Myst's Edge

Technical                 Nov 1, 07

I'm kind of a gurl geek and into computers and such, so I thought I'd make a page to share some technical things.

A few years back when I shared an ISP with a friend, we had free web space.  At that time, I started toying with the idea of a web site.  After all, the space was there, might as well use it right?  But, I wasn't sure how to create one, and I didn't know what I'd put on it.  Then, there was Robin (see my special people column in this part of my Web home).

Robin is a dear friend who challenges and encourages me.  He suggested several ideas for a web page and through various talks with him, I decided on a web page that would be a little peek into parts of my life.  It would talk about what I like and didn't like and who was special in my life.  It would also touch on some of my interests and it would be a way for me to share things with people.  Robin has provided valuable feedback over the years on this site (and many other things!).  Thus, my page was born.  Thank you Robin!

I started off with the Netscape web development tools and also learned some HTML.  To get the hang of things, I put together a web page that worked from my local hard drive.  It came along nicely but was taking way too much work.  Plus, I wanted to change things easily such as pictures and other things as my life changed.  Programming in HTML was not an easy way to do some of the things I wanted to do.  So, I started looking at other web development tools and settled on FrontPage by Microsoft.

I converted my hard drive web site to a FrontPage site and finally published it on the web.  It has grown and changed over the years as I've played with various plug-ins, add-ons, and other goodies.

after a bit of time, I decided on a major overhaul of my site.  I needed to overhaul the basic look, feel, and navigation.  My site was growing up.  Originally, I was a using a "Frames" site, which didn't work for some people.  Plus the fonts and transitions between pages were not standard.  I also wanted a brighter contrast between the background and navigation buttons.

I closed my site for a time.  The upkeep was just too much work, and I didn't have the time.  But, as you can tell by reading this, the site is back.  I pulled up the FrontPage work I had saved and once again, put up a website.

In Feb 2007, I upgraded my computers to Windows Vista, and to Office 2007, and decided to look at alternate web development tools.  The version of FrontPage I had was FrontPage 2003 and Microsoft was no longer supporting it.  It was also not up with newer technology and new web design conventions.  So, I tinkered some with Dreamweaver (by Adobe/Macromedia) and with Expression Web (from Microsoft).  While Dreamweaver tends to be the design tool of choice, it lacks many of the automatic features that my old trusty FrontPage had (such as automatic thumbnails of graphics).  Expression Web seemed a bit more complex and powerful for my needs, but it did have the automatic features I was used to.  After evaluating both for a bit of time, Expression Web won out.

Throughout Feb 2007, my website went through many drastic changes and it went from being a website, to what I like to think of my Web home.  And that is what you see here.

I mentioned my computer above, so let me touch on that too.  I use three computers, sometimes four.  One is a Dell XPS High Performance that has been modified.  It runs a Dual Core 2, 2.93 GHz Extreme processor, 4 gig of RAM, and dual NVIDIA 8800 GTX graphic cards (yes, two cards feeding a single 22-inch wide-screen monitor).  The other computer is a home-built running an Intel 3.2 GHz processor, 2 gig of RAM, and an ATI 1900X graphics card.  The third is a Pocket PC (Samsung i730).  Many times, there's also a Toshiba M7 Tablet PC around.  All of these are networked on a Linksys wireless gateway.  If you have specific questions, just ask.