New Website Design

Posted on March 29, 2012 at 1:36 pm by Biker Billy Hufnagle

This post is in: Web Design

A little over a year ago I embarked on a personal project to learn web programming. I have long been enamored with technology, especially with computers, and as of late with the whole growing arena of mobile Internet access. I come by this naturally being a product of the Cold War and space race era. Add to that early exposure to the hopeful view of the future and technology that is perhaps best expressed in the original Star Trek series. Indeed, my first computer experience was at the Rutgers University computer lab, right after high school in the mid-seventies, playing a Star Trek game on a PDP-10 computer via a Teletype terminal, talk about old school. While my oldest and best friend entered the computer age as a Rutgers student, I went the opposite direction off to art school leaving technology behind. In a few years I discovered two critical things, first that I could starve as an artist and more importantly I discovered filmmaking.

That last discovery ultimately put me on the long and winding road that led to my work as Biker Billy. Filmmaking work led to getting involved with video just as that technology bloomed along side the then nascent medium of cable TV. That in turn brought technology into my work, life and creative process. Fast-forward a couple of decades and along came the Internet, by which time I had discovered my calling as Biker Billy. In short order with the help of several awesome friends www.bikerbilly.com was created. Rather cool to arrive at the start of another new era in creative communication, especially having stuff that I really wanted to share with the world. Unlike all the mediums that I worked in and was knowledgeable about at the time the Internet and web design were black arts to me. All that coding stuff was not my bag back then; fortunately my awesome friends were experts and happy to help. So I did my thing and they put it onto the World Wide Web, all was good.

As the years progressed I have had an ever-increasing desire to do more on the web; at each turn I have relied upon my dear friend Jahn Tiger to implement these ideas and goals. I have been simultaneously thankful for his help and aware that I should learn how to do this myself. After all I can do video production from start to finish, create recipes, write books and I am pretty conversant with computers and technology. It was just all that darn code which held me back. So last spring semester I decided to just take the leap and do it. I enrolled in two classes at my local community college and started to learn about modern web design and development.

I have to tell you that at first I was worried. Perhaps this was more technical than this old dog could handle? That concern did not last long. I have absolutely fallen in love with writing code and seeing what it can do. In a way it is the same curious drive that has me taking apart mechanical things and putting them back together. It is all like a puzzle. How does it work? What happens if I change something? I realize that this is just like cooking new recipes from taste ideas that I am exposed too.

After lots of trial and error and many a long evening staring into the glow of LCD screens I have finally finished a new design for www.bikerbilly.com – and it is live on the Internet. Finished may be the wrong term to use, for now it is a start as I will be updating it and evolving it on a regular basis. Please take a look at the new design and give me some feedback. I plan on making it a more useful place to visit and offering you more information and entertainment. Well that is it for now, the sun is shining, the grass is growing and after zooming around the yard on the lawn tractor I plan on taking a motorcyle ride in the springtime mountains. I may even mount the cameras and make a video for your enjoyment!