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 Title: New Web Server (2016)
 Author: bnewbold
 Date: 2016-05-01
+Tags: tech
 
-This is a stub posting to note that i've transitioned this website
-(`bnewbold.net`) from a custom dynamic Django setup that I wrote [back in 2007](http://git.bnewbold.net/bnewnet/commit/?id=5b31039d4c581048959dc51436f6918f29fbf9ea)
-to a simple [Pelican](http://blog.getpelican.com/) based static site generator.
+For the past 9 years or so
+([February 2007](https://git.bnewbold.net/bnewnet/commit/?id=5b31039d4c581048959dc51436f6918f29fbf9ea)
+through April 2016), this website has run reliably despite being a weird
+machine: a custom prototype web application for archiving and sharing digital
+"artifacts" of all sorts. I remember a bold and sparkling afternoon at a
+coffee house in Santa Cruz agonizing over URL structure and refining categories
+to collect all the material that would (aspirationally) accumulate here over my
+adult life.  All things considered I think this effort wasn't wasted: I have
+indeed collected wiki notes, photos, images (distinct!), short links, one-off
+pages, and longer form writing over the years. My enthusiasm for maintaining and
+interfacing with idiosyncratic administrative and upload panels, however,
+declined rapidly. Neither the source code web interface nor the git-backed wiki
+were ever completed or used. I gave up on spam moderating the comment system
+pretty quickly, never actually posted any blog entries, and only ever pecked in
+a couple dozen web links and tweet-like microposts. Even the photo gallery
+system became too much of a time sink to deal with after traveling. Over the
+years I deployed [gitweb](https://git-scm.com/docs/gitweb) and
+[gitit](http://gitit.net/), and after RSS starting going out of favor I even
+started using [tumblr](http://journal.bnewbold.net/) for random content posts.
+I was still using the Django admin panel's "flatpages" plugin to update my
+contact info and project pages right up through this spring though.
 
-This shift co-incides with my transition from hosting on `adelie` (last
-upgraded to Ubuntu lucid 10.04!) to `adze` (Debian stable, currently jessie).
-Some of this transition was made easier by using
-[ansible scripts](http://git.bnewbold.net/infra/) to automate the common basics
-of server configuration.
+While it's been amazing how simple and low maintenance running everything
+(email, repositories, website, etc) has been, the thrill of being on an old and
+unmaintained release of GNU/Linux (Ubuntu 10.04) has worn off, and I'm cleaning
+house. This website (`bnewbold.net`) is now a simple statically generated
+([pelican](http://blog.getpelican.com/)) site. I've kept `gitit`, but moved to
+`gitolite` (one of my favorite pieces of software) and `cgit` for repository
+hosting. The server runs Debian stable (`jessie` to start with), and SSL/TLS
+certificates come gratis via the Let's Encrypt project, for which I'm very
+grateful. I've stuck with [linode](https://www.linode.com) hosting for this
+server, though [digital ocean](https://digitalocean.com) is comparable and
+cheaper for setups with fewer photos and large files.  Many of these components
+are deployed in an automated fashion using the `ansible` deployment tool; you
+could fork and edit my [infrastructure scripts](http://git.bnewbold.net/infra/)
+to set up those components in minutes if you like (though it would probably
+take an afternoon or longer if you've never done something like this before).
+Not everything is settled yet: I haven't moved email, and I'm not sure if I'll
+stick with [mediagoblin](http://mediagoblin.org) for photo hosting.
+
+<br />
+<center>
+<div class="centerize" style="font-size: smaller;">
+<a href="http://bnewbold.net/photos/detail/529/">
+<img src="http://media.bnewbold.net/hosted-photos/cache/2008/02/08/IMG_7232.JPG" />
+</a>
+<br />
+An adelie penguin (the tiny black spot) wandering off alone over the Ross Sea
+ice shelf
+</div>
+</center>
+<br />
+
+The name of my old server is `adelie` (named after a small species of penguin
+that [I saw a lot of](http://bnewbold.net/photos/detail/527/) in Antarctica),
+and it's days are limited.  Though the
+[`hier`](http://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man7/hier.7.html) (filesystem layout)
+of most of my systems are almost identical, I'm particularly comfortable on
+this one. It's seen me through a lot, more than any other computer system, and
+I'll probably miss it in a weird way.
+
+The new server is `adze`; here's hoping it lives even longer!
+
+<br />
+_**Note:** As initially posted this was just a stub; I re-wrote it in June
+2016_