About me
I'm Travis. I've been playing with technology since the early 2000s and working in it professionally since 2005. I got interested in websites first, then web hosting, then servers, then networking, and at some point the whole thing got out of hand.
I still write a lot of PHP and use MySQL because they solve a huge number of problems without making me fight the toolchain first. I also spend a lot of time with Linux, Proxmox, cPanel/WHM, networking, monitoring, backups, APIs, and the other pieces that keep hosted systems running.
I founded NodeSpace, so a lot of what I write about hosting and infrastructure comes from actually operating a small provider rather than only building lab examples. Small providers do not have a different department for every problem. When something breaks, the trail can run from a customer ticket to PHP, MySQL, Linux, storage, a hypervisor, a switch port, BGP, or a bad cable.
I also co-own a transportation company and drive buses. That is not a side joke on the site. I genuinely like buses, I have a CDL, and I spend enough time around them that they earned their own section.
What I use
This changes over time, but the things I keep coming back to include:
- PHP and MySQL/MariaDB
- Linux, especially Red Hat-family distributions
- Proxmox VE and Proxmox Backup Server
- cPanel/WHM and other hosting platforms
- Routing, switching, VLANs, BGP, VPNs, and data-center networking
- Bash, Python, APIs, and whatever glue code is needed to make two systems talk to each other
- Windows Server and Active Directory, because apparently I can never completely escape them
What is "NightFox"?
NightFox is an internet screen name I've used since the AOL days, around 2006. The "night" part came from being a night owl. The "fox" part came from being quiet enough that people have joked I should wear a bell. Put the two together and it stuck.
This site is intentionally a personal site rather than a brand. I want it to feel like the web used to feel: somebody made a place, filled it with the things they care about, and kept adding to it because they felt like it.
How is this website made?
Mostly the boring way: HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and PHP. There is no CMS. I like being able to open a file, change the page, upload it, and be done. It also means old pages can stay old without a framework upgrade turning them into a weekend project.
Where is this site hosted?
On a VPS from NodeSpace. Yes, that is my company, so this is about as non-independent a hosting recommendation as possible.
Last Modified: September 23, 2026, 2:28 pm