Web safe colours may've fell into disuse but they'll never be forgotten or dismissed by true web monkeys. They are the stuff of folklore and fanciful daydreams of days gone past, when only the hardy few ruled supreme in the online kingdom, free to roam the virtual streets, playing at will with the web-safe colour palette. Maybe time has given us rose tinted spectacles and a warped view of what actually seems rather quaint and archaic now, but what web-safe colours represent, is the uniqueness of online design as opposed to print, and the obsessive love and care that goes into creating the perfect website.
There were, originally, 216 web-safe colour values, developed at a time when the average computer was only capable of displaying 256 colours. So why 216? Well, because it allowed there to be six shades each of red, green and blue (6x6x6=216) and because computer operating systems of the time used to reserve a few colours for their own use, therefore any more than 216 and computers may have started dithering.
In truth, the web-safe colours didn't really have any magical properties, they were just chosen to match the colour palettes selected by the then leading browser applications, but we love 'em anyways.
Here's an interesting ditty about your morning 'upper' that we're betting you don't know, and if you do, you can feel all smug and proud of yourself!
Josephus Daniels (Born 18 May 1862) was appointed Secretary of the US Navy by President Woodrow Wilson in 1913. Among the many reforms he made during his time as Head Sea Dog, he had the insight to introduce women into the Navy and the damn cheek to ban the drinking of wine in the officer's mess. From that time on, the strongest drink available aboard Navy ships was coffee, which soon became known as 'a cup of Joe'.
So even if your name isn't Joe - now you know!