Welp, our three-week brain-rotting exams are finally over. And its finally time to post MADLY!! :p So be forewarned: long post ahead, read with caution, patience, and.. blah, anything.
If you had noticed my site a couple of days ago, it was undegoing a redesign which makes it version FOUR. Yes, four, I made a mistake earlier saying it was version 3. After some thought through its history, this really is the fourth version of my site. Talking about history and since I have nothing more to write but I promised (sort of) that this will be a long post, so let’s take a look at the history of this site now shall we?
Back in 2004, December, to be exact, I thought of this wild idea of having my own website, or blog, where I could post my personal stuff and works. Being a n00b at that time, I knew I needed webspace, so I went Googling for free webhosts with good offers. I found 100WebSpace where they offer 100megs of space and other specs which I cant remember. I registered and immdiately went learning HTML, lol. I got myself a copy of Dreamweaver, and started coding. Later I learned that Dreamweaver is a bad choice for beginners, but heck, I already got my site up and running.
I was inspired by friends having their own blog where they can post personal journals, have a portfolio… At that time, I knew nothing of blog scripts like WordPress, Movabletype, etc. So, I ‘typed’ out my own blog, without any script, just manually. 😀 Thinking back on this fact really makes me laugh.
I made my first post on 17th of December, 2004 on version 1 of my website. My web address at that time was unprofessionally called ember.freesuperhost.com (you get redirected here if you go there now) and looks like this:
31st of December 2004
Then on Christmas day, I met Stafa of through DeviantART and got to know each other through MSN Messenger. When he knew my website was hosted for free on some ad-supported webhost, he was like, I could make you a subdomain, then host it for ya. Now, who could say no to that. :p So, on Christmas day, I shifted my website from freesuperhost.com to ember.geuvara.com. When he asked what blogging script I use, I actually told him I typed everything manually. He was like, loool, why make life tough? Try using some blogging scripts. He installed WordPress (1.2.1 at that time) and that was version 2 of my site. 😀
Since then, life got much, much easier. WordPress truly is the best blogging software on earth. Here is how Version 2 looks like, spiced up with the Kubrick theme (not the default WordPress theme at that time). I modified its header, css and a couple of other stuffs. The header by the way, is cropped from my Foton wallpaper set.
5th of January 2005
Life goes on for two months until I finally got bored of Kubrick. It was March, and WordPress 1.5 was released, with Kubrick as its default theme. Thousands of new blogs started poppin up around the net with Kubrick. I didnt want my site to look n00b (no offence to those Kubrick users out there) so I went searching for new themes just to make my blog look a little more different that those Kubricks laying out there. I found Mallow and it was love at first sight.
Again, I couldnt use the theme without modifying to my own color and taste so I ended up with the real version 3 of ember.geuvara.com with the same color scheme but featuring a different theme!
9th of March 2005
Once again, after two months, its time for change. I fired up Photoshop and whipped up a new banner followed by a new color scheme to my blog. I wanted a new, limey-fresh feel to my blog instead of the old, dull dark blue. It is partly also because I was inspired by the Green Marinee theme which I just stumbled upon on someone else’s blog. I actually took some colors from it (eg: hovers, and background).
After ages meddling with CSS, I proud to say its now finished. I wouldnt say its ‘100%’ done though, let’s just say its 99.9% done because I think, it will never be perfect, continuous improvement is a must and the remaining 0.1% is what that is left that I must improve from time to time. I am most satisfied as to how the comments page look now, with its hovers and colors (for CSS compliant browsers only). And of course of the overall blog. This version of my blog is by far, my favourite, so it may stay like this for awhile 😛
Another thing special about this version is that it now supports Internet Explorer 6.0, Opera 8.0, Netscape 8.0 and of course Mozilla Firefox 1.0.4. IE users, sorry for the crappy layout on my site for the last few months, forgive me for being ignorant but, I really didnt know it appeared broken in IE as I only use Firefox. Now, it has come to my attention that my website has to be tested on all browsers as possible to make it available to all. Safari users out there, please leave a comment if my blog doesnt appear correctly on your browser, thanks.
Time now to hit the F5 button!
BEHOLD, VERSION FOUR!you are looking at it now
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Version [4] of ember.geuvara.com is coming! Check back for changes 😀
Update #3: Tested successfully on MSIE 6.0, Opera 8.0, Netscape 8.0, and of course, Mozilla Firefox 1.0.4. If it still looks broken on your browser, do not hestitate to tell me about it.
Update #2: SWEEEEEEEET!! Now everything renders fine in IE! Gosh, took me all day. This make the overall progress about 90% done 😀 Oh, and don’t forget to hit the F5 button!
Update #1: almost finished.. Everything renders fine with Mozilla Firefox 1.0.4. But, I’m still having problems with the appearance in IE. Grrr.. this is killin me. Any ideas for the large space on top of this post? *fixed 😉 (IE)
Well done. 🙂 Will look more forward to your pings into PPS later.
Cheers.
thanks mate 😀