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Technical Info

starbreaker.org is built with the following Free Software tools on Debian GNU/Linux:

GNU Emacs to write code and text
GNU make and GNU bash to automate processes for building the website
GNU coreutils for file, shell, and text manipulation when building the website
GNU sed and GNU m4 for quickly populating variables in templates
GNU awk to generate indexes from data files
W3C HTML-XML-utils as a local substitute for Apache server-side includes or PHP
HTML Tidy to make HTML source readable
cwebp, libavif, and libjxl to create WebP, AVIF, and JPEG XL images from legacy JPEG and PNG formats
rsync for deployment over SSH
git for version control

starbreaker.org is tested in the following browsers:

starbreaker.org is served on FreeBSD running Apache2 and hosted by Nearly Free Speech.

starbreaker.org has a public git repository that you are welcome to explore. All code is available as is for personal, non-commercial use without any warranty or guarantees. My tools work for me, but they may not necessarily work for you. Use them at your own risk.

You can also run the makefile and open website/index.html in your browser to read my website offline, if you have all of the tools listed above installed but GNU Emacs. I use that for composition, but not as part of the build process.

Web Crawlers

I try to be open to reasonable web crawlers. If you operate a website of your own, you are welcome to use my /robots.txt and /ai.txt files.

Design Philosophy

starbreaker.org should be readable on any device that can handle Unicode text, HTML, and CSS.
All source text should be written in HTML to avoid unnecessary processing with tools like pandoc.
CSS should only be used to the extent that it enhances the text and makes it more accessible to more readers.
The stylesheet should use system fonts unless a visitor has Atkinson Hyperlegible installed, in which case I assume that they need or prefer that font for ease of reading.
JavaScript should not be necessary at all for a mostly text website, and should only be used sparingly to provide necessary functionality not provided by HTML and CSS.
Modern image formats should be provided for better performance and more efficient bandwidth usage while reserving older formats as a fallback for maximum compatibility.
Media embeds that depend on <iframe> and JavaScript should be rejected in favor of custom preview links using standard HTML.
starbreaker.org should be readable offline without any broken internal links
Where practical, the site should be built locally and then pushed to the server, to avoid dependencies on either server-side or client-side code.
If starbreaker.org doesn't work in Lynx on a 56K dialup connection, then that is a failure on my part.

AI Policy

I do not use machine-learning or “generative AI” tools to generate code, text, or images for this website. I do not support the development or use of such tools.

When feasible, I deny access to automated processes seeking to scrape this website for training data because I do not consent to such commercial use of my work.

Please refer to my AI page for additional detail.

Black lives matter. Trans rights are human rights. The United States is in no sense founded on the Christian religion.
Tolerance is not a moral absolute, but a peace treaty that conservatives repeatedly violate while crybullying about the “intolerant left”.
I support full legal and social equality for all people regardless of race, sex, gender, sexual orientation, religion, creed, nationality, ethnicity, physical and intellectual ability, or any other distinguishing characteristic not subject to one’s own choice.
Anybody living in the USA is an American to me; their legal status is none of my business.
I have no objection whatsoever to diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging initiatives in business or government.
I believe that religion should be as personal as masturbation: do it in private, wash your hands afterward, and don’t involve children, animals, or non-consenting adults. If God wants a say in our government, He should earn US citizenship and vote like everybody else.
I want this website to be accessible to as many people as possible. As stated before, this site should work even if all you’ve got is a terminal browser like Lynx and a 56K dialup connection. If you have trouble reading anything here, or if a particular page or element doesn't work with your equipment, please let me know so that I can fix it.
If I have a fandom, everybody is welcome. Except Nazis. Nazis can fuck right off.
If you are a Christian nationalist, any sort of fascist, or a white supremacist: I am not — and will never be — on your side.
The law cannot protect anyone unless it binds everyone; and it cannot bind anyone unless it protects everyone. ~ Frank Wilhoit