My esteem for Chris was getting higher and higher with every article and every snippet posted. However, it has just taken a rather good beating with the redesign. I understand the impusle to go with something cleaner-looking, but I agree with noah that it feels purchased and not yet refined. Also, there’s some wierdness with the front page; the meta div is covered with some white stuff in FF until you hover over it but it looks like a gradient black in IE8 for me, but in both cases it’s distracting and wierd (especialy since the white or black gradient partly covers the last line of the article above it; needs a bit more margin).
So though I am NOT a designer and have said so in the past (any designers want to team up with me for occasional contracts? 
) I am disappointed with the new look. Hopefully the kinks will be worked out soon!