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Look what I have found... This is my very first shredzone, as it was online from 1998 to 2003. First it was hosted by my internet provider. Then, on April 15th 2000, I registered my own domain – shredzone.de – and moved my site to a professional hoster.

The site did not use a fancy content mangagement system, but consisted only of static HTML pages. It was built on my Amiga using a preprocessor called HSC, an acronym for HTML Sucks Completely. 😜 Some parts like the gallery or the download area were generated by accompanying ARexx scripts. It was incredibly easy to add content to the site. Basically it was just adding or changing a file, and then invoking smake to rebuild the affected parts of the site within seconds, including the navigation. It was a big advantage that I was going to miss badly later.

At that time I did not use CVS yet, so sadly all the past versions and changes have been lost. The only version I still have is the final one on my Amiga harddisk. I have found the project today, by a rather lucky accident. It was only the source code though, the final compiled version has got lost over the years. There is a Linux port of HSC, so basically I could rebuild the site on my Linux machine. But the ARexx parts require an Amiga environment, and porting them to Linux would have consumed too much time.

So I started an Amiga emulator and, thanks to the good shape of the project that the past Amiga me has left the present Linux me, I actually only needed to run smake to rebuild the entire homepage in just 3 minutes.

The requirement to run on an Amiga, was what later broke the neck of this homepage. When the Amiga platform died, I moved on to Linux, but I could not move my homepage with me. So, in 2003, I replaced it with a self-made content management system that was written in PHP and was called Akiko. It had some nice features, but on the other hand it was rather tedious to add new content. Because of that, I badly neglected my homepage in those years.

In 2010, Akiko was replaced by a self-made blog system that is written in Java and is named Cilla. Even after a major redesign in 2018, it is still in use today. 🙂

The "Sombrero de Chasna" is a table mount that is 2400 meters tall and looks like the top of a sombrero hat, hence its name.

Our hike starts at the área recreativa Las Lajas. It's a public picnic site with a parking area that is sufficiently big, but the poor road conditions of the last few meters make it difficult to reach unless you have rented an SUV. 😅

From there we start the ascent to the summit of the Sombrero. The trail is a little hard to find. At some parts, only cairns show the way. A few minutes away from the Sombrero, there is the caldera edge with a spectacular view on the Las Cañadas plain.

The hike to the summit is a little exhausting. You certainly need good hiking shoes, hiking poles, and a good condition. But the spectacular views are worth it. It's the third time we have been up there now, and definitely not the last time.

In the heart of Tenerife, and 2400 meters above the sea, is the Observatorio del Teide. While its sister observatory on the island of La Palma is mainly used for observing the night sky, this observatory is mainly used for observation of the sun.

There are guided tours every week. We joined one of these tours, and had the chance to see the observatory, the inside of one of the buildings, and we also had a look at the sun with a special telescope.

Chinyero is the name of a volcano in the National Park of Tenerife. Its last eruption was in November 1909, which was also the last eruption of a volcano on Tenerife.

The starting point is a tiny parking spot at the TF-38 that leads from the town Chío to the Teide national park. From there, we just follow the Circular Chinyero route, which is also marked with white and yellow posts. Our hike trip starts in a pine forest, then goes across a plain of volcanic rock, and then returns through a mix of pine forests and volcanic land.

Usually this place is located above the clouds. This time the clouds were rather high, and covered the landscape in a thick fog. It was very spectacular. At the plain of volcanic rock, it felt like we were walking on a foreign planet.

The tour is about 6.5 km long and easy to walk.

After a GDPR hiatus, the shredzone is back!

I used the time for a total redesign and a cleanup. The design is now responsive, so you can enjoy the articles on the big screen as well as on your smartphone. I have removed all the unnecessary stuff that were modern in blogs 10 years ago, but actually just cluttered the screen (like the calendar and the tag cloud).

There are a few bugs left and some features missing. I will take care of them in the next couple of weeks.

Anyhow, I hope you like the new design!

By the way: The shredzone turns 20 this year. Congratulations! 🎂