Why are they called Grey Papers?

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Actually, the answer to that question is a hybrid:

• They answer questions that some people consider "off topic" in a news group such as alt.html. (In fact, alt.html is an unchartered and redundant news group that has a long and glorious history of being so friendly that almost anything goes so long as it's in some way related to the work of web design/development, and I intend to do all I can to keep it that way.)
• White Papers are generally considered authoritative, whereas these Grey Papers are anything but. The only guarantee I'll give is that if you take my advice and things break, you get to keep all of the little pieces. Free advice is worth only as much as you paid for it.
• Not everything is black and white -- some things are in the grey gradient between the two. I'll take those things on, and damn the torpedoes. I am not above interjecting my own opinion which may sometimes fly in the face of convention, if not better sense.

Now you know why they're grey. Maybe one day when a given grey paper evolves to the point where it will definitively answer any given question, it will become a white paper. I don't expect it. This is not mature technology we're dealing with, and far too many players have far too many divergent and conflicting ideas about how things should work.

That all said, let's get you back to the reason you came here.