After several years of intending to bring my old website back online, I finally did it in 2023—using a custom solution rather than an off-the-shelf platform.

My career involved designing and implementing purpose built electronic systems, as custom solutions usually allow much more flexibility and functionality than using a pre-packaged system. So, naturally I took that approach with this project, despite the time and learning curve required...

Technical Details

This site

The site runs on Zotonic (an Erlang-based CMS) on a FreeBSD server, with custom CSS rather than a template. I chose this approach because it offers multilingual support, access control, and complete flexibility—requirements that pre-packaged systems don't address well together.

The dark background, font, size and color, and simple navigation menu are intended to allow for distraction free reading that is easy on the eyes, regardless of screen size. Also, the small breadcrumb trail above each page title are functional links, in addition to providing a navigational reference point. And, all photos are categorized and searchable by location.

Why this Matters

The project became an education in modern web development and CMS architecture, building skills that later informed the Strong Medicine Publishing and In the Eternal websites, and helped refine the Personal Server concept. While more complex than using WordPress or similar platforms, having full control over the infrastructure and design was well worth the learning curve...