Frequently Asked Questions

Many website FAQs contain questions no-one has asked, and probably will never ask, and thus the sole purpose of said FAQ is to provide information on the site or website author.

This FAQ is no exception.

One day I might split this page up into subpages with clickthrough from section to section like I have with the Mallo pages, but I don't think that will be necessary just yet. Instead, here's a quick-jump menu of the questions:

  1. So who is this Cyrek geezer then?
  2. How do I pronounce 'Cyrek'?
  3. Isn't 'Cyrek' a Polish surname?
  4. Hey! I'm called Cyrek too, and all my websearches
    keep finding your site. Why is that?
  5. CyrekSoft? What's that?
  6. What has CS produced lately?
  7. I have a question that isn't on this page. What should I do?

So who is this Cyrek geezer then?

Cyrek is me. I am Cyrek.

You want more? Okay then:

Once upon a time there was a lowly Computer Science undergraduate called Carl, who had just discovered the Internet in all its glory, so he decided he needed a nice pseudonym to fit in with all the other geeks.
During a fit of drunkenness our hero first decided upon the name Dhüm. This was a name that was often mispronounced as Dumb. It was summarily dropped.
Next, our hero tried The Phantom Oddity. This was a good name, and was used for a short while until he could come up with something better. [Note: This name is still in use from time to time]
Then came the fateful day, after watching too much Star Trek, the hero's addled brain discovered the rule for creating Vulcan-esque names: It has to be five letters long and end in 'K'.
Taking his initials, and the 'K' he found he had C_R_K. Adding two extra 'vowels' and a couple of words didn't take too much more time. And so Cyrek the Illogical was born!

In truth, the human behind these names is a bit of an introvert, and finds he can rant better on a webpage while using a pseudonym. Here's another bit of the web with my mark on it, courtesy of the people and machines over at User Friendly.

How do I pronounce 'Cyrek'?

You might think 'sigh-wreck' is the right pronunciation... like 'Cyrus' and 'Cyber' are 'sigh-russ' and 'sigh-burr'. Nope. That's wrong. Ah-aah. No. No. No.

The C is how most people presume and is pronounced as an s.
The y is short as in fiery, happy, tryst and gypsy.
The r is best r-r-rolled at the front of the mouth like 'rr' in Spanish, but a plain old r is fine.
The e is also short as in bet, tempus, and fermented, but most people get that right.
The k is sounded as the ck in back, check and rocket.

Still having problems? -- Say 'Rexy'. (Not 'Sexy'; 'Rexy'.)
Now split the 'x' into a 'k' and then a 'c': 'Rek-cy'
Swap the syllables: 'Cy-rek'.

Isn't 'Cyrek' a Polish surname?

Yes. It is. I'm not Polish though. I chose Cyrek as a pseudonym long before I realised there was any connection with Eastern Europe. The name is found in Greece too. In both languages 'Cyrek' means 'Lordly', or something like it.

Hey! I'm a Cyrek too, and all my websearches keep finding your site. Why is that?

I really wish I knew. Then I could sell my secret and be rich.

But seriously; I'm the probably the most prolific of the online Cyreks, and as a result my site is linked from quite a few places. I admit that many of the links out there were created by me, but it genuinely wasn't in an effort to get my site ranked highly.

If you'd like, I'll be quite happy to add a link to any of my namesakes on the Links page or right here in the FAQ.

CyrekSoft? What's that?

CyrekSoft is a pseudo-company that produces software. Or it would do if the sole employee and owner wasn't already working for a real company. All views on this site are my own and not those of my employer...

What has CS produced lately?

Lately, not a lot. Most of our software is/was written for the rapidly dying operating system known to it's users as DOS, in an up-and-coming language called Euphoria. And a very nice language it is too, but I'm getting off the point...

Some of the things we've done (or "I've done", I suppose ;-) ) include:

I have a question that isn't on this page. What should I do?

You send me an email at website{}cyreksoft.yorks.com making the obvious change to the e-mail address. If it's a good question, it might even be added to this page with both full accreditation to you and hopefully, a really good answer.