(July 8th - 11AM)
The first delivery arrived a little after 11AM, seven large boxes from amazon. I felt a little sorry for the delivery man, the box with the lead-acid batteries was heavy. Not sorry enough to go out and help him with it, but just a little bit. As soon as he had left I had the boxes inside and spread out in the office I used the first night. It was the middle of the day on wednesday, so I wasn't worried about the realtor suddenly stopping by to show the property to anyone.
The radios, batteries, and solar panels were important. But the things that got me humming a happy little tune were the tools. Three of the seven boxes had everything I could justify to myself. Everything from soldering irons and tweezers to wrenches and torx bits. I spent two hours carefully dismantling the emergency band radios for their digital signal processing components and wide band antennas. Such things were beyond my capabilities to produce, at least in anything close to this form factor and power requirements. The wifi cards went under the knife next, acting as a partial surrogate for the radio components.
It was a little after three when I finished the set of fifteen bastardized cards. I got up and walked around the house a bit to shake lose the aches in my servos. Part of me was appalled and frustrated that I couldn't continue to keep working at peak efficiency. The other part of me was amazed that I had just gone all Dr. Frankenstein on high end electronics for the past four hours and all I felt was a little stiffness.
While I was up I checked the front door, sure enough the second set of packages had arrived. Three slightly smaller boxes from newegg, but their contents were just as important. I brought them inside and eagerly unpacked the contents in the office. Mini-pcb boards, processors, memory, compact flash chips, microcontrollers, transformers, and various other kit. I couldn't quite stop myself from quiet maniacal laughter.
***
It was getting dark by the time I finished, and the servos in one hand were developing a cramp, but I couldn't keep the smile off my face. Fifteen dull brown plastic cases were stacked near the desk. They were my first bit of serious work in this world and I was proud of them. Each one was about twice the size of a car battery, had a shiny black solar strip across the top, and a trilobite engraved on the side. Inside each waterproof case was enough processing power and memory to serve two basic functions: first, forming a replacement for the Infamous network with store-and-forward capability; second, monitoring the local police, fire, and ems channels.
They had limited speech to text software onboard (the really good stuff was far too processor intensive for the power requirements that I could afford), and would monitor signals in range for specific keywords. If they found anything an alert would be posted to the Infamous network with it's best guess as to what was being said. I could then instruct that unit to act as a voip bridge and listen in to what was being said. Not ideal, but good enough. Each unit had a range of just under four miles, which meant that I needed six of them to cover San Francisco. The rest were scattered to be scattered around Oakland, Freemont, and San Jose.
Given the geographic distance between them I would end up with Four isolated networks. That wasn't a deal killer, as long as one node in each network had access to wifi I would get an email if something tripped the filters or if someone besides me signed on. Ideally I would be able to setup some sort of larger network using directed antennas or optical lasers, but the power draws for those were too great for the car batteries and solar cells these ran off of. And leaching power from the buildings themselves was a great way to get noticed.
Once the sun had finished setting I tossed all fifteen of the cases into pocketspace and ported my way up to SF. I would make sure I had coverage there first, even if it meant going a little short somewhere else.
***
(July 9th - 1pm)
I was back in the house cleaning up from yesterdays construction and trying to figure out how I would power the base-to-be when I got my first email. I expected it to one of the units complaining about a component failure of some sort. That was not the case.
-------------
Notes: Yes, Clank has been out of the loop in regards to recent local news. She has a bad habit of monomania, especially when she feels vulnerable.
-Terry
-----
"so listen up boy, or pornography starring your mother will be the second worst thing to happen to you today"
TF2: Spy
The first delivery arrived a little after 11AM, seven large boxes from amazon. I felt a little sorry for the delivery man, the box with the lead-acid batteries was heavy. Not sorry enough to go out and help him with it, but just a little bit. As soon as he had left I had the boxes inside and spread out in the office I used the first night. It was the middle of the day on wednesday, so I wasn't worried about the realtor suddenly stopping by to show the property to anyone.
The radios, batteries, and solar panels were important. But the things that got me humming a happy little tune were the tools. Three of the seven boxes had everything I could justify to myself. Everything from soldering irons and tweezers to wrenches and torx bits. I spent two hours carefully dismantling the emergency band radios for their digital signal processing components and wide band antennas. Such things were beyond my capabilities to produce, at least in anything close to this form factor and power requirements. The wifi cards went under the knife next, acting as a partial surrogate for the radio components.
It was a little after three when I finished the set of fifteen bastardized cards. I got up and walked around the house a bit to shake lose the aches in my servos. Part of me was appalled and frustrated that I couldn't continue to keep working at peak efficiency. The other part of me was amazed that I had just gone all Dr. Frankenstein on high end electronics for the past four hours and all I felt was a little stiffness.
While I was up I checked the front door, sure enough the second set of packages had arrived. Three slightly smaller boxes from newegg, but their contents were just as important. I brought them inside and eagerly unpacked the contents in the office. Mini-pcb boards, processors, memory, compact flash chips, microcontrollers, transformers, and various other kit. I couldn't quite stop myself from quiet maniacal laughter.
***
It was getting dark by the time I finished, and the servos in one hand were developing a cramp, but I couldn't keep the smile off my face. Fifteen dull brown plastic cases were stacked near the desk. They were my first bit of serious work in this world and I was proud of them. Each one was about twice the size of a car battery, had a shiny black solar strip across the top, and a trilobite engraved on the side. Inside each waterproof case was enough processing power and memory to serve two basic functions: first, forming a replacement for the Infamous network with store-and-forward capability; second, monitoring the local police, fire, and ems channels.
They had limited speech to text software onboard (the really good stuff was far too processor intensive for the power requirements that I could afford), and would monitor signals in range for specific keywords. If they found anything an alert would be posted to the Infamous network with it's best guess as to what was being said. I could then instruct that unit to act as a voip bridge and listen in to what was being said. Not ideal, but good enough. Each unit had a range of just under four miles, which meant that I needed six of them to cover San Francisco. The rest were scattered to be scattered around Oakland, Freemont, and San Jose.
Given the geographic distance between them I would end up with Four isolated networks. That wasn't a deal killer, as long as one node in each network had access to wifi I would get an email if something tripped the filters or if someone besides me signed on. Ideally I would be able to setup some sort of larger network using directed antennas or optical lasers, but the power draws for those were too great for the car batteries and solar cells these ran off of. And leaching power from the buildings themselves was a great way to get noticed.
Once the sun had finished setting I tossed all fifteen of the cases into pocketspace and ported my way up to SF. I would make sure I had coverage there first, even if it meant going a little short somewhere else.
***
(July 9th - 1pm)
I was back in the house cleaning up from yesterdays construction and trying to figure out how I would power the base-to-be when I got my first email. I expected it to one of the units complaining about a component failure of some sort. That was not the case.
Quote:From: SF_Node_4It took me a few seconds before I grokked 'Pass able suppers evolved' to mean 'possible supers involved'. Two seconds after that I was in transit to San Francisco. I didn't know what 'bee of hay for forty five power street' was supposed to mean, but I was betting I would have a better idea once I heard the chatter myself.
To: BubblesAndLaseryDeath@gmail.com
Subject: Verbage alert - "supp?er"
SF_Node_4 reporting police_channel_7 has hit against a watchword.
line of interest follows:
Report of a robbery in pro grass at bee of hay for forty five power street. Pass able suppers evolved. Pro seat with caution.
-------------
Notes: Yes, Clank has been out of the loop in regards to recent local news. She has a bad habit of monomania, especially when she feels vulnerable.
-Terry
-----
"so listen up boy, or pornography starring your mother will be the second worst thing to happen to you today"
TF2: Spy