Almost everything you see on this site is copyright Mark Moxon, from the writing and photos to the XHTML and Perl scripts. Unauthorised duplication is against the law – not to mention downright irritating after all the hours of effort I've put into creating this site – but if you'd like obtain permission to reproduce something from my website, please see Using My Content on Your Site. The only parts of this site I didn't create myself are:
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In implementing the dynamic HTML, I've used the fantastic jQuery framework.
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The Guestbook is written in Python and is powered by the excellent Flask framework.
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The mobile menu is implemented using the jQuery mmenu plugin.
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The introductory music to my audiobooks and podcasts is by Might Could, and I got it from the Podsafe Music Network.
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The player for my audiobooks is the excellent jPlayer, which in turn uses the jQuery UI library.
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16 photographs in the Morocco section were taken by Peta Moxon, as indicated by a different copyright message. These neatly fill the gaps caused by my camera giving up the ghost when the desert temperature hit 48°C in the shade...
Everything else you see is my own, original work... or, to put it another way, you should blame me. Apart from Google Maps, which I use for the maps in my walking sites, I haven't used any third-party frameworks, and there's no advertising. I like to keep things clean and fast...
How I Created My Site
Over the years, I've used the following products to create and maintain this site for your enjoyment and delectation:
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HTML: The first version of this site was written by hand in Zap, and the second version was created with HoTMetaL Pro. Versions three and four saw me returning to hand-coding, this time with the excellent BBEdit, and for versions five and six – this version – I again hand-coded everything, but this time in TextWrangler. This site has been validated to the HTML5 and CSS3 standards by W3C's validation service, and has Level AA Conformance to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0. For more information on the latter, see the accessibility statement.
The site has been tested on various versions of Mac OS and Windows, and on various browsers. All functionality has been designed to degrade gracefully and in an accessible manner on browsers that do not support DHTML.
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Python, Perl, PHP and JavaScript: I wrote the Search and Random Tale scripts using that wonderfully obtuse language Perl, and I wrote the Photo Library, Image and Map pages in the somewhat friendlier language PHP. I wrote the Guestbook in my new favourite language, Python, and dynamic HTML throughout the site is implemented in event-driven JavaScript, using the jQuery framework to ensure maximum browser compatibility.
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Tales: From 1995 to mid-2002 I wrote all my articles on location using an Acorn Pocket Book II; I would then port them to EasiWriter and later Word, before giving up on this route and switching to the HTML editors above. From mid-2002 to 2013 I switched to a Palm m125 and a Palm Keyboard, writing everything manually in XHTML before porting to a Mac for integration into my website. Eventually, in 2013, I switched to a Macbook Air laptop that does everything the modern travel writer needs in a lightweight package. See my article on travelling with a palmtop for more details.
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Photos: Most of my early photos were taken on my trusty Minolta X-300 SLR and were scanned with a Canon N670U scanner. After my Minolta died halfway through my trip to Morocco I bought a Pentax MZ6, which I used to photograph West Africa, and for my Land's End to John o'Groats walk I finally went digital with a Fujifilm FinePix F401. For my tubewalk I graduated to an Olympus SP-550 UZ, which suited me very nicely, and from 2013 I switched to a GPS-enabled Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ40EB-S, which has been my workhorse ever since.
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Audiobooks: I installed a Shure SM58 microphone and a lightweight boom stand in an upstairs bedroom (the quietest room in the house) and ran a 6m (M) XLR to (F) XLR cable down the stairs to the room where my iMac lives. I plugged this cable into the input port of a Behringer Tube Ultragain MIC100 microphone amp, and plugged the 6.3mm end of a 3.5mm stereo jack to 6.3mm stereo jack into the output of the microphone amp. The 3.5mm end then slotted into a Griffin Technology iMic USB Audio Interface, which went straight into my iMac's USB port. I then used Garageband (part of iLife '06) to do all the recording and editing.
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Site Design: I designed the site and created all the graphics myself initially using ArtWorks, and then using the wonderful Corel Xara. The buttons that appeared on earlier versions of this site started life in Xara WebStyle, but they also ended up in Corel Xara for greater control. I finally dropped all graphical buttons in version 4 of the site.
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Hardware: The first version of this site was created on a StrongARM-powered Acorn Risc PC, the second on a Pentium PC running Windows NT, the third on a combination of a PC and an Apple PowerBook G3, the fourth purely on an Apple PowerBook G3, the fifth on a 20" Apple iMac G5, and the sixth (this one) on a 24" Apple iMac Intel Core 2 Duo and then a 27" Apple iMac Retina 5K. I like variety.
Site History
Here's a very brief (and rather incomplete) history of this website.
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: Version 1 of site launched, using frames and background images. Not nice.
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: Version 2 of site launched with a much more minimalist design. A relief.
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: Version 3 of site launched with the emphasis more on the travel writing.
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: Version 4 of site launched, which introduced expandable left-hand navigation.
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: 600 new photos added.
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: Searchable photo library added, covering 1100 travel photos, and eBooks published of all my writing.
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: Writing added from Burkina Faso, the Gambia, Ghana, Mali and Senegal.
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: Photos added from Senegal, the Gambia and Mali.
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: Microsoft Reader eBooks added, phpBB-based Guestbook launched.
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: West African eBooks added, plus photos from Ghana and Burkina Faso.
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: eReader eBooks added.
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: Random tale button added.
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: Enhanced photo library added.
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: Enhanced search added.
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: Writing from Cuba added.
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: Photos and eBooks from Cuba added.
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: Site recoded to be Level AA accessible and released as version 5.
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: Dates added to all photographs.
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: RSS feed launched.
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: Podcast and audiobooks launched, desktop wallpaper added.
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: MP3 audiobooks added.
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: 1400 large images added.
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: Home page slideshow added.
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: Screen saver added.
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: Accessibility improved, accessibility statement added.
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: Fast multi-site search added.
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: India 2007 added.
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: India 2007 photos added.
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: Version 5 of site launched, which saw the introduction of the current design.
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: Photo library added.
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: eBooks updated with latest content and released in EPUB (iPad/iPhone) and MOBI (Kindle) formats.
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: Search extended to cover Guestbook posts.
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: Next/previous links added to large images, to enable you to step through sets of images more easily.
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: Improved page loading time significantly by implementing Google's web performance best practices.
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: Converted site from XHTML 1.0 and CSS2 to HTML5 and CSS3.
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: Added responsive design for small-form devices, such as phones.
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: Added location maps to the sidebar for all travel tales.
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to : Writing and photographs added from Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama and Colombia.
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: Replaced hand-drawn country maps with interactive Google Maps
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: Added support for Retina images.
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: Revamped site to be fully responsive with a much-improved mobile experience.