About

Every site has an about section that is different and unique from others.  Part of what make the interweb such an interesting place is the diversity in backgrounds, sensibilities, and goals from it’s inhabitants.  The “about” page will detail all the nitty gritty Who, Why, and How questions in different sections

Who

My name is Darrin Hawe, I am a male 42 year old Native Southern Californian that is addicted to computers and caffeinated diet soda.  I’m not looking for redemption from my caffeine habit so don’t ask for details about intervention.

Many of my personal interests lie in areas involving digital information.  I enjoy computer-related digital hobbies such as photography, music, and DVDs.  I’m becoming more comfortable with the idea and implementation of CSS styles.  I am also a former online/MMORPG fan having successfully (if you want to call it that) maxed out characters in Diablo II, Diablo II LOD, Planetside, and Star Wars Galaxies.

I also enjoy my share of non-digital interests.  Given the chance and space, I enjoy woodworking and will pursue more when physical space allows.  I also do a fair amount of volunteer work through my involvement with the Orangewood Jaycees.  And I enjoy the occasional game of poker, Monopoly, Risk, Cosmic Encounter, or other games.

I have worked as a Computer Services Engineer at the USC Information Sciences Institute since 1997.  The work is interesting and I work in a department with great people.  My résumé in .pdf format.

Why

Just like revolutions before it, the digital revolution has given people tools with which to better live their lives.  Digital photography has enabled a computer and software to replace film and processing.  Computers and portable music players have and are replacing records/CDs/tapes.  DVDs and digital on demand have replaced VHS.  More and more consumer technology relies and is being transitioned to digital formats capable of being stored on a computer.

DigiFiend is used to post stories about digital tools and related items I find interesting but it’s also a place where I post non-digital diddys.

How

I thought long and hard about what software and format to use for DigiFiend.  There were a couple of very good choices out there.  One solution I had been testing was a Mambo/Joomla -based solution.  The problem with Mambo/Joomla is that the user community is somewhat fragmented.  In addition, tools available to bloggers using blog tools (pinging on new posts, Technorati, etc...) were either not available or difficult to implement using CMS-based systems such as Mambo/Joomla.  The initial incarnation of Digifiend was driven by MovableType 3.2.  Digifiend was converted to Expression Engine 1.5.1 on October 24th, 2006 to allow access to standard features such as the moblog module and integrated photo gallery and is running ExpressionEngine 1.6.3 as of April, 2008.

Credits

Powered By: This site uses Expression Engine.  Templates have been and are still being modified to be as CSS driven as possible.  The 2-column layout is a modified version of Simon Collison’s “Logical Blocks” EE template.  Small snippets of PHP (via includes) are used for things like the countdown section.

Hosted By: EngineHosting.  I switched to EngineHosting in April 2008 and have been pleased with their customer service and overall business philosophy.