Community Feature
Ed Simmons Ain't No Hockey Puck
By Bill Johnson aka Le Fantome
(April 9, 2000)
[And what a fan this user turned out to be for the L.A. Kings! Ed Simmons has a webpage devoted solely to this team consisting of pictures of the team and news stories! He also has a webpage swarming with midis, gifs, jpgs, a validator, a bulletin board, backgrounds, lines and bars. With over 100,000 hits on this webpage, he invites you in to play awhile. The gifs are linkable. However, he suggests you transload them! Sound advice! Have fun!--ck]
On June 19, 1997, one of the first persons to sign my new guestbook at my Le Fantome site was a LA Kings fan, Ed Simmons, aka No. 18, after his favorite hockey player with the Kings. Although his link didn't work, I e-mailed him and thus began a friendship that has lasted to this day between this man from Downey, CA and a guy from Dallas, TX. Although we have never met in person, we have spoken via phone. I have known Ed from e-mail groups like WebTV Friends, WTVPals, Cuckoo, and FantomeHelp. He shares moderator status on two of my e-mail groups and is also a moderator on 4 other e-mail groups. Ed has also been a "go to guy" when it comes to helping others with webpages and HTML for the past 3 years I have known him. He has helped with numerous projects and questions from the readers.
Having been married 36 years with two children and 5 grandchildren, he is a mature, stable fellow and a loving father. Ed loves to "putter" around the garden with his "green thumb" and living in Southern California where he grows a lot of vegetables which translate to his Oriental cooking recipes to the table.
Ed, who is now disabled, worked for years in the aerospace field and in electronic repairs. He loves to play games on the PC and, of course, during the hockey season he follows his LA Kings avidly and updates his website weekly with their progress. Now he is almost exclusively on a computer but very active in WebTV groups such as Fun_@onelist, WebTVPals@topica, universe@onelist, wtvoklist@onelist.
Ed gets lots of mail and meets lots of great people. He also has been a visitor to the Net4TV studio which is close by his home and visited with our "fearless" Net4TV leader, Dudette.
Ed bought his WebTV classic at a discount store in February of 1997. He bought it thinking it would be an inexpensive way to surf the net. Initially, Ed liked the newsgroups and surfed them until finding the "w groups" now known as the alt.discuss groups. Ed says, "I found one called n2play and found a lot of good people there."
No. 18 tells us that at first he bought a book called Teach Yourself HTML 3.2 In 24 Hours to begin learning about HTML coding. [This version of the book is out of print but on-line. An updated version of the book is available for purchase --Ed.] "It was helpful at first but then I started asking questions around the newsgroups and learned how to validate pages," Ed states. "That was a lot better than trying to read from a book. Got a lot of help from n2play, Draac, Big Daddy Bender and Zoda Wrap. There were others that I can't remember, but all are in the group - n2play - on the alt discuss group."
"My L.A. Kings page has been around since 1998 at several places. Readers will find, on my Kings pages, pictures of the team and news stories. I update the scores the day of games and the standings weekly." It is an excellent site for hockey fans of any team with stats and updates on a regular basis!
The WebTV Friends Gif Pages went up in late 1997 with the help of a lot of people, some on computers that moved the graphics to the first pages. It is one of the most stable and popular sites on the net. A bulletin board is on the site to ask questions which are answered by the members of WTV Friends and Ed. Truly one of WebTV's premier sites! Now with over 100,000 hits to the site, "Friends Gif" is becoming unique, as the gifs are still linkable although Ed does encourage transloading the gifs to one's own server webpages. Ed is also a member of the HTML Writer's Guild. "The Friends GIF" pages will have new additions to them in the coming months with new gifs and backgrounds.
Ed tells us, "The thing I like best are the people I have met in the 2 1/2 years I was on WebTV. On the other hand, the thing I liked least was the way that WebTV treated you when you had a problem. They don't seem to listen to what you are saying. They only hear what they want to hear. WebTV needs to listen to the users because there are a few new set top boxes lurking out there that have features that the people want and WebTV may start feeling the heat. I think the biggest thrill for me was the day someone first visited my 'Kings Pages' and signed my guestbook. There have been some let downs also. I received an invitation to join a chat group at a pub in Australia. Then I learned that WebTV didn't support Java chat. Very disappointing."
Many times this writer has called on Ed for help with tables, or to know what a computer sees, or some other problem that I cannot do with WebTV and he has always been there. Sometimes, WebTV needs some support from a computer and I am proud to have his as one of my WebTV experts to help. From this writer's perspective, Ed is one of the best friends a WebTV'er can have---a real treasure of Southern California.
[Community Editor's Notes: So Ed met our very own Dudette - our gracious and magnificent publisher! I have to say this 'cuz she is my boss! Just kidding. She IS magnificent! Ed, your webpages are brilliant. Loved your rose - hmmm, maybe I favor them as we grow them in abundance in our back yard. :-) Great gifs, midis, lines and bars!--ck]
E-mail Ed
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