May 1, 2006

One day 4 years ago, as I stepped out of the bathroom, into the kitchen to get something, and chat with Vicky, I noticed what I'd been doing all day long. I paused, and composed a brain teaser...

I asked:  What's the easiest way to convert from T to P?

Vicky was thinking out loud... First, she tried flipping it upside-down, but it'd only work for d and p, not t and p. Then she thought about mirror image, but you'd only get a q from p. The best she could come up with was to push it forward so many letters, but that's hardly a clever answer...  So, she gave up.

I said:   Just drink it.

That is the answer. The quickest and easiest way to convert T to P is to just drink the T... which is exactly what I've been doing all day―guzzling tea, cup after cup.

After we both recovered from the silly laugh, I reckoned it'd make a nice domain name, and registered for t2p.us and t2p.biz. Both are very short and efficient. We needed some domain names for testing and experimental purposes, so that the live sites are never affected.  Soon, we had an ever-growing list of practical uses:

• showcasing experimental web dev techniques
• demo theme and ideas
• testing various DNS techniques & procedures
• staging area for web sites, pending client/regulatory body approval, before going live
• email alias hosting
• shortcut web redirection for internal use, and by close associates
• semi-private, by-invitation-only content (unpublished & unlinked from outside)
• generic web form/guestbook/chat-room hosting for clients

We started routinely referring clients to there to view work-in-progress and for various other reasons. Then came the natural question:

What exactly does T2P mean?

After some thoughts, I came up with the slogan:

T2P:  From Trial to Production.  Tested to Perfection!

Voilą! We now have an official version of what T2P stands for, and it's fit for public consumption. But, you know the real scoop behind it.