08.29.06
Culture Shock
I graduated from Trinity College Dublin in Genetics which involved learning Fortran77 and writing DNA analysis s/w (back in the days before Perl hit the Bioinformatics scene). As a kid I’d always tinkered with computers, writing BASIC programs on my Atari 800XL, all the way up through undergrad I’d always kept a foot in both the science and computing camps (why I didn’t apply for Comp Sci instead of Natural Sciences baffles me, the ignorance of youth perhaps?).
About 12 years ago I finally decided that research was not for me and began to teach myself the neccessary skills to make the switch. I began learning HTML, Perl and Javascript and looked around for a project to get my teeth into. The first HTML project I worked on was a fansite for Iain Banks, who at the time was hands down my favourite author. I invested alot of time and thought into the site over the many years I maintained it. This was back in the days before any WYSIWIG editor existed (and years before there was a decent WYSIWIG editor) all I had was BBEDIT, a retentive dedication to consistancy and endless patience. I learned a tremendous amount and met some really cool Banks fans.
As my free time shrunk and Banks stopped writing anything worth reading my interest and ability to maintain the Banks fansite evaporated and I stopped maintaining it. I tried to find someone else to take over and several people expressed an interest but nothing seemed to come of it despite handing out archives of the site. The domain phlebas.com expired (it’s still parked) and I went on my hectic but merry way. Life got very busy and hasn’t slowed down until this year, moved around the country, got married, worked in some startups. I didn’t have time for my personal side projects, they atrophied and withered on the vine, eventually ending up as an archive on a CD that has sat on my shelf lo these many years.
Today I was wandering the web and I came across a site that had an archive of my Culture Shock site, some flaws and missing files but almost entirely complete. It inspired me to dig up my copy and wandering through it brought back many good memories and many late nights meticulously editing the scores of files on the site to be syntactically, stylistically consistant. Given the flaws in the archived version I figured I might as well make my complete and original - if dated - copy available again.
Please enjoy Culture Shock - a site dedicated to Iain Menzies Banks.