36 ms·

> Shockingly, Franklin.com, with its 85 words of unstyled HTML, still links to the latest iterations of these devices. If you look at the source code of this p

by rob74 6mo ago

> Shockingly, Franklin.com, with its 85 words of unstyled HTML, still links to the latest iterations of these devices. If you look at the source code of this page, you'll be even more shocked: looks like it's simply a MS Word document saved as HTML, it's overly complicated and contains lots of "Mso*" classes. And no, it's not unstyled either, it's just that on computers that don't have Times New Roman installed, the browser falls back to the same serif font that is used for unstyled text (and if you have it installed, it's probably the default serif font or indistinguishable from it).

404mm 6mo ago
Maybe it was done with MS FrontPage? I still remember that hot pile of garbage. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_FrontPage https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_FrontPage
- ForHackernews 6mo ago
  <meta name=Generator content="Microsoft Word 15 (filtered)">
  - chocochunks 6mo ago
    Word 15 is Office 2013 lol.
- garyrob 6mo ago
  It may have been, I never used it, but it was also a very early, innovative (at the time) product made by a company called Vermeer. There is a truly fascinating, and even inspiring, book about the company and the sale of FrontPage to Microsoft: https://www.amazon.com/High-Stakes-No-Prisoners-Internet/dp/0812931432/ref=sr_1_1 https://www.amazon.com/High-Stakes-No-Prisoners-Internet/dp/...
ctmnt 6mo ago
That is amazing. Compounded by the fact that there's a product listed as "COMING SOON JULY 2025"! This isn't an abandoned site.
- fauria 6mo ago
  Also, the footer reads "© 2026 FEP Holding Company LLC" (probably not automated, the web seems like an HTML exported Word document). Wikipedia article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franklin_Electronic_Publishers https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franklin_Electronic_Publishers
  - celsoazevedo 6mo ago
    That part uses javascript to get the year: https://celsoazevedo.com/files/2026/franklin-date.png https://celsoazevedo.com/files/2026/franklin-date.png The "Last-Modified" HTML header suggests it was last updated on "Sat, 05 Jul 2025 04:27:21 GMT": https://celsoazevedo.com/files/2026/franklin-mod.png https://celsoazevedo.com/files/2026/franklin-mod.png
throwaway613746 6mo ago
[dead]
alberto-m 6mo ago
I opened “view source” in Firefox and it showed the html in a different font than usual. Maybe it's just a fallback because the page contains Chinese characters, but I was quite surprised. A small page with a lot of mysteries.

by rob74 6mo ago

404mm 6mo ago

Maybe it was done with MS FrontPage? I still remember that hot pile of garbage. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_FrontPage https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_FrontPage

ForHackernews 6mo ago
<meta name=Generator content="Microsoft Word 15 (filtered)">
- chocochunks 6mo ago
  Word 15 is Office 2013 lol.
garyrob 6mo ago
It may have been, I never used it, but it was also a very early, innovative (at the time) product made by a company called Vermeer. There is a truly fascinating, and even inspiring, book about the company and the sale of FrontPage to Microsoft: https://www.amazon.com/High-Stakes-No-Prisoners-Internet/dp/0812931432/ref=sr_1_1 https://www.amazon.com/High-Stakes-No-Prisoners-Internet/dp/...

ctmnt 6mo ago

That is amazing. Compounded by the fact that there's a product listed as "COMING SOON JULY 2025"! This isn't an abandoned site.

fauria 6mo ago
Also, the footer reads "© 2026 FEP Holding Company LLC" (probably not automated, the web seems like an HTML exported Word document). Wikipedia article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franklin_Electronic_Publishers https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franklin_Electronic_Publishers
- celsoazevedo 6mo ago
  That part uses javascript to get the year: https://celsoazevedo.com/files/2026/franklin-date.png https://celsoazevedo.com/files/2026/franklin-date.png The "Last-Modified" HTML header suggests it was last updated on "Sat, 05 Jul 2025 04:27:21 GMT": https://celsoazevedo.com/files/2026/franklin-mod.png https://celsoazevedo.com/files/2026/franklin-mod.png

throwaway613746 6mo ago

[dead]

alberto-m 6mo ago

I opened “view source” in Firefox and it showed the html in a different font than usual. Maybe it's just a fallback because the page contains Chinese characters, but I was quite surprised. A small page with a lot of mysteries.