oh, I see. that's cool, really posted by dawson at 12:13 AM on April 1, 2008
I call shenanigans! The blank page isn't blank.
Also, even though I knew the colored pages were supposed to be blank, there was still this tiny part of me that felt frustrated because I was waiting for the content to load. Why is this taking so LONG?? Oh, yeah... posted by LeeJay at 12:19 AM on April 1, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]
Huh, after writing that comment, the word 'blank' no longer has any meaning. It's fun to say though. Blank, blank, blank, blank. posted by LeeJay at 12:20 AM on April 1, 2008
In the old Palm OS development kits, when you were using the emulator set to pretend to be a Palm IIIC colour model, and you clicked your mouse on the power button on the emulator's skin, you would get the message on the display "this screen intentionally left black." posted by Space Coyote at 12:39 AM on April 1, 2008
The 5th link is not really blank. The page source actually reveals some cryptic text.
Frog reconditioning? The plot thickens... posted by naju at 12:49 AM on April 1, 2008
This post is brilliant.
Favorited. posted by dhammond at 1:04 AM on April 1, 2008
The 5th link is not really blank. The page source actually reveals some cryptic text.
Frog reconditioning? The plot thickens...
Occasionally, I'm briefly convinced that I read "this page unintentionally left blank" upon opening up to one of these pages. I maintain that should that reading ever fail to revert to the normal phrase, I'm going to commit myself. posted by invitapriore at 1:24 AM on April 1, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]
Nowadays the “This Page Intentionally Left Blank”-Project (TPILB-Project) tries to introduce these blank pages to the Web again. One reason is to keep alive the remembrance of these famous historical blank pages. But it is the primary reason to offer internet wanderers a place of quietness and simplicity on the overcrowded World Wide Web—a blank page for relaxing the restless mind.
A place of quietness and simplicity would have cleaner HTML coding. posted by three blind mice at 1:38 AM on April 1, 2008
Interestingly there's a whole article on Wikipedia about the intentionally blank page. Awhile back, 60 Minutes ran a clip about the Government Printing Office department that created the stock blank page. posted by crapmatic at 1:49 AM on April 1, 2008
Book pages are left blank to at the beginning to ensure a right-hand page start or at the end to round out signatures in bookbinding. Web pages are left blank in order to make people check today's date. posted by melissa may at 1:50 AM on April 1, 2008
I seem to recall the BFG convincing me as a child that the black pages in atlas's where for either new places you discovered, or ones you invented yourself, I can't remember exactly.
Nice post though, It's oddly soothing. posted by emperor.seamus at 2:20 AM on April 1, 2008
this comment intentionally left content-free posted by russm at 2:37 AM on April 1, 2008
In fact the internet needs a test card. In the UK ours came with easy listening music. posted by rongorongo at 4:45 AM on April 1, 2008
One side of this thread is longer than the other. The blank space at the end of side one is intentional; this is to preserve the continuity of the tracks in the whole thread.
[click... click... autoreverse] posted by not_on_display at 5:01 AM on April 1, 2008
As part of my job I get the awesome privilege of running bid solicitations on a high speed copier for another office. They have always used the intentional blank page, and still do. And I have always maintained that the page is not blank, since it does say something. The really stupid part, is each section ends with a line of text that says "end of section" so it's not like the reader is going to panic and wonder if he is missing a page through some technical error. But it's never going to change. It's a Federal government office.
I have been trying for years to get them to distribute them on CD or, better, via download, which is more efficient, cheaper, and more in line with the "real" work we do in my office. With it being a Federal bureaucracy, you can guess how that's going. posted by Fuzzy Skinner at 5:02 AM on April 1, 2008
I like to open them up in separate tabs and hold Ctrl-Tab to cycle through them at warp speed. It makes pretty squares. posted by jinjo at 9:25 AM on April 1, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]
I see dead pixels dammit! posted by phoffmann at 10:20 AM on April 1, 2008
I find the html source of each of these pages the most interesting part of this post. But after all, I'm a geek. The blue and gray pages are the most elegant. The unseen table on the black page is odd, and the orange page is outright bizarre. posted by JeffK at 10:26 AM on April 1, 2008
Surely I'm not the first person to notice the background of this thread gradually changing color. Or -- and I never want to rule this possibility out -- I am going insane.
Worryingly, it seems to be doing it in other metafilter tabs I have open as well. posted by churl at 12:16 PM on April 1, 2008
Okay I haven't had my coffee yet. I had assumed this was a clever play on the topic of this thread in particular. Disregard my above comment. posted by churl at 12:19 PM on April 1, 2008
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