config/_default/params.toml

@@ -24,9 +24,9 @@ disableTextInHeader = false
 defaultBackgroundImage = "img/BG_Jasper.jpg" # used as default for background images 
 # defaultFeaturedImage = "IMAGE.jpg" # used as default for featured images in all articles
 
-highlightCurrentMenuArea = true
+# highlightCurrentMenuArea = true
-smartTOC = true
+# smartTOC = true
-smartTOCHideUnfocusedChildren = false
+# smartTOCHideUnfocusedChildren = true
 
 giteaDefaultServer = "https://git.brds.ca"
 forgejoDefaultServer = "https://v8.next.forgejo.org"
@@ -74,7 +74,7 @@ forgejoDefaultServer = "https://v8.next.forgejo.org"
   showPagination = true
   invertPagination = false
   showReadingTime = true
-  showTableOfContents = true
+  showTableOfContents = false
   # showRelatedContent = false
   # relatedContentLimit = 3
   showTaxonomies = false

content/posts/new-website/index.md

@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 ---
 title: "New Website"
-date: "2025-06-10T08:00:00-06:00"
+date: "2025-05-16T13:16:00-06:00"
 description: "There's finally a new website at d-b.ca."
 summary: "I've published my personal website. A brief history of some past endeavours, and some details on the technology behind the new site."
 ---
@@ -16,30 +16,23 @@ a culmination of the platform I've developed to host it.
 
 My first personal website was developed while I was a student at the
 [University of Alberta](https://ualberta.ca), near the end of the previous
-century. The web was still in its early stages, but the university provided
+century. The web itself was still quite young, but the university provided
 students with the means to publish web content. It was mostly a novelty at the
 time and didn't last beyond my time at school, but it sparked my interest in
 Internet technologies and their applications.
 
 That early site included one interesting feature. I developed a mechanism to
 automatically update a page every time I logged into one of the school's
-computers, so my friends could find me if they wanted to. The only way at the
+computers, so my friends could find me if they wanted to.
-time that was available for generating dynamic content in a website was
-[CGI](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_Gateway_Interface), and the
-university did not allow student sites to use it. So, I wrote some shell
-scripts that were called as part of my login and logout scripts that would
-generate the static HTML file and write it to my web content directory. It
-needed to handle cases like multiple logins, and the logout script didn't
-always get triggered, so I'd have to keep an eye on it for stale entries.
 
 ### Self-Hosting
 
 I've always been an avid self-hoster. It began when I was working at a local
 Internet service provider. I was able to get a special deal on a
 business-class broadband connection at home, which included a small network
-block (a `/28`, consisting of 16 IP addresses) that I could use. I dedicated
+block (a `/28`, or 16 IP addresses) that I could use. I dedicated my most
-my most powerful machine as my server and developed several services,
+powerful machine to be my server and developed several services, including a
-including a new website.
+new website.
 
 My website at that time wasn't fancy, and was geared primarily towards
 experimentation. I developed a simple content management system from scratch
@@ -69,105 +62,35 @@ resulting static resources can be served as regular files from any web
 service, without the need for dynamically generating content upon request from
 a database, as traditional CMS systems do.
 
-Using Hugo is much easier with a solid base template. There are
+Using Hugo is much easier with a good base template, and there are
-[many to choose from](https://themes.gohugo.io/), including the one I've
+[many to choose from](https://themes.gohugo.io/). I've chosen one called
-selected here called ["Blowfish"](https://blowfish.page/).
+["Blowfish"](https://blowfish.page/) for this site.
 
 Another benefit of a static site generator is that all the sources for the
 site can be treated like software code, making it simple to use development
-tools like [Git](https://git-scm.com/) for version control. I keep the sources
+tools like Git for version control. I keep the sources for this site in a
-for this site in a public repository on my own Git server. Feel free to take a
+public repository on my own Git server. Feel free to take a look:
-look:
 
 {{< gitea repo="d-b.ca/web" >}}
 
 ### CI/CD
 
 I've also set up a CI/CD pipeline to build and deploy the site whenever
-changes are made to the source repository. What does this mean?
+changes are made to the source repository. The CI portion is triggered by a
-
+push to the web repository. It runs a workflow that builds the site and
-**CI** = *Continuous Integration*
+packages the resulting artifacts into a container image based on
-> This is the practice of frequently integrating changes into a source
+[Caddy](https://caddyserver.com/). The build container with Hugo is another
-> repository. The changes are checked, assembled, and packaged through
+image I maintain in this repository:
-> automated processes. [More information](https://martinfowler.com/articles/continuousIntegration.html)
-
-**CD** = *Continuous Delivery*
-> This is the capability of being able to take new changes (such as the
-> outputs of the CI process) and getting them deployed and running
-> automatically. [More information](https://continuousdelivery.com/)
-
-The CI portion is triggered by a push to the
-[`web`](https://git.brds.ca/d-b.ca/web) repository. It runs an automated
-workflow that builds the site and packages the resulting artifacts into a
-container image based on [Caddy](https://caddyserver.com/). This image
-contains everything needed to serve the website. The build container with Hugo
-is another image I maintain in this repository:
 
 {{< gitea repo="d-b.ca/hugo-builder" >}}
 
-After the workflow has built the container image for running the website, it
+Next, the workflow updates the CD GitOps repository to deploy this new version
-updates the CD GitOps repository to deploy this new version immediately to a
+to a private staging site. When I want to publish the new version as the
-private staging site. Another definition:
+production site, I use my regular GitOps repository to update the image tag,
-
+and the rest happens automatically.
-> **GitOps** refers to the practice of managing infrastructure automation by
-> keeping machine-readable descriptions of the intended infrastructure in a
-> version-controlled Git repository. A CD system will monitor the repository
-> for changes, immediately adding, modifying, or removing infrastructure to
-> bring the state of the operational system into alignment with the source
-> description.
-
-When I want to publish the new version as the production site, I use my
-regular private production GitOps repository to update the image tag, and the
-rest happens automatically. The CD repository for the staging site is public,
-you're welcome to check it out here:
 
 {{< gitea repo="d-b.ca/db-cd" >}}
 
-#### Pipeline Diagram
-
-{{< mermaid >}}
-flowchart TB
-  subgraph GIT [Git Repository]
-    WR[(Web)]
-    CDR[(CD)]
-  end
-
-  WP(Push Web Updates)-->WR
-  WP ~~~ HBI
-
-  subgraph CI [CI Workflow]
-    CIP[Pull Source
-        Repository]-->BWI[Build Web
-                          Image]
-    BWI-->PWI[Push Web
-              Image]
-    PWI-->UCD[Update CD
-              Repository]
-  end
-
-  PWI-->WI
-  WR-->CIP
-
-  subgraph DOCKER [Image Repository]
-    HBI((Hugo
-         Build))
-    WI((Web))
-  end
-
-  HBI-->BWI
-
-  UCD-->CDP(Push Image
-            Update)
-  CDP-->CDR
-  CDR-->CDPull
-
-  subgraph CD [CD Process]
-    CDPull[Pull Source Repository]-->DWI[Deploy Web Image]
-  end
-
-  WI-->DWI
-{{< /mermaid >}}
-
 ## Underlying Platform
 
 In my next article, I'll describe the platform this site is running on, and