Geek Stuff

For those who are interested, here's some more information on how this site is built

Quick facts

The web hosting provider supports Microsoft Active Server Pages 2.0. The web hosting provider also supports ASP.NET but they want more $$$ for it. Homey don't play dat.

I use Macromedia Dreamweaver MX 2004. I use the Windows version at work and the Mac version at home. So far, I like the Mac version better because it is faster and (so far) more stable. Might also be that the Mac is a newer, faster machine than my Windows box.

Most of the scripting is written in VBScript, with some validations and popups done in Javascript.

The photo galleries use scripted pages and the photo information is captured in an Access database. I use FTP (via Dreamweaver) to put the pictures in specific directories on the site, then use some forms (accessed via the Admin link on the main page) to put the picture location and descriptive information in the database.

The weather feeds on the home page are created using XML from the National Weather Service. I use XSL (Extended Style Sheets) to perform the transformation of the data to HTML.

The news on my personal page comes from XML feeds from the Washington Post. Like the weather stuff, I use XSL transforms to help get the data onto the page.

Design Philosophy

Our families live far away and we want them to stay current on the things that we're doing and how Paul is progressing.

I want to create a site that:

Takes advantage of current web technologies and gives me an opportunity to sharpen my development skills

Is pleasing to the eye

Is easy to read and easy to use

Does not display old, stale information indefinitely

Any dynamic content is given an expiration date and any of the functions that get this content will always check for this

Lets me show off the cool things in my life ;-)

XML manipulation using VBScript and XSL transformations

Here's some more information on how I use the XML feeds from the National Weather Service.

Here's some more information on how I use the XML feeds from the Washington Post to display the news on my personal page.

Photo Galleries

Here's some more information on how the photo gallery pages work.

If you want to use any of this code, you're welcome to do so. All I ask is that you credit me and this site (Brandt Barretto at http://www.barretto.org/). We appreciate your support!