Frank J. Mazzella

I am an Information Resource Manager for a large transportation company located in Southern California. I am a Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer and a Level 2 member of Microsoft's Sitebuilder network. I'm versed in Microsoft Internet Technologies primarily and use FrontPage, Image Composer, Visual Interdev and IIS 3.0 as my primary tools. I regularly contribute to Microsoft's newsgroups on those subjects, as well as some FrontPage Lists. I love helping people to build their sites and learning from them along the way (although seventy or so emails a day is a bit much!).

An Accountant by education, I was attracted to the computing profession by its dynamic nature and was given an opportunity to move to California and manage the computer systems for a multi-location network. I was scared to death, but figured it a great opportunity. And if my best efforts couldn't cut it? Well, I reasoned I could always go back to New Jersey and be an Accountant again. That was 3^1/2 years, thirty-odd books, eight Microsoft exams and countless seventy-plus hour weeks ago; and I love it!

I started seriously working with web site design at the end of 1996, spurred on by the fact that, on December 24, I'd not sent any gifts to the folks back home and there was no chance that I would. I also had a beta copy of Microsoft FrontPage and not a clue as to how to use it! Well, by the end of the day, I'd found a dial-up provider offering 5MB of free web space that I didn't know how to use, either. And while my son played with his toys and my wife patiently watched in disbelief, I spent twelve or so hours on Christmas Day taking digital pictures (with a borrowed camera) and setting up a web site for my family to see everything that was going on during Christmas 1996 in Southern California. It bought me a week and started me off on an obsession I can't kill.

In two weeks during January 1997, a co-worker and I established an Intranet Site at work. We set up an NT4 server with IIS 2.0, indexed and included every single safety policy (a closet full) applicable to a Container Terminal, set up a searchable index of key labor contracts and photos and information about the Company. It was a big hit and we had lots of plans. Unfortunately, some folks felt that this was in defiance of some sort of rule and declared that no further development could be done (although they were king enough to give us a "stay of execution").

Stop learning? No way! I started practicing and studying like never before and now work on commercial web sites during most of my spare time. My first site was The Next Step Bridal Shoes, which is an on-line shoe store owned by my sister (who else would trust you with their business?). The next was Laguna Web Design, which is almost completed.

I hope that some of the articles you'll find here by myself and others will help you in your own Internet endeavors, and that you'll keep coming back. Please feel free to email me directly with any questions, comments or suggestions. Have fun!

Articles by Frank J. Mazzella