Basically, I just needed to do a fresh export/import of the full blog. Disqus eliminated the dupes and now I’m good to go. Thank you, Disqus.

I’ve also tried to install integration with Facebook, so that any new posts get published to my Facebook wall by default. Will find out shortly whether that is working correctly…

The new Disqus commenting system offers quite a few advantages, including threaded comments (so you can reply to an individual comment), the ability to “like” individual comments as well as posts, links to learn more about the person who posted (including comments they’ve posted elsewhere), etc.

I’ve recently implemented this same commenting system at the Atlasphere and the Atlas Shrugged movie site.

If you’re not already familiar, I think it’s well worth signing up for a free account at disqus.com and trying it out. And you should still be able to comment without an account, if you prefer.

I’ve been posting less here during the past year since my divorce — as one friend noted, divorce has a way of forcing you to go inside for a while — but I’m feeling the urge to dust things off and start posting more often again. I’ve also been using Facebook a lot lately for photos and other things that used to wind up here on the blog, but that can only get you so far. I still like posting more important thoughts here, rather than in a Facebook note. Facebook’s lifespan for new content is way too short and it’s nice having your own brand, anyway.

Adobe’s BrowserLab says this new design is looking good in all the modern browsers, but let me know if you run into any issues. And I welcome your feedback, as always.

The new site includes an updated portfolio, team bios (including new team member Marshall Sontag), and testimonials from many of our happy clients:

UPDATE: Two people have written to say they’re having technical difficulties on the new site. We tested the site in the most popular web browsers for Mac and Windows, but the bugs aren’t entirely surprising since we’re pushing the envelope some with this design.

In any case, if you encounter problems on the site, I’d be grateful if you left comments below describing them. Please be sure to mention 1. what browser you are using (e.g., FireFox 2.0.0.12), 2. what operating system you are on, and 3. if you know of any ways your browser might be unusual (e.g., if you’ve customized the default font sizes, etc).

Thank you in advance!

UPDATE 2: I think I’ve found the source of the bug for the two people reporting it so far. Try re-setting your browser to show fonts at the normal font size. In Firefox, that would be Font | Text Size | Normal. I’ll look into a more permanent fix for this.

I find myself thinking about designs I’m working on at odd periods of the day—in the shower, making dinner, or walking to the corner store. Small, quiet moments are when I have breakthroughs and solve problems. These are the times when the right details will appear. This isn’t often billable time, but it’s a good exercise to think about a design before attempting it. I don’t sketch much using pencil and paper; I like to let a design percolate and grow in my mind before committing it to the screen. I imagine the look, the feel, and the details. I relish the details.

Amen.

From a technical standpoint, I am a Linux/Apache/PHP/MySQL guy with a preference for cPanel and WHM. However, an increasing number of my client projects these days are larger online applications using Ruby on Rails.

In the past, I’ve worked with FatCow (a B minus, at best, ever since they were bought out by a larger company a couple years ago), HostRocket (a C plus since their phone support can be bogus), and The Planet (an A minus for their managed dedicated server I’ve used for a couple years now).

It’s time to upgrade my server at the Planet, and I’m looking around to see if I can find a company that I’m more excited about. The Planet has been pretty good, all things considered, but sometimes they make me pay for an hour of “advanced support” (at $125 or so an hour) for something that seems to take their support guy three minutes to do.

So now I’m hunting around for other peoples’ reviews of web hosting companies. So far, by far the best web site I’ve found for reading reviews of web hosting companies is Web Hosting Unleashed.

Most “review” sites seem like little more than aggregators of web hosting advertisements. Web Hosting Unleashed has a pleasant design, helpful reviews from real users, and a wide variety of hosting companies on the chopping block. They also offer some good coupons.

My personal favorite so far, based on these WHU reviews, is HostGator. I’m seriously considering moving some of my sites onto their servers.

Check out their blog for more useful background about them as a company. This post particularly impressed me. Imagine, a hosting company with a life — and some serious incentives for their employees to provide first-rate customer service.

For those of us with a need for serious SEO, HostGator has a spin-off company called SEO Hosting that specializes in selling multiple C classes of IP addresses. So all your sites aren’t sitting there on one incestuous IP block, getting devalued by Google for all their cross-links.

I’m skeptical about whether HostGator will work well for Ruby on Rails sites, however, since the conventional wisdom is that you want a VPS server with dedicated resources for the Rails platform.

For that, word on the street is that RailsMachine is awesome and well worth the money, if you can afford the uptick in price.

So I’m using them for both of my new Ruby on Rails projects. I should be able to say much more about them in a couple months.

To facilitate a little more integration between my own blog and that community, I’ve installed the WordPress LiveJournal Crossposter Plugin.

This post is primarily a test to see if things are working properly.

If it is … Hi there, guys.

http://feeds.feedburner.com/MuditaJournal

Thank you in advance!

Comments aren’t enabled at the Atlasphere blog, but I do welcome comments here about the new design and functionality, for anyone who cares to share reactions, suggestions, or feedback on the site.

I continue to make small improvements to the site on a daily basis, and I welcome suggestions or further improvement.

Kathy and I often enjoy getting away to a bed & breakfast when we have time for a road trip. So last Christmas, it was fun to have a chance to stay at my mom’s B&B during our family get-together for the holiday.

My brother Ganon and sister Kelsey joined us as well. Below is a photo from our visit.

Kathy, Kelsey, Katie, Joshua and Ganon
at Trimble House B&B in Monterey Virginia

Below are a couple other photos from the visit, that I used when creating her web site. This is the room Kathy and I stayed in:

The Highland Suite (Monterey Virginia B&B)

This is the room my brother Ganon stayed in. This was actually my favorite-looking room at Trimble House:

The Chestnut Suite (Monterey Virginia B&B)

Please visit the Trimble House web site for more information about staying at a Monterey Virginia B&B.