Aperte.org Jeremy Handcock

Tonight I finally said goodbye to the old aperte.org and flipped over to a new design that I've been working on for a while. I tested out a prototype with a few of my distinguished readers and got some good reviews, so here it is for the world to see.

I started out with the excellent foundational Wordpress theme Hemingway Reloaded, cut it up, and designed my own thing. You'll notice that my gnome has been replaced with a different but equally cool artifact from my living space. I'm going to use Lightbox to display photos within my posts, which should make for a bit nicer experience. Just try clicking on this photo... c'mon, click it!

See, wasn't that awesome? Sure, you've seen it before elsewhere, but it has never been on such a cool web site.

I've been wanting to give my web site a facelift for a long time now -- honestly, I've had it on my TODO list since I left Seattle -- but I had a conversation with Greg, Jorge, and some others last week about blogging that made me want to finish the job. The observation was that no one really blogs about what they're doing with their research, which limits a bunch of opportunities for discussing interesting things and connecting with interesting people. There are good arguments against openness but it seems there are many more for it. It would seem like a waste not to take advantage of this chance. After all, the opportunities for talking openly in industry are much more scarce.

I'm also motivated to expand my online footprint after reading The Big Log Off in March's Walrus Magazine. Clearly, one must start with a fancy pants new web site. If I get hit by a bus, or more probably, expire during a particularly grueling session of hot yoga, aperte.org will at least have some lasting impressions of myself in addition to those scandalous emails sitting on my hard drive.

So, hopefully this is the start of new good times here on aperte.org. Let me know what you think of the new design!