Manipulating the look of the web in code. I realize that my tag line is a bit odd but it sums up how I see the world wide web. The internet is made up of a vast network of computers transferring information back and forth in bytecode.  On each individual machine or computer there are programs that processes this code and then displays it to the end user in some form.  A normal human would find it hard to understand or process such code.  The codes I speak of here and deal with are much more readable by humans. When dealing with the www,  the most common code or programing languages are HTML, PHP, Perl, Javascript.  There are many more but those are the ones I work with the most.

I am an artist, so I tend to look at things a bit differently then your traditional webmaster. I am right brained so it is often difficult for me to grasp certain concepts when dealing with something so left brained. I do feel this gives me a unique take on the subject of websites and their administration. This site endeavors to pass on the things I have learned in what I hope is a way others will find useful.

You'll notice references to WestHost quite often on this site.  This is the hosting company I use for the most part to host my sites.  While not all the information here is exclusive to their environment it may contain specifics that would need to be altered if you are with use a different hosting company.  I try to be clear in such situations what you would need to modify and most of the post and articles are categorized under WestHost if they are specific.

The bulk of this site is written in the question and answer or FAQ style. Hopefully this well make it easy for you to find the solution to any issues you may be having. There are some formatting conventions I use to hopefully help clarify instructions when given. First when you see example.com it is just that an example. This most commonly well represent the url for your own site and would need to be replaced in any code I may be giving as an example. Similarly text you see inside of brackets [ ] would need to be replaced. For example if you see [username] it would need to be replaced with your own user name.

Code or text that needs to be placed in files is seen in a box like you see below. It could be a scripting language code like php, cgi, perl, etc or it could be code for configuration files like httpd.conf, .htaccess, php.ini, etc. Do not assume you can just copy and paste the code. You may need to change some variables in it to suit your specific needs.

echo "Hello World";

Text seen in a box like below would be commands that you would issue while logged into SSH via a program like Putty. Again do not assume you can just copy and paste the code. You may need to change some variables in it to suit your specific needs.

echo "Hello World";

While there may be something that needs to be altered in such text to suite your needs, I don't add the telnet prompt to such code. This should make it easier to copy and alter such commands for your own use.

All links on my site are set to open in the parent window and not in a new window or tab.  If you want to open them in a new window or tab you should be able to right click the link in most modern browser and choose how you want the link opened.

On all pages in the right hand column there are general links to programs/sites that I often mention throughout the site. If you mouse over the links you should see an short explanation of these programs/sites.

At the bottom of some post, you might see Reference links.  These are links that are specific to that post and normally provide further information on subject discussed.