About This Site

This is my personal website, just a place where I have free reign to do what I want, and to practice my PHP skills.

I've re-written this site to practice my HTML and PHP skills, and I intend to make it fully standards-compliant and accessible, and make sure that all the code validates correctly without any errors. I host this site on my own virtual dedicated server from Bytemark Hosting. It's a Slackware 9.0 machine, running Apache, MySQL, PHP and Perl, among other things.

Design and coding - I've designed and coded this site entirely by hand. I much prefer to write HTML by hand, since I know the code is fully valid and isn't bloated like the output of most WYSIWYG editors. It also gives you a lot more control over the site.

Cross-browser compliance - I am writing this site to be cross-browser compliant, it should work well enough in any browser. I don't like the idea that a visitor should have to be using a specific browser to get the best from a website.

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Below are all the systems used to make this site possible.

		My server, like all the machines I use both at home and work, runs Slackware Linux. I've found Slackware to be extremely powerful, flexible and reliable, both for workstations and servers.
		Like the majority of sites on the Net, this site is served by the superb Apache webserver.
		The database backend of this site is provided by MySQL - I choose MySQL for its speed and reliability.
		I use PHP for dynamic content, including dynamic parts of the template, building the navigation, and various other parts.
		I've used Perl for various back-end stuff which keeps the site running smoothly, automates common tasks and so on.
		My online Photo albums are created and managed by Gallery, an incredibly flexible PHP solution for managing photo albums.
		My aggregated News page is created by CaRP, a Caching RSS parser.
		My coding sessions are normally fuelled by Stella :-)