So yet again we find outselves at a site reboot. This post will be brief, as I don’t really want to spend too much time on this.
First, I’m moving the site to a new server (again). The reason, well it’s a new LTS relase of Ubuntu. Why share this, isn’t it a security risk? Not really, anyone who knows what they are doing can easily find this information out. While it does provide them with necessary information it only buys an extra couple minutes.
Second, I am tired of messing with WordPress. It’s a fantastic system for blogs and websites if you have the time to manage it, but if you don’t then it becomes a liability. WordPress suffers from what I have referred to as “Windows Syndrome” meaning that it is the most popular platform around, hence it is the most targeted and attacked. Since WordPress has a database behind it there is additional attack surface. With the new platform I am using the site is just static, there is nothing really for an attacker to exploit beyond the basics. I’ll likely write about static sites and the irony another day too.
Third, I wanted to start using something different, and after a lot of research I decided on Jekyll. I’ll probably make a post later on about Jekyll, and why I chose it. One of the reasons is that it forces me to learn Ruby from a development standpoint. I’ve primarily worked with PHP and JavaScript over the years, but not really branched out more. This gives me an opportunity to learn something new as I am using it.
Lastly, this should make it easier for me to actually blog. There is less distractions because I’m just in my IDE/Editor typing up some quick Markdown. I don’t have to worry about taking the time to fight with a WYSIWYG editor to get everything to look right, or worry about the structure for files if/when I add images to posts. Also, syntax highlighting out of the box (when I start doing some programming articles)!
So what is next? Well I need to port a few articles over from WordPress and freshen them up. Next I need to build a few templates so the site looks nice again. Another thing I like about going this route is I can build a template for blog posts or the index and push it without having to worry about vulnerabilites because it isn’t finished. Next I need to get TLS working on the site again, and finally comments. After that I have a few mini-series of posts I want to do for a variety of reasons then hopefully by the end of that I’ll have some more exciting things to blog about.
Until next time: Live Free; Surf Secure
~Mike