Awesome British computer website

I stumbled into a couple of really good and interesting web pages, both of which are on Zyra.org.uk, which appears to be run by some British guy. The pages are Advice on buying a computer and Felix Computers. This British guy has a good sense of humor. And while searching his site to find out a little background info, I found this page on British Weather. The page design is interesting, simple, minimalistic and very 90’s. None of that Web 2.0 silliness here. Better yet, I agree with most of what the pages say.

Here’s a quote on the topic of finding a proper computer shop:

Buy from a place that actually knows about computers, understands the technical things about computers, and is willing to help when things don’t quite go right. Be very wary of places that are too tidy, too plush, or look like a 1990s office. They’re not necessarily bad, but it important to test the place by asking a lot of technical questions and see if they know what they are talking about, and also to ask for help to see if they are actually willing and helpful rather than just interested in selling. The sort of place that is generally a good place to buy a computer is the sort of place that has loads of junk all over the place and computer boffins poking about inside open cases of computers in bits in full view of the customers.

It’s a very old website, and things are outdated, but it’s great to get a sense of history and the way things were. And the British writing style and colloquial way of speaking is something to which I aspire.

He uses “Felix Computers” as an example of such a shop:

Felix Computers was a shop, set up in Boston UK in the early 1980s. It was the period in history just after computers were thought to be huge engines with whirring magnetic tape drives, punch cards, and teletypes, programmed by superintelligent boffins, and before the age where computers were thought to be just unhelpful things you move a mouse about on.

And I just love the “curious things about the place”:

• If you could observe it from the present age (2000), go back in time and look at what went on in the shop, you’d say it was a CYBER CAFE. There was a machine there which had conceptual hypertext on the screen and was freely available for anyone to participate in the use of.

• Free tea was available at all times the shop was open.

• Weird scientific experiments were done at the premises.

• The shop had Resident Customers.

Off-topic sidenote: Scribd is an excellent idea for a website, and it looks well-executed. This idea of having people put their documents online is one that has been floating around in my head for awhile, and I think it’s a very good one. If they do it right, Scribd could go very, very far.. in particular, one great thing would be to pay authors for their original content. If their document earns ad revenue, give it to them (or at least a good share of it)!