(July 7th - 9pm)
The afternoon turned out to be more of a disappointment than I had expected. All the emails I sent out earlier bounced back as undeliverable, and there were
far fewer office buildings sitting vacant than I had hoped for.
I had been hoping that I wasn't the only one from the infamous to show up, even if they didn't respond to my message. It looked like I wouldn't be
able to reconnect with old allies. They weren't here, or I didn't know what aliases they were using. And I was in no position to start broadcasting my
presence to the point that they would find me.
The hunt for abandoned office space was almost as bad. Oh sure, there was no shortage of office space for rent (and places that looked like they had been on
the market for several years). But those places were high rent, high traffic, prime commercial real estate. Not exactly the abandoned industrial park I was
hoping for. All of the low cost, no frills, make as much noise as you want, industrial spaces were already occupied. I spent most of the night porting around
various industrial parks. Finding them either occupied, or lacking any buildings that I could conceal my operations in.
I ended up taking over an abandoned radio tower maintenance facility in the Los Altos hills. On the plus side being five miles up a fire trail in the mountains
meant I didn't have to worry that the neighbors would complain about strange lights and noises. On the down side it also meant a lack of power and water.
But since I intended to gut and rebuild the facility from the inside out a lack of power was only a temporary setback.
What was a setback, at least financially, was the money I would have to sink into parts and tools. Building robots can be fast and cheap when you have a fully
functioning machine shop to do it in. Back in the Isles I had an automated production facility that could, given sufficient materials and parts, crank out a
battle drone in half an hour or an assault bot in little over twice that time. But that type of setup was a massive investment in money and resources, far more
than I had currently. Which meant that I was back to building them by hand with whatever parts I could buy beg or steal. The equipment in these buildings would
be a good start, but there were always delicate or precision parts that couldn't be easily made.
The remaining time until dawn was spent mentally sorting the equipment on site into three groups; things that I could repair/refurbish/repurpose, things that
could be broken down for useful parts, and things that would eventually be melted down and reforged. A large percentage fell into the last group, which meant
that I wouldn't be hurting for raw materials once I got a forge up and running. I was tempted to tear down the radio tower for all of it's wonderful
high grade steel, but someone might notice that missing and come looking.
I delayed my departure an hour after dawn by building a dingbot and setting to the task of dismantling (and only dismantling) some of the equipment for parts.
I knew it would run out of power long before I got back here tomorrow night. But whatever work it managed to do was work I didn't have to do. Making sure
the dingbots had very definitive bounds is a lesson I all to well back home. I had set a dingbot to the task of cleaning one of the labs, thinking that I would
come back later in the day and finish up whatever it didn't complete. I came back to discover two of the incomplete projects disassembled and the lab
crawling with a dozen of them. Somewhere in it's little mouse sized brain the dingbot had realized it wouldn't be able to complete the task, so it gone
and fetched some of it's brethren to help. They had cleaned the dirty part of the lab and, lacking any other orders, had proceeded to 'clean' the
rest of the lab, including some works in progress.
Agatha was not pleased, she make sure it was an experience I learned from. None of the dingbots I build were allowed to make more of themselves, and I always
gave them clear boundaries to their work. As long as I was careful they could be invaluable help.
By the time I ported back to the house I was running low on energy. Plugging into the wall made me very tempted to fall asleep again, but I refrained. The UPS
guy might not have a problem dropping off packages to a house on the market. But if the retailer came by they would certainly wonder what was going on if there
were boxes sitting by the front the door. So I had to stay awake and get them out of sight as soon as the delivery person left.
Reading slashdot in the early hours of the morning was not the most productive use of my time, but it connected me a bit with who I used to be. And that made
it worth it.
----------
Note: I know that the ninja trio made it over, but they have been keeping their heads down just as much as (if not more so) than clank has. So clank
doesn't know.
-Terry
-----
"so listen up boy, or pornography starring your mother will be the second worst thing to happen to you today"
TF2: Spy
The afternoon turned out to be more of a disappointment than I had expected. All the emails I sent out earlier bounced back as undeliverable, and there were
far fewer office buildings sitting vacant than I had hoped for.
I had been hoping that I wasn't the only one from the infamous to show up, even if they didn't respond to my message. It looked like I wouldn't be
able to reconnect with old allies. They weren't here, or I didn't know what aliases they were using. And I was in no position to start broadcasting my
presence to the point that they would find me.
The hunt for abandoned office space was almost as bad. Oh sure, there was no shortage of office space for rent (and places that looked like they had been on
the market for several years). But those places were high rent, high traffic, prime commercial real estate. Not exactly the abandoned industrial park I was
hoping for. All of the low cost, no frills, make as much noise as you want, industrial spaces were already occupied. I spent most of the night porting around
various industrial parks. Finding them either occupied, or lacking any buildings that I could conceal my operations in.
I ended up taking over an abandoned radio tower maintenance facility in the Los Altos hills. On the plus side being five miles up a fire trail in the mountains
meant I didn't have to worry that the neighbors would complain about strange lights and noises. On the down side it also meant a lack of power and water.
But since I intended to gut and rebuild the facility from the inside out a lack of power was only a temporary setback.
What was a setback, at least financially, was the money I would have to sink into parts and tools. Building robots can be fast and cheap when you have a fully
functioning machine shop to do it in. Back in the Isles I had an automated production facility that could, given sufficient materials and parts, crank out a
battle drone in half an hour or an assault bot in little over twice that time. But that type of setup was a massive investment in money and resources, far more
than I had currently. Which meant that I was back to building them by hand with whatever parts I could buy beg or steal. The equipment in these buildings would
be a good start, but there were always delicate or precision parts that couldn't be easily made.
The remaining time until dawn was spent mentally sorting the equipment on site into three groups; things that I could repair/refurbish/repurpose, things that
could be broken down for useful parts, and things that would eventually be melted down and reforged. A large percentage fell into the last group, which meant
that I wouldn't be hurting for raw materials once I got a forge up and running. I was tempted to tear down the radio tower for all of it's wonderful
high grade steel, but someone might notice that missing and come looking.
I delayed my departure an hour after dawn by building a dingbot and setting to the task of dismantling (and only dismantling) some of the equipment for parts.
I knew it would run out of power long before I got back here tomorrow night. But whatever work it managed to do was work I didn't have to do. Making sure
the dingbots had very definitive bounds is a lesson I all to well back home. I had set a dingbot to the task of cleaning one of the labs, thinking that I would
come back later in the day and finish up whatever it didn't complete. I came back to discover two of the incomplete projects disassembled and the lab
crawling with a dozen of them. Somewhere in it's little mouse sized brain the dingbot had realized it wouldn't be able to complete the task, so it gone
and fetched some of it's brethren to help. They had cleaned the dirty part of the lab and, lacking any other orders, had proceeded to 'clean' the
rest of the lab, including some works in progress.
Agatha was not pleased, she make sure it was an experience I learned from. None of the dingbots I build were allowed to make more of themselves, and I always
gave them clear boundaries to their work. As long as I was careful they could be invaluable help.
By the time I ported back to the house I was running low on energy. Plugging into the wall made me very tempted to fall asleep again, but I refrained. The UPS
guy might not have a problem dropping off packages to a house on the market. But if the retailer came by they would certainly wonder what was going on if there
were boxes sitting by the front the door. So I had to stay awake and get them out of sight as soon as the delivery person left.
Reading slashdot in the early hours of the morning was not the most productive use of my time, but it connected me a bit with who I used to be. And that made
it worth it.
----------
Note: I know that the ninja trio made it over, but they have been keeping their heads down just as much as (if not more so) than clank has. So clank
doesn't know.
-Terry
-----
"so listen up boy, or pornography starring your mother will be the second worst thing to happen to you today"
TF2: Spy