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Glass

Getting Around

This site is published by Ikonic, and Ikonic is something you talk to. Here is how to get around, whether you talk, type, or click. The longer story of why it works this way is in This Site Runs on Ikonic.

The omni

The line at the top of every page is the omni. Type into it, or press the mic and say "computer" to wake it. Whatever you say, the answer is a passage from one of my pages with its source, never something made up.

Things it understands, in plain words:

  • Find. "find science", "anything about Titan", "what do we know about nuclear". It answers with the best passage and tells you how many places it found. "more" gives the next ten, "open 2" opens the second.
  • Open. "open 3", "open Cassini", "next chapter", "go back", "top".
  • Orient. "what is this", "give me the tour", "guide me through it", "who published this".
  • Read. "read it", "read section 2".
  • Show by time. "show by time" turns the contents rail into a timeline of when things were published.

The contents rail

On the left, behind the CONTENTS tab, is every published page arranged by topic: Science, Coding, Engineering, and so on, with the count beside each. Click the tab or say "show the contents". "hide the contents" puts it away. TOPICS and TIME switch between the taxonomy and the timeline.

Each page has an ordinal. "open 42" opens page 42, wherever you are.

The graph

The small graph in the upper left shows the page you are on and the pages it links to. Click a node to go there. By default it shows the strongest links so it stays readable; say "more links", "fewer links", or "show every link". "float the graph" moves it, "reset" puts it back.

Reading

Pages open in a magazine spread: columns, a large title, a picture or a figure at the top, and the occasional pulled sentence. If you would rather read one column, say "plain" or click PLAIN on the rail; "gloss" brings the spread back. Wikilinks in the text are real links. Every page has a real address, so /cassini is the Cassini page and /cassini#mission-overview is a section of it.

The terminal

The omni can grow. "open the terminal" gives it half the screen, "full" takes the whole screen and the page waits underneath, "close the terminal" puts it back to a line. The TERM button does the same by hand. Esc closes it.

What it remembers, if you let it

Nothing until you say "remember my reading" or answer yes when it asks. After that, the pages you open, how far you get and how long you stay are kept in this browser only, and "where was I" or "continue" takes you back to the last page and section. "what did I spend time on" and "what haven't I finished" use the same record. "forget me" deletes all of it.

Following

There is an Atom feed. "copy the feed" puts its address on your clipboard, and the colophon at the bottom of every page has it too.