Under the Hood

Three browsers open at once—that was the standard. Safari for actually using the site, Firefox for the admin panel, Opera as the control view, checking what the page looked like to someone who wasn’t logged in. It sounds excessive now but there was a period where this felt not just reasonable but necessary. Browsers didn’t agree on anything back then.

A blogger friend asked what software I use to run this place, the kind of question I’m always glad to answer. I like showing the machinery.

WordPress runs under the hood, same as most people at the time. For writing and editing code, Dreamweaver 8—it’s where touching the markup feels like making something rather than just maintaining it, file management included. Images go through Fireworks 8. I made a conscious choice not to use Photoshop: it’s too much program. Too many panels, too much ceremony. Fireworks cuts, adjusts, and exports without demanding to be the center of attention.

iTunes is probably the most important thing on the list. Technically optional, practically load-bearing. No music playing, no work happening. I’ve tested this empirically and the results are consistent.

That’s the specific combination that makes this notebook exist. Some of it is already starting to feel like archaeology.