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Click here for more info!
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About TerminatorFiles.com
Whats it all about, why would one do it... and how has it evolved?
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Main info
TerminatorFiles.com is a concept by Vic van der Put
from Eindhoven, the Netherlands. Some months after the launch (on the 9th
of june 2003) he teamed up with fellow Dutch Terminator fan Maurice Huijs, who has helped him eversince to fulfill this online
experience you see today!
The initial idea of the TerminatorFiles was to collect all the available info on the Terminator and link towards a lot (if not
all) content available on the net. Whats the sence in inventing something new, when it has been done before? Right!
Well... Eventually most of the content DID make its way into the site itself. Due to the fact that a lot of sites went
offline, whilst some concisted of out-of-date info or others having false pretences; providing info to cash-in on the saga
(which by the way... we have been blamed for too). Discontent about the loss of info and lots of missfacts on other sites, the
dicision was made to include all the info onto the TerminatorFiles.com portal. The best control one has is over the content is
when you 'own it' yourself. Now the promotional verb "We've got detailed files!" was really a fact!
««« | Our history
TerminatorFiles was originally designed to be a part of Vic's old design site called BrainzDezign.com (which is now offline).
That site was about lots of his designing ideas, a sort of online portfolio with his graphic designs, websites he build since
1997 and lots of other interests, including his biggest hobby; collecting Terminator memorabilia.
Somewhere in the last few months of 2001, the Terminator related pages under the Vic's brainzdezign.com domain began to grow
in conciderable size. The rumours of a new installment in the saga (T3) were becoming a reality and the only updates he made
on that domain were for the then so called 'Files'. Specificly oriented on the Endoskeleton of the movies and lots of links
to sites that were spread around the web.
After the launch of the Terminator3.com website and its forums (now offline), lots of fans got into contact with eachother and
had a lot to talk about. Over time, new personal sites were cocked up and some fans even united in groups to start on
several site-projects featuring info on the Terminator (or what other main topic they prefered).
Soon... sites like for instance Terminator-3.co.uk, TechcomForces.com and TerminatorFans.com were launched (now all offline except
for the latter, which has been re-acquired by TerminatorFiles middle 2007). Vic for one could not be held back on these
developments. A new domain was chosen, filled with a cool Flash teaser (check the archives),
leading up to several months of (part-time) developments ...and the new concept was born.
On the 9th of June 2003 it was time to reveal his efforts to the fan community. A (then) 30 MB site filled to the brink with
lots of interesting information. A few months later Vic then partnered with fellow Dutch Terminatorfan Maurice Huijs ...and
since both have been busy turning the domain into the full-fledged site you see today.
Over a period of 10 months, the TerminatorFiles.com changed from a site that linked to lots of external info on the web into
a full fledged portal containing any- and everything Terminator related, in its own expanded pages, databases and other
systems. On the height of it all the site contained a whopping 80 MB of data, excluding all the databases! Could we have know
it would be much and much more later on?
Just about half way through those 10 months (give or take a few), the team decided to get the TerminatorFiles.com website
(and some of its newly launched services) to an even higher ground; v1.0 of the site was updated here and there, whilst the
team worked hard in enabling a total new 'shell' for the entire site. Many late nights prowling through the code resulted in
the launch of v2.0 of our site on April 20th, 2005. The contents was still the same, but the 'looks and feel' was upgraded to
a total new, fresh and most importantly 'interactive' design. Nothing has changed ever since... or has it?!
Late December 2006, Vic got the message from his old boss that he was going to get layed-off. This was no fun (indeed!),
firstly because of the job (6 years running), but second (and in his opinion 'especially') since the TerminatorFiles.com
domain and contents were all dependent on lots of that companies resources and services. In an effort to disconnect ourself
totally from that company (which bankrupted in May 2007) the site was redeveloped to run on any server possible. We found
ourselfs a wonderful host in the US, after which all contents was rehashed into seperate optimised pages. All databases were
scrapped, all content revised and after a half year we were ready to relaunch v2.5 of our site. Again... the looks and feel
and its interactivity didn't change that much, but all underlaying technology was recoded into the site you are currenly
viewing (and reading).
All that happened in the past, the good and the bad, has helped us to make the TerminatorFiles the best place to be when its
related to any and all things Terminator related. In a sense the move to the new provider was the best thing we could ever have
done, be it somewhat forced by Vic's personal motivations. Why?
Our new site is running on a serviceprovider that has 200 fold more services available then all previous providers combined;
the biggest fun and enthousiasm being an (in our view) unlimited harddisk and bandwidth space. And we have used it well ever
since.
In a period of 5+ years (which is considered old in Internet terms) the site has grown from a personal website of only 10 MB,
into a hot 30 MB website. Then it got filled with 50 MB more data, into a 80 MB portal. Then it was time to redesign it into
a totally cool new interactive site... which then kept growing and growing, moving from one server to another,
till the site you are viewing today. From 10 MB back in 2001 to 2,310 MB in 2007.
But wait... there is more! We started expanding the site even further. New galleries of HD images and videos were added and
lots of archives enabled that broadened the content into many more gigs. Don't get scared now, but if you downloaded our entire
site, that would account for a whopping 14 GIGs of data. WTF?! Thats an abbriviation for "What the fuck"?
Whoah! Thats lots... and as it turns out, we haven't stopped accumulating yet. Lots more is upcoming!!!
What the future will bring is still unknown to us. All we can do is our best to be(come) the best Terminator related website
on the net. And then some more!
««« | Old versions from way back when
Just for nostalgic reasons, we've included some screencaptures of the old sites below. This is more for us then for you, but
its cool to share it either way. We had a lot of fun building every version of the site and we know most of our regular
visitors did too, viewing them. So check back a little into the past, from 1999 till today.
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Brainzdezign.com 'Files'
The first version of the TerminatorFiles. Developed as several seperate pages under STAFFmaster Vic's old designer
site www.brainzdezign.com (now offline), the then so called 'Files' ran from late 2001 till the launch of the
TerminatorFiles.com website (June 9th 2003).
The site featured a lot of info on the Terminator Endoskeleton, his favorite character of the movies (and it
still is); indepth info on all Endoskeleton busts, models, kits, toys and more (the basis of the current collectables
databases), hundreds of weblinks to Terminator related sites (which are all -and lots more- available here),
personal weblog of aquisitions made, a comprehensive database of all his collectables (back then approx. 190, now
counting 500+ items ;) and lots more. All info (including new sections on all possible Terminator subjects)
were expanded into the TerminatorFiles.com (sub)domains.
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TerminatorFiles.com 2003-2004
During 2002 and 2003 rumors got ahold of STAFFmaster Vic. A new Terminator movie was in the making. Whoa.. WAY COOL!
Fan-crazed as he already was, this was the opportunity for him to get his collection-spree to the next phase; becoming
involved in all sorts of forums and starting to collect all possible information on the new movie.
Lots of fans in the community got together and some even launched their own Terminator related sites. We for one...
could not be held back. The 'Files' on the old domain were revamped into a new site, with lots of new sections and
subjects added. TerminatorFiles.com was born!
Over a period of almost two years the little site grew into one of the biggest fan portals around (or at least... that's
what we think it is ;). What we got out of the community, was pumped right back into the portal.
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TerminatorFiles.com 2005+
Late december 2004 through to april 2005, we thought of redesigning the entire site. Over a period of more then 3 months
we planned, redesigned and rebuild the entire portal from scratch... into version 2.0 of our site. This was also the
first time we initiated two of our (now-a-days) beloved features; 1) a site which can be viewed in any resolution you want
(from as low as 1024-768px up to 1600x1200px or even higher) and 2) a site which can be viewed in your own prefered GUI
setting... which over time expand(ed) into more interfaces.
Since its launch, our knowledge and site grew 'in a triometric rate', to quote Arnold ;). The already detailed files
resulted in an ever growing number of frequent visitors, of whom lots became very active in our own initiated
forums.
Through the first few months of 2006 we had to move servers and change services. This however entailed an entire rebuild
which took us more then 6 month in total. Version 2.5 of our site launched on the 4th of july 2006; a new site with a new
updated interface which looks almost the same as version 2.0 (hence the increment of only 0.5 ;). Some sections were
deleted or set to be temporary offline, whilst other new sections came online for the first time. And still more is in
the making.
All endeavors initiated over the past years are still today in need of some serious follow-ups. We're as always trying to
deliver the broadest most detailed info one can find on the Terminator Saga. As you must know by now... we'll never be
ready!
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««« | Whatever is next?
We'll have to see where this project takes us. We've had our share of thoughts about the future of the TerminatorFiles.com
domain. We even took some of those ideas and tryed to make them happen. For instance...
A 3D version of the website with lots of interactive animations has been in its primal (infancy) stages of development.
Lukely for us we tested the animations for speed and downloadability, before going on with the total design. Every test
brought us bad results; it was just not possible to make a fluent animation with such a slow download rate as a target.
Sure, Flash and other technologies are able to reproduce the contents in staggering results, but not our over-expanded
3D version idea. That would be un-do-able, even today. Also... a site needs to be viewable by all possible visitors.
A non-animated version could have been possible, but this was just too borring compared to the animations we had in mind
(and its our site too, you know ;). Filesize is also a big contender when it comes to making decissions. Maybe this 3D
version of the interface will be used on future TerminatorFiles sites, products, or maybe even a offline version of the
website content on CDrom or DVD (where loadability is no problem). Maybe not. We will surely use any of this 3D stuff in
future productions, like we previously did for some of our old promotions (check Archives).
The future is not set, to quote T2 ;). The internet evolves... and connection speeds from users to their service-providers
become faster every month. Depending on our own hostingprovider and its provissions of bandwidth and MEGs hosting (which we
offcourse have to pay for) the site will eventually evolve into a much bigger site, full with online animations (as told
above) and GIGs of media
for your to download. Or maybe even a new version with a new technology which is still to be invented. Can some of you
remember sites before there was Flash? We can! So if something new as grand as that becomes a reality... we'll be sure to
keep ahead with technology.
In short: We strive to be(come) the best!
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| SOME STATS |
Official launch v1.0
June 9th, 2003, 1:40pm
Relaunch v2.0
April 20th, 2005, 8:55pm
Relaunch v2.5 (current)
July 4th, 2006, 10:15am
Total development
v1.0: 4 months and 18 days
v2.0: 3 months and 7 days
v2.5: 6 months and 15 days
...approx 4 hours a day
v2.0 versus v2.5
Whats the difference? Not much visually! But the entire system has changed: all coding has been redone
(so we are no longer dependent on one provider), all databases have been scrapped (done for SEO) and
some new sections have been introduced. More to come in due time!
Coding
Totally handcoded in HTML4, PHP4 and CSS3. Compliant with W3C standards.
Servers
- Unix/Redhat
- Dual 2 GHz processors
- Redundant 100 Mbit
Disk Storage
- 523.6 GB!
- Increases weekly by 2 GB
Bandwidth
- A whopping 10 TB! (10264 GB)
- Increases weekly by 40 GB
- Unsaturated!
No more hosting nightmares?!
Join DreamHost.com today!
Software
- FileZilla
- Flash
- HomeSite
- ImageReady
- Office
- Photoshop
- SwishMax
Tools
- Canon Powershot A85
- HP Scanjet 7650
Services
- Google AdSense
- Google Alerts
- Google Analytics
- Google Sitemaps
- MSN Networks
All under official licence through company related resources.
Click here for indepth site stats!
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| TERMINATOR SHOPPING |
Check our shopping
page for cool offers and special deals!
Or do a targeted search at...
Find those Terminator books, dvds, gaming, progams, music, toys and vhs related products!
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| STATISTICS |
Last modified: Aug 10 2009
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