This is the second version of my personal web site. I built the first one with some cool blogging software called WordPress. From the beginning I wasn’t too interested in blogging, but thought I might use WordPress for content management.

I quickly had problems, though. I didn’t necessarily want articles displayed in chronological order, which is central to WordPress design and blogging in general. I also wasn’t happy with the navigational menus. The screen was cluttered with blogging features, which I think confuse visitors. Figuring out how to reference images wasn’t easy (I worked that out), and I found the article editor non-intuitive and clumsy.

Layout problems can be resolved by customizing pages with a combination of Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) formatting and WordPress application features. And add-on enhancements from the user community significantly improve the editing and administration experience. But learning how to customize pages the WordPress way takes time, and since most of the automation is dedicated to blogging features that aren’t important to me, I decided my time would be better spent developing content. After all, site management is supposed to be a means to an end.

None of this is meant to denigrate WordPress. I think it’s a wonderful application — a tribute to what open source software can be. My experience with it has given me some insight into blogging, however, and I’m not convinced the blog phenomena is as wonderful as popularly supposed.

Sex, drugs, and rock-n-roll

Spamming is a problem bloggers learn about early. Why would anyone want to spam an obscure blog? (Face it, most of them are.) Spammers publish links on as many blog sites as possible pointing to their pages advertising sex and drugs. Having lots of links pointed to a page raises its search engine score, attracting more surfers. Blog application developers, like the WordPress team, respond with improved ways to block spammers, but doing so increases blog administration work. And spammers constantly seek ways to evade the controls in a bizarre evolutionary battle.

If you’re interested in encouraging visitors to post messages, it’s worth the trouble. But is it so important to have people post comments on your website? Discussion forums (zillions of them) are available on every topic imaginable. You can post to your heart’s content, have lots of people to converse with, and someone else handles the administration. Where’s the downside?

As for the rock-n-roll bit, a primary intent of blogging is to make it easy to publish anything and everything on a website. And it works. Adding a post is as easy as writing an email. Of course, as noted above, redesigning the standard blog format requires a lot more work, which is why most blogs look pretty much the same. And while the format is effective as a daily journal (where blogging comes from) it’s not so great for helping visitors navigate by topic.

Developing readable, informative content is hard work. Learning the small amount of HTML, CSS, and PHP necessary to publish it effectively is child’s play by comparison. Blogging takes the effort out of the easy part. You don’t have to visit many blogs to realize this, or to start wondering how much verbal slurry you want to sift for a few grains of ore.

A simple alternative

I liked the basic look of my site, but wanted to make it easier to navigate and develop. What to do?

I started by writing a CSS template for the site, incorporating the layout elements I liked from my first site and dumping the rest. I also experimented with a directory structure that would make the site easy to maintain. I decided on the following:

I spent a week or two playing around with the details before arriving at my final design, which incorporates all the features I wanted with minimal programming. I tried out some WYSIWYG editors to create pages for my site, but all had problems. The best of the lot, NVu, has lots of bugs in it and doesn’t seem to be updated regularly. I decided to stick with my trusty HTMLPad Pro browser, upgrading from the 2004 to the 2006 version (which incorporates FTP capabilities to simplify file uploading). HTMLPad does not currently feature WYSIWYG editing, but it is well designed in every other regard, reasonably priced, and a pleasure to use.

Images and site color selection

Following my keep-it-simple-stupid (KISS) mentality, when I decided to upgrade from a film SLR to a digital camera I went with a Canon PowerShot S2 IS, an advanced point-and-shoot design, rather than a digital SLR. I got mine for a song because Canon had introduced the S3 IS and MicroCenter had only one S2 left (a customer return). It worked perfectly. The camera incorporates a wide zoom-range and a super macro function (a must-have option from my point of view). Small sized version of fall foliage taken in my neighborhood.I got a 1GB memory card for it, which holds about a zillion images. The camera is light, compact, easy-to-use, but still packs a lot of functionality. I went from slogging 30 pounds of gear to carrying a single item that weighs one pound (or maybe less). I took this picture today while walking around in my neighborhood. The only changes I made to the original image (using PhotoShop Elements) was to apply Auto-Levels, resize the image, and apply a small amount of unsharp masking. The picture links to a larger version of the image, sized as a 1024x768 desktop wallpaper (316KB).

The two enhancements I would like to add are an off-camera flash and a wider angle at the short end of the zoom range. Canon offers accessories for both, but I haven't checked them out yet. Most of the images on this site are taken with the Canon S2.

I got a cool idea for selecting web site colors from this page on graphic design. The idea is simple, pick an image you like and use a digital eye-dropper tool to select individual colors from the image to build a coordinated color palette. HTMLPad includes just the sort of eyedropper tool required.

About me

My first name is pronounced “Fisk” even though it is spelled with an “e”. It is a family name. The story goes that my grandfather’s name was Luther Fiske Miles, but he hated the name Luther and legally changed his name to Fiske Miles. So I have no middle name. My grandfather was active in the Christian church (as was my father). A Methodist Church in Dallas has a library named after my grandfather.

I have heard of people who’s last name is either Fisk or Fiske, but I have never heard of anyone with Fiske as a first name. I was golfing with a vendor once when our account rep introduced me to a friend whose last name was Fiske. Our rep was quite pleased with himself, and I must say it was amusing.

For ten years I was a technical writer, editor, and publication designer. I changed career fields in 1996, becoming a telecom engineer. My job mostly involves figuring out ways to automate network auditing and management processes to increase network performance and reliability and decrease vendor costs. (This last bit is not too amusing for my account rep friend, alas.)

I get more respect (read money) as an engineer than I did as a technical writer, but I'll always be a writer at heart. When I retire from engineering I'd like to work in writing/editing again.