SCRAPS - MISC WEB SITES
Check out some of my earlier web sites here. The very first one I ever did is long gone, created using a first web editor that CompuServe developed back in 1995. Web sites back then were uncomplicated and lacked direction. It wouldn't take long for that to change, but the early days were interesting. These are presented in chronological order, and were not altered at all for their appearance here. What you see now is what you got then, for better or for worse. There will be some broken links and images along the way, but each site will show you what I was trying to accomplish.
 2003 - Midwest Fixture Group, LLC
My dad actually found this one for me. Again, this is a simple site, but I was able to design it from scratch. I also had good input from the people in charge, which helped quite a bit, especially with content. There is no scripting going on here, just good old-fashioned links and graphics.
 2002 - Barr26.COM Personal Site
Some of you will be familiar with this one. Content-wise, it's very similar to this site. Visually it's quite a bit different, and in my eyes, a bit constrictive. There just wasn't enough space to work with. I like keeping my work confined, but this took it too far. I like the images on it though. If some links don't work, it's simply because server names or databases may have changed. But you'll get the idea!
 2002 - GoingBackToWork
I did this site for my friend John. It's a very simple site that probably doesn't need much explanation. But it's one of the first things I did after my layoff, and kept me busy.
 2001 - BTC Intranet
You can link tot his directly from the PSTechnology site. PSTechnology changed its' name to Business & Technology Services (BTC), but they never wanted to change the PSTech site. Aside from the TBS web sites, this is what I spent most of my time on......trying to make my co-worker's lives easier. Unfortunately, few of them realized the potential this had, even when it was staring them right in the face. People were always excited when I created new modules, but they never used it to their full potential.
This Skills Inventory ended up being pretty cool. It links directly with the Staff Directory. You could find out everything on anyone in our organization, which was supposed to be particularly useful when people were out of the office and needed help. They could VPN into our network then check our intranet to see who was best able to help them. The calendar used to work well, but maybe not so much anymore. The last really good thing I did at Amex was the Training Evaluations. A lot of hard work went into this one, and it was used quite a bit. You can create your own evals, use others.....pretty much do whatever you want. And yes, YOU can too! In fact, you can log in as visitor - visitor to the Admin page and mess around with whatever you want. Go ahead! Have a blast!
 2001 - American Express Tax & Business Services
I did a lot of this after I went on a trip to Phoenix to learn how to use a web-based development tool called Vignette StoryServer. Even though this was the best job I'd ever had, I found myself very disappointed at how we had to go about creating the pages. It was a very basic process that didn't encourage creativity. However, I did end up creating the sites for Ohio, New York, and a few others. So the content you see in here is a lot of my work. This is the only site from this page that is not on my server. Since it's remained largely unchanged for three years, I'll keep linking to it until someone revamps it completely.
 2000 - PSTechnology
The first major project that I had full control of at American Express Tax & Business Services was the web site for the group I worked for, PSTechnology. They let me design and develop every element of this site myself, and even had a nice sort of launch party for it. It was well-received, and kept me busy for several months. This was the first site I developed using Active Server Pages (ASP). The scary thing is, I had very limited knowledge of it when they hired me, so I learned as I worked on it.
 2000 - Dawson Personnel
When I got hired at American Express, they were working on the main web site for Dawson Personnel. I jumped right in, assisting with graphics and menus, and this is where I began developing my more intermmediate skills. I hadn't taken this one with me, and was amazed that it is still up. But just to be safe, I've downloaded it to my own server here, where it is safe. It's not a bad site at all, although I always thought the images of the people (which Dawson provided) were off-putting. I also don't get why they haven't touched this site at all since late 2000. Ah, the memories.......however, if some things don't work quite right, like mouse rollovers, it's because they were written in a very obscure way by the other developer that was there at the time. The links themselves work so you can see other pages, but there won't be any database connections here, so there is minimal functionality.
 2000 - Appsource One
More than just a web site, this was part of a business venture. My friend Mel (the same one who introduced me to the MedStrategy lady) introduced me to a guy named Anthony who did a lot of work with servers. He wanted to start a Limited Liability Corporation (LLC) that would be an Application Service Provider (ASP) to companies. It was bold, but Mel and I wanted to be involved. I was going to be the web guy, so I created the site. I even made business cards, and we had several meetings about the whole thing. Then personal issues got in the way and the plans faded away. But this site remains in my archives, a fairly decent looking set of pages that get to the point quickly enough.
 2000 - Barr26.com
Even as late as the year 2000, I was designing web sites that had absolutely no direction.......no purpose other than an excuse to create new graphics and layouts. It was, at least, more refined than the last site on the list. And the profile idea was good enough, but I think it's just an e-mail form, nothing else. This was done right before I started learning Active Server Pages, which would have helped this become something better.
 2000 - Barrs.cc
My dad purchased this domain in the hopes of putting together a family-oriented site. It's a really good idea, and definately something we need to do, but this effort didn't go so well. I remember doing parts of this, but Kelli did a little too. I just can't remember who did what. It's hardly worth looking at. No, really, don't. What, you're going in anyway? Boy, are you wasting your time! Wow! I can't wait to hear about the terrible time you had!
 2000 - Rick Barr
No other title applies to this one. I spent a lot of time on both the professional and family portions. Some of it is pretty sharp, but for some reason not all of it works correctly. It's a site that I at least don't have to hang my head in shame about.
 2000 - MedStrategy Consultants, Ltd.
Finally, a development project I got paid for! Well, wait.....no, I didn't. It was the first job I got contracted for, through a co-worker. The contract was very simple, and was signed by both parties. I completed the work, and never got paid. In fact, the owner of the company apparently was dealing in some shady activities, and got into some deep trouble. There are no special elements on this site aside from some simple menu and image scripting, but the content is fairly thorough.
 1999 - Tim Springer & Associates
This was the first site I did for someone else. Mr. Springer had a friend who worked at my firm, and she knew I did development, so she asked me to help him. I actually designed this with another gentleman, whose name I can't remember. This was extremely simple, but effective. I didn't get paid for it, but he was pleased.
 1998 - Freelance Web Designer
I developed this one around the same time as the above two. I believe it was supposed to showcase my design skills. I remember spending an achingly long time doing these graphics, especially the mouseovers. The problem with a lot of these personal/professional pages is that I would have them out on some site (by now I think Earthlink hosted it), but never marketed them at all. In this particular case, that's probably a good thing.
 1998 - Script Tester
This may not sound like much, but it's actually pretty fun. I had just started experimenting with javascript and vbscript, and part of my learning was to put together examples. Some particularly amusing scripts you'll find are the "fruit picker" and the "salary chooser".
 1998 - BARR26 : The Early Days
This is the first site I developed completely on my own, meaning, without the aid of a WYSIWYG editor. Some of the graphics are actually pretty nice, but I had no idea what I was doing content-wise. I guess I was thinking I would put sports scores and news updates on, but the only way I would have been able to do that would have been to pilfer content from other sites. It's probably a good thing I never got that far. This site was hosted on CompuServe, and I expected it to die soon after my layoff in early 1998. I believe it was still online as late as 2001, and when I saw it I quickly downloaded it, as I hadn't kept any of the files.
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