If you're reading this, then you've reached the new (and improved?) yiqianzi.net. I've been rewriting yiqianzi.net from scratch using a home grown web framework. It's called the "Simple Web Framework" and it's been written primarily by my friend and mentor, Bill Connor. Why rewrite yiqianzi.net? For a few reasons:
- I was using Movable Type with various plugins but it was hacked together. To post a photo, besides work in Photoshop, I had to FTP the photo and thumbnail to specific directories on my server and I had to use/abuse a metadata plugin to get EXIF information into an entry.
- I wanted to streamline my own posting experience. I was not (and am not) particularly familiar with Perl or PHP, the technologies from which MT have been built and given limited time, I didn't feel compelled to learn either (I'd learn Ruby on Rails given a choice).
- Not only did I want to customize the software to fit my own needs, but I wanted to add features. I want to be able to post a photo to my blog and to Flickr simultaneously, while tagging it via del.icio.us.
- Since I am a Java developer by trade and since SWF was written primarily to suit the needs of a developer like myself, it was a perfect opportunity to simultaneously leverage my existing skills, give me an opportunity to write a webapp from end-to-end completely under my own control, and to test and exercise SWF.
So has it been worth it? From my perspective, it has been worth it simply from a self-education perspective. I've learned Hibernate, an Object-Relational mapping technology. I've learned that SWF is as good a web framework as any I've encountered so far. Most importantly, it's been incredibly fun.
It's been stressful too, to try to find the time for my own personal development while helping raise Cameron, buying a house, and keeping up with my day job. Hence, the lack of photos here in the last month. But, I've already implemented a few extra features and I think I can now make yiqianzi.net what I want it to be.
So, to commemorate the relaunch of yiqianzi.net, I wanted to post a photo of those who feel the most impact from my more selfish endeavors. Xie Xie Nimen!
