Alan J Flavell, RIP
Dr J R Stockton
er1.news.saunalahti.fi>, Sat, 24 Feb 2007 09:53:39, Jukka K. Korpela
<jkor...@cs.tut.fi> posted:
>> By the way, where's Alan - retired? He could have checked that page
>> much more fully than most people here.
>
>No idea. I tried to contact him after I noticed that his web pages are
>gone (and don't exist in webarchive.org) but got no response so far. I
>have bad feelings about this.
Googling Alan Flavell's Department for his name has found a reference to
his funeral, which must have been either on 2006-12-11 or rather shortly
after.
--
(c) John Stockton, Surrey, UK. ?@merlyn.demon.co.uk Turnpike v6.05 MIME.
John Hosking
> Googling Alan Flavell's Department for his name has found a reference to
> his funeral, which must have been either on 2006-12-11 or rather shortly
> after.
Sadness. Thanks for letting us know.
--
John
Sherm Pendley
> In comp.infosystems.www.authoring.html message <O9SDh.1524$v65.1435@read
> er1.news.saunalahti.fi>, Sat, 24 Feb 2007 09:53:39, Jukka K. Korpela
> <jkor...@cs.tut.fi> posted:
>
>>> By the way, where's Alan - retired? He could have checked that page
>>> much more fully than most people here.
>>
>>No idea. I tried to contact him after I noticed that his web pages are
>>gone (and don't exist in webarchive.org) but got no response so far. I
>>have bad feelings about this.
>
> Googling Alan Flavell's Department for his name has found a reference to
> his funeral, which must have been either on 2006-12-11 or rather shortly
> after.
Damn! I owe a debt to that man. He taught me a lot.
He'll be missed.
sherm--
--
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Gérard Talbot
> Googling Alan Flavell's Department for his name has found a reference to
> his funeral, which must have been either on 2006-12-11 or rather shortly
> after.
That is sad news. I liked Alan Flavell and I hope several of his
webpages will still be available, fetchable somehow, somewhere.
Gérard
--
Using Web Standards in your Web Pages (Updated Dec. 2006)
http://developer.mozilla.org/en/docs/Using_Web_Standards_in_your_Web_Pages
David Håsäther
> Googling Alan Flavell's Department for his name has found a reference to
> his funeral, which must have been either on 2006-12-11 or rather shortly
> after.
Very sad to hear that :(
--
David Håsäther
David Håsäther
<newsbl...@gtalbot.org> wrote:
> Dr J R Stockton wrote :
>
>> Googling Alan Flavell's Department for his name has found a reference to
>> his funeral, which must have been either on 2006-12-11 or rather shortly
>> after.
>
> That is sad news. I liked Alan Flavell and I hope several of his
> webpages will still be available, fetchable somehow, somewhere.
The Internet Archive has them:
http://web.archive.org/web/20060426010624/ppewww.ph.gla.ac.uk/~flavell/
--
David Håsäther
Stan Brown
@merlyn.demon.co.uk>:
> Googling Alan Flavell's Department for his name has found a reference to
> his funeral, which must have been either on 2006-12-11 or rather shortly
> after.
I had just been wondering what happened to him, realizing I hadn't
seen him post here lately. It's sad news to hear of his demise.
--
Stan Brown, Oak Road Systems, Tompkins County, New York, USA
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Andy Mabbett
<newsbl...@gtalbot.org> writes
>I liked Alan Flavell and I hope several of his webpages will still be
>available
They'll be available again shortly.
--
Andy Mabbett
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Iain Wilkie Logan
<URL:mailto:hasa...@msn.com> wrote:
> On Sat, 24 Feb 2007 21:41:29 +0100, Gérard Talbot
>
> > Dr J R Stockton wrote :
> >
> >> Googling Alan Flavell's Department for his name has found a reference to
> >> his funeral, which must have been either on 2006-12-11 or rather shortly
> >> after.
You may be interested to know that Alan was also a highly respected
contributor to the 'uk.railway' newsgroup - his commentaries on the vagaries
of the British railway network were in much the same vein as those he posted
here in support of accessibility on the WWW - clear, concise and 'on target'.
Alan will be sorely missed there. If you wish to Google for them, you'll find
the responses there under the same heading as here.
> > That is sad news. I liked Alan Flavell and I hope several of his
> > webpages will still be available, fetchable somehow, somewhere.
Considering his CERN background, perhaps Tim Berners-Lee can be persuaded to
find posthumous recognition for Alan as one of those (hitherto) unsung heroes
of the WWW who, all the years I've known him, has diligently defended its
founding principles - openness, freedom and accessibility for all worldwide.
That must not be forgotten.
For the past 11 years - my time on the WWW - Alan's influence on me in the
context of the web has always been present, although I only ever spoke to him
once on the phone.
> The Internet Archive has them:
> <http://web.archive.org/web/20060426010624/ppewww.ph.gla.ac.uk/~flavell/>
Even though it's not complete (the 'ragbag' link), I'll pass that on. Many
thanks. I'll check my own archives and post links here if I find anything.
Meantime, though it is a bit old, I'm sorry to say, try:
<http://homepages.enterprise.net/iainlogan/transinfo/index.html> for a
picture of how he helped just one person out. I am greatly indebted to Alan
for his help on that.
All the best,
Iain
Worth a visit: <http://www.freeourdata.org.uk/> 'Free Our Data Campaign'
--
Iain Logan, Langholm, Dumfriesshire
Home: <http://homepages.enterprise.net/iainlogan/>
Work: <http://www.planajourney.co.uk/>
Mail: <iain...@enterprise.net>
Molly Mockford
<newsbl...@gtalbot.org> wrote in
<12u18nl...@corp.supernews.com>:
>That is sad news. I liked Alan Flavell and I hope several of his
>webpages will still be available, fetchable somehow, somewhere.
Last summer, Alan and I were discussing what would happen to his web
pages when he took his planned retirement at the end of the current
academic year, and I offered him hosting for them. It is now my
intention to put his pages up on my webspace (I've grabbed them all from
archive.org as at April 2006 - everything except for the handful of cgi
scripts, that is), but since he included on each page a joint copyright
notice citing himself and Glasgow University, I have had to apply to the
University for their permission to re-publish the pages.
--
Molly Mockford
They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety
deserve neither liberty nor safety - Benjamin Franklin
(My Reply-To address *is* valid, though may not remain so for ever.)
Nick Kew
Molly Mockford <nospam...@mollymockford.me.uk> wrote:
> At 15:41:29 on Sat, 24 Feb 2007, Gérard Talbot
> <newsbl...@gtalbot.org> wrote in
> <12u18nl...@corp.supernews.com>:
>
> >That is sad news. I liked Alan Flavell and I hope several of his
> >webpages will still be available, fetchable somehow, somewhere.
>
> Last summer, Alan and I were discussing what would happen to his web
> pages when he took his planned retirement at the end of the current
> academic year, and I offered him hosting for them.
That sounds like an unbeatable claim on them.
> It is now my
> intention to put his pages up on my webspace (I've grabbed them all
> from archive.org as at April 2006 - everything except for the handful
> of cgi scripts, that is), but since he included on each page a joint
> copyright notice citing himself and Glasgow University, I have had to
> apply to the University for their permission to re-publish the pages.
And that sounds like a good home. Please be sure to tell us when
they're in their new home (and give a shout if anything important
in the CGI department needs help). Those pages were exceptionally
well-researched and authoritative in their subjects.
He was always well-informed and lucid. On the rare occasions when
he erred, he was quick to own up and correct it. He wasn't universally
liked because he never suffered fools lightly, but when he corrected
someone he always remained civil, as well as accurate and informative.
His contributions go back to before the creation of this newsgroup and
its siblings.
--
Nick Kew
Application Development with Apache - the Apache Modules Book
http://www.apachetutor.org/
Bruce Lewis
> He was always well-informed and lucid. On the rare occasions when
> he erred, he was quick to own up and correct it. He wasn't universally
> liked because he never suffered fools lightly, but when he corrected
> someone he always remained civil, as well as accurate and informative.
> His contributions go back to before the creation of this newsgroup and
> its siblings.
Well said.
Molly Mockford
wrote in <q67gb4-...@grimnir.webthing.com>:
>On Wed, 28 Feb 2007 08:27:24 +0000
>Molly Mockford <nospam...@mollymockford.me.uk> wrote:
>> Last summer, Alan and I were discussing what would happen to his web
>> pages when he took his planned retirement at the end of the current
>> academic year, and I offered him hosting for them.
>
>That sounds like an unbeatable claim on them.
:-)
I don't see it in any way as a claim, more as the fulfilment of a
promise.
When I was first learning web authoring, Alan was very helpful to me;
and I continued to learn from him over the years, indirectly from his
pages as well as directly in the newsgroups. He deserves not to have
his work forgotten.
David Quinton
<nospam...@mollymockford.me.uk> wrote:
>When I was first learning web authoring, Alan was very helpful to me;
>and I continued to learn from him over the years, indirectly from his
>pages as well as directly in the newsgroups. He deserves not to have
>his work forgotten.
I agree.
Every time I use Tables for laying out images, I *still* think of him
and feel guilty!
A very sad loss.
--
Locate your Mobile phone: <http://www.bizorg.co.uk/news.html>
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Darin McGrew
> Last summer, Alan and I were discussing what would happen to his web
> pages when he took his planned retirement at the end of the current
> academic year, and I offered him hosting for them. It is now my
> intention to put his pages up on my webspace (I've grabbed them all from
> archive.org as at April 2006 - everything except for the handful of cgi
> scripts, that is), but since he included on each page a joint copyright
> notice citing himself and Glasgow University, I have had to apply to the
> University for their permission to re-publish the pages.
Is there any news on this project? Is there anything any of us can do to
help?
--
Darin McGrew, mcg...@stanfordalumni.org, http://www.rahul.net/mcgrew/
Web Design Group, da...@htmlhelp.com, http://www.HTMLHelp.com/
"Timing has a lot to do with the outcome of a rain dance."
Molly Mockford
<mcg...@stanfordalumni.org> wrote in <f0qp8p$34v$1...@blue.rahul.net>:
>Is there any news on this project? Is there anything any of us can do to
>help?
It is, I'm afraid, a matter of time and slog (and I have had quite a few
other calls on my out-of-work time). I've now got (I think, I hope!
I've itemised the lot, and all their internal links, and I don't think
anything's missing) all the necessary files from Glasgow University, who
have been extremely helpful above and beyond the call of duty. My
particular thanks are due to William H. Bell, who has put a lot of time
into extracting the files for me.
However, gla.ac.uk (who, of course, hold copyright jointly with Alan on
every single page) have asked for a fair number of edits to be made, to
remove links to their own web site; in addition to which, some of the
more obscure and inventive (obscure to me! I've spent fascinating hours
trying to figure out what he did and why, and when I finally get there
it's *blinding*) server-side includes which Alan used, sadly just do not
work as on the new hosting in the same way as they did on the old (it
must be some Apache setting which differs, but I don't know which or
where), so basically I have to replace those too. It's a one-off fix,
after all, even though it has to be applied to masses of pages. And
then, once all the rest is done, I still have to test out his cgi
scripts before we go officially live.
Although there are all these tweaks, most of which still have to be
made, Alan's pages will still be 100%, incontrovertibly, Alan's pages.
Apart from the removal of many gla.ac.uk links, all the other changes
will be invisible to the end-user, and the final functionality of the
pages will be identical to how they always were, although the methods
will differ.
So, *when*? I hope to get it all finished the weekend after this - i.e.
May Bank Holiday weekend, when I'll have three full days available to
me, and only one-half of one of them likely to be spent out and about,
drinking and carousing and singing out-of-tune and watching May Day
morris dancers, and only one of them (which, at my age, is fit only to
be ignored) my birthday. I'm sorry that it's all taking so long - but
my top priority is that, when Alan's pages are published again, they are
*right*. The last thing I want to do is to rush it.
And once they're live again, that'll be my birthday present to myself.
Darin McGrew
> I'm sorry that it's all taking so long - but
> my top priority is that, when Alan's pages are published again, they are
> *right*. The last thing I want to do is to rush it.
Thanks for the update, and thanks for taking this on. I know the challenge
of porting a complex system from one platform to another.
I'm sure Alan would have appreciated it.
--
Darin McGrew, mcg...@stanfordalumni.org, http://www.rahul.net/mcgrew/
Web Design Group, da...@htmlhelp.com, http://www.HTMLHelp.com/
"It said 'Insert disk #3', but only two will fit..."