Celebrating the 20th anniversary of sean.co.uk

19 July 2017

Below you can see a screenshot of the earliest version I have on file, which is dated 1998 but was probably designed in 1997. The box on the left contained a random quote, and the background changed randomly too, to make the site more dynamic for repeat visitors (should I be lucky enough to get any). The pull-down menu was abused to create a window that opened to display more information, a way to squeeze more space out of the limited screen size we had then. The title used individual images for each letter, which were reused across the site, to speed up download time. We didn't realise back then that each separate image request carries a penalty (or perhaps it didn't matter so much in the days of dial-up). The whole thing was laid out using tables. So, plenty of what we would now call bad ideas, but which represent the spirit of exploration and innovation that defined the web back then.

The earliest version of my website that I still have, from 1998.

To celebrate the 20th anniversary of sean.co.uk, I'm sharing 20 of my favourite pieces of content on the site. In this blog post, you can find the first ten.

1. Amstrad CPC book and games - My first published work was programs and tutorials for Amstrad magazines, and I spent one summer writing a book on advanced BASIC programming techniques. When I came to launch my website, this was one of the first things I put online. Last month, I saw that someone has written a new game using my Sprite Definer program which appeared on an Amstrad Action cover tape. It's great to know this software is still being used, over 20 years later.

   

   One of the games from my Amstrad CPC disc, The Further Adventures of Fred.

2. Virtual Sean - Chat to a Virtual me in this simple chatbot I coded in Javascript. It recognises a few words or phrases and has bespoke responses for them, and otherwise chooses a random response. It learns what you type, so it can start saying the same things back to you. It's on my list to update it when I get time. I used a similar idea much later in a Python demo in Raspberry Pi For Dummies.

3. Play Hangman - With all the online entertainment we have today, it's hard to think of a time when this kind of game was pushing the boundaries of what was possible. I licensed it to a couple of other websites, including a leading dictionary publisher. I also created a Christmas version called Snowman, and a version customised for the Nintendo DS browser. There are some tricky words in the word list!

4. Learning to run with the Couch 2 5K programme - This blog details my experience using the Couch 2 5K programme to go from couch potato to regular jogger, including completing a 10K at the Olympic Park. If you need some exercise but don't know where to start, I hope my experience will inspire you.

5. My music - I write and record electronic music. I have an album almost ready, but for now I've just shared a few tracks online, together with articles about recording, and the Novation Mininova synth, which I use. For updates about new music, join my newsletter list.

6. Stareway to Heaven - This article explaining stereograms was one of the first pieces to go onto the website. The images here look tiny on my screen now. Twenty years ago, they were a pretty decent size for a web page. This page also still uses The Rail: In the early days of the web, people would use this ring of links to surf the web, exploring web pages on similar topics, with a click taking you to the next step on the trip.

   

   Can you see the hidden picture? Discover how stereograms work in my article.

7. When marketers get lazy - I still find this blog amusing, although I could probably have made my disapproval of its inspiration clearer.

8. 10 Block Demos in Scratch - Scratch is widely used to learn programming, especially by children and young people in schools and at home. I wanted to create some very simple demos that people could quickly try, so I made a series of 10 Block Demos. I've written several books about or featuring Scratch now, including Scratch Programming in Easy Steps, Cool Scratch Projects in Easy Steps and Coder Academy.

   

   One of my 10-block Scratch demo cards

9. Designing Shaun the Sheep Football - Read how I made a football game starring Shaun the Sheep in Scratch. This was a fun project, which has been popular on the Scratch website. You can scroll past all the explanation to get straight to playing the game.

10. Using ScratchJr on the iPad - For younger children, or anyone looking to take their very first steps in programming, ScratchJr provides a simple visual introduction. My review includes a simple game you can build. ScratchJr is available for free download, on the iPad and also now on Android. I was one of the many people who supported ScratchJr with a small donation, so you can see my name in the credits.

Thank you to everyone who's visited the site and shared its content over the last two decades!

Find the second half of this article here!

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