The graphics and overall design were aging. The more I looked at them, the more I remembered my carefree days in Manila in the 1980s and 90s.
I created the original Kupitero’s Keep website in 1998 but launched it in 1999 when I finally got a decent web hosting site—Surfshop.net. Before them, I had tried many freebie hosting sites like GeoCities, Angelfire, etc., and other local ISPs like Epic.net and Tri-Isys.
The tools of the trade were the same ones I used back then: an HTML editor, Adobe Photoshop, an image animator and mapper, and a file transfer program (FTP).
I ported the site to Netscape‘s free hosting—simply called WebSites—after we terminated our contract with Surfshop.net in 2001. The nice thing was that they only put down the site in 2003. Unfortunately, Netscape’s free hosting didn’t last long as well—they stopped most of their free services after they merged with AOL (America Online).
I decided to put up my own web server only after I got broadband access — with download speeds of about 7 Mbps. I learned from the past that hosting your own site via dial-up is like torturing your viewers.
It doesn’t make a lot of sense if you only have a single phone line in the house – all your relatives will give you the ‘look’ for hogging the phone line to make your webserver/website available.
Also, imagine using a dial-up to dial-up link while streaming a large video file. Dial-up was king during the glory days of electronic bulletin board service (EBBS) before the Internet browser.
In short, forget web serving and hosting if all you’ve got is dial-up.
The makeover I had in mind will make the overall site smaller but retain most of the features of the original site. Faster page loading—for those accessing the site via dial-up—will be my priority, and I have decided that bulky graphic files will have to go.
The components are set: the server, the gateway, and the website. For me, it looks like 1984 again.
I’m just trying to keep in step with the times.
notes:
After drinking countless pots of coffee, I launched this site’s fourth revision on May 10, 2004.
Click here if you would like to view this site’s old home page (some links there are gone, while others will lead you to the new pages within this revamped site).