Technology

Updated May 7, 2024

Supported Browsers and Platforms

Off on a Tangent is designed for a viewport width of at least 360dp. It should work properly in most modern browsers on most modern platforms.

Browsers

The most recent two versions of these browsers is fully supported:

Operating Systems

These browsers are tested (if available) on the most recent version of these operating systems:

Apple iOS, iPadOS, and MacOS
GNU/Linux (Debian and EndeavourOS)
Google Android and Chrome OS
Haiku OS
Microsoft Windows

Core and Libraries

WordPress: the blogging and content management system at the core of this site, including the following plugins:
- Akismet Anti-spam: Spam Protection by Automattic - Anti-spam Team
- Disable Comments by WPDeveloper
- Geolocation IP Detection by Yellow Tree (Benjamin Pick)
- Regenerate Thumbnails by Alex Mills (Viper007Bond)
- Search Exclude by QuadLayers
- VigilanTor by Drew Phillips
- W3 Total Cache by BoldGrid
- WP Crontrol by John Blackbourn
Underscores (_s): the WordPress starter theme and basis of the Tangent theme
This site also makes use of the following libraries:
- jQuery: used by most of the site’s client-side JavaScript code
- Bootstrap: the responsive layout and interface framework
- Bootstrap Icons: the icon library used throughout the site
- jsVectorMap: the foundation of the electoral and other maps
- Mousetrap: used by the site’s keyboard shortcut system
- PHP MoonPhase: used to calculate lunar-based holidays
- Popper: dependency for some Bootstrap features

Underpinnings

DreamHost: primary hosting and domain registration services
Infomaniak: additional hosting and domain registration services
Apache HTTP Server: web server
PHP: server-side scripting system
Oracle MySQL or MariaDB: relational databases

Design and Development

Adobe Creative Cloud: graphic design
Git SCM: version control
JetBrains PhpStorm: development environment
Mantis Bug Tracker: bug tracking
Mozilla Firefox: primary development browser

Standardization and Evaluation

HyperText Markup Language (HTML)
- Standard: WHATWG HTML Living Standard
- Evaluation: Nu (X)HTML5 Checker
Cascading Style Sheets (CSS)
- Standard: W3C CSS Snapshot 2023
- Linting: StyleLint
ECMAScript (JavaScript)
- Standard: ECMA-262 ECMAScript 2023 (Fourteenth Edition)
- Linting: ESLint
Extensible Markup Language (XML)
- Standard: W3C Extensible Markup Language 1.0 (Fifth Edition)
- Evaluation: XML Validation
JSON Data Interchange Syntax
- Standards: ECMA-404 JSON Data Interchange Syntax (Second Edition)
- Linting: JSONLint
Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG)
- Standard: W3C WCAG 2.2
- Evaluation: University of Illinois AInspector

Minification

CSS Optimizer (CSSO): CSS minification
OptiPNG: PNG image compression
UglifyJS: JavaScript minification

Browser Screenshot Gallery

Safari Desktop

Chrome Desktop — Safari Desktop

Scott Bradford has been putting his opinions on his website since 1995—before most people knew what a website was. He has been a professional web developer in the public- and private-sector for over twenty years. He is an independent constitutional conservative who believes in human rights and limited government, and a Catholic Christian whose beliefs are summarized in the Nicene Creed. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Public Administration from George Mason University. He loves Pink Floyd and can play the bass guitar . . . sort-of. He’s a husband, pet lover, amateur radio operator, and classic AMC/Jeep enthusiast.

Quotes

Faith and reason are like two wings on which the human spirit ascends to contemplation of truth.

Right is still right if nobody is right, and wrong is still wrong if everybody is wrong.

Since we have the obligation to obey our conscience, we also have the great responsibility to see that it is formed in a way that reflects the true moral good.

‘Unmet needs’ are inherent . . . whether we have a capitalist, socialist, feudal, or other kind of economy. These [systems] are just different institutional ways of making trade-offs. . . .

Hypocrisy is a universal phenomenon. It ends with death, but not before.

[Investment] is the sacrificing of real things today in order to have more real things in the future.

[Violence] does not always, not necessarily, openly throttle the throat. More often it demands from its subjects only . . . complicity in falsehood.

A fool, for example, thinks Shakespeare a great poet . . . yet the fool has never read Shakespeare.

Don’t let your life be sterile. Be useful. Blaze a trail. Shine forth with the light of your faith and of your love.

We are all unequal. No one, thank heavens, is like anyone else. . . . We believe that everyone has the right to be unequal but to us every human being is equally important.

Marriage now tends to be viewed as a form of mere emotional satisfaction that can be constructed in any way or modified at will. But the indispensable contribution of marriage to society transcends the feelings and momentary needs of the couple.

The laws that forbid the carrying of arms are laws . . . [that] disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes.

Who are to be the objects of popular choice? Every citizen whose merit may recommend him to the esteem and confidence of his country. No qualification of wealth, of birth, of religious faith, or of civil profession is permitted to fetter the judgement or disappoint the inclination of the people.

No one hates Buddha; he is dead. But hatred against [Christ] would live on, because he lives. . . .

The great danger in today’s world, pervaded as it is by consumerism, is the desolation and anguish born of a complacent yet covetous heart, the feverish pursuit of frivolous pleasures, and a blunted conscience.

To be prepared for war is one of the most effectual means of preserving peace.

I had anger but never hate. Before the war, I was too busy studying to hate. After the war, I thought, What’s the use? To hate would be to reduce myself.

Those who understand freedom as the radically arbitrary license to do just what they want and to have their own way are living in a lie, for by his very nature man is part of a shared existence and his freedom is shared freedom.

Genesis and science are both correct. When one asks if six days or fifteen billion years passed before the appearance of humankind, the correct answer is ‘yes.’

We tend to think that humans distinguish themselves from animals by greater knowledge and awareness, but the most typical difference is that, unlike animals, we are almost constantly tormented by a lack of knowledge.