Chain Reaction

[SolidusRaccoon]

Think of the possibilities for combinations.

[The JAM]

[...unWARP!!!]

Good evening.


Endless. Completely endless. We know that the sword has a "homing system" programmed in there somewhere. If the scanner can provide the actual program structure of the runes and nodes (can it give the equivalent of a flow chart?), once Quentyn gets the hang of it, he can give out voice commands to make the sword do what he wants.

QUESTOR SWORD, LIGHTNING!!!

QUESTOR SWORD, LIGHT SCIMITAR!!!

QUESTOR SWORD, FREEZE!!!!

QUESTOR SWORD, FLAME!!!

QUESTOR SWORD, LIGHT SABER!!!

QUESTOR SWORD, NOISE!!!

QUESTOR SWORD, SHOCKWAVE!!!

QUESTOR SWORD, FIREBALL!!!


and the ever popular


QUESTOR SWORD, STATE SOLAR TIME!!!


Now, if they could only find the TIME(0) node and set it to the proper time...

[LoneWolf23k]

Heck, I don't think he'd even need to use voice commands..

Although I'm kind of disappointed it seems there's no AI... Now that advertisement spell really is just useless..

...How ironic; the first exemple of a Lux-powered Computer also suffers from the first exemple of a Lux-powered Pop-Up Ad...

[Jwrebholz]

So I see I'm not the only one who thought of a computer program when I read that description. Those runes look like logic gates, actually. Very interesting.

[Aurrin]

.... they are logic gates. If these are properly studied, Rac'conan computers might be on the way very soon. I mean, it didn't take us very long to get from the ENIAC to the machine I'm typing this on. Who knows? Maybe there'll be similar developments there.

[UncleMonty]

.... they are logic gates. If these are properly studied, Rac'conan computers might be on the way very soon. I mean, it didn't take us very long to get from the ENIAC to the machine I'm typing this on. Who knows? Maybe there'll be similar developments there.

Hey... Now THAT is an interesting concept!
I'm not sure one mage's mind could keep track of the multiple levels of logic needed to create a computing device, but still... Once somebody starts working in binary logic...

First, you figure out how to convert decimal to binary. Then you take over the world.

Or, if you have any sense at all, you ask the nice lady for another blackberry brandy.

[Aurrin]

.... they are logic gates. If these are properly studied, Rac'conan computers might be on the way very soon. I mean, it didn't take us very long to get from the ENIAC to the machine I'm typing this on. Who knows? Maybe there'll be similar developments there.

Hey... Now THAT is an interesting concept!
I'm not sure one mage's mind could keep track of the multiple levels of logic needed to create a computing device, but still... Once somebody starts working in binary logic...

First, you figure out how to convert decimal to binary. Then you take over the world.

Or, if you have any sense at all, you ask the nice lady for another blackberry brandy.

Ah, that's just it: you don't think it out from the ground up. You think it out in logical, distinct levels. There's an electronic (or runic, in this case) level, a binary level, a hexadecimal (assembler code) level, a source-code level (I'm sure I missed or got this somewhat inaccurate, but you get the idea) etc, all the way up to files and operating systems. Or ideally, you have groups of people who concentrate on just one level of it. Working together, those groups build a functional machine.

[StrangeWulf13]

Kinda cool to go from taking up two or three rooms to fitting in a backpack, huh? Technology has really improved in the last few decades, and it's not quite slowing down yet.

However, I feel it necessary to point out this probably only happened because we here in the U.S. had a big motivator to develop this technology so fast: namely, Mother Russia in her Soviet Era.

Unless the Rac Cona Daimh have a similar "arms race" with some other country, people, or person, we're not likely to see many improvements for a while.

Then again, they are quite the curious race. So who knows? In any case, we're definitely gonna see those eight runes popping up again soon. Let's just hope anyone else who uses them isn't flat out drunk when they do...

[SolidusRaccoon]

Heh and good ole Quentyn has it.

[Squirrelly61104]

I remember from an old programming course that the engineers who developed the first programmable microprocessor almost went broke.
They had planned on selling it to the military. Instead of processors custom designed for every job, you buy one in bulk and custom program it.
I know. Today it's a 'well duh' idea. Back in the fifties, the government wasn't interested. They wanted a custom built processor for battleship guns. Custom built processors for ship navigation computers, Etc.
The two engineers then started selling their home built processors out of their garage by mail, thinking only other electric hobbyists would be interested, and started the modern computer revolution!

[LoneWolf23k]

Kinda cool to go from taking up two or three rooms to fitting in a backpack, huh? Technology has really improved in the last few decades, and it's not quite slowing down yet.

However, I feel it necessary to point out this probably only happened because we here in the U.S. had a big motivator to develop this technology so fast: namely, Mother Russia in her Soviet Era.

Unless the Rac Cona Daimh have a similar "arms race" with some other country, people, or person, we're not likely to see many improvements for a while.

Then again, they are quite the curious race. So who knows? In any case, we're definitely gonna see those eight runes popping up again soon. Let's just hope anyone else who uses them isn't flat out drunk when they do...

Well, the Cold War was the primary motivation for the Space Race and for military development, sure. And while I agree that it was a strong motivator for the development of computer technology, let's not neglect the efforts of good old human "let's see if we can't make this work better" tinkering benefiting technological progress.

We always want things working better, faster, easier and longer, and that's always been one of the main motivations for technological innovation. My guess is the Rac'conan have that same desire for things to work better and make things easier.

[Greatdane]

When you look at the mayor inventions throughout history, you will see that less than half of them were invented during wartime.

Airplanes, steam machines and the microwave oven were invented outside wars. Also, computers now-a-days are evolving much faster than they did during the cold war. Now capitalism is the major driveforce, or greed, if you want to call it that.

Most of that which is developed during wars are war-time stuff. Designed to help the military-machine. But sometimes civilian stuff are used by the armies and army stuff are used by civilians.

To be honest, things like that are highly irregular, sometimes several major improvements are made during a year, sometimes none. It all comes down to who have the ideas and who are able to fullfill their ideas.

[SolidusRaccoon]

Computers were for bomb trajectory calculations. All the mobile medical equipment in Amulances came from battle field needs.

[Anthony Lion]

Actually, the first computers which could STORE a program was built in France during Napoleon's reign. They were used to control looms weaving silk fabrics.

I remember from an old programming course that the engineers who developed the first programmable microprocessor almost went broke.
They had planned on selling it to the military. Instead of processors custom designed for every job, you buy one in bulk and custom program it.
I know. Today it's a 'well duh' idea. Back in the fifties, the government wasn't interested. They wanted a custom built processor for battleship guns. Custom built processors for ship navigation computers, Etc.

The first self-contained(in one chip) microprocessor was the Intel 4004, which was a 4-bit processor built up of 25.000 transistors.
Even back then, Intel wasn't operating out of a garage, so?

Fun fact: The worlds first act of computer sabotage (if you discount the luddites who destroyed anything mechanical) happened in February 1943 in Norway.
The German occupiers wanted to enroll youths in socalled 'work-service', and wanted to use a punch-card machine and punch-cards used for population-statistics before the war.
The home front broke in and destroyed both the machine and the cards.

The earliest computer game I know of is NIM, played on NUSSE(A Norwegian computer) back in 1954.

Anyone not bored, yet?

[CasVeg]

I'm not bored. In fact, I'm just getting interested. Do go on. . . .


Anyway, custom-made chips work much more efficiently than programmable ones, until now. See, there's this thing now called a RAW chip--it combines the flexibility of a general-purpose chip with the speed of a special-porpose chip. A RAW chip is basically a whole bunch of gates crammed and linked together in a grid. What do the gates do? In and of themselves, they do nothing. However, <i>the gates can linked in various ways to create whatever hardware is needed.</i> In other words, a RAW chip can be programmed at the <b>hardware</b> level. It's an everychip, and blindingly fast, too. One team of students programmed a RAW chip and connected it to some equipment to make a radio. Another team reprogrammed the chip to turn the same equipment into a TV set.

[StrangeWulf13]

When you look at the mayor inventions throughout history, you will see that less than half of them were invented during wartime.

Airplanes, steam machines and the microwave oven were invented outside wars. Also, computers now-a-days are evolving much faster than they did during the cold war. Now capitalism is the major driveforce, or greed, if you want to call it that.

Most of that which is developed during wars are war-time stuff. Designed to help the military-machine. But sometimes civilian stuff are used by the armies and army stuff are used by civilians.

To be honest, things like that are highly irregular, sometimes several major improvements are made during a year, sometimes none. It all comes down to who have the ideas and who are able to fullfill their ideas.

Mmm, good points all around. But please, call it capitalism. Greed does not produce the innovation we've seen; it only results in hoarding and criminal behavior.

Unless you know of a few inventors who made breakthroughs by breakin' the law... =P

[Squeaky Bunny]

.... they are logic gates. If these are properly studied, Rac'conan computers might be on the way very soon. I mean, it didn't take us very long to get from the ENIAC to the machine I'm typing this on. Who knows? Maybe there'll be similar developments there.

Hey... Now THAT is an interesting concept!
I'm not sure one mage's mind could keep track of the multiple levels of logic needed to create a computing device, but still... Once somebody starts working in binary logic...

First, you figure out how to convert decimal to binary. Then you take over the world.

Chances are that the Rac'conans count in octal and not decimal.

[Aurrin]

.... they are logic gates. If these are properly studied, Rac'conan computers might be on the way very soon. I mean, it didn't take us very long to get from the ENIAC to the machine I'm typing this on. Who knows? Maybe there'll be similar developments there.

Hey... Now THAT is an interesting concept!
I'm not sure one mage's mind could keep track of the multiple levels of logic needed to create a computing device, but still... Once somebody starts working in binary logic...

First, you figure out how to convert decimal to binary. Then you take over the world.

Chances are that the Rac'conans count in octal and not decimal.

Actually, unless you have some sort of something that hints at it from the CDs, then base 12 is most likely for practical reasons. 12 is readily divisible by 1, 2, 3, 4, and 6, all of which are very common numbers on a day-to-day basis. For this reason, more of than not, human counting systems end up base 12.

[SolidusRaccoon]

A dozen eggs? Just ignore a bakers dozen, freaks.

[Squeaky Bunny]

Hey... Now THAT is an interesting concept!
I'm not sure one mage's mind could keep track of the multiple levels of logic needed to create a computing device, but still... Once somebody starts working in binary logic...

First, you figure out how to convert decimal to binary. Then you take over the world.

Chances are that the Rac'conans count in octal and not decimal.

Actually, unless you have some sort of something that hints at it from the CDs, then base 12 is most likely for practical reasons. 12 is readily divisible by 1, 2, 3, 4, and 6, all of which are very common numbers on a day-to-day basis. For this reason, more of than not, human counting systems end up base 12.

It's quite simple. Our decimal system started by counting fingers (and thumbs) so it would be logical that their number system would be based in a similar way.