faq

Frequently Asked Questions

1. Why did you make this site?
   
   I made it so that I would have a place to share my ideas and to store information about myself. It's more for me than anyone else because I want to have a way to remember things I've done or that interested me. It's also fun to maintain a web site. I can do whatever I want without having to follow anyone else's instructions. If I want to put a dancing monkey on the site, I can and I like that.
   
   
2. Why do you have so many CDs?
   
   I like music and I like variety. When I get interested in something I tend to go all out. When I started getting interested in lots of different types of music I wanted to be able to listen to songs or artists when I wanted and not have to wait for them to be played on the radio.
   
   
3. Will you design my web site?
   
   I'd like to, but work is keeping me occupied to the point that I don't have much time to create web designs. If you're interested, and don't mind if it takes a few months send me an email and I'll see what I can do.
   
   
4. How do you pronounce your last name?
   
   her-sum
   For some reason many people feel the need to add another 'h' to make hersham. I have not yet figured out why people do that, but perhaps Hershey's has something to do with it.
   For the spelling I usually tell people that if a particularly possessive girl had a boyfriend named Sam others would refer to him as "her Sam".
   
   
5. How did you get the domain with your firstname.lastname.com?
   
   I used what's called a subdomain, so instead of using www.hersam.com (which goes to my family's web site) I use dan.hersam.com. I just had to register hersam.com and create the dan subdomain. My last name is pretty rare so it wasn't hard to get the domain. If your last name is already taken, you can try getting your_lastname.org or your_lastname.net or even one of the other top level domains like .cc or .ws. I use dynadot.com for my domain registrar (~$10/year) and linode.com for web hosting.
   
   
6. May I use your web designs?
   
   Yes, and there's no need to ask permission, just download it and use it. I ask that you link back to my site in exchange.
   
   
7. What did you use to make this site?
   
   I use vim to do all of the editing. I use PHP for the dynamic parts (coded by hand in vim). For graphics I use The GIMP. All of the tools are free, Open Source Software.
   
   
8. Why can't I find your email address anywhere?
   
   I have not put my email address anywhere on the site to avoid spam. You see, spammers send out little bots that search websites for email addresses. When they find an email address on a web site, they add it to their list of addresses to spam. The mailform exists so that people can email me without having to know my email address. Pretty good solution if you ask me. The only problem I've had is that people don't enter their email address correctly so I can't reply. If you're emailing me and want me to reply, please make sure it's correct.
   
   
9. How does your mailform work? Can I use it for my site?
   
   I wrote the mailform in PHP, so if your server supports PHP I could give you a simple HTML page and PHP script for your own mail server. It's fairly simple to do yourself. You need an HTML form that takes the person's name, e-mail address, subject and message and then you call the mail() function in PHP to send an e-mail to whatever address you desire.
   
   
10. Are you a professional writer?
    
    I'm flattered that you would ask and would love to be able to respond in the affirmative, but the answer is no, I don't get paid to write. If you are in the position of hiring freelance writers or are a publisher of some sort, I would be interested in discussing any possibilities of getting paid for my writing. Until then, I will continue to write for fun.
    
    
11. Do you run any other web sites?
    
    Why yes, yes I do.
    
    Coin Collecting - The Hobby of Kings
    Shortmarks - Fast custom searches and keyword bookmarks
    
    
    
12. How much do you want for your Nissan 300ZX?
    
    I don't own one anymore, so it's not for sale. Furthermore, it was never for sale on this web site. It was a nice-looking car and I like to have pictures of it.
    
    
13. What is the image you're using for the favicon?
    
    It's the ship shape I used in X-Pilot. Here is a larger image:
    
    I created it by cropping the ship out of this image, rotating it and reversing the colors.
    
    
14. Did people really ask you these questions or did you just make them up?
    
    Okay, okay, frequently is a bit misleading on some of these questions. I have been asked most of these questions at least once and I figured I'd take preventative measures to answer questions others might think of asking. Plus, I just liked the idea of having a FAQ. If you ask me a question that is not answered on this page and I think others might have the same question, I will probably add it.
    
    

Updated Jul 29, 2020