So, de-hacking my server, patching up holes, reinstalling software etc. is going to take a bit of time. Which raised the question of what I really wanted to do with the whole thing.

I was using Drupal as my CMS. While it was fun to set up and tinker with, frankly I'm bored of maintaining it, looking for 3rd party plugins to do what I want to do, installing updates etc. So I started thinking about alternatives.

Wordpress - see Drupal. Self-hosted, it still needs a fair bit of maintenance and looking after (and being widely used, is quite a big target for hackers. Some of the hacks that hit my Drupal site are actually Wordpress hacks – so I don't think they actually had any effect, but presumably would have done had I been using Wordpress.)

I could build my own custom CMS (which I've done before) - but I know that it will always have rough edges that I will probably never get around to polishing. (See: MyElectronicBrain.com) and I think I would rather be trying to do something new with my time than redesigning the wheel – at least for my 'main' website.

Tumblr - Its free. It has lots of 'social stuff' going on. Its up and coming (if not 'up and already here')… but to me, its not clear where it's going. And it isn't 'mine' – I don't have full control over everything. While I do have a Tumblr blog, I don't think I want it to be the 'hub' of all my online activity. (And it bothers me slightly that I don't really understand their business – the whole thing that 'if you aren't the customer, then you're actually the product' comes to mind…)

Squarespace - I know that I am the customer, and I understand what I'm paying for.

The downside is that MarsEdit doesn't work, which is a shame. But it seems to do everything I want to, and seems to have lots of flexibility for developer/designer tinkering. The iPhone app looks very good, which is helpful for posting short notes & links.

So, I've signed up for a year. I do plan to get the old SomeRandomNerd.com website up and running again – at the very least, so that I can get all my posts out of it and maybe put them here.) So dealing with remapping URLS etc. is something I'm probably going to have to deal with at some point. But it doesn't sound like a fun job, I don't have a lot of time on my hands at the moment, and I don't want to do a rush job of it.

So in the meantime… Welcome to SomeRandomNerd.net!

Some Random Nerd