Author:** ![Wheeljack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/838e76/32.png) [@Wheeljack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wheeljack)\
**Post date:** [October 26, 2009, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-made-me-happy-today/515164/14 "2009-10-26T15:12:28Z")

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I think the internet should still look like this.

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**Author:** ![Ximenean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/aca169/32.png) [@Ximenean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ximenean)\
**Post date:** [October 26, 2009, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-made-me-happy-today/515164/15 "2009-10-26T15:27:59Z")

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“Best viewed in Netscape Navigator 4.7 or better at 800x480” 😃

Beautiful parody. I like how the graphics and icons are just the right kind of crappy.

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**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\
**Post date:** [October 26, 2009, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-made-me-happy-today/515164/16 "2009-10-26T15:38:52Z")

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OMG. I haven’t thought about webrings in over a decade…

Perfect. 🙂

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**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\
**Post date:** [October 26, 2009, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-made-me-happy-today/515164/17 "2009-10-26T15:57:16Z")

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There’s tons of goodies hidden in the source, too. E.g.

```auto

<SCRIPT LANGUAGE="QBASIC">IF $BROWSER = "IE" THEN GOTO 50</SCRIPT>

```

```auto

<SCRIPT LANGUAGE='SCHEME'>(define (eval exp env) (cond ((self-evaluating? exp) exp) ((variable? exp) (lookup-variable-value exp env)) ((quoted? exp) (text-of-quotation exp)) ((assignment? exp) (eval-assignment exp env)) ((definition? exp) (eval-definition exp env)) ((if? exp) (eval-if exp env)) ((lambda? exp) (make-procedure (lambda-parameters exp) (lambda-body exp) env)) ((begin? exp) (eval-sequence (begin-actions exp) env)) ((cond? exp) (eval (cond->if exp) env)) ((application? exp) (apply (eval (operator exp) env) (list-of-values (operands exp) env))) (else (error "Common Lisp or Netscape Navigator 4.0+ Required" exp))))</SCRIPT>

```

And all sorts of funny HTML attributes sprinkled throughout.

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**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\
**Post date:** [October 26, 2009, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-made-me-happy-today/515164/18 "2009-10-26T16:31:50Z")

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I love the banner for the “X10KCD Spy Camera.”

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**Author:** ![fusoya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ecccb3/32.png) [@fusoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fusoya)\
**Post date:** [October 26, 2009, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-made-me-happy-today/515164/19 "2009-10-26T17:05:34Z")

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OMFG, I had that same Under Construction & NO SPAM banners on my website back in 1996…and I know I used \<BLINK\> somewhere on it too.

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**Author:** ![MsWhatsit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eb8c5e/32.png) [@MsWhatsit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsWhatsit)\
**Post date:** [October 26, 2009, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xkcd-made-me-happy-today/515164/20 "2009-10-26T17:08:17Z")

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I, uh, may or may not have used that spinning animated e-mail graphic on my personal homepage in 1997.

Wow. That really takes me back. Webrings!

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