Vanity, thy name is homepage.

Jul 28, 1998

• Entries: 463 total; most recent on 11/20/2008 06:12 pm
• Citizens: 13 total; 0 logged in currently [join now!]
• Comments: 696 total; most recent on 11/13/2008 05:30 pm
• Keywords: view the tag cloud
• Syndication format: Atom 1.0
• Former site names: The Akashic Record (1995-1998); Sirocco (1998-1999); The Cynic’s Tea Party (1999-2005)

Title Deleted for Security Reasons began its life back in 1995. It started as a simple personal site, languished for a few years, and relocated (and revived) in 1998. In 2001, things took off: the blog was added, the coding switched from HTML to XHTML, full stylesheets were implemented, the whole works. Now, Title Deleted for Security Reasons is available through any CSS-capable user agent (that’s browsers, screen readers, Braille readers, mobile devices, and even printers — I love cascading style sheets), and syndicated as well.

This web site looks good through any browser that supports Cascading Style Sheets…but it looks truly wicked through Opera. Opera is a free browser for Windows/Mac/just about anything else, and is available in upwards of ten languages. If you want to learn more about this great tool, head over to their site and download a copy today.

The pictures used in the Pagetoys and Timewasters all came from other sources. The artists in question all graciously gave their permission for their works to be used - none of these images was simply swiped and re-used (never mind the questionable manners of such an action, it’s potentially legally stupid. Sprechen zie "copyright infringement lawsuit"?) The illustrations on the site were made using several dingbat fonts.

All HTML and Javascript code on this site is available under the GPL (GNU Public License). In a nutshell, that means that you can copy and re-use the source code as long as 1) you don’t charge anyone any money for it; and 2) you attribute the code to its original source, either by URL, name, email, or all three. I advise you to check out the full text of the GPL, even if you don’t want to re-use any of the code on the site.

I believe in personal responsibility — in Real Life(tm), and on the Internet — and accordingly, this site has been registered with the Internet Content Rating Association, or ICRA (formerly RSACi). Before you folks out there thing this automatically means the site is a "goodygoody", or utterly wholesome, read some of my pieces on recreational pharmaceuticals, sex, religion, and politics. ICRA lets webmasters label their sites…not some snooty government agency. I highly recommend it to webmasters of all sorts of online resources, from personal sites to porn sites and everything in between.

I am a web developer, and strongly support web standards, usability, and accessibility. This site uses valid XHTML and CSS. Valid code makes for cleaner downloads, faster rendering, and makes my life infinitely easier. CSS also lets you do a lot of interesting things. (Don’t worry — it won’t bite.)

Title Deleted for Security Reasons also meets all Level 2 checkpoints of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (which, incidentally, means that it’s more accessibility-compliant than most Section 508-compliant web sites.) We’re registered with the Center for Applied Special Technology, which also offers a database of accessible sites. They have a tool that lets you check the accessibility of your site, and outlines features of your site that might make it difficult for assistive user agents to access.

Keywords: | web standards | validation | tools |
Posted by Laughing Muse • 1873 views • Share this link • Newer • Older