Matt's Travel - Site Credits

Site Credits

To create this web site, I used a range of tools. Here's a list by category ...

HTML - I wrote the HTML code by hand, using the UNIX vi editor, or when necessary, the Windows wordpad text editor. I already knew most of the basic HTML (and much of my site is pretty basic HTML) before this trip. Every once in a while I'll go look something up in a reference.

Matt's Scripts Archive - the original versions of the Guestbook, Search, and the Comments Form scripts are from here. Also the scripts used to submit and check new mail list subscribers. Most, if not all, of these have been modified and customized by me.

PHP Scripts - the PHP scripts are relatively new and few in number. The main script I've written is the script which adds locations and numbers to my Route Maps.

Javascript - the left-hand side navigation menu submenus, popups, and expand/collapse buttons are all created and powered using DHTML with Javascript. So is the language box for translating my page in to other languages.

Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) - the appearance of my page is enhanced with CSS, giving me control over the appearance of the colors, font, links, spacing, and margins.

Perl Scripts - I've written the rest of the Perl/CGI scripts myself, from scratch. I use perl modules to share code when it's appropriate. The scripts to generate my Itinerary, Daily Itinerary, the picture index pages, the picture viewing page, the country pages, the Countries page, the Highlights pages, the Cool Stuff page, and the Updates page, are examples. I also wrote the scripts that display my location and tell how long I've been gone for. Several other scripts for my mail list have also been written.

Narratives - I wrote all these myself. Sometimes the same day, some times many days, weeks, or occasionally, a few months later. I've been running around visiting all these countries for more than a year to be able to share these experiences.

Software - to transfer my files from my laptop to my website, I use WS FTP, or a sleek little Expect script along with Microsoft Windows FTP. To write HTML, Perl/CGI scripts, and edit text files, I used the UNIX vi editor, or the MUCH better GVIM editor for Windows. To access my web page and UNIX account, I use Windows telnet, or the vastly superior PC X-ware program. To compress, resize, and watermark my pictures, I use X-at JPEG Disk Optimizer. To browse, view and make minor edits to my pictures, I use ACDSee. For a general programming environment, I use Unix for Windows (UWIN) . To preview my HTML and CGI changes, I primarily use the Mozilla Firefox, web browser along with a locally installed copy of the Apache webserver (necessary to execute SSI, PHP, and CGI scripts). For Perl, I have installed a copy of ActivePerl. For PHP, I have a locally installed copy from PHP.net. To keep track of all the crap I do or want to do with my web pages, I use Turbonote for notes. For early versions of the photo thumbnails, I used Easy Thumbnails.

Photos - all of the photos on the site (with the exception of the photos from Easter Island) were taken with a digital camera. I've used the Canon S200, Olympus C700, Olympus C730, Konica-Minolta DiMAGE A2, and Canon s400 digital cameras for my pictures. See the software section for the software I've used to process my pictures.

Language Translation - the language translation versions of my page are generated through the dynamic machine translation engines of Altavista. The translation is not perfect, but it's better than nothing for those who are not completely comfortable with English.

Country Flags / GIFs - the country flags are from this site. The other gifs are from misc. places I found on the internet.

Quotes - I've gotten one quote from my friend Ariane, and another from my friend Ralf, who I met in Torres del Paine, in Chile.

Hardware - I've used a Sharp Actius PC-UM30W laptop computer to do most of the web site work, before uploading it, for the first two year of my travels. I'm now using an Asus M5N laptop computer for my work. To take the photos on my website, I used the cameras listed above under "Photos". The video clip of me bungy jumping was taken with a Aiptek DV2 Video Camera.

Host - the most important part of making my web page accessible to the public is my email, web, and UNIX shell provider, Super Domain Fortress (SDF), also known as freeshell.org.

Other - for the old version of my mail list, I had a page on Yahoo! Groups. To connect to the internet, I used internet cafes in each of the countries I visit - I connect my laptop directly to the internet here - no dial-up necessary.

	HTML - I wrote the HTML code by hand, using the UNIX vi editor, or when necessary, the Windows wordpad text editor. I already knew most of the basic HTML (and much of my site is pretty basic HTML) before this trip. Every once in a while I'll go look something up in a reference.
	Matt's Scripts Archive - the original versions of the Guestbook, Search, and the Comments Form scripts are from here. Also the scripts used to submit and check new mail list subscribers. Most, if not all, of these have been modified and customized by me.
	PHP Scripts - the PHP scripts are relatively new and few in number. The main script I've written is the script which adds locations and numbers to my Route Maps.
	Javascript - the left-hand side navigation menu submenus, popups, and expand/collapse buttons are all created and powered using DHTML with Javascript. So is the language box for translating my page in to other languages.
	Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) - the appearance of my page is enhanced with CSS, giving me control over the appearance of the colors, font, links, spacing, and margins.
	Perl Scripts - I've written the rest of the Perl/CGI scripts myself, from scratch. I use perl modules to share code when it's appropriate. The scripts to generate my Itinerary, Daily Itinerary, the picture index pages, the picture viewing page, the country pages, the Countries page, the Highlights pages, the Cool Stuff page, and the Updates page, are examples. I also wrote the scripts that display my location and tell how long I've been gone for. Several other scripts for my mail list have also been written.
	Narratives - I wrote all these myself. Sometimes the same day, some times many days, weeks, or occasionally, a few months later. I've been running around visiting all these countries for more than a year to be able to share these experiences.
	Software - to transfer my files from my laptop to my website, I use WS FTP, or a sleek little Expect script along with Microsoft Windows FTP. To write HTML, Perl/CGI scripts, and edit text files, I used the UNIX vi editor, or the MUCH better GVIM editor for Windows. To access my web page and UNIX account, I use Windows telnet, or the vastly superior PC X-ware program. To compress, resize, and watermark my pictures, I use X-at JPEG Disk Optimizer. To browse, view and make minor edits to my pictures, I use ACDSee. For a general programming environment, I use Unix for Windows (UWIN) . To preview my HTML and CGI changes, I primarily use the Mozilla Firefox, web browser along with a locally installed copy of the Apache webserver (necessary to execute SSI, PHP, and CGI scripts). For Perl, I have installed a copy of ActivePerl. For PHP, I have a locally installed copy from PHP.net. To keep track of all the crap I do or want to do with my web pages, I use Turbonote for notes. For early versions of the photo thumbnails, I used Easy Thumbnails.
	Photos - all of the photos on the site (with the exception of the photos from Easter Island) were taken with a digital camera. I've used the Canon S200, Olympus C700, Olympus C730, Konica-Minolta DiMAGE A2, and Canon s400 digital cameras for my pictures. See the software section for the software I've used to process my pictures.
	Language Translation - the language translation versions of my page are generated through the dynamic machine translation engines of Altavista. The translation is not perfect, but it's better than nothing for those who are not completely comfortable with English.
	Country Flags / GIFs - the country flags are from this site. The other gifs are from misc. places I found on the internet.
	Quotes - I've gotten one quote from my friend Ariane, and another from my friend Ralf, who I met in Torres del Paine, in Chile.
	Hardware - I've used a Sharp Actius PC-UM30W laptop computer to do most of the web site work, before uploading it, for the first two year of my travels. I'm now using an Asus M5N laptop computer for my work. To take the photos on my website, I used the cameras listed above under "Photos". The video clip of me bungy jumping was taken with a Aiptek DV2 Video Camera.
	Host - the most important part of making my web page accessible to the public is my email, web, and UNIX shell provider, Super Domain Fortress (SDF), also known as freeshell.org.
	Other - for the old version of my mail list, I had a page on Yahoo! Groups. To connect to the internet, I used internet cafes in each of the countries I visit - I connect my laptop directly to the internet here - no dial-up necessary.