This whole mess runs under WordPress 2.0.2. WordPress is the pre-eminent open-source blog server solution – it runs on virtually anything that packs Apache and MySQL, is wicked easy to set up and wildly rewarding to grok with.

The colours and box style used here are inspired by the Borderline Chaos theme, which was in turn a variant of the Benevolence theme – both are GPLed and duly credited here. Unfortunately, Chaos doesn’t parse properly on non-Microsoft browsers – there are problems with the font definitions, and a fundamental structural flaw with the “left side” menu boxes. The original Chaos style defined each box separately, instead as of a single object that was passed colour and content info for each usage. The result was an improperly nested set of “div” structures that led to all sorts of funky page builds on Mozilla-based browsers. The original re-write corrected those problems while keeping the rest of the build styles, but that would not allow the use of category-linked icons, something I wanted to hold over from my iBlog version. At this point the only part left of the original theme is the background colour and the vertical bar – that pulls from an external image file and wasn’t worth recreating.

Finally, the whole mess is hosted on the Spoon, and I owe Matt a bunch of beers for that particular favour. Thanks, mate.