Computer saga 4 - Where has the time Gone?
May. 6th, 2003 07:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
singindemonhqI'd half expected that the computer would settle down and purr when Cathy started on it, but I think it gave her quite a time. The CDVD started that sound, it's like a bagpipe played backwards and I can't think why it's equipped to do that, except maybe to repel intruders. The first time it did it at full blast it vibrated the IDI and closed a portal that'd taken ten minutes to open.
I heard Cathy telling the computer that it didn't have to be mean, and then telling it,
"You will behave!"in a voice with a whip-crack in it. Her tone would have made a Drokken sit down, shut up and probably play dead! By then she'd actually got Word to load, I gave her the following run-down on what usually happened when it did ...
When attempts to get in Word just say the Normal file won't do,
And that patronising paper clip has had its sneer at you,
And the label on the cable says the keyboard's in its slot,
But a notice on the monitor says clearly that it's not,
When the floppy will not copy and the CD makes a screech,
The ability to print at all is clearly out of reach,
And attempts to go on-line make all the warning signals flash,
Then I'll never get it working and the system's going to crash.
Cathy went on working on the computer as I sang, but she was starting to look shaky. I'd brought in bread and honey earlier, plus some really sugary drinks - she burns up energy fast while she's working. (I use sweet stuff to get a fast energy blast after a hard gig, so I do try to have it around. It's where the nickname came from, I guess.)
Yancey had brought chocolate and coke for her, too, so he evidently knew about it. He was talking to her the whole time so I started to chat to him to stop him from distracting her - and maybe he was trying to keep me from looking over her shoulder.
Cathy and Yancey were both telling me that we'd misnamed the computer, and lost control of it that way - even influenced it to hate us by calling itthe thing, the gadget, the mechanical monster, the double-click commissar, that da.. - anyway, using names with a negative influence. I hadn't thought of it as being that simple, but it did make sense, and I took note of it, even though I wasn't sure if they were serious or not.
(Well, at the time I didn't think they were serious at all, but Yancey and I started snarking on about whether I'd been in Cathy's bathroom. It was all nonsense and Cathy seemed to be ignoring us, but later I found she was telling people that I'd really taken her sponge. [I don't think I've spoken to Morrigan since but that was not the kind of image I'd wanted to project! Ah well, I suppose I brought it on myself. I'd only known a sponge might be missing because I'd seen one left on the beach, but it'd seemed like a good enough joke at the time.]
After that I started to wonder if Cathy had been joking at any point. Since then I've been checking; I suppose a computer's true name would be its registration number, so a loyalty-thrall might be feasible... With the right calling-name linked to the true name it just might be worth a try.)
By the time Yancey and I had stopped kidding around Cathy had put the voice recognition software on, rebooted the thing and was explaining to me about It seems to be true about stuff staying on the hard disc indefinately. I hadn't known, and initially I'd had a file that I'd used like a private diary, thinking that deleting an entry would destroy it.
Apparently all that was still around, everything from the way that operatives found to turn the talismans off once the computer was in use (with the charming corrollery that they went back on when it was down, as I quickly discovered) to my entry for the competition for the best vengeance wish against the creep who changed our contracts.
Anyway, she told me that the firewalls that the earlier cyber-witch had put on were excellent, which is a relief. Apparently all the data is secure enough, from my viewpoint. Quaverell usually wants a full de-briefing at the end of even a short gig and I've been in this place - well, I can't even remember how long.
If I'd known at the start how long it was going to be and what the conditions were going to be like - well, I'd probably have bitched loudly enough to be home forthwith. I'd have missed some interesting experiences, and some truly interesting people that way, too. ("Justice demons stay uninvolved..." Yeah, right.)
Cathy and Yancey had slid out before I could clarify how the security system that runs through the computer is supposed to work. Almost all I'd been told when they first installed the thing was not to cast proper wards or it might interfere with the operation of the mechanical stuff - so I'm not sure how to set it to pass friends, and putting them on the Minions list seems a bit - well, I don't think people would like it.
At the point where I finally clicked on the Thursal to connect to the IDP and Quaverell I still thought that my recall would be one of the first messages through, (at least, after they heard that I'd completed every gig I'd been notified of except the two that'd been prevented by the deaths of the clients. I even noted that I should upload the reports.) Some stuff came through, but it was old. I still hadn't faced the truth - denial city, as they'd say here.
There's a recorder that's a kind of portable part of the computer, connect it up to the main machine and it'll send across the dimensions. I took that recorder and went down into Sunnydale to make a record of what was left of the town - pending debriefing, of course. There was a lot to record - the Summers place (from the outside, I'm not stupid,) and the house that used to be Yvette's, I hiked out a good way to show the top of the Hellevator, thought about it, came back and made a seperate record of Willy's bar, then the Bronze, all with commentry - there was a lot of material.
A few of the places were broken open and looted, even by Tuesday 6th May, so after I'd finished for the evening I just stepped through a broken shop-front, plugged the recorder in to recharge - and every light in Sunnydale went out!
I heard Cathy telling the computer that it didn't have to be mean, and then telling it,
"You will behave!"in a voice with a whip-crack in it. Her tone would have made a Drokken sit down, shut up and probably play dead! By then she'd actually got Word to load, I gave her the following run-down on what usually happened when it did ...
When attempts to get in Word just say the Normal file won't do,
And that patronising paper clip has had its sneer at you,
And the label on the cable says the keyboard's in its slot,
But a notice on the monitor says clearly that it's not,
When the floppy will not copy and the CD makes a screech,
The ability to print at all is clearly out of reach,
And attempts to go on-line make all the warning signals flash,
Then I'll never get it working and the system's going to crash.
Cathy went on working on the computer as I sang, but she was starting to look shaky. I'd brought in bread and honey earlier, plus some really sugary drinks - she burns up energy fast while she's working. (I use sweet stuff to get a fast energy blast after a hard gig, so I do try to have it around. It's where the nickname came from, I guess.)
Yancey had brought chocolate and coke for her, too, so he evidently knew about it. He was talking to her the whole time so I started to chat to him to stop him from distracting her - and maybe he was trying to keep me from looking over her shoulder.
Cathy and Yancey were both telling me that we'd misnamed the computer, and lost control of it that way - even influenced it to hate us by calling it
(Well, at the time I didn't think they were serious at all, but Yancey and I started snarking on about whether I'd been in Cathy's bathroom. It was all nonsense and Cathy seemed to be ignoring us, but later I found she was telling people that I'd really taken her sponge. [I don't think I've spoken to Morrigan since but that was not the kind of image I'd wanted to project! Ah well, I suppose I brought it on myself. I'd only known a sponge might be missing because I'd seen one left on the beach, but it'd seemed like a good enough joke at the time.]
After that I started to wonder if Cathy had been joking at any point. Since then I've been checking; I suppose a computer's true name would be its registration number, so a loyalty-thrall might be feasible... With the right calling-name linked to the true name it just might be worth a try.)
By the time Yancey and I had stopped kidding around Cathy had put the voice recognition software on, rebooted the thing and was explaining to me about It seems to be true about stuff staying on the hard disc indefinately. I hadn't known, and initially I'd had a file that I'd used like a private diary, thinking that deleting an entry would destroy it.
Apparently all that was still around, everything from the way that operatives found to turn the talismans off once the computer was in use (with the charming corrollery that they went back on when it was down, as I quickly discovered) to my entry for the competition for the best vengeance wish against the creep who changed our contracts.
Anyway, she told me that the firewalls that the earlier cyber-witch had put on were excellent, which is a relief. Apparently all the data is secure enough, from my viewpoint. Quaverell usually wants a full de-briefing at the end of even a short gig and I've been in this place - well, I can't even remember how long.
If I'd known at the start how long it was going to be and what the conditions were going to be like - well, I'd probably have bitched loudly enough to be home forthwith. I'd have missed some interesting experiences, and some truly interesting people that way, too. ("Justice demons stay uninvolved..." Yeah, right.)
Cathy and Yancey had slid out before I could clarify how the security system that runs through the computer is supposed to work. Almost all I'd been told when they first installed the thing was not to cast proper wards or it might interfere with the operation of the mechanical stuff - so I'm not sure how to set it to pass friends, and putting them on the Minions list seems a bit - well, I don't think people would like it.
At the point where I finally clicked on the Thursal to connect to the IDP and Quaverell I still thought that my recall would be one of the first messages through, (at least, after they heard that I'd completed every gig I'd been notified of except the two that'd been prevented by the deaths of the clients. I even noted that I should upload the reports.) Some stuff came through, but it was old. I still hadn't faced the truth - denial city, as they'd say here.
There's a recorder that's a kind of portable part of the computer, connect it up to the main machine and it'll send across the dimensions. I took that recorder and went down into Sunnydale to make a record of what was left of the town - pending debriefing, of course. There was a lot to record - the Summers place (from the outside, I'm not stupid,) and the house that used to be Yvette's, I hiked out a good way to show the top of the Hellevator, thought about it, came back and made a seperate record of Willy's bar, then the Bronze, all with commentry - there was a lot of material.
A few of the places were broken open and looted, even by Tuesday 6th May, so after I'd finished for the evening I just stepped through a broken shop-front, plugged the recorder in to recharge - and every light in Sunnydale went out!
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