<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<post>
  <body>I wanted something a bit simpler then "Mephisto":http://mephistoblog.com/ . I have great respect for the platform and it does a good job.  But I feel that the code is quite complex.  I also feel that some of the stuff is unnecessary in the admin interface.  For example if I want to change the theme, I don't want to change it using the admin pages, I want to change the file by hand.  I also do not want to use Liquid as the templating language (I know you can change that though). I also do not want to have the options to set posts to use Textile or Markdown or plain html.  I feel that it should not give these options, just make a "decision and stick with it":http://gettingreal.37signals.com/ch04_Make_Opinionated_Software.php . I also have a few more problems with it, but I don't want to take away from the great job it is currently doing.

So I made a back to basics blog system (it seems to be all the rage now) called **dead-simple-blog** for people who know there way around a rails app.  I have tried to keep the code and features as light as possible.  That way anyone can change the code as they see fit. 

I will be realising it soon (2-3 weeks) on github, if anyone is interested.  I just need to sort out a few things first, and test it in the wild.

Hopefully this will lead to more blogging in the future.  I sure hope so!

Hamza</body>
  <category-id type="integer">3</category-id>
  <comments-count type="integer">40</comments-count>
  <created-at type="datetime">2008-12-28T00:00:00Z</created-at>
  <id type="integer">25</id>
  <live type="boolean">true</live>
  <slug>new-site</slug>
  <summary>!http://hamza.khan-cheema.com/images/new-site.jpg!

It has been along time since I have posted anything to this blog. Life has been hectic lately.   

In my spare time I have been working on the new design for this site (using "grid960":http://960.gs , which I highly recommend) and rolling my own simple blog system (using Rails 2) which I deployed today.  

I am also pushing myself a bit more as a freelance Ruby on Rails developer, so if anyone is interested just "let me know":/pages/contact .</summary>
  <title>New Site Launched</title>
  <updated-at type="datetime">2008-12-28T21:00:34Z</updated-at>
  <user-id type="integer">1</user-id>
</post>
