lesterchan.net v6.0
lesterchan.net 6.0 is the biggest structural change to the site in years. The sidebar is finally gone, replaced by a single-column card layout, with redesigned pages, accessibility overhaul, and a cleaned-up archive.
lesterchan.net
Site milestones, from version releases and redesigns to hosting and platform moves.
lesterchan.net v5.0
My previous design, version 4.0, was over seven years old. With COVID keeping me home and bored, I revamped the site to version 5.0, trimming old pages and plugins, and rebuilt it using Tailwind CSS and Tailwind UI.
lesterchan.net v4.4
A recap of lesterchan.net's evolution: now on HTTPS, running nginx, PHP-FPM, MariaDB, and HHVM, with search powered by Algolia. The v4.4 update lands alongside the WordPress 4.4 release, the last major WordPress release of 2015.
lesterchan.net on HHVM
After moving to nginx and php-fpm, my next step was running HHVM with php-fpm as a fallback. HHVM is an open-source virtual machine for executing Hack and PHP programs, using just-in-time compilation for superior performance while keeping PHP's development flexibility.
lesterchan.net on nginx/php-fpm & MariaDB
My site averaged about 1,900ms response time on Pingdom, rising to 2,600ms after switching to HTTPS while still on Apache 2.4.7 with PHP 5.5.9 via mod_php. Moving to nginx 1.6.2 and PHP 5.5.22 via php-fpm brought it back to 1,900ms.
lesterchan.net now on HTTPS
In case you hadn't noticed, lesterchan.net is now on HTTPS. Back in August 2014, Google announced it would use HTTPS as a ranking signal, having tested secure, encrypted connections in its search algorithms and seen positive results.
lesterchan.net v4.3
About ten months on from v4.2, lesterchan.net v4.3 brings mostly cosmetic and backend changes. The biggest addition is Roost's web push notifications: visit the site more than twice on Safari and you'll get an opt-in prompt.
lesterchan.net On NewsLoop
lesterchan.net is now on NewsLoop under Tech & Gadgets, joining 600 other publishers. NewsLoop, a SingTel app, gathers the best news and lifestyle content from Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Australia, the Philippines, and Thailand into one elegant app spanning 30 categories.
lesterchan.net v4.2
Another six months on, it's time for another lesterchan.net update, v4.2. The biggest new feature is Site Analytics, powered by Google Analytics, pulling data through the Google Analytics API and rendering it with the HighCharts JavaScript charting library.
lesterchan.net v4.1
It's been almost nine months since my last upgrade, so here's a site update. Most of it focuses on optimising the site to perform faster, now scoring 90 out of 100 on Pingdom's Website Speed Test.
lesterchan.net v4.0
I launched lesterchan.net v3.0 on 5th June 2008, and four years on, it's time for a fresh design. Welcome to v4.0, built with Bootstrap and Fatcow icons, with a new logo by Li Xiang. I've returned to a light theme.
lesterchan.net Will Be Offline For A Few Hours
Update: we're back after about three hours of downtime. The site will be offline for a few hours between 10pm on 18th December and 6am on 19th December 2010 (GMT+8) while the co-location server rack is relocated.
All About lesterchan.net
This site runs on what's effectively a dedicated server, hosting only 30 other domains belonging to friends and family of Michael and me. It sits at M1 Connect, formerly Qala, with 1Mbps guaranteed and 10Mbps burstable bandwidth.
SEO For lesterchan.net
I'm no SEO guru, just picking up bits from friends and forums, and I don't believe in paying thousands when most tools are free. Here I share the simple things I did to improve this site's SEO.
Plastic Acrylic Sheet Of lesterchan.net
Li Xiang has a surprise for my brother and me for our birthday: she designed an acrylic sheet for each of us, mine reading lesterchan.net and my brother's xeroy with a star. Thank you so much, Penguin!
lesterchan.net Back Online
After nearly 24 hours of downtime, the site is finally back online. We removed the server from REACH Datacenter at 10pm and reached Qala around 11pm. Two mistakes: we forgot a CentOS installation DVD for Derrick's server, which delayed us.
lesterchan.net v3.30
Some minor updates bump lesterchan.net to version 3.30. I combined five JavaScript files, namely TW-Sack, ThickBox, DBX, the DBX key file and my own script, into one, and minified the CSS and JavaScript using YUI Compressor for faster loading.
lesterchan.net + WordPress 2.7
I've upgraded lesterchan.net to WordPress 2.7 along with all my updated plugins. Please let me know of any bugs by email or in the comments, thanks! The update went smoothly, taking only about 30 minutes with few compatibility issues.
lesterchan.net on iPhone
I spent over ten hours reworking lesterchan.net's layout to be iPhone-friendly. For now you can only view blog posts, not pages; I've no plans to make pages mobile-viewable yet, as it's a lot of work I find unnecessary.
lesterchan.net v3.10
I'm a sucker for changelogs, documenting almost every change to my WordPress plugins, and I hope to bring that habit to this site too. It's been a month since lesterchan.net 3.0 launched, and along the way I've fixed many things.
lesterchan.net v3.0
I've brought lesterchan.net's launch forward a few days, since I may be busy on the original date of 9th June 2008. After more than four years on the same layout, version 2.0 is finally replaced by version 3.0.
lesterchan.net v2.0
A rundown of changes to my site: upgraded from b2 0.6.1 to WordPress 1.0.1, a tableless layout, pages now 99.9% HTML 4.01 Transitional, polls and the shoutbox temporarily removed, and site.php retired except for the sitemap.
← Newer
Older →