history

About two decades ago, I built a website for the National Junior Classical League's individual website competition. This website, JJJCL, won a 2nd place award for how blindingly brilliant it was. I kept the site puttering along as I moved my static HTML site content from 'homepage.mac.com' to a personal bare metal webserver I ran for a few years, then eventually moved it to the server where I hosted this site (jeffgeerling.com).

But along the transition of this site from Drupal 6 to 7, it seems like that site dropped off the face of the Internet. And with it, part of my (embarrassing, design-wise? sure) history on the web. Luckily, I have archives of practically everything I've ever created, so today I'm happy to announce I have restored that part of my personal history to the Internet, along with another purpose-built static HTML site I built in Apple's short-lived iTools HomePage:

Through Reddit, I found an interesting post from the Preservation Research Office website about the history of the River Des Peres: The Harnessed Channel: How the River Des Peres Became a Sewer.

There was a thought-provoking article by Catholic Veritas titled The Dark Knight Rises: Sacred Art. Most of the main characters, locations, and themes were related to similar Christian names, places, and themes, but one character left unexplored was Peter Foley, the deputy police commissioner who had a rather large role in the film, considering the number of other leading cast members.

I noticed, in watching the movie a second time, a certain scene where police are martyred by the main protagonist (to the words of "Shoot them. Shoot them all."), and the camera moves to a closeup of one of the police officers (Peter Foley), laying murdered in the street, in his dress attire.

An observant person would notice a few things about this scene:

I've had a DVD from Prometheus Entertainment/History Channel sitting on my desk for a year and a half, and I had almost forgotten why I had it by the time I finally sat down to watch the DVD. The DVD is of the show "Angels & Demons Decoded," which aired on the History Channel on May 10, 2009.

While I was watching a part about Bernini's artwork, I noticed a photo of the 'West Ponente' direction marker in St. Peter's Square very similar to mine at 1:08:12 — this wasn't my photo, but was close enough a match to warrant further inspection.

Towards the end of the documentary, when the narrator was talking of the interaction between faith and science in the Church, I found my image at about 1:28:35:

Whoever did the matte on that image (a) had a lot of patience, and (b) is quite good at it! I don't think I've ever attempted to cut out such an intricate photo.

You can view the original photo on Flickr here: Eucharistic Adoration - Monstrance.

I'm glad I was finally able to sit down and watch the show. I also watched Angels & Demons (the actual movie) on Netflix, and thought it was a heck of a lot better (all around) than The Da Vinci Code. But it's still not a greatly historically-accurate film, in my opinion; like most Hollywood flicks, the director and producers played fast and loose with many theories and historical fact. But I don't let it ruffle my feathers :)

[Update: I have posted an article about all the computers I've owned].

Pictured below (in the final year of its existence) is the first computer I ever called my own. Built out of scrap parts my Dad brought home from his office, I managed to build the computer as a 33 Mhz 386, with 2 MB of RAM and a 20 MB hard drive, eventually upgrading it (in stages) to a 66 Mhz 486 with 8 MB of RAM and a 512 MB hard drive!

mmm... SCSI in a PC!

How, you may ask, could a diehard Mac/Apple fanboy start on a 386? Well, it was all about budget, you see. Free is good, especially when you're a little kid with absolutely zero dollars in the bank.

The Macintosh (a 24" iMac!) on which I'm currently typing is enjoying its namesake's 25th anniversary. Happy Birthday, Macintosh!

Rather than republish the same thing hundreds of other blogs are publishing, I'll just provide some links that include some of my favorite memories of the past 25 years of Mac history:

• Happy 25th, Macintosh [mac512.com]
• Folklore.org [Mac history]
• Happy 25th! [InsanelyGreat.com]
• Happy 25th, Macintosh! [MacDailyNews]
• Happy 25th Birthday! [ComputerWorld Blogs]

And many more!