What follows probably will not interest many, but for those who are curious about such technical matters, here goes —

Seaholm61.org comes to you from a Linux VPS (virtual private server)  in Lansing, Michigan. The programming language is PHP, and much of the information is managed by a MySQL database. The site runs on a CMS (Content Management System) platform called Joomla and makes use of several add-on extensions, most notably JomSocial for the Community features.  Most of the software is open source, and most of it is free, or nearly so, developed and maintained by a dedicated and often idealistic open source community.

Actually, "open source" applies mainly to the programming code. Unlike Windows or Macintosh, open source code allows developers to get right in there and rewrite how the programs work. And that's sometimes necessary in order to get two components — one maybe written by someone in Malaysia and another by a person in France — to "play nicely together." It can take time, but it's also satisfying.  Typically I'll discover a problem, then search the relevant forums to find if anyone else has experienced the same thing and how they solved it. Voila! Here it is, the answer! Or maybe I'm not so lucky and have to come up with a solution on my own. If someone else has provided the answer, I'll post a "thank you" on the forum. If I discover the answer on my own, I'll post the it on the forum and maybe later discover that someone else has found it helpful.

I got interested in the Internet very early on and used it as a tool in my teaching, running a server out of my office for a while before the University made me shut it down (a security risk). I taught classes online, first using sites I built myself, then using BlackBoard, a commercial package popular with many colleges.

It's been a lot of fun, and since retiring, I've kept a few sites running, mostly as a hobby. When Chip and Dave tracked me down this past summer and sent information about the reunion, it seemed natural to ask if they had a website yet, and when I found they didn't, I offered to make one.

This is what I came up with. It's still growing and changing. What exists is mosly just a skeleton or a structure. It's up to the members to flesh it out by contributing your words and images, imagining what you want it to be and making it happen.