I wanted to introduce two new features to the site that will hopefully make it a little more interactive.

The “Ask Bennett” button in the right column lets you send a quick question to me (either as yourself or anonymously). You can use this to ask me about my book reviews, my writing or whatever else you want. Also use this button if you have a book you think I should review.

In addition, I am now accepting guest review submissions! If you read a lot and want to try out my approach to book reviews, click on the “Submit a Guest Review” button and follow the instructions.

It’s the time of the year when people stop being lazy and find some motivation, which means the wait is over and the blog is back.

By my unofficial count, this is the seventh version of bennettgavrish.com to grace the Internet. I can still remember my Angelfire days, and I’m proud to say the site has come a long, long way since then.

The blog is now powered by Tumblr, after five years of the .Mac/MobileMe/iWeb setup. Here’s an idea of why I made the change.

• With its announcement of iLife ‘11 at the end of the summer, Apple made it clear that iWeb is dead. Yes the product is still included in the iLife suite, but absolutely no functionality has changed since the last release two years ago.

• Even before the Apple event, I was ready to abandon iWeb and MobileMe (at least for web design purposes). That combination of software and services is limited in every possible way. The themes that Apple provides in iWeb are sexy, but there is only so much customization you can implement. The blogging system expects all of your posts to feature big, beautiful pictures. And worst of all, you can only publish updates to your site from one main computer.

• Tumblr seemed to solve all of my problems. You can have as much or as little design control as you want, the system is set up to handle several different types of entries, and I’ll be able to post from anywhere - even my phone. The recent downtime issues are a concern, but I trust Tumblr to figure it out as it continues to grow.

With this new setup, my hope is that blog posts will be more timely and frequent. (As I’ve discovered, the long weekly column format just doesn’t gel with a fast-moving subject like technology.) Expect plenty of tech-related entries, with other stuff mixed in along the way.

As always, thank you for reading, and I encourage you to get involved in the comments (the Disqus system supports a wide variety of account options).

Welcome back!