Roots: A Lookback at RAO-Osan.com

The web site for the Osan AB Retiree Activities Office started small on a military server.
It saw the light of day in June 1999 and continued on the military server until August 2002.
The commercial web site started in January 2002 on a hosting service that suffered flooding of their server room and that eventually went bankrupt. So in May 2003, I contracted with a new hosting service, IPower, that still hosts rao-osan.com and that continues to expand and improve services.
(Some links may not work in this exhibit, both in the left menu and other locations, due to changes over the years.)

Web Site Theme	Date	Development Description
The First Military Web Site	6/09/99	With a sketch of what I wanted the home page to look like and what sub-pages I wanted, I worked with a military person who had developed and was maintaining several web sites. He got much of the coding completed, but then announced that he was retiring and would not be able to continue. I hurriedly bought some books and in six weeks I was able to take over maintenance and update on the military public server-hosted web site while relying heavily on Microsoft FrontPage to actually create the code.
The Last Military Web Site	8/06/02	A computer problem resulted in shutdown of the public server hosting the Retiree Activities Office web site in August 2001. Subsequent 9/11 security concerns prevented its reopening. After several months with no idea of when – or even if – the public server would be back on-line, I started exploring the possibility of hosting the web site with a commercial service. (That's covered in the next segment.) The public server was back on-line in March 2002. However, updating was done by providing updates to the web site maintainers who then posted updates when they had time. Exercises and other events often precluded posting timely information. Then the military wanted a standardized home page for all agencies posting on the military server. 'The Last Military Web Site' shows the RAO Osan web site on a military public server with the home page design using the military standard.
Moving from Military Web Site to My Web Site	3/08/03	RA0-Osan.com began operation in January 2002. By early 2003, I was customizing and gradually moving away from the military web site code, adding features that had not been allowed on the military server. One of the things that you notice as you go through the continuing development of the web site is the incremental change taking place with the 'What's New' scrolling update. It started as a one-line horizontal scroll and trying the read the updates now is difficult. (The computers were slower back then, so it really was readable.)
Adding to and Enhancing My Web Site (Works best with Windows)	2/29/04	A year later, I was still relying on FrontPage for the design. That's why this home page looks better in Windows than it does in Firefox, the browser I now use. The home page layout was starting to take on a more familiar look as I tried out my skills at page coding. However, I was still bound within the confines of what FrontPage wanted and allowed. As time went on, FrontPage became more frustrating. At this stage, the design of the home page is starting to look familiar, with a vertical scrolling 'What's New' that can be stopped and is 'clickable,' but you'd better be quick to click.
Continuing the March Forward as My Skills Expand (Works best with Windows)	6/26/04	Still relying on FrontPage for the basic design, I started doing some raw coding, very limited but getting the feel of how the various commands affect the screen display. Windows users don't see the home page animation now, but it worked up to Internet Explorer version 6. (It stopped working with Version 7. Version 8 was recently released and animation still doesn't work.) Three items were animated: the news reader guy, the USFK logo and the USMRAK logo. If you're one of the IE deprived visitors and you'd like to see what the news reader guy looks like in animation, click here.
Full Capabilities Achieved Through Improved Code	12/25/05	December 2005 was spent exercising my skill in raw coding, having completely abandoned Microsoft FrontPage. I could now design the page down to the pixel (1/72nd of an inch) and the page looked by this time very much as it does today. There were still some minor problems back then in how the home page was displayed by Internet Explorer compared to how it looked in the other browsers. As explained in the 'What's New' scroll, the new 'What's New' was implemented and presented on Christmas Day. It must be good because I'm still using it today.