About the Site
Posted: January 22nd, 2007 by Frank
Lisa and I have been online for years. We met on Compuserve back in 1989. The internet is a big part of our plans for making the farm a viable means of support.
This site hosted on a server rented from Superb down near MAE-East in McClean, Virginia. We did our own hosting for years, but with our switch to a satellite connection, that’s no longer plausible. (Note: I cannot recommend a satellite link unless it’s your only alternative to dial-up. The minimum ping to anywhere is half a second just due to the two round trips to geosynchronous orbit, and Hughes, at least, seems to grossly oversell the available bandwidth. Don’t bother trying to do anything between noon and 9pm.)
We’re using Wordpress for a Content Management System (CMS), as well as for the journal. Wordpress 2.x is a very well-designed and implemented application. I’ve had very minimal need to actually hack the PHP, and when I need to, the documentation and organization make it straightforward, if not actually easy, to do. I started the site design witha theme by Andreas Viklund. I’ve made extensive changes and the to-do list is long.
The pictures are stored in Gallery2. Gallery is a highly capable program, and was Hobson’s choice when we started using it back in 2002. Unfortunately, its design and implementation do not show up favorably next to Wordpress. Gallery 1 is a nightmare to modify. Gallery2 is a big step forward, but still barely reaches the slickness level of Wordpress 1.
There is a Wordpress/Gallery2 integration package, WPG2. It is an embedding rather than a real integration: in its default install (and I haven’t found another), clicking a link will bring up your gallery inside your wp-content area. This is perfect for a photo-blog where you can prune redundant display because Gallery will always be there. It’s not so hot for illustrating a text entry. I’ve gotten it to the point that it no longer drives us crazy.
Our e-commerce solution is still somwhat in the air. We’ve used Zen Cart in the past and may again. The real issue was accepting payment. Internet credit card processing is hideously expensive and a pain. Amazon or Google checkout look pretty good compared to the alternatives, and of course then we need to look at the companion storefront applications.
Write a comment