Blog Optimizations

My blog had gotten to the point where it was just taking too long to load. I'm impatient and like fast pages, so I tweaked a number of things to decrease the load time:

• Optimized the banner image at the top (about 40% the size on disk).
• Reduced the size of my profile avatar and text.
• Removed the Google Followers widget and replaced it with just a "Follow" button. That thing was taking way too long by making other AJAX server requests.
• Consolidated links on the right.
• Chose a smaller ad for The Objective Standard.
• Lowered the number of blogroll items showing at one time. It's sorted by date, so most recent posts always float to the top.
• Removed the custom mountain image bullets on the right (the same image as in the menu bar, between "Home" and "Photo").
• Added HEAD META tags for IE so the page does not flicker when browsing between links:
  <meta http-equiv="Page-Enter" content="blendTrans(duration=0)" />
  <meta http-equiv="Page-Exit" content="blendTrans(duration=0)" />
• Changed the SiteMeter tracking traffic statistics icon to the invisible JavaScript version.