I own a bunch of domains. I have once been asked if I had some issues with my provider so that he compensated for that by giving all those domains to me. This question was followed by: What do I need to smoke in order to understand your websites?

So yes, there is content on each of these websites – different content that has been created since I had uploaded my first HTML page at the end of 1997. As I have explained in my very first post, I have preferred the solitude of non-connected old-fashioned (classical ASP) websites over modern blogs, facebook pages or other web 2.0 stuff. (And I still do not use – and currently I think I never will – twitter or facebook).

Each of these websites is dedicated to a different aspect of my life, though non of them is a very personal website really. Though being considered an extrovert writer in the early days of the web (by people who have just got used to the idea of sending e-mails), all of my websites deal mainly with my musings on science and technology.

I have tinkered with these websites for such a long time that I do not want to shut them down and replace them by this blog. Thus I have started to experiment with updating these websites in a way loosely connected to the growth of this blog. Amazingly, my home-grown ASP application (based on TXT databases – not even XML – no kidding) anticipated many of the features I love WordPress for, though updating the old sites is not as convenient.

But I have a theory based on the statistically insignificant behaviour of myself writing: The usability of the web publishing tool is only of minor importance. When I firmly believe(d) that I have to say something, a FTP upload of a TXT file does not at all prevent me from doing so. Probably the opposite: As a geek at heart I enjoy the full control I have over any bit of content or structure (Yes, I could install WordPress on my web server. But I want to control really every aspect of the source code).

So I had started this project a few months ago by removing all the links to the existing pages without removing the pages themselves – effectively hiding them without breaking any existing links. Step 2 was to update some of the pages and re-establish  the links, now my so-called personal website and my (German-only) science website are partly online again. I have just started to play with my subversive website  again. [Voice from the future – 2019: These sites have been merged in 2015, and they are going to be merged with this blog here and with all out other sites soon]

However, there is no tight project schedule (no milestones, no stake holders, no meetings….). Thus I cannot predict how my old websites will evolve. But just as this blog these websites have always been playgrounds – travelling the road is a goal in its own right.

All of old. Nothing else ever. Ever tried. Ever failed.
No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.
Samuel Beckett, Worstward Ho [1984(!)]