Welcome to RohJuh.com, the personal website of Roger Hsu and Judy Ho! If you’re new to the site, you’re probably wondering what the heck RohJuh means and/or how to pronounce it. Well, the pronunciation is just as it is spelled, ROH-Juh, with the accent on the first syllable. Of course, you’ve probably already noticed the huge graphic above which shows the official dictionary pronunciation.

So what the heck does RohJuh mean, if anything? The name was conceived years ago, way back in 2001. I was initially going to just reserve the domain rogerhsu.com (Update: I have since reserved the domain rogerhsu.com, but it simply redirects to rohjuh.com.), but Judy quickly struck that down for its blandness and lack of creativity. Coming up with a name for a website can be a challenge, but after some brainstorming, RohJuh is what we came up with. The “Roh” part takes the first two letters of my first name, Roger, and adds the first letter of my last name, Hsu. The “Juh” part simply does the same with Judy’s first and last name (Ho). Nothing too complicated, short and simple, and sounds kinda cool (at least we think so!).

If you want to know more about the site, including the stories behind each of the various versions to date, just keep reading below. The articles, aside from the Site Stats and Tech Specs, are in chronological order (oldest on top, newest last).

Site Statistics
How many hits is RohJuh.com getting each day? How much bandwidth is being served up? Which operating systems and web browsers are popular with the site’s visitors? That and other meaningless site statistics (updated daily) can be found in this section.

Tech Specs
Are you a geek at heart and interested in the technology behind RohJuh.com? Perhaps you’re curious about the creative tools used in the design of RohJuh.com. Or maybe you’re simply looking for a link to click on while you waste company time surfing the web. Whatever the reason, here’s where you can get the skinny on RohJuh.com’s tech specs. (Note that only the software and hardware relevant to the current version of the site are shown).

The Making of Version 1.0
As the version number indicates, this was the very first version of the website. Thrust upon the world on October 21, 2001, it represented the official debut of RohJuh.com. Quite a bit of work went into this design as well as a lot of frustration. HTML can make you want to pull your hair out, especially when you are just beginning to learn it. Perhaps the most lasting element of this design was the cool splash page, a modified version of which still greets visitors today as they enter the site (Update: As of Version 4, the splash page is no longer used. The modified version of the splash page referred to here was used in Versions 2 and 3.).

You can still peruse Version 1.0.

Screenshot of Version 1.0
Original and unique design, but the overall look of the site is fairly amateurish and could use a bit of sprucing up.

The Making of Version 2.0
With a better grasp of web design under my belt, the creation of Version 2 allowed me to focus more on the creative aspects of web design rather than constantly fighting with HTML. Version 2 was introduced on March 07, 2002 sporting the fresh and new Aqua look. Clearly inspired by Apple’s Mac OS X, the site looked much more polished and refined than the previous release.

You can still peruse Version 2.0.

Screenshot of Version 2.0: Tasty Aqua interface, improved layout, and a more consistent look throughout the site.

Testimonials
Introduced with Version 2, many people feel that this page is one of the best pages on the entire site. It took a lot of time to think up all the witty comments, but the end-result made it totally worthwhile. If you haven’t checked this page out, you’ve got to, although the comments might not be as funny if you don’t actually know the people quoted.

The Making of Version 3.0
As the number of pages on the website continued to grow, site and content management started to become a real issue. In addition, the site lacked a message board for people to post comments. To address these concerns, the decision was made to dynamically drive the site through an application server (PHP) and database (MySQL). Such a substantial improvement clearly justified a whole version number increase, and a whole version number increase isn’t really complete without a change to the look of the site. The Aqua interface is still there, though it is now even more polished and refined, while the Aqua RohJuh.com logo of Version 2 (which I was never fully satisfied with) has been replaced with a more modern and sophisticated looking logo.

You can still peruse Version 3.0.

The Making of Version 4.0
Despite the major improvements in Version 3, adding content still was too manual and not as easy as I would liked, and there were several important features that I still wanted the site to have. In addition, a couple of successful hacking attempts on the Forums served as a wake-up call that keeping all the code on the site up-to-date from a security standpoint was becoming a necessity. I decided to scrap my home-grown code (although that part of the site is still accessible) and turn to two fantastic open-source applications, WordPress and Gallery2, to serve as the foundation of the next RohJuh.com. Implementing these ended up taking up much more time than expected, but the end result was well worth the effort. The endeavor gave me a first-hand opportunity to experience how an open-source project moves along. I’m very pleased with the result. Content publishing is now much quicker and easier than ever, and this new platform should carry RohJuh.com well into the future.