My first website was established in 1997 when I was 19 years of age. I created it using Macromedia Dreamweaver, a fancy software package that allows you to design a website in a "What You See is What You Get" type interface. The program converts the design into HTML automatically so there is no need to understand html.
The website started out featuring mostly some information about me, my friends and my family. Then I began to add content such as star sign reading which was very popular with visitors. As I started learning some javascripting I added a love calculator and later made my very first javascript program called 'Dr Romance' which allowed visitors to get quick tips on how to spruce up their love life!
At age 19 I built my first website whilst the internet was still young and '2400 baud' phone modems were considered fast!
Learning Flash in 24 hours
As I was working with Dreamweaver I at the same time developed a keen interest in Macromedia Flash and bought myself a "Sams - Teach yourself Flash in 24hrs" book. It tought me the basics of Flash and I started creating several short projects which I later showed on my website for my registered guests.
Flash can really liven up your website and some designers even create their entire website in flash! I used it mostly to animate some of my content, to build a intro splash screen for my website and later some small projects for friends.
Here you can see some of my flash projects I created around 2001 (nothing special but hey) -
As time went on I diverted my attention to building other websites such as the "Perth-Friends" Social IRC network website in 1997 and later in 1999 I built a Backpacking Europe website "Europa" which was based on a Journey I experienced with friends of mine.
Discovering CMS (Content Management Systems)
As the years when on I was continuously working with new websites, javascripts, improving my existing sites, adding galleries and guestbooks etc. As the internet and its applications developed further and content management systems (CMS) started emerging I started experimenting with them for my Personal Website.
I've tried several CMS systems such as RavenNuke, Evolution Nuke, CPG DragonFly, Drupal, Mambo, Joomla and Wordpress but I was never able to find a system I was happy with and so Swisshut remained untouched for quite a while.
It wasn't until recently that I revisted Joomla, version 1.5.2 which had really improved since the previous builds. The interface had gotten a face-lift and it had become much easier to understand. It is now the default base for this website. I soon discovered how powerful it is and I am now rapidly learning more about this system as I continue playing with it!
My Projects 
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