Fiocci actually started out back in 1998 as Desolation Angels. It was initially developed in NetObjects Fusion 3.0 at a time when I was just getting my fingers wet with HTML. Below are a few screen shots from that early endeavor.
Original travel and travel fiction website
I had taken the title from a Jack Kerouac novel and intended to develop it as fun site specializing in travel and travel fiction. However, as the consulting business demanded more of my time, the business side crowded out the fun side of the website.
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Trips section from Desolation Angels
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Writing Section from the Old Desolation Angels Site
In 1999, I set up shop in Philadelphia. After weeks of back and forth, I settled a new logo and named the consulting practice, Fiocci Innovations. That meant a significant redesign and NetObjects wasn’t going to cut it. I wanted dynamic content and turned to a new software package by Elemental Software called Drumbeat. It provided database functionality with an Access database backend but it provided rudimentary support for Active Server Pages. I used it to rapidly created mini-sites for Philadelphia Insurance Company and Automotive Resources International. I also started playing around quite a bit with Flash. Below is what some of that looked like:
The more work I did, the more involved I got with developing Active Server Pages. Although I had briefly flirted with Java Server Pages, nothing could beat ASP for quick and easy development work. My tools changed as well – Drumbeat quickly gave way to UltraDev and Access was largely replaced by SQL Server. By 2001, I updated the look of the website again. This time to refocus my consulting efforts on the database development side of the house.
After I got married, I had less and less time for consulting work so I revamped the site as a personal site for me and my wife. And that is how it had remained until this past week. I have been meaning to update and refocus the site for a few years but just recently had the motivation to do it.