Kevin Ludlow is a 45-year-old accomplished software developer, business manager, writer, musician, photographer, world traveler, and serial entrepreneur from Austin, Texas. He is also a former candidate for the Texas House of Representatives.
Please take a moment to view his complete resume for more information.
Note: the entirety of this website was architected and developed from the ground up exclusively by Kevin Ludlow.
There is a very long history to the full origin of this song. I originally wrote it in 2002, and continued improving it for a few more years. While the melody has always remained the same, it wasn't until early 2006 before I finally had the full sound and subtle intricacies as I wanted them.
I recorded it the other day so I could share with people on YouTube.
It's been over three years since I decided to embark upon my own personal content management system (CMS) specifically for powering my personal archival space on the internet, www.kevinludlow.com.
My first version of such a software package was designed under the guidelines that database designs were not only unnecessary, but also that they provided gaping security problems to the average user. As a result, my first CMS (which incidentally has powered www.kevinludlow.com for the past several years) was designed such that the administrator could use databases for support, but that the resulting website would be 'built' and hence all pages would actually be static. Given the system was driven by pluggable modules, it was titled staticMOD.
Though the staticMOD system worked well, it became more and more clear that in order for a CMS to be truly dynamic, it could not rely upon the administrator to 'build' new database remarks into the static pages. After coming to that sad realization, I discontinued building the finer features of staticMOD
In the summer of 2006, I began working on new concepts for how a true personal archival package should be built, and specifically how it should differ from the typical content management system. The system should avoid more technical features commonly used for allowing administrators to set up slashDot style websites, and should rather focus on the aspects truly desired by users: photo support, video support, personal blog, contact capabilities, and etc. Additionally that all aspects of text should be taggable in a wiki-like style thus allowing visitors to truly learn about the website owner's world.
After over a year of here-and-there planning, the first bits of code were written on the 19th of July, 2007. From then on, the software package has slowly been transformed into the vision I have had for it all along.
Some of the more interesting features, in my opinion, deal specifically with how entities are tagged throughout the openFace system. For example, say you are looking at a scanned photo over 80 years old of relatives, perhaps your grandparents. openFace has the unique ability to not only let you discern who is who in the picture, it will also tell you roughly (or in most cases exactly) how old the individuals are in the photo. Additionally, you have the ability to click on the individual and read more about them and how they pertain to my life. The same profile display will link you to various stories about the individual, any video footage I may have of them, some personal information, and of course will allow you to view all images with said individuals.
As far as the look of openFace goes, it may strike you that the website has a remarkably similar look and feel to Facebook. Though I suppose it is safe to say this is no coincidence, no portion of Facebook was used to design this website. Additionally, no codebases, external or otherwise, were in any way borrowed from Facebook. I simply feel that of the social networking sites available online Facebook is the only one that has done it right as far as a clean interface goes. My imitation of that cleanliness is nothing shy of flattery to the web-layout team over at Facebook.
To expand on the previous statements, all code was written from the ground up in Linux shells using nothing more than VIM. The codebase is primarily written in PHP, though it also relies heavily upon JavaScript, CSS, and of course HTML. To date, the entire codebase (including comments) is in excess of 16,000 lines. The entire API is also documented with the help of Doxygen.
Though there are still many features and functions on the way, some of which are even discussed in the former paragraphs, I hope you'll enjoy the first new version of my content management system personal archival system, openFace!
I've become a tremendous fan of Ron Paul over the past year. I wanted to put together a short speech explaining to people my thoughts on what is likely needed in order for him to make any progress in the 2008 election.
The topic is a little dry, but I think brings up some good points.
All of us here at kevinludlow.com, and we do mean ALL of us, are committed to protecting your privacy. Though we collect very little data on the site that is personal to you, anything collected is simply used for improving the site and for making the site more secure.
Additionally, and since we do not have user accounts at this time, any personal information we may have about you has been collected through personal contact or through a direct interest or affiliation and is stored for the site owner's personal use regardless of whether or not it is publically displayed.
Any publically visible information (such as your name appearing on photos) has been collected exclusively by the author and is for the author's personal archival purposes.
What information do we collect on the site?
In short, almost none.
When you post a comment or send a private message, in addition to whatever information you provide in the form fields, the exact time in which you began accessing the form, the exact time you submitted the form, and your IP (internet protocol) address is also captured.
Please note that when posting comments, ALL form field information is immediately made available to the public and will not be removed. That said, should you provide your email address on the site, your telephone number, or any other personally identifying information, we are not responsible for it being harvested by internet robots and other virtual miscreants.
What about "cookies"?
"Cookies" are small pieces of information that are stored by your browser on your computer's hard drive. We currently do not use cookies to collect or store any information about visitors or customers.
Will any of the collected information be disclosed to outside parties?
With exception of anything you might enter into the form fields, no.
kevinludlow.com does not sell, trade, or rent your personal information to others. Though we may, in time, provide aggregated statistics and related site information to reputable third-party vendors, these statistics will not include any personally identifying information.
On the other hand, kevinludlow.com may release personal information when we believe, in good faith, that such release is reasonably necessary to (i) comply with law, (ii) enforce or apply the terms of any present or future user agreements or (iii) protect the rights, property or safety of kevinludlow.com, our users, our friends, our family, or others (even complete strangers).
Summary
kevinludlow.com is committed to protecting your privacy.
Though the site is full of photos, videos, audio clips, and even documents rich in content, sometimes including people's names, personal beliefs, relationships, hobbies, and etc., very little of the data has been collected without the knowledge of the party (or parties) involved.
In some rare instances where data HAS been collected without the parties knowledge, the data will have been collected 'in public'. Data captured in such places as public demonstrations, political events, schooling events, or more broadly speaking, 'anywhere outside', has been obtained within the 'reasonable expectations of public privacy'.
Changes to the Privacy Policy
By using our web site, you consent to the collection and use of any information by kevinludlow.com. Should we decide to change our privacy policy, we will post those changes on this page so that you are always aware of any information we collect, how we may choose to use it, and under what circumstances we choose to disclose it.
kevinludlow.com may sometimes have links to external (third-party sites). The privacy policies of these linked sites are the responsibliity of the linked site and kevinludlow.com has no control or influence over their policies. Please check the policies of each site you visit for specific information. kevinludlow.com is not liable for damage or misdoings of other sites linked or otherwise.
Questions and Feedback
If you have any questions or feedback related to our Privacy Policy, please use our Contact Form
There's a couple of reasons that this could have happened:
One of our links is broken. If this is the case, please let me know about it so that I can promptly fix the problem.
You could be some sort of hacker. You could be trying to hack at the URL of the website. If you are, I'd prefer that you didn't do that, but am happy that you're not a very good hacker.
You're just a fucking idiot. If this is the case, I don't know what to tell you. Your local community college probably has an assortment of classes for improving your web skills. Take one of them.
