Being a web programmer is blessing ... and a curse. A blessing ... because I have the knowhow to create any type of website for anyone, including myself. A curse ... because I'm never satisfied.
When I decided to start, I found this great blog solution called BlogEngine.NET, which has a set of blog designs (themes) that you can download and start using immediately. After hours of picking and choosing, I chose the Curiously Green theme; but after a few weeks, I knew that I'd have to create my own theme (you see? never satisfied!)
After 5 short months of blogging here, this site has officially been upgraded. Let me know what you think. And though there will be minor tweaks happening all the time, here's the rundown of the major revisions I made (in case you're interested):
BlogEngine.NET Upgrade
I've upgraded the BlogEngine.NET software from version 1.3.x to 1.4.5.0. This not only takes care of bugs from the previous version, but it allows me to post more types of content from other websites (i.e. videos, mp3s, etc.) I basically gave my site a tune-up under the hood.
New Site Design
Aside from wanting a cleaner looking site, I also wanted it to load faster - which meant a lot less images. So I found a great design by Andreas Viklund on oswd.org called 1024px that only used 3 images total and looked decent. And judging by the name, you can conclude that you need a screen that at least 1024 pixels wide; if you don't, it's time for you to get a new monitor. I then modified it a bit to make it my own, and then converted it to a BlogEngine.NET theme. I just need to find another picture; I've abused this picture of me in the orange shirt.
Updates by E-mail, too
I also made subscribing to my blog more prominent and easier to use by adding more tools from Feedburner (what I use for managing my RSS feed.) In addition to adding my blog to a reader, you can also sign-up to get each post sent straight to your email.
Social Bookmarking
I found a great tool called AddThis where you can create social bookmarks. If you look at the bottom-left of each post, there's an icon that allows you to bookmark that post to your favorite social page (i.e. MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, etc.) There's even an e-mail option for it, too. It's a little buggy still (the mouseover doesn't work when there's a quote in the title); but lately, I've been a Facebook junkie, so I'll be using this quite a bit myself.
Popups you'll like
Another tool I found called Apture gives me the ability to add informative and helpful popups to my content. For example, all of my links to Wikipedia (like this one!) now have a book icon that you can mouse over and get a popup with the definition in it . This will give you the ability to view videos, hear mp3s, watch Powerpoint presentations, and a bunch of other things all within a convenient popup without having to leave the site. However, I am still debating whether or not to keep it, so your feedback would be appreciated.
That's all for now. Thanks for everyone that visits on a regular basis and sends feedback via comments or private messages. I hope you enjoy the changes.
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