CYBERSPACE&TIME

Frequently asked question about this website.

1. What is this website?
This by far is the most common question asked, and I have to say that the answer to that comes with a bit of a struggle for me. I find it a challenge even when I know my audience. I don't know whom will be reading this, and it is impossible for me to know what they / you already know, but I will do my best to be clear and as precise as possible. In short, this website is an embed player to some, while it's a nostalgic operating system themed site to others. This place plays and organizes Youtube embeds for a large number of guests that land here, while at the same time, there has been a growing number of people that do click on things to explore, and they do find more. As for me the creator of it, it is proof of concept, an experiment in interface building. The website serves to showcases a type of project that my custom built web server, editor and language can build. Look to appendix 1) to view some photos and a video demonstrating the editor and web server of which I'm speaking of. Now I will attempt a more in-depth technical explanation; To start with, I would like to impress the fact that many of features found here are unique, not found anywhere else on the web. As an example of that; Thinking back to all the pages you visited, have you ever seen a window auto scrolling on its own? If so, then how about two windows auto scrolling at the same time while one is being dragged around? Perhaps that is not the most practical example to begin with, but it does serves to demonstrate something that easily performs well here, and yet, basically impossible to do on any other site. Another example of a unique feature is the screen capture button found in the "Ctrl Menu". I am certain that you never seen an option like that offered anywhere else, except maybe with the assistance of an installed browser plugin. As a final mention, how about resizable windows in general? I personally have only seen a few places that offer emulated windows at all, and those few exceptions were always limited, very rarely allowing them to resize. There is more that probably should be said, but I'll leave it at that. One key difference between this site and others (and the reason why it's an experiment) is the fact that this website is not using HTML and CSS predominantly, but instead, it is using a newer technology called WebGL. This GL (graphic library) tech is normally used for video games, almost never for applications. I am using the Z coordinate in the 3D/XYZ as the z-Index order of the windows and apps. Rendering interfaces this way means I can take advantage of hardware acceleration coming from video cards. So in a real sense, this interface platform that I'm developing is a game engine which is emulating an event driven application layer. The platform is a hybrid of two normally separated worlds. It is intertwining the graphical world of WebGL and games with the world of single threaded HTML and iframes. Allow me to unpack that with a little more specificity. Interface elements found in the "Web Portal" program (and pop-up menus) are CPU bound because they utilize regular HTML, but everything else on webpage is GPU bound video game graphics. When things are all working according to plan, the website interface should runs butter smooth. And again, that is because the site utilizes both (CPU & GPU) core computer parts simultaneously. For performance reasons related to hosting for a massive audience from a single PC, I have limited the number of images used, and there's next to zero 3rd party scripts here. Short the video thumbnails which are coming from Youtube, what you're seeing is a website that doesn't rely on images to impress, but instead, custom drawings built with source code. Look to appendix 2) to see this website tested for performance, and also what the chat server can do. I hope that explains a few general things with also some added detail for those that might be technically inclined enough to understand it.
2. Did I go back in time? How old is this site?
Well, the interface for the website went live about three years ago in 2017. But as a project towards an online operating system, I'd have to say that I've been working on that since the early 2000's, if not before. I started programming in 1994-1995, and this type of project was on my mind even back then. Actually I believe it was with Quick BASIC in 1996 when I first worked on an OS like program, and that one even functioned outside of Windows 95. I was calling it Doors then. The theme was rooms as folders, and things in the rooms as files, with doors leading to other rooms/folders. Look to appendix 3b) and to the background of the collage to see this website interface, but built with C++ from almost two decades ago. It turns out that I'm a function over beauty type of person and I suppose you've already noticed that by looking at the simpler times style of the website. In others words, I know this place has a very old feel to it since I am bringing back the 3D borders, but this is all done purposely because of reasons. And I think it should be said that many of the technologies utilized here have only been available in the web browsers for a few years now. Technologies such as WebGL, IndexedDB, and Web Sockets to name just a few. So even though it has an old feel to it, there is no way these features would be possible for the web decades ago. Do give it a chance.
3. I just stumbled upon this, is it popular?
Yes and No. It's like this; Most people stumble upon this place via Google Image or its Web Search. Some find it by clicking on social links placed on Facebook, Twitter or Reddit. Some copy and paste the url address into their blogs, and some people with a keen eye for unique things bookmark it and keep coming back. I can even imagine that one day people will be setting this place as their own home page. But, even though the traffic here seems to be increasing, and it also appears that people are interacting with features more, I don't know if it should be considered popular. I say that because very few expect to find an operating system themed place when they first arrive. So since the majority of visitors enter the website so surprised, my feelings are still mixed. As it is now, the website plays host to about 78K daily clicks from desktop users. I surly hope that the apparent growth in website traffic is because of the growing feature set found here, and not only because of the content of the videos. I am working at my best to create a high quality place. Even at this beta stage of development, I feel that there is already an abundance of value added on top of the videos with the rest of the website. Inside the "Ctrl Menu" / "Site Options" hover menu, you can scroll down a bit to see the current analytics from alexa.com. They compare the top million websites and order them in a list. Google, Youtube, Facebook, Twitter are all at the top. Here are some respectable 3rd party analytics sites reporting on this site: https://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/cyberspaceandtime.com https://similarweb.com/website/cyberspaceandtime.com Look to Appendix 4) to study a recent screen capture of the Google Search Console Performance graphs for the year.
4. How do I perform a search query?
There are three places in which you can execute a video search. Click on one of these places, type in what you want to search and press the Enter key. Here are the three places: 1. "Web Portal" program, in the Cyberspace address input near the top of the window. 2. "Web Portal" program menu. The menu is accessible by pressing the captioned button top-left of the window. 3. Bottom-right of the taskbar there is an input with a placeholder of Video Surf. There is a screen capture in appendix 5) with three arrows pointing to the search areas.
5. Why is my Youtube video accessible from here?
I have heard this question a few times, especially when the site was very new. And I believe I am of sound mind to think that more creator's would have liked to have had that answered, but didn't ask. In brief, this place plays Youtube embed videos. It's not a copy of the video, but only a link to the embeds hosted at Youtube. In fact, Youtube supplies all the source code to make the videos play here with their embed player. Now in order to make the embed player blend well with the websites' OS theme, I turned off the default controls and display my own custom made ones. Appearances may be fooling, but it is the Youtube embed player, just with a little window dressing - my controls. For those that may be thinking that this website is focusing in on their content, then please look at appendix 6) and see that pages of the site are being randomly indexed by Google. Here is a little disclaimer that covers that: 1) The contents of the Youtube embed videos that gets played here in the Web Portal program does not reflect the views and beliefs of the owner of the website. For those that may want to know a little more; The selection process in which search engines choose to make an index link that points here is automatic, and done completely at random. When this website started, I told Google about my own videos, and then Google not only indexed those, but also the related videos, and then eventually the related of the related videos, and so on. So as you can clearly see, the selection process is out of my hands. Google and other search engines ask this website if it can play what ever video, and then upon those requests, this website tests the video address to see if matches a live and allowable Youtube embed. An if it does, this website program will responds accordingly saying it can be played here. And finally after all that, the search engine makes the index link pointing here.
6. Who is the webmaster of the website?
Hello there, my name is Michael Leonard, and as of the writing of this in 2019, I am 40 years old residing in Sudbury Canada. Here is my email: RebootRage@hotmail.com, and here is my Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/InternetOneOS. I've placed a few photos of myself in appendix 3). I am the sole owner and computer programmer developing this operating system platform. The short version of my story is that I first worked on the back end of things - HTML server, chat server and systems like that, and then I built up the front end web interface years later. The slightly longer version of my story is that I have been working on this project in one form or another my entire adult life. Using the computer language(s) C/C++ and its graphics library OpenGL, I have spent many years developing a hardware accelerated operating system. Then afterwards I spent a similar many years trying to recreate that same sort of hardware accelerated operating system, but this time it was developed for the web using WebGL, and here we are now. If you would like to know more about me personally, then why not enter the Public Lounge and talk live? I'm usually in there under the name of Michael. I review all the comments posted, questions get answered, and I'm often talking with guests, especially the returning patrons.
7. What's going on with the mobile version?
When someone visits the website (besides this page) with a phone or tablet, the expected video will start playing and be completely maximized - which is good, but the operating system interface will not be loaded. So all the added value features that you see in the desktop version will be missing in the mobile version. In fact, the website SEO (search engine optimization) program reports to Googlebot that there is nothing special here for the mobile visitors, and yet Google must be indexing them for a great many mobile users find it nonetheless. Here are few reasons why the mobile version is different compared to the desktop one: Considering the complexity of everything going on here and the limited bandwidth and power of mobile in general, I felt that a light / minimalist interface will function best for them. And there's nothing lighter than to offer up the embed to the requested video wholesale. I have done some experimenting with the full interface running within a tablet, and I have made the buttons extra large for this reason, but I still have to work on the placements of things because many of them are still too close to each other. I'm not exactly sure how to emulate a right-click with a touch screen. I understand that a tap with your finger is like a single mouse click, but there's more than one mouse button to cover. Tell me in the chat if you have an idea about that. And probably a greater reason than those two is because I personally don't own a phone, and I don't trust the Ipad mini that's in the house - I think it is infected. When I work, I sit in front of a telivision as my monitor with a somewhat powerful desktop, I'm never out and about, so just never needed a smart phone yet. With those things said, my plan is to bring the operating system interface to the mobile platform in full.

Featured features.

1. Web Portal & Video Embeds
The "Web Portal" window is either divided in to three parts or it is set to show the video in full. The views are based on if the user presses on one of the "Full", "Meta" or "Menu" buttons in toolbar area of the window. Use the scrollbars that hug the sides of the window to auto scroll the guide and meta views. Clicking on on the tiny icon of each of the scrollbars will reset the scrolling speed, volume or playback rate of the video. The "Full" option will show the contents of the "Web Portal" in full with nothing else in the body of the window. This is recommended if you want to watch the playing video in full. The "Meta" option brings up a guide view area at the bottom half of the window, and a description and information area to the left of the the video. The "Menu" option will also bring up an area to the left of the the video. The menu panel consists of categories that you can explore if you click on them, and the bottom guide view area will respond accordingly when changing categories.
2. Context & Program Menus
This website currently has about a dozen menus accessible by right-clicking on things for their context. And also each windowed program has its own accessed by clicking on the big captioned button top left of each window. Aswell, you do have access to the web browser's built-in context menu for copy and pasting purposes when you right-click in a text input element - like search, addressbars and posting a message. Right-clicking on the taskbar program buttons will pop-up a context menu for the windowed program. Right-clicking on the drag bar of a window will pop-up the same context menus for the window. While hovering over the "Ctrl Menu" menu buttons of the seven windowed programs, the corresponding program menu will pop-up adjacent to it. While at the same time if you click on them instead of moving to the newly popped up program menu on the right, you will open the program window. Right-clicking on most menu buttons will pop-up a colour picker. With the colour picker you can customize the colour scheme of the menus. Right-clicking on the menu buttons also allows you to edit the captions of the menu, so if you'd like to change what the menu buttons say, then customize them to your liking.
3. Chat Rooms & Message Syntax
When typing up a chat room message, you can use a few styling commands that borrows its syntax from CSS. For example if you want red text, you would type rgb(255,0,0) and now this text would be red. And now rgb(0,0,255) some blue text. Another example would be font-size:80px to make big text, and font-size:16px to make small text. Combining just these few styling commands could produce some unique looking messages. PM or Private Messaging is now a thing here. To send someone a 1 on 1 private message, click on their name on the right of the "World Chat" window and type away. The screen will switch to the history between you and that user. Mind you, if you and the person never spoke to each other before here, then the screen will first be blank when you click on the person. But as you send and receive messages the history will be kept and restored when you come back. The data of the message content will be stored at your end in your browsers Indexed Database, and a copy at the other persons end.
4. File Folders & Your Home Computer
Loading content from your home computer is now easy and very manageable. In order to load up images, text files or even the xml file of your Youtube Subscription list, you have to use the "Choose Files" menu button at the top of the "Ctrl Menu". Once you load up an image file (or a bunch by multi selecting while holding Shift or Ctrl key) when in the Windows Explorer modal, you will then be able to access them all by double clicking the file from within the "File Folders" program. And from that time on once you have loaded and stored them, you can also use the "Display Properties" program to select one of the loaded image to be set as the wallpaper background.
5. Site Identity & Settings
Within the settings tab of "Site Identity" program, you can now change the colours of each window. Right-click on the [var name]'s to bring up the colour picker. The "World Chat" program now supports leaving the Public Lounge and entering your own room. Use the input box to name your room and then press the Enter key to go there. When you create another room, others will be able to find it by seeing it in the "Live Rooms" menu and folders. There is no recording of messages outside of the Public Lounge. So when you go to another room, the room will be blank, but you will view all new messages as they come. There is a basic programming editor built into the "Site Identity" work tab. As it is now, the only thing that it programs is the video pause page. When you're editing the code there, you should be able to see the live results in the "Web Portal" video viewing area. Use it knowing that there is plenty of things still broken with the editor, such as multiple line selecting, and proper copy & pasting.
6. Game Console & Games
One of the windowed programs is called the "Game Con", and it loads games like an emulator or even a game console. There are two games you can switch between with each having its own leaderboard. Use the program menu (by pressing on the captioned button top left of the window) to switch between games, restart a game, or to load the public leaderboards. I suppose I'm calling the "Game Con" for lack of a better name. The way I thought about it, since nothing great came to mind, I tried to make it at least descriptive for intuition's sake. Game 1. Defuser Game 2. Padlock Look to appendix 7) for videos from each champ.

Appendices

1. 1) Custom Built Programming Editor, Language & Web Server
A simple project to showcase the easy to understand language in the editor. An extremely dynamic menu system of the editor with the server console screen shown. I made a few documentation videos a couple years ago
2. 2) Website & Server Performance
I think this speaks for itself. Look at this, faster than 100%. It is a different project, but still, it's of the chat server.
3. 3) Webmaster Photos
This is me doing some programming ~ 2011 Me, Myself and I The background image is of the primative C++/opengl version of this website. That's the computer that hosts this website. My setup is basically the same to this day.
4. 4) Google Search Console - Performance 12 months
5. 5) Search & Video Surfing
The large arrows point to where you can perform search queries.
6. 6) Search Engine Optimization & Google Indexing Examples
This is the indexing results from a typical week with Google. Typing site:cyberspaceandtime.com and a search term will also allow you to find things.
7. 7) Game Console, Games & Leaderboards
💣Defuser : gysv and Matt are the current champs 🔒Padlock : Tolozen is current champ