April, 2005
LARVALBUG BYTES: A SHORT HISTORY
Begun in July, 1999, LARVALBUG BYTES was created as a newsletter for our friends and family. We had recently bought our first internet-capable computer and were just discovering the joys of e-mail and the World Wide Web. Through learning about the computer hardware and software, battling viruses, building websites, and watching as the internet grew exponentially, we have continued to produce a new issue every month. This April, 2005, issue marks the 5-year anniversary of the online version of our newsletter. The following gives a brief history of our little endeavor.
- July, 1999 - The first issue of LARVALBUG BYTES was sent out as a Word Document. It included 4 pages with a few clip art graphics, stories by Val and Larry, and a short Family News Net. A few of our recipients could even open and read the document.
- April, 2000 - The first online issue was published. Val's limited HTML skills precluded anything fancy, but this issue was easily accessible by anyone with an internet connection. At about the same time we were developing our new website: larvalbug's home page.
- July, 2000 - Our larvalbug site was selected as "Website of the Month" by AT&T's Community Port. It was just the incentive we needed to keep making new pages and improving the old ones.
- November, 2000 - Val created her first GIF animation from scratch. Up until now, all the opening newsletter graphics had been composites of clip art.
- April, 2001 - Although we'd been recommending a website on almost every issue of the newsletter, we finally put the list of these in our archives.
- July, 2001 - Our first off-site newsletter supplement was created. This featured photos from a trip to California.
- December, 2001 - After we had a major computer virus attack, which destroyed most of our operating system, our friend, Chris, managed to get us back up and running in time to publish the next newsletter.
- April, 2002 - The unique investment articles that Larry had been writing were finally given their own site: larVALUEbug.
- October, 2002 - We registered and started our own domain: larvalbug.com.
- November, 2003 - We added two new features to the newsletter: "Backyard Beasts" by Val, and "The Terra Tabloid" by Larry.
- December, 2003 - Frisky, who was the inspiration for a whole set of web pages, as well as the photogenic mascot on our home page and at the bottom of every LARVALBUG BYTES issue, died at the age of 14.
- April, 2004 - Periwinkle, introduced as a pup in our February issue, became the new mascot, with her picture appearing at the bottom of our newsletter issues.
- October, 2004 - Another photo supplement page, this time of Larry's recent trip to Yellowstone, accompanied the newsletter.
At this point, we are still publishing the newsletter on or before the 21st of each month (our original publication date being 7/21/99), with past stories and features ending up in the archives. We both like to write, Val loves computer design and graphics, and the periodic deadline gives us the incentive to stop procrastinating and DO it. We hope at least a few people enjoy what they find here.