WTF?

mime-version: 1.0
content-type: text/plain; charset=gb2312
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Message-Id: <20060924082345.DB8133FFCB@zxtm3.redstardevelopment.com>
From: "Order Confirmation" <info@play.com>
To: 
subject: Confirmation of order received by play.com
date: 24 Sep 2006 09:23:56 +0100

GB2312? What's that then?

GB2312 is the registered internet name for a key official character set of the People's Republic of China, used for simplified Chinese characters. GB abbreviates Guojia Biaozhun (国家标准), which means national standard in Chinese.

(The text of the mail is in English, although their interpretation of quoted-printable is a bit individual...)

I suppose to be fair I should mention that Amazon's equivalent emails claim a charset of ascii but then include £.

More clearout

• Books for sale (make me an offer):
  • Deep Future (Stephen Baxter)
  • The Lost Continent (Bill Bryson)
  • What If - Fifteen Visions Of Change for Britain's Inner Cities (Hutton, Brown, etc; ed. Carpenter et al).
  • What If (hardback) and More What If (various authors; ed. Robert Cowley)
  • Bloody Mary (Garth Ennis/Carlos Ezquerra)
  • Orbiter (Warren Ellis et al)
• Books to give away:
  • The Size Of Thoughts (Nicholson Baker)
  • Neanderthal (Douglas Palmer)
  • Manual Of Karate (E J Harrison) (really ancient - if you actually want to learn Karate, join a club and get a modern book)
  • The World In 2003 (The Economist)
  • Eye Of The Zodiac (E C Tubb)
  • Rork! (Avram Davidson)
  • A Spell For Chameleon (Piers Anthony)
  • The Dilbert Principle (Scott Adams)

The first What If is a bright orange collection of essays on inner cities from a few years ago, including one from the Scottish gentleman who risks losing the next election. The other two are collections of speculations on the consequences of various historical battles going the other way. The for-sale books vary from almost new to reasonable in condition, the giveaway books have a bit more of an air of age to them.

I suspect this to be outside my budget

Monster lens