New Server and Design Refinements
Pardon our dust. You might have noticed some changes on the site:
- Sleek navigation menu and (wider) screen layout
- Improved contact form
- Blazing fast Dedicated Virtual hosting by MediaTemple
Please read on if you are interested in web design or just an ubergeek.
The first design had the primary goal of simplicity, so any unnecessary graphics, buttons, animations, bells, whistles were excluded. But as the web and technology advance, web surfers expect a little more out of the typical website. We can also take advantage of growing (wider) screen real estate, so users can scroll with their eyes instead of their mouses.
The old navigation menu was just a list of links, which does the job most of the time, but for navigation you need something that really stands out visually. The new design replaces the links with inset buttons, with a slight overlay added for the current page.
The other design improvement is the Contact form. Most forms can easily be whipped up in about 5 minutes, but you really want to spend some time making the form easy to use and secure. This form is AJAX enabled and CAPTCHA enabled, making it more difficult for spammers to get into my email box (or your email box!). It also makes it easier if you mess up on a CAPTCHA test since all of the form information is retained in the fields. jQuery is used extensively here.
And last, but not least, I’ve moved the server from Dreamhost PS to MediaTemple DV. There were several reasons behind this, but it comes down to the ability to do whatever I want with the server. Dreamhost makes setup a breeze, but they restrict the software that can be installed by not enabling root access on their “private” servers. One of the things I wanted to run was a XMPP (Jabber) server for a new project I’m working on. They supposedly offer this service, but not on your own server. Having root enabled me to easily install Openfire by Jive Software. So far the speed and service seem great, but there’s still a lot of work to do.
And I’m sure you have a lot to do as well, so that’s all for now!