Those of you who read this blog through an RSS feed may not have noticed, but those readers who are seeing this page in their browser know that today marks a brand new era for Gray’s Matter – a radical overhaul of my site’s user interface!

I have to tell you that the previous design of this blog was almost akin to being kicked in the genitals to wake up every morning (hint: not fun). I would get E-mails asking why such a sexy young man didn’t have a very sexy web site at all (thanks again to Donald Belcham’s mother for the feedback – I enjoyed your ghost-writing his series on building a user group).

It wasn’t supposed to be this way. I tried to ignore the nested tables used in my layout, to forget about the gigantic black bar at the top of my web site. But every morning when I got up, I found I just couldn’t get all the way through my 10-minute Hulk Hogan posing routine anymore. Somewhere at the point where I cupped my hand to my ear I would look in the mirror and think, “Your blog is not sexy.” And then I would sit on the floor in the fetal position and cr…ah, let’s focus more on the triumph than the tragedy.

I needed to take this blog from “Well, its got a nice personality” to “I would take off my clothes for this blog at a moment’s notice”.  How did this get accomplished? Let me tell you, my friend – ditch the nested tables for layout.

Seriously, I am begging every web, ASP.NET, Ruby On Rails, (heck, Cobol, Fortran, etc.) developer I have ever met (and those that I have not) – if you are using nested tables for the layout of your web site, please stop. I can’t tell you the number of times I would look at the HTML markup in my previous template and have a the urge to hit the bottle (awkward at 10 AM in the morning, especially when you’re at work). The best analogy to table-based layout that I can think of is my buddy Suresh dressing up in an Armani suit – there might be a chance of this looking good on the outside but know that there is nothing but an ugly mess lurking underneath the hood.

You might be scoffing to yourself and thinking that this warning is five years out of date – I mean, who uses nested table layout anymore? Trust me. It astounds me in my consulting work to see the sheer number of ASP.NET backed application that are still using table-based layout; in fact I’ve been guilty of using this in past lives as well. But using table-based layout is like a wonderful interior decorator who, once finished, crazy-glues all of your furniture to the floor! The only way you’re going to be able to change the look and feel is to rip up everything underneath and start over.

I encourage you all to take a good hard look at your own sites and say to yourself, “Does this blog really get me as hot and bothered as it should?” If your answer to that is anything other than “I’ve already put on the Earth, Wind, and Fire Greatest Hits CD” then I think you all know what to do. As for me, well, I hear “Reasons Live” in the background so it’s time to motor off for today…