This Site
Really this is here as a tech playground for me. I am trying out a bunch of stuff and hope that the rest of you like it, and maybe find it useful.
There are a number of features I'm particularly proud off in a number of areas...
Accessibility
The site looks awefully fancy and uses a lot of javascript and css. However, turn all this off, and it'll still work just fine.
Fancy Javascript... in the aid of progess, oh, and legibility
Some links are decorated to have funky behaviours. For example, youtube links normally send the user to the youtube site. Once javascript has had its wicked way with them, they will be played in popup dialogues on the site itself. This will probably start happening to other links as well where it is more relevant to include a quick little popup than take you to a whole other site. Of course if javascript is off then none of this happens and the site makes sure you can still get the message.
The javascript functionality and use of animation and visual effects is entirely designed to help you use the site, not just to show off what I can do.
Some areas of the site let you add stuff and edit stuff inline. If you've got all the singing and dancing turned on these will use it to make things better, if not, fear not. The site will always make sure you can still play.
Stickers
Stickers are my favourite new thing. Go on. Take one. Drag it off the menu at the top!
The Server
This site is usually hosted on a rather creaky old MacMini at Mythic Beasts - an excellent hosting company. It runs Debian linux, because I like to experiment with all sorts of versions of things at the same time. The basic server software is Apache, with php and the CakePHP framework, but it's also go all the ruby modules, mod_python for some trac repositories I use and bunch of dav and svn bits and pieces. It also has a ridiculously over-the-top email system, which I put together to have a play, over obsessive nagios and munin monitoring, fancy jabberd gateways for all my IM, and all sorts of other things I like to play around with. Bear in mind that this may not make the site as stable as it could be!