This is a Geeky post and in it I’m going to show you how my website has developed over the years.

Version 1
My first version was created in HTML and looked like this:

It had sections to it: Personal, Carrer and Occult. It had Quick Links News on the home page.

The Navigation was simplistic as was the site as a whole. This first version of the site was online when I was 16 years old and at that time I didn’t have the domain antonysimpson.com.

Version 2

Version 2 was designed with sidebar Navigation in order to allow me to populate the site with much more content. It again was designed in HTML using tables. It contained much more photos than Version 1 including a photo’s section.

New features included a News page that had paragraphs of my news including Site Updates to let the visitors know what had been developed and updated. The Occult section of Version 1 became religion as I accepted Paganism as part of my religion. This version of the site was online around the time when I was 18 years old.

Version 3

Most significantly in Version 3 was the new blue design. I kept the sidebar navigation as I liked that it allowed me to populate the rest of the site with more content. The site used a combination of HTML and PHP, using Iframes. Removed the Site Updates but added on a Last Updated sentence on the home page so that people know when it was last updated.

The news section (above) had a page per news entry and an archive like a blog.

Version 4

Kept the same blue colours design. Kept the last updated sentence on the home page. Moved the Navigation to the top of the page. The main feature of this site was a wordpress blog which unfortunately I deleted being unable to pull off the posts and saving them. This was probably the shortest version of the site ever online, really I only focused on the blog.

Version 5

Again I kept the blue design (look above). It was the most advanced coding I had done so far. I liked the photos and had more of them to use as technology developed. I kept the Last Updated sentence and added a hit counter.

I created a windows-style little windows for the content. For the first time I had a guestbook.

Version 6

The major change in this design was the colours, using oranges and reds. The site design was the same, but I uploaded much more content.

Version 7

Easier on the eye colours were used. Advanced PHP coding used. Meta tags added so that I would appear in search results. For the first time I used an RSS feed. This was probably one of the longest sites online.

Navigation returned the sidebar with little yellow star bullet points! I discovered photoshop and used it to make my own banners. Put news on the home page. Kept expanding the site adding new sections and pages.

Also added Coming Soon – so that visitors would know what new content was to be added and Site Updates makes a return so visitors know what’s been recently updated.

Version 8

My friend Sye designed this site for me. I asked him to design it after seeing his cartoon artwork (see Funny cartoons from a friend and More funny cartoons from a friend). The idea was to create a noticeboard with a piece of paper pinned on to it. The Navigation was cartoon images that changed on mouse over at the top of the page.

The site was designed in dreamweaver using tables in a blog style. I also had a cartoon logo designed by Sye. I decided to have a wordpress blog for the home page and made some minor changes to the design to accommodate this to the version you see today:

So that’s how my sites developed over the years. Do you think I should make some changes to the current version or create a new version? Post a comment.

Antony

Like most homes today mine has more than one computer. I have infact two, a laptop for surfing the net and a desktop in the office / guest room. But I was becoming increasingly fustrated with having my music, pictures and documents split across the two. I’d log on to my desktop to find a document or file and then realise that it’s on the laptop. So I decided to buy My Book World Edition 1TB Home Network Storage.

What I love about it:

What I struggled with:

What I’ve not used (and therefore can’t review):

Hope my review was useful. Blog technological soon,

Antony

I had been having some problems with connecting wirelessly to my BT Home Hub. I ended up plugging it in by the wire to the hub and even then it was slow. I emailed BT expecting never to get a response or waiting weeks to get it sorted (which was driving me mad, because I couldn’t write blog posts at my leisure).

BT called me back the following day (I had wrote the email late at night before bed). I missed some of their calls to my mobile as I was at work. And then as soon as I got home my home phone went off. I answered some of the secruity questions and the guy on the phone from BT took control of my computer via the Internet and sorted out my problem in just 10 mins. In the past BT’s customer service hasn’t been good and my past blog posts have reflected this.

So BT:
I’m most impressed. Thanks again for enabling me to blog from my softa.

Antony x

I recently recieved an email about a new service that will give out your mobile number to people, after checking it’s ok to do with you supposedly.

The company behind the 118 800 service, Connectivity, has bought 15m numbers from list brokers, market researchers and online businesses that store personal details, amounting to 40% of those in regular use in the UK.
(from: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/jul/12/mobile-phone-service-privacy, Accessed online: 12th July 2009)

It seems these days you can’t have any privacy. Apparently the service crashed when thousands of people went to their website to protect their privacy and register themselves as ex-directory:

Controversial new mobile phone directory service 118800.co.uk has crashed, after thousands of users flocked online to remove their numbers from the site, according to reports.

The site, which launched last month, now displays holding page which reads “service suspended while we make improvements”.
(from: http://www.v3.co.uk/v3/news/2245896/mobile-directory-crashes, Accessed online: 12th July 2009)

What is most annoying is:

However, UK data protection watchdog the Information Commissioner’s office has given a green light to the service..
(from: http://www.v3.co.uk/v3/news/2245896/mobile-directory-crashes, Accessed online: 12th July 2009)

They are giving away our privacy without consultation to the highest bidder. I come home on a rare evening off an feel invaded by sales calls in my own home to the land line. I am ex-directory, but the meaning of that term seems to have changed. Does anybody remember a time when ex-directory, really mean’t ex-directory?

What do you think about this service and our privacy?

Write soon,

Antony

A teenage couple were in the news a few weeks ago (see http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8109836.stm), they where saved by the girl being “plugged in” to her ipod and by holding hands.

This made me realise two things:
1. I recently give my Ipod to my mum.
2. I now don’t have a partner to hold hands with (see David & Housewarming)

Which means I am stuffed if I get struck by lightening. So keep your fingers crossed that it never happens.

Finally it made me realise that – wow – maybe love does conquer all.

Write soon,

Antony