Website Overhaul


I think my website’s been long overdue for a change. The last time I did anything was back in 2012, when I switched to the Twenty Twelve wordpress theme. Before that, I was using a modified version of the Build theme. I switched off of that theme because I’d suspected it was the cause of the hacking problems I was experiencing back then.

This time around, there’s no concerns of hacking; I just wanted a cleaner look. Here’s what the site looked like before the overhaul:

Old look of website

Here’s what it looks like now (in case I decide to change it up again):

New look of website

Things have also changed under the hood; I’ve also replaced Wordpress with Jekyll, and Apache HTTPD with Nginx. There weren’t any real concerns I had with either Wordpress or Apache, but I figure I should at least try the latest hip technologies.

Jekyll, in particular, is very cool. No fcgi or database needed, just run jekyll build and serve the resultant pages with a webserver. It was a small ordeal to migrate my existing wordpress posts to the format jekyll uses, even with an importer, but I got the job done. It’s also slightly harder to write posts now since there’s no convenient web interface, but I think I can deal with that. I work in plaintext all day while programming, why not do it while blogging too?

Unfortunately, comments didn’t make the migration. Maybe, if I notice that there’s some sort of demand for it, I’ll integrate Disqus comments into the blog. Right now I don’t really see a need for them.

A few weeks ago I also made the switch over to SSL. It’s exciting - I’ve got a valid certificate and everything! It was less work than I’d anticipated, not least because I’ve learned a ton about SSL on the job in the last year.

I think that sums up the changes. If you notice anything wrong, or just have any general comments, send an email to “edlu” at this domain name.