A brief history of space/time.
Why "The Continuum" ? Why not. I don't really remember where the name came from. I wanted something that sounded cool and sci-fi. I used to be a huge Star Trek fan, so the "Q Continuum" probably was an influence. And at some point I had the idea of a big swirly space vortex as a logo. However I came up with it, I liked it and stuck with it.

Basically, The Continuum is my big digital playground. It's one big experiment in web design and graphics, subjects that I've always been fascinated in. So I primary made the site for my own learning/enjoyment, and I put it online hoping other people would enjoy it as well. However, as I've gotten more responsibilities (i.e. a job), I've had less time to experiment with many different things, and have chosen to focus on the artwork/wallpaper aspect, as that was always the largest and strongest component of the site.

However, when I decided to do this page, I found something interesting. I discovered that I still had all the previous versions of the site, largely intact. So here's a little walk down memory lane. You probably won't find it as interesting as I did, but here we go (click on the images to enlarge):



Version 1: (1998-early 1999) Before the Continuum, there was "The Dogbert Zone". This is my first website ever. What's funny is, I didn't even have an internet connection at the time! I did this locally on my hard drive with Microsoft Frontpage Express (the free version that came with IE4). Of course, the site was incredibly bad. I made every mistake n00b web designers make: ugly repeating backgrounds, poor text colors, everything centered. I should put it online just to show how bad it was. But I liked it, and it had some cool stuff that didn't make it past this version, music clips, videos (it was local, so bandwidth wasn't an issue), cartoons, etc.



Version 2: (1999)This is really version 1 of "The Continuum", but I started counting from the old site. This is where a lot of the main sections and content of the site were formed, along with the first swirly logo. Some of that content is still up now in the archive section.


Version 3: (2000) I think somebody on a Photoshop forum once described v2 as "tacky" or something along those lines, so with v3, I decided to be a little more simple. Perhaps a bit too simple, and the 'bullets' were kind of ugly.


Version 4: (late 2000-2001) This was my first 'interface' design, and was largely a result of me learning how to use the 'Lighting Effects' filter in Photoshop to do pseudo-3D images. Also was the first to have javascript rollovers for the buttons. I stuck with this one for a while, but it was still a bit minimalist.


Version 5: (late 2001-2003) The site started looking a bit more attractive with the blue design, although it was still fairly simple. I kept this design for quite a while, and I actually had a 5.5 version which looked the same, but incorporated PHP and CSS into the design. This made it much easier to update, and eventually port to other designs. I also added thumbnails to the gallery (I don't know why it took me so long to do that, probably bandwidth concerns).


Version 6: (2004-present) This is the current version. With a lot more experience under my belt, I decided to redesign and refocus on the art gallery. I think the site looks worlds better, and is a lot more functional. I'll probably stick with this one until I find a compelling reason to change it.