Ben asks for more tech content (while comparing me to Darth Vader) and I deliver! 🙂

I made a few changes to the technology and hosting for my site as I re-did the design and content for my consulting biz. Here is an overview of the changes.

Content Management
I am using the latest version of WordPress to power the entire site. Not only can it blog, it can also host static content pages starting with the 1.5 version. I used the static front page plugin to have static introductory text as the home page. I also made a page template that included much of the markup from the main index template in order to move the blog to a /weblog/ subdirectory.

I was a bit torn about moving the blog off the home page but I ultimately decided that it was best to make a clean introduction on the home page for new visitors and regulars could go to the new blog page. This turned out to be a bit tricky to get to work. Drop me a line if you want my code, happy to share it.

Finally, sticking with WP had the added bonus of keeping all my existing RSS feeds in place without a lot of tweaking.

Design
The design for the site is a modified version of the Kubrick template that D. Keith Robinson just slammed today as way too common. I’m crushed but I don’t think I’ll redesign just yet. 🙂 I think it is a very flexible template that can be pretty extensively modified if you want.

The logo was designed by my wife Jennifer. Being married to a graphic designer has its perks.

Hosting
The site is now hosted with Text Drive, a new hosting company that caters to cutting edge open source technology. In fact, when you sign up for an account a significant part of the proceeds go to the open source project of your choice. I dedicated mine to WordPress. As they are a start-up, there are pros and cons. On the pro side they are incredibly responsive and very willing to change and experiment. The con that comes with that is a bit more downtime than usual as they shake out their systems.

So, nothing too extraordinary, except that I was able to rapidly build a new site using open source technology and even an open source design template. If you have comments on the design, content or anything else, please post them to this entry. I’d love to hear the feedback.