llotus.dk is created and maintained by Nicolai Skovvart. It is used as my online resumé, as a blog and it is a place for me to showcase some of my abilities concerning web development.
The site utilizes pseudo-object oriented PHP programming, heavy usage of the MySQL database and light usage of javascript. The sourcecode for the site is currently available at the downloads page.
The site is designed with web compliance in mind. This means that I'm using valid XHTML and CSS. I have done my best to seperate design and content, which should both increase loading time, and make it easier for search engines to find the relevant information on the site. The design has been tested in the most popular web-browsers, including Internet Explorer 8, Firefox 3.5.5, Chrome 3 and Opera 10.01. I do not rely on CSS hacks or javascript to make the design work in all of these browsers.
I haven't done extensive testing with older versions, but I assume they work in the majority of the relatively newer releases. Should you find a problem, please report it to me.
The site is running PHP 5 with E_ALL error reporting (highest level, including non-fatal warnings). The entire site, from layout to css-styles to content is managed through an admin panel (that is currently not available to the public).
The site is hosted at Unoeuro.com, and I can highly recommend them. At least if you do not require the ability to host big files like videos or music.
History behind llotus.dk
The origins of llotus.dk started quite some years ago. My friend was messing around with HTML himself, and got me interested. I asked him for help and he told me to go learn it myself. So I did.
One thing led to another, and once I was done "mastering" (I was young and confident..) HTML and CSS, I got the taste for using PHP to build web applications.
Dynamic paging got me really excited about PHP, mainly because I was still constantly making small edits for my HTML designs, and it greatly reduced the amount of time it took to update my website.
PHP was able to do a lot more than that, and I ended up making my first simple (and very exploitable) tagwall. After that I made a smarter way for me to post news/blog. After that, I learned how to get PHP to send me emails, and a form email was added. After this, I decided to try and make a content management system (CMS) to speed up the process of managing the site.
This all resulted in xCMS, a vulnerable and inefficient CMS. But the basic functionality worked, and the experience allowed me to develop my PHP skills further.
xCMS was a part of an amateur project I was doing with a friend, on Xitox.dk (the old name and version of this site). We were never able to finish it properly, and I grew dissatisfied with the Xitox name, and I moved to llotus.dk
llotus.dk was up briefly as a personal site, and hosted things such as the former Paranut project (a now long gone digital graphics community) mural (which is still very much worth a look). I didn't have time to run the site properly, and it degenerated into a simple tv guide for Danish tv for a few years.
After I finished high-school, I decided to "revive" the site again, and make it my online resumé. I'd lost most of my visitors through the years, and those who still clicked onto my website usually came for the tv guide.
After a period of time, I was unhappy about the code running llotus.dk, I was tired of the design, and I thought that the entire site needed an overhaul.
You are currently looking at the result of that overhaul. I hope you enjoy it, and if you have any suggestions, feel free to contact me