A look at search engines with their own indexes
Posted , updatedA cursory review of all the non-metasearch, indexing search engines I have been able to find.
5367 words, a somewhat long read
Seirdy’s Home
I’m 
Rohan Kumar, a.k.a. Seirdy (online handle).
Other versions of this website
In addition to its canonical url, a “rough draft” of this website also exists on my Tildeverse page. This site’s content also appears on my Gemini capsule.
About me
The Director’s Cut of my bio is at my About page.
I care a lot about accessibility, and often use screen readers and forced colors to deal with overstimulation. I’m a FLOSS enthusiast, software minimalist, and a CS+Math undergrad who likes watching anime and tweaking his Linux setup. Current interests include search engines, security, privacy, and the IndieWeb.
My perspective on software freedom is a bit different from the FSF’s; I’ve been trying to distance myself from “fossbro” culture.
Git repos: Sourcehut, GitHub, Codeberg, and GitLab
Contact
Contact me via email (PGP), or on the Fediverse where I’m @Seirdy
Chat with me: I’m on several IRC networks. Alternatively, I’m @seirdy@seirdy:fairydust.space.
Posts
Here’s a selection of my best posts, in featured order. To see the rest, visit my Posts page.
I edit some of these posts quite often; some are updated indefinitely. Check the “updated” timestamps.
Timestamp format: YYYY-MM-DD, as per RFC 3339 and ISO 8601
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Best practices for inclusive textual websites
Posted , updatedA lengthy guide to making simple, inclusive sites focused on content before form. Emphasizes brutalist design and accessibility to include under-represented users.
18564 words, a very long read
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WhatsApp and the domestication of users
Posted , updatedWhatsApp's rise and recent PR efforts highlight a class of business models that I call "user domestication".
3149 words, a read
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The right thing for the wrong reasons: FLOSS doesn't imply security
Posted , updatedWhile source code is critical for user autonomy, it isn't required to evaluate software security or understand run-time behavior.
4310 words, a somewhat long read
Webrings
This site is part of 8 webrings. A webring is a collection of sites in a circular doubly-linked list; each website links to the next and previous site in the list.
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Bucket (requires JavaScript)
If you’re part of a webring and would like me to join, just ask. I’ll probably accept if joining only requires me to add hyperlinks to this page (no scripts, external content, or images), and if the ring doesn’t seem to promote anything I find objectionable.