A New Beginning... 2010...

January 1st, 2010

As a New Years Resolution, I am determined to write a more interesting and informative blog than years gone by, and update it regularly. In doing so, I hope to provide my readers with interesting insights during my development process and consequential learning which inevitably comes hand in hand.

I have new plans for 2010, a year I believe, will bring me the success I feel I deserve.  I have been programming now in classic ASP for 10 years.  I don't consider it work per-se, more like a hobby, which is a bonus as I couldn't do what I do without this enjoyment attached to it.  I have spent hours upon hours, learning new techniques, coding shortcuts, and numerous other tricks to perfect my craft. I feel within myself, that I have a lot to offer and I consistently push the limits of my abilities, to produce better solutions.  This year is when all my efforts will come together and produce Glacialis Version 3.0.  An advanced software that will hopefully offer intuitive tools for everyday internet users the chance to make and edit their own website.  Let me enlighten you about Glacialis.

I didn't really set about making a system to construct and manage a website. It grew from constructing websites for clients during the early part of 2009.  I fabricated many client systems with CMS integrated. The sites slowly got more and more complex with more tools becoming integrated.  I eventually brought it all together, and slapped a Glacialis label on it..  Glacialis was named as such, because of picture my beautiful wife painted back in 1998.  Glacialis is, in a nut shell, a Content Management System that allows users to manage and edit their website without the need of a web programmer. Today it has menus, galleries, modules, drag n drop functionality, "create-a-page" and many other features that would take a fortnight to describe.

Unfortunately, Glacialis has a major limitation/flaw that I am hoping to resolve with version 3.  Currently the Glacialis software is loaded independently on the clients web server by myself and I construct the database using a pre-defined script. A time consuming process.  Add to that, if I update the master copy of Glacialis I have to make minor changes to every system I have created, potentially hours of unnecessary work.  Version 3 however is different. All clients will be managed from one master server that contains the database, and the key web pages will be FTP'ed to the remote server.  At least this is the idea.

During the course of this year I will be organizing this new functionality.  I have already started to fabricate a management area for myself and my business partner to allow us to set up new clients in the system.  We will be able to add client details, ftp information, payment details and many other tools that will allow us to monitor usage, read user problems, improve collaboration, control access, etc..  I have a whole bunch of ideas, and you will see them laid out as I progress through this development.

I hope that you will join me on this expedition, comment on my journey, throw in your ideas along the way. Please recommend my product to your friends and colleagues.  I also have a new Glacialis Facebook page which will show this blog and other information, screenshots and hopefully some video footage of the system in use.

Thanks for reading and stay tuned...!

Paul Jacobs