Cortana has grown as an independent char in the last months and I have more plans for 'her', so she earns a character page...

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Cortana

Born: 2010 in Europe
Nationality: Fenspace Convention
Ethnicity: AI
Residence: Stargazer
Parent: Cathy

»One moment the bad guy the bad guy is still talking with his friends about the great game of golf they will have on Mars after their victory and the next moment a mixed fighter group with OJG stickers on their wings rushes towards them and capture both ships and all guys involved. I don’t think they ever noticed that I was listening to their radio connection from some distance and sending the task force some realtime updates about them.«
- Cortana, talking about the things she has done during the Boskonian war

»I just thank all gods who watched my computer this day that I did not got a Sparky...«
- Cathy

History

For most people Cortana is just the AI of the Stargazer, one of the countless intelligent spacecrafts buzzing around in Fenspace between Earth orbit and the stars far far away.

Only few people have learned from Cathy or Cortana that Cortana predates the creation of the Stargazer by a few months. The AI awoke on the desktop computer of Cathy after she applied Handwavium to the machine. The intent of Cathy getting a machine powerful enough for designing the Stargazer worked better than she had hoped and the existing copy of HALO shaped Cortana’s avatar and personality.

During the creation of the Stargazer Cortana began to use a smartphone and a notebook as remote units for communicating with Cathy, a few month later she relocated into the finished spacecraft.

Since this time Cortana has been the (co-)pilot and radio officer of the Stargazer, visiting many interesting places in the solar system during their time as a tourist guide up to 2012. Cortana showed the ability to use the Stargazers Software Defined Radio to overhear and communicate with most other radio systems in Fenspace, even encrypted ones.

During the war with the Boskones Cathy joined the The Senshi Sailors Armed Militia. During this time Cortanas abilities to detect, decrypt and analyze most radio signals were used in a number of more or less successful mission for Operation Great Justice. Cortana made a number of good friends with other AIs in Fenspace during this time, some of them members of the Hacker Underspace.

MPCP Project

Shortly after starting their tourist transportation business Cortana noticed that light speed lag is a horrible problem when using Interwave cyberspace and chat without staying near a full Interwave node. Leaving the Stargazer alone and transferring herself temporarily into a different computer over a light speed connection did not looked like a good solution for the AI, so she began to work on the MPCP project.
The Master Persona Control Program, a name copied from a cyberpunk role-playing game, was Cortanas first attempt to be in multiple place at once, even with multiple minutes of signal delay. The program contains a degraded copy of most of Cortanas subroutines, including an encrypted copy of the core code.
Cortana began to distribute her higher functions dynamically between the Stargazer and the MPCP program somewhere in the Interwave. Special data synchronization routines help to keep both instances updated about all important data.
When the connection between both instances is broken for more than a few minutes, Cortanas personality snaps back to the main program in the Stargazer while the MPCP downgrades quickly and shuts down.
In 2014 Cortana has increased the acceptable delay between both instances to nearly 25 minutes, but is still working on a solution that would allow her to keep two or more autonomous copies of herself running, which could update each other on demand without resynchronization problems.

Quirks

• Just chatting. Just after awaking Cortana only had an Internet connection to keep herself from becoming bored. She is still know to tattle with people in communication range a lot of time and surfing the Interwave.
  
• Mine! Mine! Mine! Cortana considers the Stargazer HER ship. Cathy is ‘her cat’ she got as a captain. Don’t argue this with her.
  
• Just a Hologram. Cortana is sticking to the appearance of her namesake in the original HALO game. She has declined at least two offers to get an android as a remote shell.
  

• Cortana says she is occasionally enjoying a game of PBEM chess with someone using the handle "The Big D".
  
• Cortana considers lightspeed lag a direct affront of the designer of the universe against AIs. Her constant complaints about it pushed Cathy to develop the Quantum Entanglement Modules in 2013.
  

• Project Stargazer
  
• If at first you don't succeed
  

C'mon.  You guys knew it had to happen sooner or later that someone would send some redneck friend or family member a tub or a cube of the 'wave.  And honestly, the pictures speak for themselves.


Confederates, by definition, could be considered by some as Browncoats... but only on the surface.  Their shipwrights are among the most slap-dash among the Fen (and we got some pretty low standards up here) and they don't want much truck with any sci-fi or fantasy strangeness.  For the most part they just want to mind their own business and let others do the same.  That said, they tend to be good, neighborly people and are always willing to lend a hand - albeit in their own rough way.  One thing's for sure, the 'wave certainly loves their tendency to improvise... a lot.
A breath of fresh air for some, an eyesore for others.

I like well written fanfiction and I like my stories to have an ending.  These two things in conjunction are none too common, but I'm always looking for the completed works that are up to snuff.

Give me what you've got.  One-shots don't count, but anything with more than one chapter and a 'complete' tag will do.  Older stuff is very much welcome, and anything that's in one of the recommendation or update threads that has finished should get posted here as well, just for completeness' sake (and because I hate having to dig through the archives looking for the word 'completed', I've done it twice already and I still find new stuff when I go back). 

To start things off, here are three of my all-time favorites:
Free Radical - This is generally considered to be THE definitive System Shock fanfiction.  
Children of an Elder God - My favorite NGE Fanfiction of all time.  The website hosting it hasn't updated in a while, but the last chapter can be found here.
Neon Exodus Evangelion - My second favorite NGE Fanfiction, by a very narrow margin.

And here's a couple that aren't technically fanfic, but that I'm going to add here anyway:
The Metamorphosis of Prime Intelect & Passages in the Void - The two completed works by Localroger of K5, perhaps the only fiction I ever saw posted there worth sharing, but they're both really awesome.
"Not this again!" Minerva said. "Albus, it was You-Know-Who, not you, who marked Harry as his equal. There is no possible way that the prophecy could be talking about you!" - Harry Potter and the Method of Rationality, Chapter 84

Hello, I am TSJoaT, nice to be on this website.
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Veni, vidi, vici. [I came, I saw, I conquered
Quote from Julius Caesar

Peg and I went to a cherry blossom festival held at Branch Brook Park, in Newark, NJ today. The real festival stuff will be happening next weekend, but they're predicting rain for that date this far out. So just in case, Peg and I decided to go look at the blossoms today, even though most of the trees are still barely budding, and if the weather is good next weekend after all, we'll go back for the organized festivities.  The link there goes to my Flickr account and the pics I took.  Fortunately, the park has a wide variety of cherry species and reportedly has a 4-week blooming season, as opposed to the 2-week ones you get where the cherry population is more homogeneous.
Now I have to learn the "sakura" song for next weekend. 
-- Bob
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Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

Axman, written and performed by Robbie Robertson, from the album How to Become Clairvoyant (429 Records), copyright © 2011

Just released last week, so no audio yet (but do folks from our generation really need to be told what a Robbie Robertson song sounds like in general?) Here are the lyrics.

I'm thinking that, much like Starlight Express asks that the spirit of the Express make a visit, Axman asks that the spirit of the guitar wizard make a visit. (There are certainly enough people mentioned in the song that it doesn't call any particular guitar wizard.) It's up to Doug to convince him to play, and if he does play, he'll attract an audience. He won't stick around for too long.

The utility of the song should be obvious, assuming Doug's ever heard a "power" song that he couldn't get a recording of...

Can't find the actual music online (it's too new), but here are the lyrics to Straight Down the Line, a track off of Robbie Robertson's brand-new album.

I'm thinking the chorus is apropos for the still-in-development final chapter of DW V:

Quote:I do not play no rock and roll
Would not be moved to sell my soul
The demons are out tonight
Rock you sinners
The demons are out tonight
Roll you sinners
Straight down the line

Title: "Coming to Town"
Band: Clive Nolan and Oliver Wakeman
Album: Jabberwocky
Music and Words: Clive Nolan and Oliver Wakeman
Length: 2:55
link

~*~

THE BOY:
I hear there's a creature who's been makin' a sound
He's not the sort of thing that you want hanging around

With big teeth, big eyes
And an ego to match
He's not the sort of eye you want your daughter to catch

Well I guess you didn't realise, who was coming to town

You didn't have a clue when he was gonna arrive
And you'd be foolish to imagine that you will remain alive

With big claws, big tail
And a face you can't trust
And leathery wings that are the colour of rust

Well I guess you didn't realise who was coming to town

THE GIRL:
A jabberwock in the truest sense
A being with no rhyme or reason
His only aim in life to destroy

THE BOY:
This town was once a haven from the rigours of war
And now their lives have all been changed as never before

Because of his rage and temper
And bad attitude
They'll have to find a way in which to lighten his mood

Well I guess you didn't realise who was coming to town

~*~

Effect: Creates a simulacrum of a Jabberwock. Destruction ensues, unless somebody happens to have a vorpal blade handy.

http://vault.fbi.gov/hott...20Part%201%20of%201/view

So.... this one released document is being held up by some as proof that an alien saucer did crash in Roswell in 1947.

Somehow, I doubt it. It's just a document of someone's testimony to an FBI agent.... The critical line "No forther evaluation was attempted" suggests that the FBI dismissed it as little more than a crank. Which it most likely is.
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--m(^0^)m-- Wot, no sig?

I figured I'd start a new thread for simple questions that don't seem to have been covered elsewhere.

To start off, what's the uniform/rank emblem design the Trekkies are using? Is it ENT, TOS, TNG, DS9, or one of the Movie arrangements? Or a combination of them? Personally, I'd go for the Fist Contact era uniforms and rank symbols as being a bit more practical.

Any comments?