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SurvivalRing Site Design and Info
By Richard A. Fleetwood - May 2001
SurvivalRing Site Design and Information
Interested in how this website was created? I mean, are you REALLY interested
in knowing all the low-down dirty details, the vast number of hours needed,
the rooms full of hardware, the incredible amount of backbreaking labor,
the enormous physical, psychological, and monetary investments...AND how
it has all been placed here before you for YOUR convenience?
I didn't think so. But hey, thought I'd drag you away for a few moments to
throw a little ECONOMICS/PHYSICS your way for a few nanoseconds. Hit the
<BACK> button and continue on your quest for knowledge.
However.....if you -are- even a teensy, weensy, ever so slightly curious
person, who might SOMEDAY want to create your own webpage, website, webring,
or personal network, then scroll on down a little bit. See how I did this
site, on what hardware, with what software, and on what diet in how many
hours in how many orbits of the moon....just to help my fellow man LIVE easier
in hard times.
Lets start with the basic understanding that I did this work on my own, with
no up front ideas other than sharing what I could, learning what I might,
and maybe breaking even someday on the cost involved if I could. I did all
this on the cheap, using old hardware, free or old software, and cheap or
shareware software where I had to. I figured if I could do this project using
what MOST people have, or have access to, then anyone could with enough gumption
to give it a shot. Also, if I could access and view my website and website
eye-candy with my "old" system, and generic browser software and support
tools, then MOST of the world (up to 95%) could as well. These, then, were
the basic things I kept in mind as I started up the slippery slope of learning
web design "the hard way".
HARDWARE
This project has been done completely on a Packard Bell 486SX2 50 megahertz
system, modified only with a 4 gig harddrive and 64 meg of ram memory. No
extra devices have been added other than a 420 meg tape backup system, purchased
cheap at the local Walmart off the "liquidation" shelf. The biggest problem
during the entire process regarding the hardware was (and is) the lack of
processing speed. Large amounts of editing while in WYSIWYG mode took up
to a minute or two for processing and redrawing of the screen to update the
display. Creation of various graphics was somewhat limited by a 512k video
card which would only allow 256 colors in 800x600 pixel screen mode. This
was not much of a problem however, though again the creation of the graphics
from scratch took longer because of processing power. (I've recently purchased a new laptop system for my needs as an over the road driver, and this new site update has been done using it, and most of the old software I used originally.)
OPERATING SYSTEM and NOTES
This system is set up with Windows 95, OSR2. The harddrive was setup in FAT32
mode, to enable full use of the drive without partitions as well as speed
up access where it could. All applications and communications software are
set up in 32 bit mode, including AOL 4.0 software. While most software I
am using states that it requires a Pentium for operation, it WILL run on
this system...just very slowly at times. I can run multiple applications
at the same time, enabled by W95, the large amount of RAM memory, and spreading
the applications processing power needs efficiently. This includes webpage
software, graphics utilities, graphics creation apps, file manager, and even
the CD drive playing music in the background....all at the same time. New system has Windows ME, and at 600 megahertz, is like greased lightning...I love it!!
WEBPAGE GOALS
The goal of this entire project was to see the limits of what I could do
with a webpage and succeeding websites, the limits of what this hardware
could do in real world needs and settings, and what I could learn and teach
myself technically with all the various technologies, internet tools and
protocals. At this point I've amazed myself in all areas, and see no limits
yet in any of these three areas. Ancillary gifts derived from this project
include developing a network of friends around the world with common interests,
common goals, and an unlimited source of thought provoking material and topical
areas to share with all.
WEBPAGE SOFTWARE
Throughout this project, I've used AOLPress for ALL webpage creation. Its
a free software program developed by America OnLine, and can be downloaded
from http://www.aolpress.com, including a free downloadable manual. I've
tried other programs such as Frontpage, Dreamweaver, NetObjects Fusion, Adobe
Pagemill, Visual Page, and numerous others, but I always come back to AOLPress
simply because I know what it can do, and I can do it in a minimum of time
without having to dig into the manual. I can edit at the HTML level easily,
add java, script, or graphics easily, and have customized the tool buttons
with the ones I use most. The site management functions are built in, but
I've done most of mine by hand with a little paper planning first. Newer additions and upgrades are being done almost completely in TEXT format writing in pure html, as I've gotten a pretty good handle on it now. Javascript, dhtml, style sheets, and so forth seem to be easier to work with in this format. My current favorite text editor is Ultraedit-32.
WEBPAGE TOOLS and NEEDS
Other tools I've used to create this site and various parts of it include
JASC Paint Shop Pro (sharware), Xara 3d(trialware), WebGraphics Optimizer
3(trialware), and a few other little programs. Ultra Edit(shareware) is a
great text editing tool that allows an incredible number of features, including
the ability to modify or update ALL files in a directory, instead of file
by file, which makes it easy to change, add, or delete links that may be
on every page. LinkBot 3.6 (freeware) is a great program for managing a website
once its up, for checking links, creating site info, site maps, and many
other tools. It will handle up to 5 websites, with up to 100 pages per site.
A more powerful PRO version is available for decent price. Other items like
hit counters, hit tracking, email lists, newsgroups, and club activities
are handled through third party websites, like TheCounter.com, Yahoo, topica,
and so on. These services are free, though some are upgradeable for enhanced
services.
WEBPAGE SERVERS - all kinds
All my webpages are stored on SEVERAL different servers. AOL gave me ten
megs of storage to start with, in two meg chunks. Later, as I joined AOL
Beta testing, and also became part of AOL Hometown, I got another 10 meg
of space for file storage. I also use space on Hypermart.net (2 ten meg
accounts), and Xoom (one account with supposedly unlimited storeage space)
for my Alabama F5 Tornado report and future file storage of lots of civil
defense files and movie files of various events, such as nuke tests, and
tornadic events. At some point I would like to run my own server for full
control and experimentation for educational purposes. At Last check, Xoom had been bought out by NBCi, and with that I lost access to many files I had stored there, and have not had a chance to fix some of the old links. Then a couple weeks ago, I heard on Art Bell that NBCi was killing their entire web division, which means I may loose EVERYTHING on my old Xoom account. Will fix when I find out what exactly has been screwed up by the Dot.Com fallout.
WEBPAGE SKILLS
Although I began using computers in 1983, I did not get onto the internet
until November of 1996. Therefore, I knew nothing of webpage design,
construction, authoring, file management, servers, graphics needs, html,
links and linking, databases, mail lists, etc. I started my own personal
page in May of 1997, using AOL's online program Personal Publisher. After
playing with it a few weeks, I started digging into HOW it all worked, got
some books from the library and bookstore, on webpages, and read all I could
find on the internet about How It All Goes Together.
With this new project of redoing the entire SurvivalRing website, I spent
a few months working on the new page template, designing and redesigning
the site interaction and needs, and developing all the background info,
resources, tools, and software settings to give an overall "common look and
feel" to the site. I since have been working on the actual CONTENT of the
pages as time allows, writing a bit each evening to populate the new pages
with interesting and useful info and topics. Its almost done, with only a
handful of pages to go in this 80+ page monster of a site. And yes, I created
all the web graphics for the new site myself, save a few by my friend and
fellow ring helper Randy Stephens. I think the new site is going to blast
some people out of the water when its done and fully announced to the world.
And throughout, I've learned a whole boatload of new skills do be used in
any other web endeavors.
Guess I succeeded in my quest to learn, huh? Still plan on digging into database
manipulation, streaming media, broadcasting, server projects, and more as
time goes on....as well as learning Java, html 4, xml, dhtml, and any other
kinds of *html's that are out there to learn about and play with.
PROJECT GOALS
My goals with this project were a) self teaching thru experiance, b) creating
new ideals and news sources to share what I know in many areas, c) connecting
with other folks with like interests, d) creating a network to help SHARE
lifesaving and life lengthening info, in a better more useful way then before.
PROJECT COSTS
The biggest costs of doing this website project the past couple of years
has been TIME. I would safely say at least a few thousand hours of my spare
time, with up to 10 hours straight a day (rarely) even on days where I worked
a full shift at the post office. Some days were just an hour or two, with
the occasional lapse of a day or more offline for family participation. Monetary
outlays were for software, a bigger harddrive, more ram, a color scanner,
and monthly ISP fees (thank God for unlimited access accounts)...all to help
make the website and all webpages bigger and better. Oh yes, and all the
books I've gathered in my quest to learn new areas, INCLUDING everything
about webdesign I could find in the local bookstores. Never planned on making
any money back to cover costs, but it would be nice to close the gap some
day.
PROJECT NEEDS - Want to HELP US?
It's taken a while to create the new SurvivalRing website, starting fram
scratch with a new page design and layout. It would have gone much faster
with a bit more powerful system. Since I have not made any income from the
site the past two years, and have spent much for hardware and ISP access
during that time, I am in need of more storage space online. How can YOU help?
Easily, if you want to. I currently have TONS of survival, civil defense, and defense documents in hard copy I am working on getting scanned into my system to present thru my websites. Some incredible, rare, hard to find info. I'll need a FEW hundred megabytes of online storage, as some will be in image format, others in text or html. Ultimate goal is enough to fill up CD ROMS. You can see I'll need room. I've got over 3000 pages of data to scan in as time allows, and would appreciate any volunteers who would like to help. If and
when any website income starts coming in, I'll apply some of it to this area.
That's about it. Now you know where this site came from, and where it is
going, and possibly how you might accomplish the same thing someday. Your
comments, and any donated offerings, will be welcome.
Richard Fleetwood
Founder - SurvivalRing
Updated May 2001 - © 2001 By Richard A. Fleetwood |
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