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Sometime in the late 1990s...

This web site has been around since sometime in late 1993 or early 1994. It's always been created on Apple Macintosh computers, which I've had since 1984. (Years ago MacWorld magazine editor David Brunnel organized a mailing of certificates of appreciation to the holders of the first thousand Macs. I kept that thing on the wall until it yellowed and flaked into dust.) It's not so much that I'm a fan of Macintosh, but rather that I'm enamored of computers that let me concentrate on the work I have to do, rather than on obstacles coming from the computer. Macintosh wins, UNIX with the MIT X Window System is next, and Microsoft Windows (all variants, to date) trailing in a sad third place.

I've used a variety of tools to maintain this site. In the early days it was enough to use Apple's basic text editor TeachText, later SimpleText. For the longest time I used Bare Bones Software's "BBedit" powerful text editor. These days I render a site - pour the content into the look-and-feel - with Userland Frontier.

For graphics I use Thorsten Remke's shareware program "GraphicConverter" for almost everything. Adobe PhotoShop does the rest.

I use "Big Brother" to check the integrity of my rendered web pages. To find the exact RGB values for a color I see on-screen I use Mark Womak's ColorSieve. To make animated GIFs I use Yves Piguet's GifBuilder. To bridge the gap between my PowerBook and my web servers I use Emmett Gray's "Fetch-O-Matic".

Browser? I use Microsoft's "Internet Explorer" because it seems to be faster and more stable on my Macintosh. I've used Netscape Navigator for a long time. (I remember when, in the desire to differentiate themselves from NCSA Mosaic, Mosaic Communication Corporation changed their name to Netscape Communication Corporation. The middle icon is a thumbnail to the old MCC splash screen, which I really liked.)

My annoyance du jour with Navigator (both 3.04 and 4.05 for Macintosh) is how it renders my backgrounds. Explorer on the right, Navigator on the left. So I'm back to using a solid background.

These pages are designed to load as quickly as possible, on the widest variety of web browsers. To that end we have no JavaScript rollovers, no applets, and no large graphics (other than the subjects being covered, and those ought to have small thumbnails which show you a preview of what you'll be seeing). I suggest type and background colors, but your individual choices will override mine (as it should be).

Best of all, these pages come with a person who cares. Got a question, an issue, or a comment? I'd love to hear from you.