Jekyll + Octopress + Github =
This site is an adventure in producing for the web.
Jekyll is a static site generator, which basically means that I am writing this post as a text document on my computer, and it stays there. Jekyll then is invoked to build all of the html and css around it to construct the site you now see.
This means that I keep all of the posts and images and design here on my machine. It also means I don’t have to worry about databases and losing my data that is housed “in the cloud”.
I’ve decided to also use Octopress which is a set of modules that provides some convenience around building Jekyll based sites.
For the hosting I am using GitHub (you can deploy to other hosts) which means that all of the site is backed up, but also as a part of the service they build your site and make it publically available.
While there is a learning curve, all of this is a win for openness in terms of software and practices. I’ll be writing more about the how and why as I explore this space.