In the beginning, when the world was dark and life was forming, the creature later called "type4.org" was born in a subdirectory of my ISP account's public web space. Not the most glamorous location. This was in early 1997.

As high-speed internet access became available I decided to experiment with hosting the content myself. Part of it was the "unglamorous" and complicated address at my old ISP. The bigger issue, however, was the hassle of doing additions or editing pages by downloading the code to the desktop via FTP, editing the page, uploading it back to the ISP, checking the final result, re-editing on the desktop, uploading again... you get the drift. Static web pages on simple web servers just don't cut it.

I found the perfect tool in Zope, an open-source dynamic content management system that can be automated and extended using Python. And there was much rejoicing after registering the "type4.org" domain and moving all content into Zope.

After that changes were limited to moving the site from machine to machine (as bigger and better hardware became available through my "hand-me-down"-process) and upgrading the server software. Implementing new features has never been easier. Maybe the fact that I was working for the company that publishes Zope was playing a part in that...

So for a few years the site was basically running from my own place. Until the end of July, 2001, that is. The ISP I was using at that point decided to stop the serving of web pages by simply blocking all incoming traffic to port 80, which is the port a web server listens on.

For a while the site was hosted on a "virtual server" located on a machine at a small Zope-hosting outfit named imeme.net. Unfortunately they piled way too many customers onto way too few boxes and so the service deteriorated beyond my endurance limit.

After imeme it was clear that a real professional solution was needed. I had demand for hosting other services for my own domains as well, such as Email, DNS an others. I invested in a real server in 2003 and opened a co-location account with BayMountain, a provider for managed hosting and colocation out of Richmond, VA. During my time at Zope Corporation I had frequent dealings with BayMountain and knew they were an excellent choice, albeit not the cheapest, to put it mildly. But I'd rather pay for good service.

Since I have moved back to Germany and established my own small business there might be a little more time for a technology upgrade. I want to see the site grow "Portal"-like functionality. People should be able to join the site and add/edit their own content. Another feature should include a real "411/412-registry" where people can join the site and enter data about their own car or about cars they have seen elsewhere.