Yesterday, I blew it all up. All the websites I maintain on my server, including this one and Anne’s, blew up when I did … something.
I exhausted my knowledge, and I exhausted my patience searching forums and documentation to figure out what the hell I’d broken, and how to fix it.
So I asked my friend for help, and he saved my bacon. (He probably saved some of your bacon, too. I bet you never even knew your personal bacon was at risk; that’s how nefarious today’s bacon mafia is. THANKS OBAMA.)
While I was trying to solve it myself, I saw that my /public_html directory was a shitshow that needed massive attention. Imagine the directory is a room. In that room are shelves, and on those shelves are the books and drawers where website content lives. This room should be nice and neat, so it’s really easy to find what you need. When something is out of place, it’s super easy to see, because the rest of the room is so orderly.
Now take that imagined room, and replace it with a teenage boy’s bedroom at the end of the week. Into that room, I dumped like fifty bags of website bullshit with the intention of cleaning it all up …. someday.
So that was like ten years ago. I know. It’s so embarrassing. As soon as my buddy finished saving the aforementioned bacon, I went into this appalling mess, and cleaned it all up.
In that process, I came across some old images that made me smile.I’m going to be promoting Still Just A Geek soon (YOU CAN PRE-ORDER IT HERE AT A DISCOUNT PLEASE DO OKAY THANKS) and these images from the time Just A Geek was written are going to be relevant and fun to share during the promotion.
One of those images is a screenshot of my website from 2005, when I had done all of it on my own. The layout, the php includes, the PERL, the whole thing. It was a lot back then (it still is, at least to me) and I’m proud of what late 20s/early 30s Wil was able to accomplish.
It’s all so much easier today (yesterday’s blowing up notwithstanding) and I love that. I love that the distance between “I want a blog” and “I have a blog” is a few clicks. When I did this back in the early aughts, there were at least two HTML books and months of studying to understand gzip, ftp, chmod, mod_rewrite, and holy shit configuring an Apache webserver in 2001 between those two things. I’ve compared it to owning a classic car in the 70s. It wasn’t enough to keep it the fluids topped off; you needed to be some level of a mechanic to hold it all together. It was just part of the price of admission. It was a lot, but I don’t regret it for a second. I learned a lot then (which I’ve clearly forgotten) but I am so happy that some of us who did the heavy lifting back then decided to develop tools and methods that would make it so much easier for everyone who followed us.
Turns out that I was one of those people who was always under the hood then, and I’m one of the people who just want the damn thing to work, now. Thanks, me from the past!
Turns out that I was one of those people who was always under the hood then, and I’m one of the people who just want the damn thing to work, now. Thanks, me from the past!
datme!
(Says my 50+ yr old self, fully aware that ‘datme’ was yeeted from the coolspeak lexicon instant I started using it. As was ‘yeet’. XD )
I remember that version of your site. I’m also one of the “dozens” that read Just a Geek. I also have (had?) two copies of Dancing Barefoot. The first one you shipped me got lost in the mail. You shipped another copy and then like six months later the original one got delivered. I say had because we downsized dramatically a few years ago, and I gave thousands of books to the library. I don’t remember if I kept yours, or they ended up getting sold for 50 cents at a library fundraiser. Anyway, I’ll pre-order the new book. Surely my order will be the one that pushes it to the NYT bestseller list!
Any chance you would set up a pre-order deal with Indigo Books in Canada? Trying to not give more money to Bezos than I have to, and they are they only Canadian physical bookseller you have listed currently.
As a matter of fact, yes.
Your reference to owning a classic car in the 70s brought back memories. I owned a little red Fiat convertible for about a year. It was in the shop SEVEN TIMES and every time I brought it in my mechanic gave me grief. Finally I gave up on it and bought at Mustang. I am proud to say that I was able to do a tune-up on the Mustang! Those were the days, my friend.
Okay. Book ordered. You’re welcome!
I remember learning HTML by dissecting other people’s Myspace pages! I used to click ‘inspect’ and just toy with the code to figure out what everything did. It’s so crazy that I don’t have to even touch the code anymore. I used to build websites in notepad and now I can just build them with some drag and drop plugin for WordPress!
Man those were the days! Will look out for the book!
Would you be willing to consider also listing Bookshop.org as a source? A portion of their sales goes to help local bookstores. (I’ve got my copy on pre-order there. 🙂 )
Yes, I would LOVE this too. I buy my local bookstore’s books on Bookshop (Mysterious Galaxy in San Diego, and Diesel in Del Mar) and that would be very convenient.
I remember finding your blog back in the days that it looked like the screenshot and being absolutely in awe that you would be willing to share glimpses of your life with the world, including me! I haven’t stopped reading the blog since and what a journey it has been. Thank you for everything you do! (The book is pre-ordered already, of course.)
Thanks for cleaning out the excess baggage. I take it the bacon was saved. Oink! Oink!
Glad to hear Wil! Thanks for remaining cool!
Whoa what a blast from the past. I remember that version of your website. Loved the different sections, remember being impressed by the big step up from Where’s my burrito
Thanks for being a geek to look up to. We’re of the same age and it’s been a wild ride of a life.
FYI – I was doing similar web work back then. It was such a pain. It’s been made so much easier for the end user now. Though I can tell you the systems I work on to make that happen are even more of a learning curve.
My associates is in web design. I remember being extremely proud of all my Myspace and LiveJournal (where all this coding interest started for me) and I get showing off your work. I do it all the time even now. And I have to say, the blog looks great today! Glad no bacon was tossed into the fire.
Wil, so glad I found my way back here in time to learn about Still Just A Geek! Ordered it earlier today in the middle of catching up on your posts.
I tend to get all over the place with my interests, but always return to those things that I truly enjoy and find rewarding. Thanks for sharing all these years. Not only are you entertaining, but your words about your experiences provide me really insightful things to reflect on about being a good person and a great dad. Thank you!
So, here I am again! Really happy to see you doing so well and enjoying the fuck out of the life you’ve made. And glad you’re putting out another book! Count me in the dozens that bought and read the first version, along with your other books. Be well!
I sure remember when the site looked like that, with good ol’ beardless Wil, up in the corner.
I am looking forward to pre-ordering this book.. However, is there anyway to inspire you to write Memories of the Future Volume 2?
I still remember trying to build web pages in 1994, viewing the source of others and consulting the Holy Grail (TBL’s pages on the CERN site), creating 256 colour GIFs from JPEGs to keep transfer size down. It absolutely was the Wild West Web, and it was a beautiful thing.
I still remember being so pleased, Wil, to see you build out your own site way back in the day, as it just affirmed more how “of us” you are. Not being afraid to get hands dirty, not being afraid to jump in with both feet: these really were required traits to do “well” in the first proper years of the commercial Internet.
I still pine for that mid-’90s simplicity though: vi, xv, NCSA Mosaic and httpd. Theoe were the tools of the fledgling web builders. Not as clumsy or random as Dreamweaver. Elegant tools, for a more civilized age.
Great that the site now works with https!
I’m so glad this site is fixed! I check into the site every day, noticed it was down and then got busy with work this past week and missed the re-opening! I’m also glad to see that you’re now using https. I’ve loved your blog since 2004 and I well remember the old site. Thanks for the screenshot (honestly, part of the charm was your smiling face in the corner)!
I remember a post from your old site talking about cooking a batch of chili. It’s weird the shit that sticks in our brains, ain’t it? I devoured your blog when I found back in the early days of the internet. Been a follower and a longtime time. Thanks for giving us some of yourself, Wil Wheaton!