As you can see right now I have completely overhauled the site. I am no longer trying to cosplay being a professional web development company. I have instead made it much more personal. I’m really starting to become a real “influencer” now. God, I hate that word.
The studio
Yeah, as I mentioned in my previous post I wanted to start producing videos. So I am currently in the process of transforming a previously empty room in my house into a studio where I can record videos. For this I am acquiring a bunch of gear to build a proper setup with lights and everything.
Here’s a very low quality early preview for you (taking with my blurry phone camera):
As you can see I am starting to get all the stuff needed. I have two desks, one for the background computer (which will be moved there soon), an old dirty chair (that I still have to clean), acoustic treatment on the walls (was already present in this room), some shelves (which will be populated with trinkets soon) and a RGB led strip (I like purple).
I’m planning to move my server from the attic and put it on the desk next to the monitor, probably connected to the screen and maybe playing some cool XScreenSavers in the background or something like that?
So yeah at some point in the future I will be sitting here talking about cool things on camera. Yes, me, in real life. So that means “face reveal” soon…
Showing my face on the internet
I feel like this is something that needs to be addressed. So far I have avoided putting my face on the internet.
Good reasons for me doing this include, but aren’t limited to:
- Somebody who knows you from the internet can’t recognize you in public.
- Facial recognition algorithms can’t recognize your face if they have no reference material.
But I have changed my mind. I want to spread my message. And to spread a message properly I believe people (especially neurotypicals) need an emotional attachment through facial expressions. And for that you need a face on the screen.
Also basically any notable person, even free software hackers, have their face on the internet. Be it referenced in Wikipedia pages, from doing interviews or talks at events or anything else they were ever involved in where pictures were taken.
Yes, doing this will make me more vulnerable. But I think sacrificing a little bit of my own anonymity will be a small price to pay for the free software movement.
The website
The new design still uses the same repository and still uses Hugo as its back-end. All that has changed is its theme. The new theme is called Mana, and of course just like the old theme that I have overwritten many templates to make it much more personal.
And as a little fun fact, I barely use my phone so I had initially published the site and completely forgot to test it on mobile which resultated in a bunch of CSS issues that completely broke the layout. These issues have obviously been fixed now, but it resulted in a very embarrasing moment with multiple people replying me how my site didn’t work on their phones. Oopsie.
Here is the final screenshot of the old website design, eternalized so we may never forget the past:
Do you like the new theme more than the old one? I definitely do.