Debut of my Genealogy via PHP and my new Web Page

Genealogy has been a big hobby of mine for about a decade or more, and I have collected a lot of information, both from my own research and info others have shared with me. I've used Family Tree Maker from the beginning, and still do, though I haven't liked the newest versions since Version 11.
Well, anyway, I've wanted to put my collection on the web, but didn't like Ancestry.com's layout, and debating on the LDS Family Search site. With a bit of Googling, I came across a program called The Next Generation. It's a PHP program, which until I found it had no idea what PHP was, but I looked at the other users' pages, and samples, and liked it very much and decided that's how I wanted to do it. All this was last Friday, the 13th. So, I paid my $30 and haven't hardly looked up since. Last year I had tried doing my genealogy with HTML, but it was crap. We had Hurricane Ike and I never got back to it, mainly because I wasn't happy with it anyway. So, I'm more than excited about this program.
It was a bit complicated to get installed because I had to convert my webspace with GoDaddy from Windows to Linux, then later I had to call them back to get MySQL, which I still don't know what that is. And finally before it was all over with, I opted to pay GoDaddy for my space, $5 a month as I had been using their free space with the ad. The ad, as it turned out, interferred with the program.

An individual, Darrin Lythgoes, http://lythgoes.net/ wrote this amazing program. There's also a pretty extensive mailing list and TNG Forum. It's quite a "club" I guess you could call it. Though I have communicated with questions to Darrin, I haven't taken part in these other vehicles of support yet. So far it seems most of the users are way advanced of my non-existent PHP abilities.
But I'm up and running. I've installed the program, carefully according to the ReadMe instructions, and created my gedcom, and uploaded that. My Cute FTP client crashed, and GoDaddy told me about FileZilla Client, which is free and is working great. Anyway, I started uploading cemetery pictures and documents I had already scanned, like marriage records, obit, and assigned them to the corresponding individuals.
By now it's Wednesday, yesterday; and I realized before I went any further I needed to create a web page that would incorporate my other web pages as well as the genealogy pages. So, after some thought, and browsing through my own photos, I came with a plan and created as I went, taking my old web page and totally redesigning it - all with basic html. That took me all day yesterday. Now, short of a bit of tweaking, I think I'm ready now to get back to uploading documents. I have sooo many, and will probably never finish that task in this lifetime.
Well, I guess this is the official unveiling. I have told a few select friends and relatives about it, but I have not listed it with Ancestry or posted it on any of their boards yet. That will come when I get more of my documents added and linked up to more individuals. But for now, here's my new site: http://sherrysharp.com/ Of course the Genealogy Link takes you to the wonderful, fabulous TNG program!

ATT DSL does not give free webspace.

THURSDAY OCT 18
I received my wireless modem Tuesday, and my account was turned on Wednesday, late in the day. Setting up the wireless modem was very easy, and programming my laptop was equally painless. However, I DID NOT sustain a download speed of 11 MB as the woman who signed me up damn near promised I would get! That was sheer B.S. I clocked at about 5400 KB as compared to Roadrunner when I would get 6800. But truth be told, I really can't tell a difference at all. So, I'm not upset over it. That's fine. I think the DSL will be more stable.

But Thursday I called to find that 20 gig of web space I would get free. I'll shorten this. After two hours of torturous transferring to six or seven different departments it was finally confirmed there is no 20 GB of free disk space. There is no 1 MB of free disk space for a web page. I could get 5 GB for 11.95! LIARS!!! There was no way I could get hold of "Eddie" again who was in billing and was in West Texas. The last woman I talked to the longest -- her name was Janice -- was fully aware of the horrendous experience I had had with getting the phone hooked up, and then being lied to about the web space, which, by the way, was the main reason I decided to go ahead and switch - anyway, Janice consulted with her supervisor and to appease me, she offered me a $5 credit a month for a year and then a one time $50 credit. Well, whatever.

So, that means that when it's all said and done, I'll actually make a little money off this, even though it put a few more gray hairs in my head. With my rebates and credits, It actually adds up to about $325, less the hundred I have to pay for the modem, gives me about $225 profit. Of course, it will take about four months before I get it all. Maybe I'll try to put it in my piggy bank as it comes in.

FRIDAY, OCT 20
I had found a site that offers free web hosting, called http://000webhost.org/ that I had signed up for. Now that I won't have Roadrunner anymore and ATT lied about having any free web hosting, I moved my web page there. It looks like it will be a satisfactory new home. I have reassigned my domain name, http://lumoto.com/; so hopefully it won't be too painful a transition. It's not that my web page is so awesome, but I had collected a lot of things on the Save South Park fight and I really didn't want to lose all that. 000web host offers 250 MB of space as opposed to Roadrunner's 4 MB. So, I guess I'll live. Monday I'll call Roadrunner to disconnect me.

(on edit - 12/14/08) I happened to notice this old blog and thought I should update this information for anyone who might stumble into this post -- 000webhost did not prove to be successful for me. Something happened I couldn't log in and they couldn't seem to get me logged in; told me best thing to do was to sign up again. So, I was forced to abandon it. I am now using godaddy's free web space that goes with the domain names I have with them. It's working out very well. They offer ample space, and I highly recommend it. Of course, you have to have a domain name to get it, but if you are going to have a web page, you will want to have that anyway. Otherwise, it's free. my page is http://lumoto.com