Well, after working away today, I have finished the site. The new design is clean, smooth, and a departure from what I have usually done, so it was interesting.

First, as many of you may have noticed, I was running a K2 theme. I had developed my previous 2 designs on K2, and was comfortable with it. But one thing I wanted to do with this theme was use a powerful javascript library. K2 had too much of its own js, so I had to dump it. Through an afternoon, i chugged out what you see here. I think the end result was pretty good, don’t you?

Features

The new site is awash with features. Too many to list, but Ill run down the biggest off the top of my head.

Javascript: Yes, the site uses javascript. Not just a little, but a whole framework. This adds lots of functionality, and makes the site much cooler than just a plain old blog. If you don’t have javascript enabled, then i don’t know how you got here, because the rendering of the site is done via js.
Live Panes: No more reloading just to view an article or post a comment! All of that stuff is done via ajax, in the center frame, so you wont have to wait once you get the site loading.
Column: Most blogs have a column on the side that shows everything at once. Information overload! This column is much more specific, that is, you have to switch through each layer of the accordion to view them. Some people may not like this, but hey, it reduces clutter
Live Comments: Comment posting is live! For those of you who don’t know what that means, it means that you can post your comment, without refreshing the page. As soon as the server has handled your comment, it will appear on your (and everyone else’s screen), no reload required
Quick Search: Normal search is boring. This site goes beyond that, with QuickSearch! QuickSearch is pretty cool. Any of you who have used Windows Vista or Mac OS X will know how to use it, and for those of you who don’t, its simple. Start typing like any normal search. As you type, the results will drop down from the box.
Recent Comments: Recent comments aren’t anything new, a number of blogs support it. However, this one does so in a very special way. If you click the extras menu, and check the Recent Comments box, a tab will appear at the bottom of the page, showing you all the recent comments. This is live updating, so you can see the comments as they come in. To switch back to the main view, click the other tab there. Presto.