Octopress is a blogging framework designed for hackers, based on Jekyll the blog aware static site generator powering Github pages. If you don’t know what Jekyll is, Jack Moffitt wrote a good summary:
Jekyll is a static blog generator; it transforms a directory of input files into another directory of files suitable for a blog. The management of the blog is handled by standard, familiar tools like creating and renaming files, the text editor of your choice, and version control.
Jack Moffitt Blogging with Git Emacs and Jekyll
There’s no database to set up, and you get to use tools like Emacs, Vim, or TextMate to write your posts, not some lame in-browser text editor. Just write, generate, deploy, using the same tools and patterns you already use for your daily work.