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Out with the (very) old, in with the new…

As you can see (unless you're using RSS, in which case, visit the site to see), there's a new look around here. According to the datestamp on the folder, my old theme (which I named "macbar" for no obvious reason) went live in January of 2007. In internet years, that's like 300 years ago.

The age of the theme showed, too. Graphics were heavy, textures overbearing, and (worst of all) the site was entirely fixed in size, which made for a horrid mobile experience (and it wasn't great on big screens, either). As a reminder of the "good old times," click the image at right for a flashback.

So say hello to "macbar2014," if only because I'm too lazy to think up an exciting new name. The new theme is responsive down to iPhone size, and also expands to fill 1400 or so pixels of width. Beyond that, the text field stops growing, as honestly, it gets hard to read if it's too wide. But that still gives a much wider reading area than the old theme.

With the new theme comes a renewed focus on keeping the blog up to date; it's my plan to post here more regularly post, including more detailed looks at some of the 140 character observations that I blast out on Twitter. I'll also link to my Macworld articles, as much for my easy future reference as anything else.

Read on if you're at all interested in the tech details behind the site do-over…

As noted in the footer, the basic design started with the Frontier WordPress theme. If you glance at that theme's preview, though, you'll see that the look here is quite different. The two themes basically share the "header at top, two columns below" design, and that's about it. I wanted something much "lighter" in weight, and spent a lot of time removing the embellishments that give Frontier its (nice but not for me) appearance.

I'm also experimenting with fonts from the Open Font Library; at the moment, I'm using Teknik, though I'm not set on it for the long term.

After selecting a font, I used the wonderful Font Squirrel to create my own @font-face, which I then uploaded to my server, so the font is served locally.

The CSS isn't perfect, but it's a lot better than the old site, so I thought I'd take it live sooner rather than later. (If you, or someone you know, is interested in a paid but very short-term project to help me finish up the CSS, I'd love to hear from you.)

Anyway, for the few and the proud that still read here, hopefully you'll find this new theme easier on your eyes.