Tasty Goodies and the Epic of the Vending Machine

Today I was sitting there working with the central data storage crystal, creating a backup of the whole network that is going to be shipped off site so in the event of a massive fire or something like that (Not that it's usually a problem, the fire control systems in the school usually do a pretty good job of stopping any stray fires. But sometimes they get lazy and stop paying attention) we can have a backup, and I got hungry. So I decided that I should go to the vending machine and get something to eat. Now I've seen the "Replicator" in some of the muggle TV shows, and the theory they suggest is pretty interesting. Sloppy and wasteful by wizard standards obviously, but it is an interesting alternative to the Wonks'O brand food generators. I mean, they have to program it with what they want to eat, and all we have to do is give it an example and it can make it forever more. And better yet, we can download the recipie onto removable media and give it to another food generator. I have my favorite meal (a scrumptious blend of potatoes, sausage, carrots, corn, and onions stir fried) stored on my pocket drive. (Something rougly akin to a muggle flash drive, just also capable of doing some actual processing as well as having a LOT more space.)

But anyway, stupid thing was acting up and only seemed to want to give me a salad. I spent ten minutes trying to convince it that my sausage and potatoes wasn't going to eventually kill me, and that I didn't need to eat more leafy greens.

But I guess that just made the goal at the end all the more rewarding.

OOC:

Yes, replicators. Think about it, a moderate intellegence computer mixed with the ability to cast transmutation spells (Or conjuration, I haven't decided which yet. I can't currently think of any examples of matter conjuration at this particular moment, so I guess I'm gonna have to go with transmutation) and a divination spell to determine the nature of the meal in question. Feed it generic matter (waste, dirt, etc) and it can give you back food. Same basic point as Matter<->Energy converters like replicators, but with a magical twist.

A Narrow Escape and a Good Laugh

Ætherflare Larius narrowly avoids collision: Muggles establish permanent satellite around Saturn

Well, the muggles have made it to Saturn. Caused all kinds of ruckus here since they just about ran into one of our colonies there. It was all we could do just to keep them from detecting us, and more to avoid a collision. Wouldn't have damaged the stone structure of the almost 1000 year old research colony, but the muggle's might have actually figured out this time, unlike the last two collisions with the Mars colony.

But none the less it's been hilarious watching the muggles struggle with the difficulty of space. All you need is air, shielding, and something to keep the air from escaping. It's taken them thousands of years to invent plastics, air filtration systems, launch mechanisms, etc. It was 1126 when Merlin first proposed the possibility of there being an "Æther" beyond the limit of the sky. He built the first of the Ætherflare colonies and levitated them into space, opening the heavens to all of wizard kind. Now the first few tries had much lower success rates than the muggles, loosing something like 200 brave souls to experiments involving the nature and the exploration of the Æther. Most of them died however, because unlike the 20th century muggles, the wizards hadn't really gotten the technology and spells needed to detect radiation and gas pressure levels in space. But mostly because Merlin was the first to even test the nature of the Æther, and even wizard science of the time didn't know about solar winds and the vacuum of space.

But in any case, I must commend the muggles for doing it just about the hardest way possible, but I think I should petition the magister to have them disclose the orbital path of our colonies to the higher up muggles so we can avoid this kind of thing in the future.

OOC:

Stop and consider: They can produce air tight shields, spontaneously create things like air, and have a way of bypassing gravity (contragrav); why couldn't they have long since had space travel? With magic, most of the difficault parts are almost non-existant. No escaping gravitational fields, no O₂ scrubbers, no nothing. It's so obvious it's almost painful. Plus, it makes for a good explanation of the one or two martian probes that "vanished". ^.^

Quidditch, Rain, and 802.11g Ready Schools

Well, not that it really suprises anyone, but it's soggy here in England. And since it's that time of year, the students are out there practicing for the coming year's quidditch season. Outside I can hear them laughing and playing. However, while they're out at play, I'm engaged in the arduous task of updating the school's classroom terminals. This year we're upgrading from having 150 computers to having 5 computers and 150 terminals. Basically all the terminals are is an asteral projection interface and a maginet interface. Plus, since many of the students have begun bringing their muggle made personal orginizers (They complain a lot less about being kept in a pocket all afternoon, so the students like them) we've been working on making the school both Maginet and 802.11g complient. Since the maginet is already interfaced with the muggle Internet, making our 802.11g network internet ready was a snap. We still used an intellegent router at the bridge of course, since they're compatible with the more primitive ethernet anyway. You just have to ask them to be patient because it does run a lot slower than the maginet (Since the maginet basically goes as fast as the user needs anyway, unless interfacing with the sluggish muggle links.) But such is life.

Well, I should probably stop "testing" this terminal and get onto the next one ^.^

OOC:

5 now! BTW, if anyone wants to suggest something or wants to see a particular aspect of Sarrl's life (not just the stuff I think is important) just Mail Me (jtc@nqig.net). I'll see if I can work your suggestions in. ^^