The History of mhader.com

The staff of mhader.com have been making web sites since Michael was in high school. The actual mhader.com domain came into being in July of 2000. In November of 2004 we decided that we should document some of the major changes that have taken place since. Currently we have many holes in our past and are working hard to try and fill them.

Novemeber 2004 - Present

The latest incarnation of mhader.com features a much different..yet somewhat similar look of the older pages. Php is used on a much wider scale than the previous version. Every page is dynamically loaded. The body of the page (most everything in the white space) is generated from a seperate file than the header, menu and footer sections. This allows for easier changes to the web site. The menu on the left, for example, can be changed for all pages by changing only one line of code in one file. The use of CSS throughout the entire site is also being used. We designed the page so that the banner image at the top of the page could easily be changed by the staff at any time. In the Gallery section the banner image at the top of the page changes based on the album of pictures the user is browsing.

June 2003 - Novemeber 2004

This was mhader.com's first trial with a php enhanced web site. Php was used to make a dynamic front page. We were able to place the latest entry from the blog as well as pull SETI results from berkeley.edu. We started using MovableType for Michael's weblog and Gallery for pictures. The design idea was to make the site look like a file folder. When clicking on a tab, that page would come forward for viewing. A WAP page for viewing the Hard Rock Shot Glass page from any Internet enabled mobile device was added in early 2004

July 2000 - June 2003

This marks the beginning of mhader.com. A new header image was designed to welcome visitors to the site. This site introduced several new features. The popular "Michael Needs a car Fund", which later became known as the "Michael Needs To Pay For His Car Fund" was introduced. This didn't generate much money for Michael's car. It did, however, make people laugh. People seem to always want to buy things for Michael. Michael's X-mas List became known as 'The Big List' when it was put online to help aid this desire. 'The Big List' features items that Michael would like to be given at any time of the year for any reason. It covers most price ranges. The Hard Rock Shot Glass page was also introduced. It provides a list of all the shot glasses that Michael has and needs in his collection.

Before mhader.com
Clemson, 1996-2001

While at Clemson, the web site for Michael was hosted on hubcap.clemson.edu. These pages were stricly html. The eyes seen in the picture below were made by Michael while he was in high school. The eye is currently the only file that we have that pre-dates the Clemson years. The eyes have made their presence on many of our sites. We believe that the following picture represents only one rendition of the site while hosted on the Clemson servers.