About This Site - January 25, 2005

• This site was originally constructed using NaviPress 1.0 which became GNNPress 1.1 which is now called AOLPress (and NaviSoft, Inc. is now a division of America Online).   In the late spring of 1999, AOL sold off its web hosting business to Verio and this site moved to a server with FrontPage extensions. 
• The original idea behind this site was to provide members of Time Warner's Dwellings Forum on Compuserve a convenient way of accessing web content that related to current discussion topics.  The "twd" subdirectory and Dwelonit page are hold-overs from that time.  I left the forum in September 1996.  Time Warner removed their name at some later time, and the forum was renamed yet again to the the original "Home Forum" moniker.  It still exists today and is worth a look.  Use this link.  Note that the link may not work with all browsers.
• The second generation of the Guide to Wood Design Information (GWDI) is available at this site.  If you are interested, the linked pages in the GWDI start out as parts of a single text file.  This file is passed through several custom Pascal programs which create E-mail links, hyperlinks to web sites, anchors/bookmarks, the document topic index and the interlinked pages.  I plan to post these programs in the "Programming" area of the website.  A regular PDF of the 2001-2002 guide is available here.  The next version of the GWDI with links to offsite pages is in review, but you can have a peek here.
• You may note that the link pages throughout this site share a common format.  Again, custom programs have been written to extract each of the addresses from my Internet Explorer's Favorite menu and list them according to subject area.   This could be something of interest to anyone who also finds maintaining/updating links a painful process.  Again, see the Programming area of the site. 
• I adapted the City of Palo Alto's Residential Construction Guide to web pages for reference by members of the Dwelllings Forum mentioned above.  Unfortunately, it is no longer supported by the City of Palo Alto's website.  I have refreshed the link to the files here at the website.  Note the document topic index that is part of that publication...a new feature in its time. 
• The APA's Homeowner's Guide to Earthquake Safeguards (PDF) and two of their Technical Bulletins were similarly adapted for the web.  The APA has done an exceptional job of converting their publications into online-accessible documents.  Their site is well worth a look.  Use this link.  I have updated the list of APA publications based on my work with the GWDI.
• The Shear Wall Basics area was developed for a seminar given at the Construction Business & Technology conference sponsored by the Journal of Light Construction.  I'm pleased you have found it useful.  I have also written articles for the JOLC's Practical Engineering column.
• This site was featured in Structural Engineering Forum magazine in the debut of their section relating to the web and has been mentioned in the web section of CE News.
• In response to no particular prodding, I have posted a privacy policy on the main page.  To recap, the web management tools that Verio offers can tell me when traffic peaks, the number of times individual pages are viewed and the domains from which they are requested, but nothing about the individual users.
• Remember, if you have questions or comments about the site, drop me a line at any of the highlighted E-mail addresses.