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How Travelog.net, a Real-Time Web Travelog is Produced.
(this article still in development...)

Travelog.net is the result of a lot of experimentation.

Here are the gory details of how it's produced--for those of you who get into this sort of thing.

First, Let's Talk Infrastructure...

Travelog.net's infrasctucture is the server hardware and software that runs the actual web site.

I could have hosted my web site on a shared virtual server. Instead I chose to put my own server up at an ISP (that ISP being Forward Communications in Chicago) for total flexibility. One thing I wanted was flexibility and control so I could experiment, and with my own machine I had that. In a pinch, if my server crashed, I could move it to a virtual server in a matter of days.

Key features I have needed:

• Mail server,
• Web server,
• Total remote access (remote systems admin) for the server and
• The ability to run FrontPage 97/98 extensions, primarily for automated updates of web content.

The server hardware is nothing special: a Pentium 200MHz with 64 megabytes of RAM and a 2 gig hard drive, a "John Berns Special" that I cobbled together from bits and pieces of hardware that I had laying around my loft. Burned in components if you will.

Preparations

Several weeks before I left, I set the machine up, formatted the drive and installed all new software from scratch--I have a fetish for clean, fresh systems. It seems that the more changes you make to a system (uninstalls, re-installs, re-configurations) the less stable the system becomes. I had to have a system that could function for a year or more with no problems. Knock on wood. I wanted everything as clean and fresh and stable as possible.

I then installed the software:

Microsoft WindowsNT 4.0. I have had great success with WindowsNT Servers for small to medium web sites and all the servers and software I could want were available for the platform. End of discussion.

Microsoft Internet Information Server 3.0 (recently upgraded to 4.0). I have used Netscape and Microsoft servers extensively. I can't say I have a major preference either way. What it boiled down to was this: IIS was free and I knew it would support FrontPage 97 extensions. So I picked it. Now that I have upgraded to IIS 4.0, I have the one feature that I missed from using Netscape servers: IIS 4.0 has web-page administration. It is great. The down side: IIS 4.0 web page administration does not allow you to set access privileges via the web pages; you have to use the User Manager, a console application--but that can be managed via PCAnywhere--more on that later.

Netscape Mail Server 2.0. I chose Netscape Mail Server because it is very simple to install, configure and administrate. Idiot proof. I can do that. There were some freeware mail servers that I looked at that were either crap or too complicated (ala UNIX SendMail). Microsoft Mail was also to complicated--I didn't want or need an Enterprise solution. Looking over the documentation made me woozy. Besides Netscape Mail Server 2.0 has one stellar feature: it can be administered remotely by a web page. You can also set up new accounts, auto-responders and change the contents of the responses via the admin web pages. Very handy. Remote administration is a big plus.

Microsoft SQLServer 6.5 I didn't need it. I thought I might want to implement some database-backed applications, but I never felt inclined to spend the time to develop anything. It's easier and more straightforward to just edit straight pages in FrontPage 97 and post. I want to travel, not program and be a DBA!

PCAnywhere 7.0. This is the piece of the puzzle that gives me nightmares. I needed a program that would allow me to remotely operate my WindowsNT Server from my Windows95 laptop via TCP/IP. PCAnywhere does that. But I have had some horrendous experiences with PCAnywhere (installs that destroyed the OS on the machine) and Symantec's tech support is the worst I have ever experienced (I am sorry sir, we are aware of that problem. We should have a tech note available on that solution next month...). I felt like I was taking a crap shoot on using it though. If PCAnywhere f**ked up, I had no control over the server at home. If it screwed up, my experiment would be over. Knock on wood again, it has worked flawlessly. And when it works, it is a beautiful thing! Once logged on to a TCP/IP connection (at least 19.6K; less and the communications drops) I can operate my WindowsNT Server as if it was in front of me--albeit at an exceeding slow pace. I have used it to restart the server when it was flaky, download and upgrade software, and set user privileges for web pages.

I kept the machine on my network for a couple weeks testing and tweaking it. I then took it to my ISP and installed it on their network and tested it some more. It all worked.

If anybody out there is looking to do something similar I recommend that, unless you really need to have your own machine, you host your site on your ISP's server. They will make sure that the server is always up and running and will be there to fix any problems outside of your (remote) control. I have had my server crash an nobody notice it for days--that would not have happened if I had hosted on my ISP's server. But I like it this way; I have total control over everything and it is not mission-critical that I am up and running 24-7, it's just a personal experiment.

Note: I did start out with two servers: I had also set up a Linux/UNIX server as www2. I did this for three reasons: one, in case a server failed, I would have a backup; two, I like the UNIX command line (honest!) and wanted to use some UNIX scripting and features, and three, because the is seemed like a waste to put the computer in storage. But the server was short-lived. Six months into the trip I received an e-mail from my ISP to the effect of "Your Linux box is making grinding sounds and there's a burning smell coming from it. I am shutting it down for fire safety."

The Gear that Travels

My traveling gear is pretty simple. It has to be. Simple and light. First rule: the gear must not get in the way of doing the travel.

There are two basic pieces of gear that I tote with me: a ThinkPad 560 laptop and a Kodak DCS-120 digital camera.

The ThinkPad 560 had 40 megs of RAM and a 3.0 gig hard drive. The RAM is necessary to keep open the MS Word, FrontPage97, Internet Explorer and PhotoShop, plus any additional utilities I may need. The 3.0 gig hard drive is necessary to store lots of images and backup installers for all the software so I don't have to carry a CD-ROM drive.   What happens if the hard drive crashes?  I have a kit with all my installers at home ready to be sent via overnight courier. I chose the ThinkPad because it was the lightest laptop that offered an 800x600 pixel LCD. I have a MegaHertz XJ4288 PCMCIA modem for Internet access, and a bag full of international connectors, wires and line testers to connect to any kind of phone jack.

The Kodak DCS-120 digital camera is used to capture images. It is far from perfect, but the quality is great and it is remarkably easy to use--from taking the picture to getting the images into the computer. I also have a 10MB Picture Card to hold additional images, which can be pulled from the camera and inserted into a PCMCIA card holder which is then inserted into the computer for quick image downloads.

The Software

I have a suite of software that I use to produce the web site. I use MS Word to write and edit, MS FrontPage97 to lay out the pages, manage the web site and do automated updates to the server, Internet Explorer 4.0 to view web pages, ThumbsPlus from Cerious Software, a nifty little graphics utility to do the brunt of the image processing, PhotoShop 4.0 for heavy duty image manipulation when necessary, AOL for Internet access, PCAnywhere for remote control of my Windows NT Server and Eudora Pro 3.0 for e-mail.

The Gear is Only Part of the Picture

Developing a process for producing Travelog.net was the most critical element of the project's success. It also took a long time. Process and gear are interlinked: process determines equipment and vice-versa. The process and the gear for Travelog.net evolved together as a result of experimentation.

Efficiency is the critical issue.

Producing an interesting travelog takes a lot of effort: not only do you have to travel and enjoy yourself (that's the good part!), but you have to write, edit and publish a web site as well. You could spend 14 hours a day messing with the digital camera, writing tight, lyrical prose, and whipping out the spiffiest web pages--but then what would you write about? So the process has to fit into a very limited time slot, and to make the most of that time, efficiency become critical.

The gear (hardware and software) are just tools to support the process. Process is what matters. So instead of talking about how I use each piece of gear, I will talk about the process and how the gear is used in the context of the process.

Process

I could spend a lot of time talking about things that didn't work. It's informative, if you have the time look it over, but for brevity's sake, I will jump right in with what does work--for me.

The Logistics

First off, there's the logistical matters involved in toting the gear around. It has to be light and compact otherwise moving it becomes a hassle; travel becomes misery. Also, the more you carry, the easier the target you are for thieves while you are on the move. he gear must also be secured in the room. In many places tourists frequent, things have a way from disappearing, even from locked rooms.

I always carry my gear and carry-on luggage. I carry my cameras in a Pelican 1550 case; it's waterproof and built like a tank. I slip my laptop into a small daypack for transport. When I leave my belongings in the room, I put them in the Pelican case, lock the case and I use a bicycle lock to lock the case to something immovable--or the biggest thing I can. I also keep a low profile. I never take the computer out in public and keep the cameras as discreet as possible.

Put Events in a Time-Box

The most important rule that I have drawn up is that I have to put events in a time-box. That's my own lingo for putting a time-boundary on doing it, recording it, publishing it and getting to completion so you can go on to the next event with a clean slate. I found that if I dragged the process out, if I didn't get things wrapped up fast, it piled up. When things piled up, nothing got done. So I try to keep up to date. The day I take pictures, I process them. The day I do something, I write about it. I take all the pictures and writing and before I go to bed--or early the next morning--I edit the material and layout the pages. The box is closed, events are wrapped up, the slate is clean. Then I go do it to myself all over again.

Often, at the end of the day, I am not 100% satisfied with the product. If I have a nagging feeling that something is not quite right, I delay posting for a day or so to tighten things up.

I can't emphasize how important I feel it is to get the pieces completed right away. The times that I have let things pile up, a Domino effect occurs and the whole process fails.

Gathering Experience

In researching web travel publishing, I was subject to too many dull web travelogues. I decided I wanted to create something with some life in it, something worth reading. So I try to go places and do things that will make good stories. I try to look for the small everyday things that are interesting and illustrative of life "on the road.". It took me a while to develop an sense for the good story--a sense I am still developing.

So do interesting things and look for interest in the mundane.

Taking Pictures

Pictures breathe life and color in to a travelogue. Travelogues without pictures just don't register on the same scale.

I started out the trip with a Sony DCR-PC7 video camera and a Snappy to capture pictures. It was horribly cumbersome and I quickly gave that method up. Next, I bought a slide scanner and tried using my camera to take pictures, process the slides, and scan theminto the computer. That failed as well. It was a lot to carry, but the weight wasn't the problem. The problem was that the images piled up. I couldn't complete pieces for weeks until the film was processed, then I had hundreds of images to view, sort, scan and edit. No way.

What does work is a digital camera. I bought a Kodak DCS-120 digital camera in Singapore five months into the trip. It was the turning point. For the first time I discovered I could put events in a time-box. I could take pictures, write, edit and publish in a short time frame. That worked.

I carry my Kodak DCS-120 with me wherever I go. I carry it in my fanny pack. I removed the hand grip and used the grip mount to attach a regular camera neck strap. Geeky, but it works. You never know when something is going to happen or a picture opportunity will present itself.

I also learned to anticipate. Events unfold rapidly, you have to have a sixth sense for when "news" will unfold. I have trained myself to be merciless when capturing images.

The Kodak has four picture quality settings (good, better, best and uncompressed) that correspond to the image compression factor. I usually use the "better" setting, it is good enough for small images on the page (for more info, see my page on using the DCS-120 digital camera for web publishing), that allows me 65 images before I fill up my 10 MB Picture Card (flash memory). If I see an image I suspect I will want to display at a larger resolution, I will use the"uncompressed" picture quality setting.

Even with the ability to capture 66 pictures on the Picture Card, I do often come close to filling the camera up. I take pictures of everything. When I have a lull in the action (taking a rest, a bus ride, etc.) I use the LCD and on-camera editing functions to view the images and delete images that don't make the grade. That significantly reduces editing time once I download images to the laptop.

Once the day is done, I pop the flash memory card out of the camera, pop it into a PCMCIA adapter and into my laptop. The memory card appears as a drive on my desktop, I drag the files to a folder. The camera is ready for more pictures.

Note: The biggest problem I have had with the Kodak DCS-120 is battery life. A set of four premium batteries (Duracell or Energizer for example), lasts only for 20-30 images. Not only is it costly, but the batteries inevitably die at the worst possible moment. I am building an external rechargeable battery pack to save money and prevent the camera from dying at the decisive moment. (If you have a Kodak DCS-120 and are experiencing the same problem, here are some sample plans for a home-made battery pack.)

Image Processing

OK. The images are in the computer. They're still a way from being ready to post to the web site. First they must be processed to a web-friendly format.

The Kodak DCS-120 images are 1280x960 pixels and in Kodak's .kdc format. For most inline images for travelog.net, I use 320.240 JPEGs. I use a program called Thumbs Plus to do the image processing; it's a pretty nifty program and one of the few that will open .kdc files directly (PhotoShop has to use the Kodak twain module to acquire the images, it's very slow). Thumbs Plus generates a series of thumbnails of the images in a directory. I choose the likely candidates and use Thumbs Plus to batch process them to 320x240 JPEGs at 75% quality for general inline images. It seems to be a good tradeoff between quality and file size. (Again, see my page on using the DCS-120 digital camera for web publishing for some comparisons between compression levels, image quality and file size). ThumbsPlus will also do batch processing of rotations as well if necessary.

Occasionally, an images need a little color correction. Thumbs Plus does an excellent job of that. If the image needs retouching or more serious work, I use PhotoShop.

Writing and Editing

At the end of the day I take a few minutes to write out what happened of significance. I do not chronicle every meal I ate, every site I saw. I write what I think would interest others, what gives the flavor of the place and the style of travel. I try to write for the reader. I pound this out in Microsoft Word.

Once I have a framework in Word, I copy it over to FrontPage 97 and start to add pictures that complement the text. With the pictures comes more ideas. I continue to flesh out the text as I do page layout. Sometimes I put it away until morning to get a fresh perspective.

I use FrontPage 97 for page layout because it does a great job hiding the complexities of HTML coding and allowing you to focus on making an attractive page. I use tables liberally to keep text and images in place.

Managing Web Content

FrontPage 97 is more than a page layout program. It also does a wonderful job managing the web site and web content. FrontPage 97 can work with static pages in folders, but I think the real power comes in using it to manage a small staging site that runs on Microsoft's Personal WebServer running on my laptop. Running it on the server locally lets me create and edit on a real live web site so I can see just what it will look like live with file includes, dynamic content, message boards, timestamps, the works.

I could write another essay here on FrontPage 97's features and benefits, but I won't--for now. I'll leave it in summary: you can drag and drop files and directories and links are automatically updated; it can verify internal and external links, it runs on local server just like it would on a real server, and, best of all, it allows you to publish to a remote web site. This is worth going into detail about.

"Publish FrontPage Web" is a feature that still makes me all giggly. I select the option from the File menu, point it at my www.travelog.net server, check "Copy changed pages only" and "Add to an existing FrontPage web" and FrontPage automatically updates the remote server, transferring only the files that have changed. There is no wasted time updating the site. Very efficient. That is, after all, why we have computers, isn't it?

Connecting to the 'Net

(I use IBM.net.... more on all this soon!)