Build Up A New Personal Blog

Why build a new site

When I decide to write code about reinforcement learning, I notice there is just few website about reinforcement learning. And I want to share my experiences in RL. So when I look back, I would consider this as some kind of legacies. I would be happy if some one really get helps from this site.

Building process

It takes about two days to build this site. First I was trying to build a static site with jekyll, which is written in Ruby. But I saw most people recommended hexo, so I deleted the repo and switched to hexo.

Although it seems easy on the official website, it still has so much parts to customize, like selecting a theme. I spent about half the day and found this theme called “Yelee”. But it don’t have the functionality to count visit, so I spent 6 hours writing my own site visit counter, using leancloud.

What packages I install

1. hexo-abbrlink
2. hexo-admin
3. hexo-deployer-git
4. hexo-generator-seo-friendly-sitemap
5. hexo-browsersync
6. hexo-math

npm install --save hexo-abbrlink hexo-admin hexo-deployer-git hexo-generator-seo-friendly-sitemap hexo-browsersync hexo-math

Some mistakes I made when building

1. YAML need to add a space after colon
2. Don’t add permalink in tags page, which will disable tags cloud
3. On windows, if you can not open the page http://localhost:4000/, you should try to use another port, i.e. hexo s -p 3600, and it works for me.

4. Mathjax can not be render in hexo is just because underscore character _ will be translate in markdown, so the equation will miss _ when rendering with Mathjax. Solution: install hexo-math, and add

   {% math %}
   {% endmath %}

   around the equation, more. Or just use \_ to escape the markdown render.

5. Don’t use local package of MathJax, because the website on github will have render problem.

Next thing I need to do

• Write page count code.
• Change avatar.
• Process background images in photoshop.
• Change background.
• Build up my own categories page using API, ref.
• Add bitbuket icon.
• Fix the issue that the newer post on the left and the older post on the right, reverse this setting. Because people are more used to “left stands for previous and right stands for next”. Fix: it is a issue of hexo. Issue related.
• Fix the issue when sometime background of list items are not right. Fix: In the article.styl file, there is a style setting about .article-entry > ol:last-child, just delete it, otherwise it will render every article’s last list in a different way, which is quite annoying.
• Related link below the post.(Cancel: it is a new functionality. Maybe in the future I will develop it.)
• Add Natsume Yuujinchou wallpapers.
• Add Game of Throne wallpapers.
• Add Assassin’s Creed lines in About page.
• Process the image Initiation Ceremony.

Just a reminder

1. git clone blog repository
2. cnpm install
3. cnpm install -g hexo-cli
4. Replace node_modules/hexo/lib/plugins/generator/post.js with post.js. Issue related.

5. The plugin hexo_deployer_git is not working well. I have to set the config in .deploy_git/.git manually.

   [branch "master"]
     remote = https://github.com/Seraphli/seraphli.github.io.git
     merge = refs/heads/master
   [credential]
     helper = store
   [receive]
     denyNonFastforwards = false # change to false to enable overwriting

6. Because I try to use the local package of MathJax, hexo need to monitor more files, which will cause a error FATAL watch ENOSPC.
   Solution:

   echo fs.inotify.max_user_watches=524288 | sudo tee -a /etc/sysctl.conf && sudo sysctl -p

   Which will set the limitation of file watches to a higher one.
   PS: This problem may be caused by BrowserSync plugin. And use MathJax in local package will cause hexo react slower.

7. A latex symbol list, here. PDF version, need to overcome GFW.
8. Indent in block quote using  , ref.