More fun with the making of The Bullet Boy Express! This time with MS Word Spellchecking action! (Yeah, I'm gonna be going back through the previous posts and doing the same. ^_^;;; )
That was not the only thing different. Some of the signal lamps nestled between the two main dials indicated different things. I wasn't sure what, though. I then happened to look down that the drive selector (it was an automatic transaxle) and saw that the 2nd and 1st selections were now "F" and "S".
Now I was curious. I pressed down on the brake pedal and shifted the selector from "P" to "F". The only thing that happened was that a red light among the other signal lamps began to blink accompanied by a low-key buzz. It was one of the ones that had changed. This one's new label read "AI?".
"AI?" I said aloud, at once puzzled and understanding. I knew then that I needed an artificial intelligence to handle what must be the avionics controls, but where was I going to get one and how would I hook one up? Right away, my eyes went to the non-stock stereo mounted in the dashboard. The Pioneer car stereo still looked the same as it did before, but after the Handwavium treatment, I'd given the car I'd be willing to bet that that wasn't the case anymore. With that thought in mind, I shut down the engine and got my tools out. I had pulled the stereo out once before to do a little bit of wiring work so I knew the trick to getting the thing out. Fifteen minutes later, I'd found that the thing had a fiber optic port that was not there the last time I'd done work on the stereo system.
I gave a bark of laughter and set the thing aside. It'd be kinda dumb to put it back in now when I had to get a computer rigged in here somehow.
Before I had left for work the next day, I checked my computer just to be sure. As I had thought, the ports behind the tower had changed as well - now, aside from the VGA port for the monitor, there was nothing but fiber optic, USB, 1394 ports, along with the obligatory Ethernet port. So it was that after work I purchased a sizable fiber optic cable that I figured would be long enough to run along the floorboards to the trunk there the computer would be secured.
Briefly, I wondered about power. That is, how I was going to get power to the computer. The power supply still ran on AC power, so I figured that what I'd have to do was to hook up a good and powerful inverter. Good thing I actually had one left lying around.
It was actually a burned out one, but I figured that a Handwavium treatment would fix that and then some. Of course, this also meant that I had to go out and buy a long enough cable for the power inverter so it could be directly connected to the battery, but that was no big deal since auto-parts stores had that sort of thing in stock. One evening's hard work later, I had the inverter installed and handwaviumized, the fiber optic data cable ran through to the trunk. I was ready to call it a night.
That evening in my down time I spent a little more time having fun with Crazy Taxi on my suped-up computer and studying Asuka Langely Soryu from Neon Genesis Evangelion. I don't know why, but I found the angry little Eurasian redhead quite fascinating and, before I went to bed that night, I even began to write up an introspection of her character.
The following morning I hit upon a snag. I realized that I had no way to fit the monitor inside the car without it taking up the entire passenger side seat - that would just be awkward. So, with a little work on Google I found a nice 17" flip-down LCD monitor that was suitable for the application at hand.
One week later, I was trying to figure out how the hell I was going to hook it up. While the website had said it was a monitor, I had forgotten to check for what kind of inputs it had. With a weary sigh, I went out and bought one more long fiber-optic cable. It was a good thing that I didn't have to pay rent, just the utilities.
I set up a plastic tub full of Handwavium, duct taped one end of the new fiber optic cable to the monitor's AV-in port, hooked up the power cord just to be safe, and dropped it into the handwavium. The next morning I pulled it out and wiped away the excess handwavium and nodded a satisfied nod, for the fiber optic cable now ran inside the casing where it was surely directly connected to the hardware.
After I was sure it had dried off, I hooked it up to my computer just to be sure. I accidentally found that it more than just worked. When I saw the crystal clarity of the picture I choked on my customary tropical-punch kool-aid and spattered the display. Wiping the coughed-up kool-aid, I found the mouse cursor moving with every motion my hand made against the screen.
"Bitchin'!" I cried out. The simple LCD monitor had become an absurdly high-resolution touch screen. And why not? Such was the magic of Handwavium. I just hadn't figured out why things hadn't become as quirky as everyone else's had been. Maybe this was as quirky as it got? Or maybe it was picking up off my tech-head vibe and giving my all the nice tech-toys? Who knows?
Briefly, my eyes turned towards my Shure E-500 earphones and I had to shake off the urge. I didn't want to chance anything weird happening to the $500 dollar Earphones my Dad was able to get me (He worked for the company). If they had beaten out Herby Hancock's custom-made Bose headset, then they were good enough without the Handwavium.
I had the day off, so I spent it installing the new fold-down display in place of the driver's side visor and the computer into the trunk. The keyboard was wireless, so I placed the receiver in the back, just over the center seat and kept the keyboard on the center consol. After making sure that everything was connected properly, I crossed my fingers and pushed the power button on the computer and went to the driver's seat.
Well... it was odd. I wasn't even getting the boot-up screen. In fact, I was getting very nervous because there was a lot of strange green code scrolling up the screen that seemed to consist of ASCII and katakana.
"Oooh shit," I said under my breath as I recognized where I last saw code like this. Suddenly, the code's trailing patterns became warped and twisted as something seemed to push through the 'surface' of the code. Fascinated beyond all rationality, I watched as this form began to take on more and more definition.
Whatever it was, it was female. Suddenly, the code on the figure began to take on more and more complexity until it blended together and even take on other colors. Soon, I found myself looking at an alabaster-skinned Eurasian girl with flaming red hair and blue eyes. She wore a strange red-with-black-trim get-up that resembled a high-tech diving suit.
"Hoooooh-leeeeeee fuck!" I breathed fervently.
You would too if you suddenly found Asuka Langley Soryu living inside your computer...
Which also happened to be connected to your car...
Your car that could supposedly fly...
Oh boy.
Black Aeronaut Technologies Group
Aerospace Solutions for the discerning spacer
"But first, let's test it on the penguin."
"Meep?" O.o
That was not the only thing different. Some of the signal lamps nestled between the two main dials indicated different things. I wasn't sure what, though. I then happened to look down that the drive selector (it was an automatic transaxle) and saw that the 2nd and 1st selections were now "F" and "S".
Now I was curious. I pressed down on the brake pedal and shifted the selector from "P" to "F". The only thing that happened was that a red light among the other signal lamps began to blink accompanied by a low-key buzz. It was one of the ones that had changed. This one's new label read "AI?".
"AI?" I said aloud, at once puzzled and understanding. I knew then that I needed an artificial intelligence to handle what must be the avionics controls, but where was I going to get one and how would I hook one up? Right away, my eyes went to the non-stock stereo mounted in the dashboard. The Pioneer car stereo still looked the same as it did before, but after the Handwavium treatment, I'd given the car I'd be willing to bet that that wasn't the case anymore. With that thought in mind, I shut down the engine and got my tools out. I had pulled the stereo out once before to do a little bit of wiring work so I knew the trick to getting the thing out. Fifteen minutes later, I'd found that the thing had a fiber optic port that was not there the last time I'd done work on the stereo system.
I gave a bark of laughter and set the thing aside. It'd be kinda dumb to put it back in now when I had to get a computer rigged in here somehow.
Before I had left for work the next day, I checked my computer just to be sure. As I had thought, the ports behind the tower had changed as well - now, aside from the VGA port for the monitor, there was nothing but fiber optic, USB, 1394 ports, along with the obligatory Ethernet port. So it was that after work I purchased a sizable fiber optic cable that I figured would be long enough to run along the floorboards to the trunk there the computer would be secured.
Briefly, I wondered about power. That is, how I was going to get power to the computer. The power supply still ran on AC power, so I figured that what I'd have to do was to hook up a good and powerful inverter. Good thing I actually had one left lying around.
It was actually a burned out one, but I figured that a Handwavium treatment would fix that and then some. Of course, this also meant that I had to go out and buy a long enough cable for the power inverter so it could be directly connected to the battery, but that was no big deal since auto-parts stores had that sort of thing in stock. One evening's hard work later, I had the inverter installed and handwaviumized, the fiber optic data cable ran through to the trunk. I was ready to call it a night.
That evening in my down time I spent a little more time having fun with Crazy Taxi on my suped-up computer and studying Asuka Langely Soryu from Neon Genesis Evangelion. I don't know why, but I found the angry little Eurasian redhead quite fascinating and, before I went to bed that night, I even began to write up an introspection of her character.
The following morning I hit upon a snag. I realized that I had no way to fit the monitor inside the car without it taking up the entire passenger side seat - that would just be awkward. So, with a little work on Google I found a nice 17" flip-down LCD monitor that was suitable for the application at hand.
One week later, I was trying to figure out how the hell I was going to hook it up. While the website had said it was a monitor, I had forgotten to check for what kind of inputs it had. With a weary sigh, I went out and bought one more long fiber-optic cable. It was a good thing that I didn't have to pay rent, just the utilities.
I set up a plastic tub full of Handwavium, duct taped one end of the new fiber optic cable to the monitor's AV-in port, hooked up the power cord just to be safe, and dropped it into the handwavium. The next morning I pulled it out and wiped away the excess handwavium and nodded a satisfied nod, for the fiber optic cable now ran inside the casing where it was surely directly connected to the hardware.
After I was sure it had dried off, I hooked it up to my computer just to be sure. I accidentally found that it more than just worked. When I saw the crystal clarity of the picture I choked on my customary tropical-punch kool-aid and spattered the display. Wiping the coughed-up kool-aid, I found the mouse cursor moving with every motion my hand made against the screen.
"Bitchin'!" I cried out. The simple LCD monitor had become an absurdly high-resolution touch screen. And why not? Such was the magic of Handwavium. I just hadn't figured out why things hadn't become as quirky as everyone else's had been. Maybe this was as quirky as it got? Or maybe it was picking up off my tech-head vibe and giving my all the nice tech-toys? Who knows?
Briefly, my eyes turned towards my Shure E-500 earphones and I had to shake off the urge. I didn't want to chance anything weird happening to the $500 dollar Earphones my Dad was able to get me (He worked for the company). If they had beaten out Herby Hancock's custom-made Bose headset, then they were good enough without the Handwavium.
I had the day off, so I spent it installing the new fold-down display in place of the driver's side visor and the computer into the trunk. The keyboard was wireless, so I placed the receiver in the back, just over the center seat and kept the keyboard on the center consol. After making sure that everything was connected properly, I crossed my fingers and pushed the power button on the computer and went to the driver's seat.
Well... it was odd. I wasn't even getting the boot-up screen. In fact, I was getting very nervous because there was a lot of strange green code scrolling up the screen that seemed to consist of ASCII and katakana.
"Oooh shit," I said under my breath as I recognized where I last saw code like this. Suddenly, the code's trailing patterns became warped and twisted as something seemed to push through the 'surface' of the code. Fascinated beyond all rationality, I watched as this form began to take on more and more definition.
Whatever it was, it was female. Suddenly, the code on the figure began to take on more and more complexity until it blended together and even take on other colors. Soon, I found myself looking at an alabaster-skinned Eurasian girl with flaming red hair and blue eyes. She wore a strange red-with-black-trim get-up that resembled a high-tech diving suit.
"Hoooooh-leeeeeee fuck!" I breathed fervently.
You would too if you suddenly found Asuka Langley Soryu living inside your computer...
Which also happened to be connected to your car...
Your car that could supposedly fly...
Oh boy.
Black Aeronaut Technologies Group
Aerospace Solutions for the discerning spacer
"But first, let's test it on the penguin."
"Meep?" O.o