Frequently Asked Questions

A general guide to the site you're browsing right now, with both comments and Q&A.

A Bit About CyberD

It's CyberD!

Cyber is defined as a computer, computer network, or virtual reality; it's often used in the formation of compound words. CyberD is such a compound word (made by me). The D, the deviance in this domain, used to stand for Dyze (which means nothing). Back in 2004 when this site was first born it went under the name CyberDyze. It was a long and complicated domain and thus it evolved to CyberD a few years later.

The site did go by the name CyberDB for a short while, but let's move back to that D I was just speaking about. It has many meanings: Design, Deviance, Database, Dreams, Diary, Daze, Debug, Devil & Domain. It's a deviant D'd. ;) The domain extension is .ORG because... well, the .com and .net were taken. I've grown to like it since it stands for great things, and points out the site is non-profit. And, if you include the domain name extension in the compound word it sounds pretty dorky. :D

What About Dyze?

For a short period in CDB history I started a network of websites that went by the name of Dyze. I registered dyze.org and used it to list a number of websites I operated. There was CyberDyze, CyberDoze, WonPeace, UnLyrical & CyberD. The latter two are still alive today!

It all started with my first website: CyberDyze. When I registered the domain I wanted nothing else than to make myself an amazing website, and the name sounded amazing. I didn't brainstorm much, I just took the first thing that popped into my head. It had nothing to do with gambling or board games; if it had to have something to do with anything then it was probably the act of dicing foes into tiny velvet-colored cubes (within violent videogames in which such things are common practice). I guess it did have a little to do with my main alias online at the time, one I still haven't changed. I'm known as *pause for effect* the Cyberdevil.

The Devil

For as long as I've been online I've been known as the Cyberdevil. It's a name chosen partly in homage to the Cyberdemon - the most fierce of demonic foes you encounter whilst playing DOOM, and partly in homeage to the game itself. DOOM is a FPS from 1993 that forever revolutionized the action genre of gaming. It was the first game I played within the genre, and later it became a favorite. Id Software have been pioneers with FPS games both before and after this one game. You can read more about DOOM here, or more about me here.

CyberD VS CyberDB

There was a time when I ran two personal blogs simultaneously. I tried to keep one of them about my life, and the other one about the time I spent online. On CyberD I talked about life, studies, happenings around the world and other causeries. On CyberDB I talked about websites I visited, programs I used, scripts I made, and such trivia. I spent more time posting on CyberD than I did on CyberDB, and the time on CDB was mostly spent trying to organize all content that had been left after my move from the old domain, CyberDyze.

It took a malfunctioning script to finally make me merge the two websites. So here we are, this site is the result. The CyberDB domain still exists, redirecting lost wanderers to this new home and website hybrid.

That C:/ Below The Navigation

It's both a pun on CyberD, and a letter to mimic traditional directory structure in Windows, where 'C' is root - 'My Computer' - an access point to everything. It's where the breadcrumbs start, and you can click on it to read more about the site.

Why I Run WordPress

WordPress is an Open Source blogging platform that has been around since the dawn of mankind-on-the-Internet. It's free, and it's used by very many people. The fact that it is used by very many people means little... other than how many people place their faith in this one script and expect only the best in terms of security, flexibility, speed and simplicity of use. It also means there's a huuuge assortment of themes, mods, translation and documentation in many different languages.

The team behind it work diligently at keeping things up-to-date without changing things too much... though I'll admit, some changes are too much. But thanks to the community there's usually a mod to bring things back to how they should be when need be.

Before I settled on WP I tried most of the blogging platforms out there, and this was the one that eventually seduced me. The template system is so easy to use, the features are many, updates are automatic (if you like), and there are plugins for virtually every feature you could dream of. It's beautiful. Wonderful. Charming. And still growing all the more resilient.

There are plenty of equally useful blogging platforms out there though - especially now, so do search before you decide (if you are pondering which platform to use). I'm sure you'll find your perfect match eventually.

The Blogs Before Late 2008

Before late 2008 I used a different blogging platform to post my blogs, of which you can browse a static archive here. They weren't originally included on the current platform (which is why you can still find them there), but in 2010 I moved them all over manually, one by one, to this one. Thus, you should now be able to find them through regular search or archives as well.

Features

404

A 404 error occurs when the content you are searching for is not found. These errors are common and can appear if you search for a term I have never used, make a typo, travel via an old link to some page that no longer exists, or something happens that shouldn't have happened.

If you're having trouble finding what you're looking for, you can try the search (right by the main menu, above), or the sitemap. If you're actually searching for the 404 page, you can find it here.

Links to other error pages you won't find in the sitemap:
400, 401, 403, 500, 502, 503

Cats

And dogs!

Categories group together posts of the same type, and are limited to a select few fundamental themes. A selection of the main categories is available in the sidebar on most posts, and on the main page.

Some other categories you might be interested in:
Code, Lyrics, Music, Video

Comments

Posting a comment

To post a comment, simply fill in the form below a specific post and press 'submit'.

The comment form is only visible on a post's individual page, so click the post title, 'comment' or ´read more´ links below the post title to get there.

If you've never written a comment before, or if you've used a different email, or if you've done something to make the system suspicious of you again (like posting a large amount of links, or something that´s been blacklisted) your comment will be queued for approval before everybody can see it.

This is a one time process, after which all comments you make will show up right away. Unless you are a spam-bot... but you wouldn't be reading this if you were... right? All comments are approved manually btw, so it may take some time, but rest assured we'll get to it as soon as we can.

Responding to certain users

If you want to reply to a specific user, simply post a comment below theirs, or when there are comments in the way, use @username before your message - that'll make it easy for them to spot it.

The RSS feed available for each post can be used to keep track of new comments if you don't want to check back on the page every once in a while!

Avatars and appearance

Avatars are displayed through Gravatar. It's a non-profit service that lets you assign a 'global avatar' to a specific email, and is then used on any sites that support Gravatar to display your image when this email is used. Note that the email field is still private. Your gravatar will never be publicly linked to the email address itself unless you choose to reveal it.

(Though the Gravatar service was hacked recently... best never use too confidential email adresses anywhere public.)

Comment spam and abuse

Note that if you post comments largely irrelevant to the content of the post and/or with links to malicious websites, ads, etc, your comment will not be approved.

Common comment etiquette, etc

Be kind and courteous towards others, please don't post in ALL CAPS without reason, and since you can't edit your comments: check yo gramma before you post! But all that probably goes without saying.

As long as you abide by such common courtesy, don't hesitate to comment on anything... about anything. Actually, feel free to say whatever you want to, etiquette or not, they're more like guidelines anyway. Think of the comment section as a little forum, and the easiest way to reach the author if you don't mind the conversation being public.

Author comments are displayed in honorary gold... which is more like orange. My favorite color.

Polls

(Polls are currently disabled. You can view the archive here.)

I like to call the monthly polls on the main page Opinions.

Q - How do I cast my vote?
A - Chose an alternative, click on it, and press the Vote button. You will be redirected to the results.

Q - How often can I cast my vote?
A - Once every 24 hours.

Q - Can I regret a previous vote, or change it?
A - No.

Search

You can use the search feature to easily find specific content on this site. Just type in one or more keywords and the system will do the rest for you, it's really simple.

If your search term matches one (and only one) result exactly, you will be forwarded to that individual entry right away. It's like Google's 'I'm Feeling Lucky' button, but automatic. ;)

Music

The Music Page

(Slightly outdarted now - the music section's been simplified since.)

The music section contains a lot of music I've made through the years. Everything is sorted as either a Project or a Loop Collection or not sorted at all. All uploaded tracks and loops that are available from the music section can be found as separate posts as well, along with many other pieces that aren't part of any collection. All tracks can be viewed through the Music category, or by tags, and all lyrics in the Lyrics category.

A complete list of tags is the first thing you'll see on the music page. The ones below are not the complete list.

Most tracks I make are part of either a project or a pack of loops.

Projects can be navigated chronologically (from old to new) and loop packs navigated alphabetically, both through the sidebar. On all project pages there's a playlist so you won't need to play each track separately.

Other than the music itself there's a bunch of other musical gadgets and information I won't be taking up in this FAQ. Explore!

Good to know:

Hover over project links for information on tracks and duration (amount, duration).
Loops also show the average duration of loops (amount, average/total duration).
There are currently 1,250 sound files available.

The Music Player

I used to have a customized audio player plugin, but now WordPress comes prepped with it's own spiffy HTML5 audio player interface!

It looks like this:

The old one looked like this:

The old one was a bit cooler no? But at least the new one's HTML, and not entirely unmodified. You can read about my modding adventures here.

Other Queries

Questions related to sound files and everything within the cyberd.org/music/ directory. These are a bit outdated, thus left for last.

Q - There's no new music since 2011! What happen?
A - Life happened. :/ Or the lack of it. Short answer: I prioritized other things and now have a shitton of recordings I need to update or post and I'm just never getting around to it. The newer of these recordings should be popping up soon, though. It's stuff that'll make all my old work seem incredibly outdated and inferior (as it probably is)!

Q - The music doesn't load!
A - The sounds may take a while to load, so be patient. If the track starts and then suddenly stops again it has not buffered fully. Wait a few seconds and it should start playing.

The time it takes to buffer a track depends on how many users are listening to the same file, how large the file is, overall server load and your own Internet connection speed. Music is generally compressed at 320 kbps for optimal quality, so it may take a while to load. Older audio is generally 128 kbps.

Also: Since the switch from my previous WP Audio Player plugin to WordPress built-in alternative, some files and playlists in particular have stopped working. If you find a file that is not loading at all, please let me know about it and I will fix it!

Q - The music player gives me a 'File Not Found' message!
A - Seems like I've misspelled the link or renamed the file or done something else I shouldn't have. Please contact me and I will fix it ASAP.

Q - Nothing plays, and the answers above don't apply to me!
A - Please reach out and let me know; I shall try to fix it!

Q - What's up with the crappy voice quality?
A - It's a lack of professional microphone and studio equipment, that's what it is. Since 2010 I can't even use my microphone: the soundcard on my new computer is bad bad bad. So since 2010 it's a lack of professional voice recorder AND studio equipment AND a computer with a soundcard good enough to plug in my crappy (but less than voice recorder crappy) microphone.

At least that's what it was! Everything recorded since June 2014 should sound better. ;) New soundcard. Unless it's a quick recording I feel doesn't merit the extra setup. Like the Chimes.

Q - How can I download *enter track title here*?
A - If there is no download link available on the same page or post as the music player, it probably isn't available for download.

You can however find downloads to most old files through the Jukebox. Or, if you really want to, there are plenty of browser plugins to download any music you hear online even when it's not really supposed to be downloaded. I don't mind if you do as long as it's for personal purposes (like listening to said music offline/elsewhere).

Note however that the audio license I distribute most of my work under does not allow commercial use! Contact me and we can talk terms.

Q - A download won't work! What to do?
A - If the link is broken (which is most likely the reason), email me and I will fix it. All files are in MP3 format, so if playing them is the problem, you need to get a better audio player. Foobar2000 is what I personally use (and highly recommend).

If there's a chance the file is corrupt: try downloading it again first and see if that fixes it. Otherwise let me know.

Q - No audio downloads work! What to do?
A - Downloads have probably been temporarily disabled due to bandwidth overload, give it a while please.

Q - What does OST stand for?
A - Official Soundtrack: A soundtrack is a set of musical pieces made specifically for a media production such as a movie or game.

File Information

Audio files are either in WAV (for voice recorder poetry, etc) or MP3 format (everything else). The default encoding used to be 128kbps, but I'm attempting to convert old files to 320kbps where sources still exist.

File Comments

I don't usually put comments in MP3 files due to the IDv3 bug that removes track titles if the comment is 29 or 30 characters long.

Why does it do this? Well, the track number is stored in those last two bits of the comment field, resulting in this very little but still relatively annoying error. Instead of keeping track of how many characters I write in all comments, I chose not to write any comments in the files (exceptions are made when I add the same comment to multiple files).

There's plenty of information on tracks available online though. If there isn't and you're wondering about something: just ask.

Missing Tags

All audio files are tagged through the Windows 7 interface. I tried Foobar2000 and a few others, but they all use different standards, resulting in certain tags no longer being viewable in one program after having been modified in the other, and vice versa.

Windows 7 is running all the time anyway so tagging files is a piece of cake. All programs I've tested have no trouble reading Windows 7 tags.

These days it's Windows 10 btw, and I occasionally do add unsupported tags via Foobar2000 too when it's a more important release.

Files are usually tagged with Title, Author(s), Genre, Website, Track No & Album (when part of an album or series).

Games

The old (huge, badly managed; resource-excessive) 'Games' section is currently (and possibly forever) down.

You can find some of my favorites here.

Playing Games

Q - What's the password for XXX games?
A - The XXX category is password protected to prevent morally aware young people from accessing it. By using the password xpaxx you confirm that you are over 18 years of age.

Personal

Q - How about signing up at *enter random new and obscure and/or mainstream and shady giant social online community here*?
A - Nope, sorry, I lack the time to maintain a hundred different social community profiles. Thus you will find me at the places I am registered on now, on the sites I own, and maybe even offline occasionally. ;)

Thanks for the invitation though!

Q - Can you design me a website?
A - I sure can. :) Feel free to contact me and we can start discussing details. My hourly wage is $40/hour, but for smaller (especially non-commercial) projects this can be discussed, or we can settle on a fixed price.

Q - Can you write a poem for me?
A - If it's for a good cause (like for your birthday, anniversary, school assignment, etc), sure, write me an email and I'll write you something.

Q - Where can I buy your books and albums and movies and 1:1 gold statues of you?
A - I don't know about those statues, but all those other things you mentioned can (if they exist) be found over at the shop.

Q - On average, how much do you write each year?
A - Oh my, where to start... If we are measuring this in regular A4 sheets of paper with the font Times New Roman and size 12 ... ehh ... I'll take a wild wild guess at 1580 (I have no idea).

On an average day (looking at recently gathered statistics from this week) I write between 2-4 pages of poetry, blogs, reviews, and at times stories and other articles. I also respond to emails and partake in other digital conversations, all unaccounted for.

This is however only while I sit by a computer. During the summer (vacation time usually in the range of 1-2 months) I fill in an average of one notebook per month, the average notebook averaging 120-200 A4 pages.

I definitely write more in winter, though writing then doesn't result in half as consistent, memorable or important material. Inspiration flows better when you're offline, and disconnected from the addictions of digital routine, I find.

So, who knows, I don't, but maybe this quick analyzis is satisfactory.

Q - NDS or PSP? 3DS or Vita? NES or SEGA? PSX or DC? PSX or N64? PS2 or Xbox? PS2 or GC? Xbox 360 or Wii? Xbox 360 or PS3? Xbox One or PS4? Xbox X or PS5? PC or TV? PC or TV consoles? Coke or Pepsi? Light or Sugar? Sugar or Stevia? Stevia or alcohol-based sugars (Erythritol)?
A - DS, 3DS, SEGA, PS, N64, PS2, GC, Wii, 360, PS4, PS5, PC, PC, Coke, Sugar, Sugar... though Stevia isn't bad. If it's the right kind of Stevia. Stevia. Yes I have changed my mind about Pepsi. Also what about GBA?!

Q - GB or GB Pocket? GB Pocket or GBC? GBC or GBA? GBA or GBA SP? GBA SP or DS? DS or DS Lite? DS Lite or DS XL? DS Lite or 3DS?
A - GB, GBC, GBA, GBA SP, GBA SP, DS Lite, DS Lite, 3DS. Yes I have changed my mind about 3DS. ;)

Q - How many hours do you spend online an average day?
A - Too many... the average day's at least 10-12 hours.

Q - Which websites do you visit most?
A - Currently Google, Newgrounds, Gmail, YouTube and CyberD.

Q - Ever been to the Opera?
A - Yeah, twice. Last time I saw Figaro's Wedding. It was pretty good!

Update Notices

UPD: This is an update

Update notices are displayed on posts with notably edited content, or context, or where new material was made available quickly after posting.

New posts usually address previous issues where views and situations may have changed. The update notice is used more so for technical or grammatical edits, say if a link's been removed/edited, if there was a formatting issue that's been fixed, etc. Or to provide a link to a newer post with updated information on said post context, if necessary.

Blockquotes

This is a blockquote

Quote boxes used to highlight other content, not always quotes.

If the quote is by a person other than myself: hover over the box for name or source.

If source isn't known this should be mentioned here too.

Reward System (not open yet)

Find a typo - 1 point
Find a missing tag - 5 points
Find a bad URL (misspelled or redirecting to an unrelated website) - 10 points

Trade your points for items in our shop!

This doesn't seem relevant with current site activity, but maybe some day. :) If you want to be an early adopter let me know; maybe we can get an early preview going.

Ratings

Ratings are usually included on reviews (you'll find most of those for movies):

rated 1/5: shit shit shit
rated 2/5: decent
rated 3/5: not bad
rated 4/5: fo shizzle
rated 5/5: friggin awesome
rated 6: there can only be one!

As of May 2019 there's also:

rated 1.5/5: almost decent
rated 2.5/5: almost not bad
rated 3.5/5: not bad at all
rated 4.5/5: almost awesome

I gave them all a bit of an overhaul while adding the new ones. Old ones:

rated 1/5: shit shit shit
rated 2/5: decent
rated 3/5: not bad
rated 4/5: fo shizzle
rated 5/5: friggin awesome

Removed Pages

Redirects and reasons.

Changelog ( http://cyberd.org/about/log.html )
Noting each update took a lot of time away from actually updating things! The log is archived here.

Ask a Question

If anything's missing here, send me a message! Also note that this page is currently being revised a little; some parts may not be entirely up-to-date.

Privacy Copyright Sitemap Statistics RSS Feed Valid XHTML Valid CSS Standards

© CyberD.org 2024
Keeping the world since 2004.