Dunno. But the sound of one lynx writing, that I can make out pretty well ^_^ Don't worry about going too slow, if it takes that long to tell the story then it does. Better to do a good job than to dash through it and regret your haste.

Looks like the system is down... wonder who they'll get to fix it? <=)

Looks like a job for TechMaster... except reparing fire damage to a 50-odd-year-old computer is something that's probably beyond even HIM! (No offence meant)

None taken, sir. :)

Not to sound too boastful, mind you, but I've worked on fire-damaged systems before. Right now the characters' interaction interests me a little more, however. The prevailing mindset seems to be treading a fine line between protection of one's cultural past and outright xenophobia...

"Not to sound too boastful, mind you, but I've worked on fire-damaged systems before."

Yes, but how many were this old and creaky? The fire damage is the last straw, however; there's several other problems with the computer that are related to the tubes having been repaired over and over and being simply worn out.

"Right now the characters' interaction interests me a little more, however. The prevailing mindset seems to be treading a fine line between protection of one's cultural past and outright xenophobia..."

The subtleties and niggles of Imperial politics and mindsets are interesting? I never thought about it that way, I thought it was just a minor side trip that needed to be resolved soon!

"The subtleties and niggles of Imperial politics and mindsets are interesting? I never thought about it that way, I thought it was just a minor side trip that needed to be resolved soon!"
Well, they're interesting to the tech who'll be working on the computer... you read my comic story about the supervisor who didn't want me to tell her the problem was a customer error? That's how it is in actual practice... it's the customer the tech has to deal with just as much as the systems, if not more so. Just from what you've written, I can spot all kinds of potential issues. Technology isn't ubiquitous there... they gain some advantages by having their computer do the work, but the main character made it quite clear that if the need arose they could do without the computer. What if, by the time Roger and Gene arrive, political and personal forces are in motion toward that very thing? Suppose their economy shifts by putting so many scribes back to work? Would those in power decide they liked it that way... that the destruction of their computer was a blessing in disguise, a (possibly) divine sign that the old ways were best? I've already mentioned the xenophobic tensions.. would having to welcome strangers from the outside world be the "last straw", so to speak?

During my career at IBM I not only had to work on fire damaged systems, I once had to cross a picket line to provide service. -_-

Are the politics and mindsets interesting? Trust me, they are.

I did indeed read that comic; I think it was on your Bits and Pieces website.

What you suggested here definately gives me some ideas.

Welcoming strangers from outside won't be a problem; Priest-Emperor Zaykar's best friend is none other than Mayor Donald Clydesdale, Ivan's political faction is not xenophobic as much as neophobic, many in the Empire have Canadian fathers, grandfathers, and great-grandfathers, due to a critical dearth of males after WWII (I deal with this later in the story), several of the Landists consist of nobility who run businesses in foreign lands (one of the original reasons for hooking up to the Internet), and Zaykar and many other of the rich and powerful received education in other countries (Zaykar, for example, in the UK.) The reason for THAT is coming...

But certainly the question of "why repair the computer" would come up. And I do have an answer for that... all in good time.

By the way, am I correct in thinking that a) a laptop has more processing power than a vacuum-tube mainframe and b) it's possible that a vacuum-tube mainframe could not handle a complex "alphabet"?

That should be "many in the Empire have Canadian and American fathers, grandfathers, and great-grandfathers"

"By the way, am I correct in thinking that a) a laptop has more processing power than a vacuum-tube mainframe and b) it's possible that a vacuum-tube mainframe could not handle a complex "alphabet"?"
A great deal of confusion exists now and has always existed on the concept of "processing power". What computers do, and the logical designs that makes it possible for them to do it, has basically been the same ever since the very first mainframes were built. What has changed dramatically has been the technology: what materials are used, how densely they are packed, how much power they need, etc. As far as the things that the advances in technology have changed, computers have changed. If, by "more processing power" you mean that a laptop can do the same thing a vacumm-tube mainframe can do, only quicker, faster, more energy-efficiently and cheaper due to faster (solid-state) technology, the answer is unquestionably Yes. If on the other hand you are asking if the laptop, as far as the fundamental amount of computing actually done (which, looking past the advancements in technology, really IS "processing power") can do "more" than the old mainframe, the answer is actually No. In fact, if the mainframe had been designed with a specific function or specialized purpose in mind, the laptop could not do that mainframe's job at all, regardless of how new and fast it was. Which would adress your question of a specialized alphabet... if it is possible to translate a function, any function, into a process that a computer can handle, the computer WILL handle it. If complexity itself is not an issue to the designer, it is no issue to the computer. If the speed of a modern system is crucial, the aspect of processing speed would be an issue. But if a function can be translated into the ones and zeroes that computers have manipulated since their creation, that old vacuun-tube mainframe will be able to do it. It will use more energy, be slower and cumbersome and require more physical space and processing overhead. But it CAN do it, and if properly programmed it WILL do it.

Okay... how does this sound: The script is so complex that to use it would seriously bog down the computer. I have some explanation of the script here: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/1208557/ Karaithan (so far the only langauge ever used on the computer) has literally thousands of characters.

That works, yes. They would be quite aware that it would run, but oh, so s-l-o-w-l-y...
And it would also explain why the scribes still were in place.

*chuckle* Well we'll see. My tomcat has worked on some tuff old buckets o' bytes ;)

*chuckle* You've been reading my old notes, you nosy thing, you! ^_^