-This Website




This website has been quite a project, and one which I hadn't imagined would be so large. It has come a long way since it's inception and isn't my first website, though it is by far the most complete, useful, and elaborate.

I started fairly small, with incredibly basic layouts and pointless but funny content. I give you.... my freewebs page:

Robodude1010 Freewebs Site

Shortly thereafter I made the "Stop banner ads" site linked from there and screwed with the content. Considering most of the page/content was made during comp sci class, I don't think it's half bad.

Then I was introduced to blogesque things and made a Xanga, that lasted a good long while and was basically a website replacement. It lasted until well after this site was established, but I have since abandoned it. One notable website thing that came out of it was the Math Masta Industries home page, complete with downloads

Math Masta Industries Homepage

I got my first real experience building real(ish) websites during my second semester of comp sci open study, when I rewrote a large portion of our school's virtual tour for their website. In the end the tour was partially incomplete and noone wanted to finish it, so it all was an excersize. Here I started using javascript and frames for decent formatting and effects, without this little stint, this website probably look a lot worse than it does now.

Then I selected a name and bought the domain. I had a frontpage with the pants logo and a 404 page by the end of that day, and it's grown ever since. Throughout the summer I worked on and off on the site adding new content, updating old content, and fixing various navigation problems. When my sophmore year of college started the updates stopped coming, I was basically overwhelmed, but I've come back hopefully to make more frequent updates, and to provide content which is relevant to more than just a handful of people.


The real challenge with this site is how I did it. I never once used a fancy web authoring program to make this, every bit of code is hand written by myself in notepad, yes notepad. I made the vast majority of the icons from scratch in photoshop and did all the formatting by trial and error and notepad. Much of the work is simple, but repition is big and since it's writing code there is always debugging to be done.

This site makes some use of Java Script, and I was fairly surprised at how many people had it completely blocked. The latest update includes a basic workaround for non-javascript users so you can actually tell where buttons take you. I try to keep ease of navigation in mind, but at least for now the akward start page is here to stay.

Coming attractions.... well I hope to add more content as I upload it and as it's created, I hope to get more recordings up here soon especially. I do hope to add a couple java-script-enabled pictures in the near future with some of the panoramas and things I've taken which aren't in the gallery. I am also considering a sort of comment area on each main site and some captioning and things for the gallery, but we shall see. For you website builders who scorn at my design methods.... I don't intend on using CSS until it becomes really helpful and I figure out how to use it.


A late August 2005 snapshot of this site being built..... in notepad.


I have no intention on changing my notepad ways, I think the site is kept managable by me doing all the work to put it up, it never becomes a huge project or just a way to dump files on the net. This way also lets me experiment with anything on the site when I want, and because I wrote it all, I understand exactly how the site operates. I do hope to make more frequent updates and to have some more meaty content in the future, but it's always as the schedule permits.







8/28/07