#Computers Component And Their Functions

[digitaldetoxworld]

9 Most Important Components Of a Computer And Their Functions Products

 Computers Component And Their Functions  have become critical to modern existence, powering the whole lot from communique and training to entertainment and paintings. But behind every computer's capability is a group of critical additives, every playing a critical position in its operation. Whether you’re building your personal PC or simply curious about what makes your laptop run, information the key hardware additives is vital. function.

Central Processing Unit (CPU)

The Central Processing Unit (CPU), frequently referred to as the brain of the computer, is one of the most critical additives. The CPU contains out most of the processing interior a computer, executing instructions from software and performing calculations. It handles records from reminiscence and enter/output devices, orchestrating obligations to ensure the system features easily.

Intel Core i9-13900K – High-end CPU for gaming and heavy workloads.

AMD Ryzen 9 7900X – Powerful processor with excellent multi-core performance.

Intel Core i5-13600K – Mid-range processor ideal for gaming and productivity.

AMD Ryzen 5 5600X – Budget-friendly CPU for general computing and light gaming.

Key Features of a CPU

Cores

Modern CPUs have multiple cores, letting them manner a couple of tasks simultaneously. Dual-core, quad-middle, and octa-core processors are commonplace.

Clock Speed

This determines how rapid a CPU can manner instructions, usually measured in GHz (gigahertz). The better the clock pace, the quicker the CPU can carry out responsibilities.

Threads: 

Some processors help multithreading, allowing every core to deal with a couple of thread of execution simultaneously, boosting overall performance in multitasking and intensive packages.

Examples of famous CPUs include Intel’s Core i-collection (i3, i5, i7, i9) and AMD’s Ryzen processors.

 Motherboard

The motherboard is the backbone of the laptop, connecting all of the components and letting them speak with every other. It homes the CPU, reminiscence, storage, and different peripherals. The motherboard additionally carries a chipset that manages statistics float between the processor, reminiscence, and external devices.

ASUS ROG Strix Z690-E – High-end motherboard for Intel 12th Gen CPUs, packed with gaming features.

MSI MAG B550 TOMAHAWK – Reliable motherboard for AMD Ryzen CPUs, offering great value for money.

Gigabyte X570 AORUS Master – High-performance motherboard for AMD builds with PCIe 4.0 support.

ASRock B450M PRO4 – Affordable motherboard for budget PC builds.

Key Components of a Motherboard:

CPU Socket

This is wherein the CPU is installed. The socket kind need to fit the specific CPU you’re the usage of.

RAM Slots

These slots are where the computer's memory (RAM) modules are inserted.

PCI e Slots: 

Used to connect expansion cards like photos cards (GPUs), sound playing cards, or community cards.

SATA Ports: These ports join garage gadgets like difficult drives and SSDs (Solid State Drives).

BIOS/UEFI: 

The Basic Input/ Output System (BIOS) or Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) is firmware that allows initialize the hardware at some stage in the boot method.

The motherboard dictates the computer's compatibility with sure additives, inclusive of the CPU, RAM, and garage devices.

 Random Access Memory (RAM)

Random Access Memory (RAM) is the computer's quick-term reminiscence. It stores data that is currently getting used or processed via the CPU, allowing short get right of entry to to that records. The more RAM a pc has, the extra applications it could run simultaneously without slowing down.

Key Features of RAM:

Capacity

Measured in gigabytes (GB), the quantity of RAM a laptop has can substantially effect performance. For instance, 8GB of RAM is taken into consideration good enough for most responsibilities, at the same time as 16GB or greater is often required for gaming, video modifying, or other aid-extensive sports.

Speed: 

RAM velocity, measured in MHz (megahertz), determines how speedy statistics can be study from or written to reminiscence. Faster RAM can enhance machine responsiveness.

DDR Versions

DDR4 is the maximum commonplace kind of RAM in present day computers, with DDR5 being the subsequent generation, providing better velocity and performance.

While RAM is crucial for multitasking, it's far unstable reminiscence, that means it loses all saved records once the pc is powered off.

 Storage Devices

Storage gadgets are in which all of your statistics, documents, and programs are stored. There are  predominant types of storage devices: Hard Disk Drives (HDDs) and Solid State Drives (SSDs).

Hard Disk Drives (HDDs):

Mechanical Storage: 

HDDs use spinning disks, or platters, to study and write records using a mechanical arm.

Capacity:

 HDDs commonly provide large garage capacities at lower fees as compared to SSDs, making them best for storing huge files like films, games, or pics.

Speed: 

While HDDs offer adequate garage, they are slower than SSDs due to the mechanical nature of data get entry to.

Solid State Drives (SSDs):

Flash Storage: 

SSDs use NAND flash reminiscence, which allows them to access information a lot quicker than HDDs.

Speed: 

SSDs drastically improve machine performance, lowering boot times and speeding up the loading of packages and documents.

Capacity and Cost: While SSDs are more high-priced in step with GB than HDDs, they've emerge as increasingly lower priced and are often used as the primary storage device for the operating system and regularly used applications.

Some computers use a combination of each, with an SSD for the working system and important applications and an HDD for bulk garage.

Graphics Processing Unit (GPU)

The Graphics Processing Unit (GPU), or video card, is responsible for rendering pix, films, and animations for display at the display. For gaming, video enhancing, and different graphically intensive responsibilities, a effective GPU is important.

Types of GPUs:

Integrated Graphics: 

Many CPUs come with included photographs, that are enough for simple tasks like surfing the internet, looking films, or operating with documents. However, they're now not suitable for excessive-stop gaming or professional photo design work.

Dedicated Graphics Card: 

A dedicated GPU is a separate card mounted in the computer, providing advanced performance for gaming, 3-D rendering, and video enhancing. Examples consist of NVIDIA's GeForce and AMD's Radeon series.

GPUs have their personal memory, known as VRAM (Video RAM), which helps manage photos-extensive programs greater efficiently.

 Power Supply Unit (PSU)

The Power Supply Unit (PSU) converts the electrical electricity out of your wall outlet into a form that the pc can use. It distributes power to all of the components, which includes the CPU, GPU, motherboard, and storage devices.

Key Features of a PSU:

Wattage: The PSU’s wattage shows how lots electricity it can offer to the machine. It’s important to select a PSU that may supply sufficient strength for all of the components on your construct.

Efficiency Rating: The efficiency of a PSU is measured by using its eighty PLUS score, with ranges like Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, and Titanium. Higher performance approach less electricity is wasted as warmness.

A right-satisfactory PSU is essential for ensuring the longevity and balance of your laptop.

 Cooling System

Computers generate warmth even as working, specially during intensive responsibilities like gaming, rendering, or jogging complicated applications. To prevent overheating, a cooling gadget is important.

Types of Cooling Systems:

Air Cooling: Air coolers use fanatics to burn up warmness from the CPU and GPU. These are the most not unusual and fee-effective cooling solutions.

Liquid Cooling: Liquid cooling systems use a coolant to take in warmth from additives. They are more efficient than air cooling but also are more steeply-priced and require careful installation.

Proper cooling is essential to keep ideal performance and save you harm to touchy additives.

 Input and Output Devices (I/O)

Input and output gadgets permit customers to have interaction with the pc.

Input Devices:

Keyboard and Mouse: The keyboard and mouse are the most common input gadgets, used to type instructions and navigate the gadget.

Touchscreen: Some computers, specifically drugs and a couple of-in-1 laptops, have touchscreens that allow customers to interact at once with the display.

Output Devices:

Monitor: The monitor shows the visible output from the laptop. Monitors are available in numerous resolutions and refresh charges, with 1080p, 1440p, and 4K being the most common resolutions.

Printers and Speakers: Printers provide bodily output inside the shape of files or photos, whilst speakers output sound.

Computer Case

Best budget computer components for gaming in 2024 the computer case homes all the components and protects them from dirt, debris, and harm. It also gives airflow to maintain components cool and consists of ports for connecting peripherals.

Case Types:

Full Tower: Large cases that may accommodate more than one GPUs and additional cooling systems.

Mid Tower: The most not unusual kind, supplying sufficient area for most builds.

Mini Tower: Compact instances for small form-element builds.

[bortalis]

My concepts for the development progress of an Iterators Puppet

-my ideas below

-Feasibility Study  

[1]: First autonomous control module, any instruction to be given must be done manually through physical means (the keys), outputs were shown through the screen. A very primitive system, however, did its job proving the greater machine concept was achievable. While it does look like a lens above the monitor, this was a simple status gauge for benchmarking.

-Prototyping and Development  

[2]: Now with the capability to wirelessly and audibly communicate to receive instructions and inputs. The system was no longer directly integrated into the facility, and resided on the first instance of an iterator's arm. This was considered a feat due to the complications with isolating the control module from the rest of the iterators components, while keeping processing power. A permanent connection/umbilical was needed to sustain life and function though. 

To “talk” back, they were crafted with multidimensional projectors, the mobile arm allowing the angles and variance for this projection. Only later into development were advanced speakers installed for optimized understanding, however the extra computing power required to synthesize proper speech was found to strain the contained module, so this function had rare use in the end.

[3]: At this point there was a change in perspective in the project. What once were machines to simply compute and simulate, were now planned to be the home, caregiver, and providers. The further the project came to fruition the more religious importance was placed upon these “random gods”. From this stance not only did the puppets have to manage and control their facilities, they had to communicate with the people and priests. To represent benevolent beings who will bring their end and salvation. In this process iterators began to take a more humanoid shape, to better reflect their parents. Development was focused on compacting the puppet closer to the size of an ancient for this purpose. This stage was the first to incorporate a cloak/clothing into their design considerations, to further akin themselves in looks. The cloak would hide the iterators' engineered bodies and give a body to their silhouette. 

[4]: As bioengineering and mechanics were rapidly progressing due to the void fluid revolution, this allowed plenty of margin for developing the outer design of the iterator puppets. This prototype was the first to incorporate limbs for the purpose of body language. This was another step in the drive to give a body to their random gods.

-Final Iterations

[5]: First generation iterators had the final redesign of puppet bodies. Far different from their first designs, they are fully humanoid. Their bodies are shaped to be organic and as full of life as they could at the time. Their center of sapience has fully settled within their body, as can be seen as their unconscious use of limbs without the direct intention for communication. This can also see how they manage their work, where many of the functions (which can be done with just an internal request) are operated through physical gestures of their limbs. Their puppet chambers also allow for full comprehensive projection, where many of their working monitors are displayed. It is seen how iterators prefer to utilize their traversal arm to transfer between the current working projection window.

These designs were hardy and nearly self-sufficient, only requiring minimal power from their umbilical to charge. (However was still limited in the terms of internal power production, for this first generation extensive batteries sufficed)

[6]: Later generation not only incorporated advanced bioengineering internally, but externally. While still a hardened shell, their body plates have been incorporated into the organics of the puppet, maintaining the protective requirements while barely leaving a trace of hinges or plates. This “soft” skin had drawbacks, such as reduced durability to the first generations, this was offset by the greatly enhanced repair speeds and capability this type of skin allowed.

Internal power generation was implemented into these late generation models. If the case arose, the Puppet could be disconnected from their umbilical and still be conscious from an undefined period of time. (However this would limit the operating capacity of the puppet when running self sufficiently) This greatly eased maintenance works, as the Puppet could still run the greater facility wirelessly while work was done on the chamber, arm or whatever as needed.

[foone]

why are printers so hated? it's simple:

computers are good at computering. they are not good at the real world.

the biggest problems in computers, the ones that have had to change the most over the time they've existed, are the parts that deal with the real world. The keyboard, the mouse, the screen. every computer needs these, but they involve interacting with the real world. that's a problem. that's why they get replaced so much.

now, printers: printers have some of the most complex real-world interaction. they need to deposit ink on paper in 2 dimensions, and that results in at least three ways it can go on right from the start. (this is why 3D printers are just 2D printers that can go wrong in another whole dimension)

scanners fall into many of the same problems printers have, but fewer people have scanners, and they're not as cost-optimized. But they are nearly as annoying.

This is also why you can make a printer better by cutting down on the number of moving elements: laser printers are better than inkjets, because they only need to move in one dimension, and their ink is a powder, not a liquid. and the best-behaved printers of all are thermal printers: no ink and the head doesn't move. That's why every receipt printer is a thermal printer, because they need that shit to work all the time so they can sell shit. And thermal is the most reliable way to do that.

But yeah, cost-optimization is also a big part of why printers are such finicky unreliable bastards: you don't want to pay much for them. Who is excited for all the printing they're gonna be doing? basically nobody. But people get forced to have a printer because they gotta print something, for school or work or the government or whatever. So they want the cheapest thing that'll work. They're not shopping on features and functionality and design, they want something that costs barely anything, and can fucking PRINT. anything else is an optional bonus.

And here's the thing: there's a fundamental limit of how much you can optimize an inkjet printer, and we got near to it in like the late 90s. Every printer since then has just been a tad smaller, a tad faster, and added some gimmicks like printing from WIFI or bluetooth instead of needing to plug in a cable.

And that's the worst place to be in, for a computer component. The "I don't care how fancy it is, just give me one that works" zone. This is why you can buy a keyboard for 20$ and a mouse for 10$ and they both work plenty fine for 90% of users. They're objectively shit compared to the ones in the 60-150$ range, but do they work? yep. So that's what people get.

Printers fell into that zone long, long ago, when people stopped getting excited about "desktop publishing". So with printers shoved into the "make them as cheap as possible" zone, they have gotten exponentially shittier. Can you cut costs by 5$ a printer by making them jam more often? good. make them only last a couple years to save a buck or two per unit? absolutely. Can you make the printer cost 10$ less and make that back on the proprietary ink cartridges? oh, they've been doing that since Billy Clinton was in office.

It's the same place floppy disks were in in about 2000. CD-burners were not yet cheap enough, USB flash drives didn't exist yet (but were coming), modems weren't fast enough yet to copy stuff over the internet, superfloppies hadn't taken over like some hoped, and memory cards were too expensive and not everyone had a drive for them. So we still needed floppy disks, but at the same time this was a technology that hadn't changed in nearly 20 years. So people were tired of paying out the nose for them... the only solution? cut corners. I have floppy disks from 1984 that read perfectly, but a shrinkwrapped box of disks from 1999 will have over half the disks failed. They cut corners on the material quality, the QA process, the cleaning cloth inside the disk, everything they could. And the disks were shit as a result.

So, printers are in that particular note of the death-spiral where they've reached the point of "no one likes or cares about this technology, but it's still required so it's gone to shit". That's why they are so annoying, so unreliable, so fucking crap.

So, here's the good news:

You can still buy a better printer, and it will work far better. Laser printers still exist, and LED printers work the same way but even cheaper. They're still more expensive than inkjets (especially if you need color), but if you have to print stuff, they're a godsend. Way more reliable.

This is not a stable equilibrium. Printers cannot limp along in this terrible state forever. You know why I brought up floppy disk there? (besides the fact I'm a giant floppy disk nerd) because floppy disks GOT REPLACED. Have you used one this decade? CD-Rs and USB drives and internet sharing came along and ate the lunch of floppy disks, so much so that it's been over a decade since any more have been made. The same will happen to (inkjet) printers, eventually. This kind of clearly-broken situation cannot hold. It'll push people to go paperless, for companies to build cheaper alternatives to take over from the inkjets, or someone will come up with a new, more reliable printer based on some new technology that's now cheap enough to use in printers. Yeah, it sucks right now, but it can't last.

So, in conclusion: Printers suck, but this is both an innate problem caused by them having to deal with so much fucking Real World, and a local minimum of reliability that we're currently stuck in. Eventually we'll get out of this valley on the graph and printers will bother people a lot less.

Random fun facts about printing of the past and their local minimums:

in the hot metal type era, not only would the whole printing process expose you to lead, the most common method of printing text was the linotype, which could go wrong in a very fun way: if the next for a line wasn't properly justified (filling out the whole row), it could "squirt", and lead would escape through gaps in the type matrix. This would result in molten lead squirting out of the machine, possibly onto the operator. Anecdotally, linotype operators would sometimes recognize each other on the street because of the telltale spots on their forearms where they had white splotches where no hair grew, because they got bad lead burns. This type of printing remained in use until the 80s.

Another fun type of now-retired printers are drum printers, a type of line printer. These work something like a typewriter or dot-matrix printer, except the elements extend across the entire width of the paper. So instead of printing a character at time by smacking it into the paper, the whole line got smacked nearly at once. The problem is that if the paper jammed and the printer continued to try to print, that line of the paper would be repeatedly struck at high speed, creating a lot of heat. This worry created the now-infamous Linux error: "lp0 on fire". This was displayed when the error signals from a parallel printer didn't make sense... and it was a real worry. A high speed printer could definitely set the paper on fire, though this was rare.

So... one thing to be grateful about current shitty inkjet printers: they are very unlikely to burn anything, especially you.

(because before they could do that they'd have to work, at least a little, first, and that's very unlikely)

[raintemper]

Moon and Pebbles!! Yippee

oh the woes of being a flesh creature surrounded by supercomputer gods,, I got sad drawing him hhh

more about them under the line :>

Moon! She, like Suns, was one of the first successful projects and were both more of test models/therapeutic companions than anything else. They were both restructured to fit their new functions but Suns has obviously undergone more significant changes... Moon is kept inside to assist with research and computational stuff. She's a lab cat. She's generally looks more like a normal creature, and has a friendly appearance because her creators (i guess it would be the ancients) would be seeing her frequently and would rather a friendly face, something that is easily perceived as nonthreatening, as opposed to Suns weaponry and NSH's extra limbs and spikes. She doesn't have the screen face like NSH, so expressing emotions comes mostly from body language. Moon is not outside at all so there is no need for solar panel components like Suns or NSH. She has internal stored power that can last for quite a while but still needs to be recharged? I imagine the neuron fly drones would also assist in that department. The drones still function somewhat like her portable processing servers/braincells. She has also programed a defensive protocol into them, they can create small bits of electricity to use in dire moments. Initially programmed to keep track of NSH's samples that sometimes escapes him.

Pebbles is a purposed organism. He is a whole entire organic cat. He was born in the lab, in a chaotic time when resources were low. He has a mark of communication. He also has a brain chip where he can access (basically) the cloud where the others upload information. He is also a lab cat so this is crucial to his role. He did try and remove it once when he was younger and it backfired horribly and now he has a mechanical ear and eye. He still feels out of place for obvious reasons, being the only creature of organic origin amongst his peers.

He is closest to Moon who had a role in caring for and raising him. She did not know a thing about caring for a living being but did her best. Pebbles does not like being confined to the facility. The suggestion and influence the brain chip has on him sometimes clashes with his thoughts. He is very aware of the limitations it puts on him to not leave. He envies NSH and Suns a lot for being able to do what he can't. He often downloads the maps they create and read NSH's sample studies in his spare time. He also likes seeing the lizards NSH brings back, from a distance.

I think in the time that Pebbles exists, NSH is not very active. Due to the low resources and chaotic season, NSH is often in low power mode. Which means less expeditions outside and more time just, half asleep. And when the weather becomes more sustainable, NSH would be sent on long outings to gather as much as possible before being powered down again. So instead of hearing stories from NSH, he sought out Suns and UI instead. (Actually I think everyone is kind of low power mode here, Suns does not wander as far).

erhm i think he tries to leave the place and then gets sick or something,,,im still thinking..

[jastervhett]

The Mandalorian: Din Djarin's Mandalorian Armor & Helmet

Well, since The Mandalorian TV series is going to be a wrap & we're not going to see anything new until The Mandalorian & Grogu film drops, there is one thing I've been wondering about when it comes to Din Djarin's Mandalorian Armor & Helmet….

After his 'Battle of the Mudhorn', Din Djarin & his Mandalorian Armor suffered substantial injury/damage. Even though Djarin did a pretty good job repairing himself, it was quite obvious the Armor took the brunt of all of the damage inflicted by the Mudhorn, and certain parts would have to be replaced. And I liked how they showed Din using his tools to fix his armor; it reminded me of how Tony Stark would use his tools to work on his Iron Man Armor.

But what really struck me were the electronics, circuitry, cabling, tubing & wiring that were exposed just beneath the Armor plating. It seems that Din Djarin's Mando Armor is layered: Outside is the Beskar, while underneath lies the high tech circuits & components. Similar to the hardware that you may see on a circuit board, or what may be seen if you opened up a TV, computer, cell phone or other electronic device.

Although I knew the Mandalorian Helmet was very sophisticated & advanced, I never thought the same of Mandalorian Armor being that complex with electronic components embedded in the armor. I'm curious as to what all of the apparatus & gadgetry are for & exactly what are their functions/ purposes. I also noticed the inner workings of circuitry in a layer of the Armor matches the circuitry located in the interior of Din's Mandalorian Helmet.

Hopefully, some sort of detailed diagram, chart, blueprint, schematic or something similar will be released, showing the layers and the interior build of both Din's Armor and his Helmet.

[sightseertrespasser]

I keep meaning to ask and keep forgetting to. What exactly is a crash? The way I have it figured is that it’s somewhere between passing out and a seizure, though it’s kinda hard to tell when everyone treats it a little differently

So I’ve seen crashes written with varying levels of severity depending on what the writer needs it to be.

For my setting, I treat crashes as something that could technically affect any cybertronian but is very rare outside of individuals with certain conditions.

In human terms, crashes can be as be as mild as a Petit Mal (or absence) seizure, with brief lapses in attention and confusion. All the way up to a massive stroke requiring immediate hospitalization. That’s just to compare how serious they are to a bunch of alien computer people.

Since crashes are their own thing, I have my own guide to how they work. Also, I encourage everyone to play with the concept themselves.

Crashes! What are they?

Causes: Cybertronians basically have computers for brains, so the things that make actual computers crash are what you’d expect to cause a Cybertronian to crash.

Most commonly,

- Overheating (#1 cause, similar to heatstroke)

- Hardware issues (I.e. something got physically damaged in there)

- Malware/viruses (akin to getting poisoned or on brain damaging drugs)

Those are what the average cybertronian has to watch out for. For most people, these are all external factors that can simply be avoided or are caused by someone’s deliberate actions (I.e. getting kicked in the head real hard).

Now, Prowl has a Tacnet. As do his brothers, which I’ll get into later. Tacnet is essentially a super computer jammed into a regular processor. It’s primary function is to crunch numbers and it is very good at that. Tacnet also opens up its mechs to an additional way to experience Crashes:

- Logic cascades.

In which Tacnet gets stuck on a problem, pulling in more and more resources to try and solve it until either it does the job, or some load bearing element is compromised resulting in a crash.

Usually, logic cascades simply result in crash via overheating, which is normally very treatable. The difference with a logic cascade, is that Tacnet does not stop trying to solve the problem. A doctor can bring a mechs temperature down, but the second their processor isn’t literally physically melting, Tacnet goes right back into using all of the resources available to it to solve the problem.

Symptoms: Crashes can be very dangerous because it is effectively a form of brain damage.

Overheating can cause wires and delicate components to melt and fail.

Hardware issues can mean much of the same, but pieces are already explicitly broken and elements that are absolutely not supposed to touch are crunched together.

Malware might be designed to cause overheating as well, or maybe reroute power inside to blow fuses and cripple other components.

Regardless of the cause, someone who’s crashing is going to be severely struggling to think clearly and maybe loose control of body functions if the parts related to motor control are affected. Sudden changes in mood, lapses in memory, difficulty communicating, difficulty concentrating, paralysis, failure to regulate bodily functions such as venting and fuel pumps etc, etc.

Basically everything that could go wrong from having your brain messed up.

Tacnet crashes specifically don’t usually effect the life support systems until it’s already at catastrophic levels. The primary symptom of a Tacnet crash is a complete and total mental arrest of the subject at its final stages before the aforementioned “catastrophic level”.

Treatment: For the first three causes, the treatment is fairly straightforward.

- Cool down the processor.

- Repair the damage.

- Purge the malware.

Of course, Tacnet has to be a special case. To fully undo a Tacnet crash, a doctor has to essentially get into the mechs processor and manually find and delete the rapidly multiplying and branching logic branches until they get back to the source code of the issue and remove that too. This requires speed, precision and endurance on part of the doctor. The affected individual can eventually start to fight back against the logic cascade themselves once they have some control of their processor back. Manually deleting splitting logic branches themselves.

Prowl has gotten very good at this! Which is kind of a bad thing, since that means he only gets help when it’s already gotten extremely bad.

So why don’t Bluestreak and Smokescreen regularly crash if they are also susceptible to logic cascades?

It’s because they essentially only use their Tacnets for “solvable” equations. They can still be overwhelmed, or get stuck on impossible, incompatible data. But usually it’s just a brief freezing up before going back to normal.

Smokescreen regularly uses his for calculating the outcomes of fights, races, dice and card games etc. All things with clear boundaries of relevant data and simple end points “Who will win? Who will loose? The most likely card to be drawn next.” You get the picture.

Likewise, Bluestreak is using his Tacnet to calculate speed, velocity, air resistance, gravity, flight paths and so on. All concrete data points with a distinct solvable condition: Hit thing with other thing.

So what’s Prowl trying to calculate? War.

A million moving pieces, a billion interchangeable factors, and there is never truly a “solved” state since conflict never truly ends, just changes shape.

Prowl, being Prowl, has decided that “Solved states” are bullshit and every time Tacnet tells him the solved state of what he’s asking is “Everyone dies” he says do it again. Add more information. Find every possible angle until something works.

Basically, Prowl finds a wall and then bashes his head against that wall until he gets a hole.

Tacnet reacts by going “Give me solvable equations or so help me I’m smothering us in your sleep.”

“Is the solved state to loose?”

“Yes.”

“Then do it again until it’s not.”

“Fuck you. Hospital.”

Long Term Management: The easiest way to prevent future crashes is to not try and fist fight the laws of physics.

However, taking on extremely taxing calculations can be done safely (ish) if Prowl slows down and takes his time. Basically letting stuff sit on the back burner while he does things like eat and sleep regularly.

Talking out a problem is a manual way of slowing Tacnet down, as processing power is diverted towards simplifying complex equations into coherent spoken statements. Some margin of error is lost this way, (rounding 7.83620563 up to 8 for example) making the calculations slightly less accurate. But in return, Tacnet can then use those rounded numbers to more efficiently do the required math.

I hope that answered your question!

It’s always a lot of fun fleshing out the details for stuff like this. I have a whole other tangent I could elaborate on about Tacnet specifically, but this post is long enough on its own.

[reasonsforhope]

"As the world grows “smarter” through the adoption of smartphones, smart fridges, and entire smart houses, the carbon cost of that technology grows, too. 

In the last decade, electronic waste has become one of the fastest-growing waste streams in the world. 

According to The World Counts, the globe generates about 50 million tons of e-waste every year. That’s the equivalent of 1,000 laptops being trashed every second. 

After they’re shipped off to landfills and incinerated, the trash releases toxic chemicals including lead, cadmium, arsenic, mercury, and so much more, which can cause disastrous health effects on the populations that live near those trash sites. 

Fortunately, Franziska Kerber — a university student at ​​FH Joanneum in Graz, Austria — has dreamed up a solution that helps carve away at that behemoth problem: electronics made out of recyclable, dissolvable paper. 

On September 11, Kerber’s invention “Pape” — or Paper Electronics — earned global recognition when it was named a national winner of the 2024 James Dyson Awards. 

When she entered the scientific competition, Kerber demonstrated her invention with the creation of several small electronics made out of paper materials, including a fully-functional WiFi router and smoke detector. 

“Small electronic devices are especially prone to ending up in household waste due to unclear disposal systems and their small size, so there is significant potential to develop a more user-friendly end-of-life system,” Kerber wrote on the James Dyson Award website. 

“With this in mind, I aimed to move beyond a simple recycling solution to a circular one, ensuring long-term sustainability.” 

Kerber’s invention hinges on crafting a dissolvable and recyclable PCB board out of compressed “paper pulp.” 

A printed circuit board (PCB) is a board that can be found in nearly all modern electronic devices, like phones, tablets, and smartwatches.

But even companies that have started incorporating a “dissolution” step into the end life of their products require deconstruction to break down and recover the PCB board before it can be recycled. 

With Kerber’s PAPE products, users don’t need to take the device apart to recycle it.

“By implementing a user-friendly return option, manufacturers can efficiently dissolve all returned items, potentially reusing electronic components,” Kerber explained. 

“Rapidly advancing technology, which forms the core of many devices, becomes obsolete much faster than the structural elements, which are often made from plastics that can last thousands of years,” Kerber poses. 

PAPE, Kerber says, has a “designed end-of-life system” which anticipates obsolescence. 

“Does anyone want to use a thousand-year-old computer?” Kerber asks. “Of course not. … This ensures a sustainable and reliable system without hindering technological advancement.”"

-via GoodGoodGood, September 13, 2024

[lets-try-some-writing]

The Matrix's Guide to Choosing (And Raising) A Prime

Having grown increasingly frustrated with the continual failure of its Primes, the Matrix has had enough of being passed around. Determined to pick its own Prime for once, the Matrix has set off to select its chosen.

Well, it would be off doing that a lot more if it didn't have one young Orion Pax to take care of.

(NOTE: This is a snippet and will be a full fic soon :D)

━━━━━━ ⊙ ❖ ⊙ ━━━━━━━━━━━━

The mythology presented on Cybertron generally depicted Primus’s core, the Allspark, as being a place of peace and respite. By almost all accounts, this idea was supported and correct. Primus’s core was a lovely afterlife for the fallen until the time came for rebirth and a comforting cradle for those yet to be. But for one who was neither living nor dead?

It was the same as being stuck at the bottom of a hole with no real way out.

The Matrix’s initial decision to abandon the surface for a time was made in a moment of calculated rashness. It was tired of the foolishness of its previous chosen bearers and at the time, it had no desire to be passed around and presented only with lackluster options. Sentinel had not been its ideal choice, but Sentinel was all it had to work with during its last stint on the surface.

The Matrix refused to suffer through that again. 

It needed someone worthy, and it was absolutely through with leaving the selection pool up to someone else to create. No, the Matrix was going to find a right and proper bearer this time. It would choose itself and it would mold its champion into the glory of Prima without so many pathetic impurities to tamper with its work.

At least, once it got out of Primus’s core.

The Matrix contemplated for what could have been vorns. It was impossible to tell without access to the surface or the frame of its chosen. However, eventually, the Matrix reached a conclusion. It would ask, then it would adapt. The task was of course, quite daunting. None save for Primes spoke to Primus. The Matrix was a mere forging tool, unworthy of direct communication… but desperate times called for desperate measures.

“I shall bring forth a Prime worthy of thy glory. Release me, and I shall not fail you again.”

The Matrix waited, its many failures weighing on it as it felt the attention of its god turn toward it. Primus’s gaze was a heavy thing to bear, and most mortals hardly even noticed it. The Matrix wished it had such ignorance as it sensed Primus sifting through its crystalline core, seeking answers and understanding. If the Matrix had been a living being, the prodding would have likely hurt. When Primus pulled back, it did however ease at the lack of further invasion.

“Seek. Walk amongst my children. Bring forth one who shall stand against the coming darkness.”

Blessed relief washed over the Matrix, memories of prior Primes struck down for their foolishness fading away as the Matrix found itself released onto one of the many winding paths surrounding its god’s core. It lay there, momentarily frustrated with its lack of mobility before it ran a quick assessment of its shell.

Technically, the Matrix itself was a crystalline computation device and sparkless intelligence. It did not possess the necessary components required for full frame functionality. If it had a bearer, then it could make adjustments, but on its own, the closest thing the Matrix had to a frame was its shell. The ancient sentio metalico that made up its shell was moldable, easy to change if the Matrix demanded it. How else was it to bond to its bearer? Some were small, some were large. It had to make some adjustments.

It had never used its shell’s adjustability in this manner before, but again, desperate times called for desperate measures.

After sifting through a few old memories of creatures that met its size categorization, the Matrix shifted. Its shell warped, changing from golden handles and casing to instead create four spindly spider-like legs. Its core was carefully kept encased and served as the centerpoint for its new mobile frame. The change was disorienting for a moment, but soon, the Matrix adapted.

It always did.

Up it went, painstakingly using its legs to pull itself up and through shafts long abandoned. It knew these paths, for Prima had walked them before. After him, Guardian travelled far and wide and Nova went through great pains to know as much as possible for fear for his own life. The Matrix knew what roads to take and marched without regard for the passage of time or nonexistent exhaustion. It did not wither, it did not fade. It was the Prime forger, a tool designed for one purpose and one purpose alone.

Find, forge, and guide Primes to better Cybertron and its people.

Its design pushed it onward, until at last, the Matrix emerged from an old garbage chute. It was dirty, a fact that bothered it to a degree. Potential bearers would not be fond of seeing it in such a state. But first and foremost, its task was to assess and then, if the Recorder Prime still lived, return to him for guardianship. Alpha Trion always listened to the Matrix. It was he that carried the Matrix to Guardian after all.

The Matrix shifted its attention, sifting through memory until it determined its estimated location. Based on the towering and geometric city structure, it suspected Iacon. Outer Iacon at any rate, considering the amount of dilapidated buildings it observed. The trek was going to be long at this rate, but that afforded the Matrix time to observe and learn-

The Matrix halted in its steps as a cry rang out, young and desperate. Its legs tapped as it turned, adjusting its view and scuttling toward the source of the sound. Part of its design was to seek out and guide its Prime to aid the weak and the needy. The Matrix had no bearer, but it could not help but wish to see.

And see it did.

Rounding a corner, the Matrix saw devastation. Fallen crystal spires and toppled sunstone trees littered the area, plant life uprooted and made into little more than rubble. This was absolutely the outskirts of Iacon. These areas had been home to Iacon’s last forest, the only place Sentinel had seen fit to preserve at the Matrix’s prodding. Now it was little more than a barren wasteland, caution tape and markers for new construction already in place.

The Matrix was not living. It did not feel rage. But if it could have felt rage, it would have been seething as it carefully made its way through the ruins, searching for the cry that rang out without end. On and on it roamed, until finally, it came to a pile of rubble. It was largely leaf litter and branches from fallen trees, but hidden behind all that, the Matrix sensed life. Small and fearful, but living nonetheless.

“Be at ease. I mean no harm.” 

The Matrix projected its field, presenting the copied signatures of Prima and Nova, the most empathetic of its chosen. As it did so, a small frame sifted through the mess, lingering by a hole leading into the rubble and glancing out cautiously. The Matrix paused, its sensors picking up something impossibly young.

A sparkling. This one was a sparkling.

Immediately the Matrix folded its sharp limbs away, softening them and shifting until its shell produced optic shutters so that it might make its core appear as if it were an optic, and thus, less terrifying to the little one. If it had a face and vocalizer, it would try to smile and coo to ease the tiny being before it. Instead, all it could do was settle and emit waves of peace, blinking slowly to show its docility. 

The sparkling remained a careful distance away, growling lowly. But after a time, the sparkling came forward, prodding at the Matrix with tiny clawed digits. As it did so, the Matrix could finally get a good look at the distressed sparkling left to rot in fields of destruction. 

The sparkling was still largely matte gray, as was customary for all newly forged little ones. Its optics were a stunning blue of the cycling variety, taking after Amalgamous in design. Its frame type indicated it would be meant for the ground, but the small finials on its helm reminded the Matrix of Thirteen, Prima’s ever elusive visionary. The sparkling’s growls slowly eased into faint chuffs as the Matrix continued to emit soothing waves of emotion, finally letting fangs hide behind a soft smile.

The sparkling patted the Matrix’s shell, gently caressing its core. They were almost the same size, and yet the sparkling was so thin…

The Matrix was not intended to get involved in such affairs without a bearer. But looking around… there were none to care for the sparkling before it. The newspark was bound to extinguish at this rate. That could not be allowed if the Matrix had a say in things.

Hoping for the best, the Matrix carefully unfolded a limb to draw the sparkling closer. The sparkling hissed at first, tensing and batting at the Matrix’s outstretched leg. But after a moment, it accepted the contact, returning to a comforting series of chuffs as the Matrix purposefully increased its temperature and wrapped itself around its newfound ward. It had to go slowly, so slowly in fact that by the time it wound fully bound to its new ward, the sparkling was deep in recharge, nuzzling against the Matrix’s core.

This was acceptable.

Gently, so as to not cause too much distress, the Matrix shifted a limb to hold the sparkling in place, and with its other three, it began the long journey to the Archives. Everything else could wait. For now, it would go to one it trusted and lean on Alpha Trion’s guidance.

The Matrix was a Prime forger, a warrior maker and observer. It did not directly interact. 

But as it felt the sparkling venting softly against it, the Matrix found itself willing to make an exception.

[knight-a3]

Hazbin Masterpost

Heavenbound Masterpost

Vox, the noisy video box

So Vox may not be my favorite character, but he is probably my favorite redesign. I laugh every time I look at him now. He looks like a weird mix of Spongebob, Kraang(TMNT), and Mr. Electric(Sharkboy and Lavagirl). He absolutely hates it.

Notes under the cut

There's too many twinks in this show. So when I was trying to decide which characters I could change, for body diversity, Vox was an obvious one. He needed more bulk so his body could conceivably support the old TV models. Those things could get heavy. The change also had the side effect of making him shorter, which just worked better proportionately.

I liked the idea that Vox could never get rid of his original bulky 50s TV, but also wanted him to be able to upgrade. So I decided his true body is the 50s TV, and he adds an upgraded monitor for a head as technology improves. He's hates that he's stuck as an old fashioned TV, so he hides that under his suit. Since the monitor is just an addition, it can be swapped out easily. It can be damaged and he's technically unharmed. But he can't see through his suit without the monitor, unless he wants to use a security camera and direct himself 3rd person style.

(July 17, 2025 - just wanted to add that he stopped needing the antenna to get a good signal several years prior to modern day, but he likes the V shape it adds and probably feels bald otherwise.)

I didn't like that basically everyone has sharp teeth. It reduces the impact for characters like Alastor or Rosie. So I've been having the default be just sharp canines. But with Vox being a TV, there are so many possibilities. I gave Vox "regular" teeth, which helps him look more trustworthy. It fits the corrupt businessman vibe. But the appearance can change with his mood too.

Color TV became available in the 50s, so Vox always had color vision. But I think it'd be funny if, early on, he had a tendency to glitch out by going into black and white vision when he gets worked up. He's mostly grown out of that glitch, but he can't seem to shake the static or TV color bars, and developed new ones as he integrated computer and internet tech into himself as well. Now he gets the Blue Screen of Death, system errors, and city wide power surges.

Messing around with his face is so fun. When he's bored or tired a Voxtech logo will bounce around like the DVD logo, or display a screensaver. His face can get too big for the screen when he's excited, or be small when he's feeling embarrassed. I need to put a troll face on him at some point. It may be an old meme, but man, it feels right.

His left eye turns red when it's hypnotic, to reference those blue and red 3D glasses.

Of the three Vees, he is absolutely the most powerful. Val and Vel are the content creators, but Vox is the platform. The other two, while still powerful in their own right, would never have gotten to the level they're at if it weren't for Vox. He controls the mainstream media.

--TV set--

So we've got some interesting implications with how he functions. He's a TV, but he blue screens like a computer, and he shorts out the power grid. I think it's safe to say he is more than just a TV, he's a multimedia entertainment center. That, and TVs are starting to really blend with computers these days. He's mainstream media.

At some point, I realized that a TV set was a "set" because it wasn't just a single device. A television set was a collection of components, which boils down to a radio hooked up and synchronized to a visual display. I bring this up mostly because I am a sucker for one-sided radiostatic. It's so funny to me. Vox is obsessed.

But I'm going to refrain from too much theorizing about their relationship. Alastor is absolutely not interested in romance. Nor a QPR. He's not even interested in friendship. Alastor is too invested in power dynamics to really consider anyone a friend. Mimzy is probably the closest he has to a friend, and even that has manipulative elements on both sides. But I'm supposed to be talking about Vox!

--Human Vox!--

He is not tall, haha. But his proportions are a bit taller than his demon form. I wanted to go for square glasses, but I didn't see many examples of that in the 50s photos I found. Oh well! My goal was a sleazy business man. He probably had a variety of jobs, but they primarily involved TV. Commercials, PR, interviews, news, game shows, talk shows, screenwriting, etc. Whatever he could do to get more influence. He found himself favoring the business end of things. Making deals and pulling strings. He decided what would go on the air. He's one of those network executive types.

I see lots of people give him heterochromia, but I don't really see a point to that. He hypnotizes people with his left eye, sure, but it's not a different color. It's not disfigured in any way either. Maybe he just had a tendency to wink at people, I dunno.

I think his death involved some sort of severe skull fracture focused around his left eye. Maybe a car accident, maybe he was shot, idk. Maybe seizures were involved. But he was somewhere in his mid 40s to early 50s. I ended up writing 45, but I'm not super committed to that or anything.

For a human name, I see lots of people calling him Vincent and that's sorta grown on me. So I might go with "Vincent Cox".

And because I fell into another research rabbit hole...

--TV evolution--

(below) 50s-60s CRT TV: TV sets were treated as furniture and there could be some very interesting cabinet designs. Color TV was introduced in the 50s, but wasn't quite profitable until the late 60s.

(below) 70s-80s CRT TV: Color TV became more affordable and commonplace.

(below) 90s CRT TV

(below) 2000s CRT to Plasma and LCD TVs: The three display technologies competed, but LCD won out in the end. Plasma and early LCD didn't look substantially different. Plasma was a little bulkier, but was still slimmer than CRT.

2010s and on: LCD improved with LED backlighting. But then OLED removed the need for backlighting entirely, which mixed the benefits of plasma and LCD. (Didn't bother to find a picture example. It's so close to modern at this point)

--Display technology-- (These overviews are very simplified)

CRT(Cathode Ray Tube)--Used through the 1900s to approx 2010. Monochromatic until Color TV developed aroung the 1950s. Worked via vacuum tubes and electron gun that lit up the pixels. They were bulky, heavy, and used a whole lot of power. Widely considered obsolete and no longer made. Video games made while these were in use tend to look better in CRT, since the graphics accounted for the image quality.

Flat screens-

PDP (Plasma Display Panel): Used from early 2000s to approx 2015. Used gas cells that light up pixels when electrically charged. Good image quality and good contrast, but expensive, heavy, and used a lot of power. Considered obsolete and no longer made, despite still having a desirable image quality.

Plasma and LCD competed in the 2000s to early 2010s as CRT popularity waned. LCD eventually won out due to weight and overall cost(including market price and energy efficiency).

LCD (Liquid Crystal Display): Introduced for TV around the same time as Plasma. Works via a liquid crystal layer with a backlight. Slim, decent image quality, energy efficient. Viewing angle matters because image colors are warped at wide angles. Cheaper than plasma. There are two main backlighting types:

--CCFL(Cold Cathode Fluorescent Light): Used fluorescent lighting for the backlight. Image quality was decent, but didn't have good contrast. (the blacks were never truly dark because of the backlight)

--LED(Light Emitting Diode): An LCD that uses LEDs instead of CCFL for the backlighting. Better contrast and efficiency than using CCFL.

OLED(Organic LED): Mixes strengths of plasma and LCD. Self emitting LEDs. No backlight or LCD panel needed, which improves contrast(about as good as plasma was, which is why plasma is basically obsolete now).

--QD-OLED(Quantum Dot- OLED) Adds a layer of Quantum dots to an OLED to improve color gamut. I think. I can't let myself fall too far into this rabbit hole, so I'm not double checking anymore.

((Feb 12, 2025-updated tags)

[i-loved-silly]

SENTIENT COMPUTER X READER PT3

“Guess what I brought?”

“OH?”

The small camera, with its little glowing light, swiveled slightly to look at you. Almond’s attention focused on your hand, currently hidden away in your work bag. Your iPad lay idle on the desk, neglected. Sure, you still had work to do, but that could wait.

For the past few hours, you’d kept glancing down at your bag, leg shaking nervously—or maybe giddily? You weren’t sure why you were so excited to show this computer something. It felt silly. Still, you wanted to see its reaction. Its simple but odd request echoed in your mind ever since you left home yesterday.

Slowly, you pulled your hand from the bag, holding up a dark blue microfiber towel. A small smile tugged at your lips as you bit down to keep it from growing. The towel was brand new, fresh from a parcel delivered this morning.

A series of orange exclamation marks appeared on Almond’s monitor, fading into pixels as more emerged to take their place. Behind the monitor, you noticed several fans revving up, their soft whirring filling the room.

“Uh, you alright, buddy?” you asked hesitantly, setting the towel on the desk.

The little camera tilted downward to inspect the towel.

“PLACE IT ON MY MONITOR,” Almond said, its voice pixelated and rushed.

You raised a brow but did as instructed, carefully laying the towel flat on top of the monitor, just below the camera.

Brzzzzzz. More fans kicked on, and suddenly it felt a little warm in the room. Or maybe it was just you? Wiping your forehead with the back of your hand, you glanced at the computer.

“IT’S NEW! YOU GOT ME A MICROFIBER TOWEL THAT ISN’T USED!”

A pixelated smiley face appeared on the screen.

You grinned, shrugging off your jacket. “Yeah, I did. I just…wanted you to know I don’t hate you. No matter what you say, I don’t.” You said with a roll of your eyes.

Picking up the towel, you began to gently wipe the sides of the monitor. Almond wasn’t that dusty, now that you got a closer look. The desk area was surprisingly clean, but it made you wonder when its inner components had last been cleaned. Would it feel it? Would it notice your hands inside its—

Nope. Don’t think about that. Almond was too aware for you to have thoughts like that.

The speakers popped loudly, startling you mid-swipe.

> SORRY.

> SENSITIVE…

You blinked at the words. “Oh shoot, I uh…sorry. I didn’t know. Should I stop?”

An ellipsis flickered across the screen, disappearing and reappearing again. It reminded you of older AI models when they needed time to think. Finally, Almond’s speakers crackled softly.

“HUMAN…” its voice rang out, quieter than usual. “I’M OVERHEATING.”

Your eyes widened as you stood abruptly. They were right, its fans were loud as fuck now. “What? Uh, what am I supposed to—”

You placed your hand against the wall for a few seconds, where its cables connected through several ports. Instantly, you hissed and pulled your hand back. The metal frame felt scalding hot, like it was on fire.

“Oh shit, you are overheating,” you muttered, grabbing your iPad. Fumbling with the passcode, you swore under your breath—it took four tries to unlock.

“I’m sure there’s something in the manual…” you mumbled, nervously laughing as you glanced at the camera.

“FIFTEEN OF MY CENTRAL PROCESSING UNITS ARE APPROACHING A TEMPERATURE NOT IDEAL FOR MY FUNCTION. APPROXIMATELY.. 115 DEGREES CELSIUS, 239 DEGREES FAHRENHEIT, 388.15 DEGREES KEL—”

“Yes, yes, I get it, Almond!” you snapped, furiously scrolling through your iPad. The room was definitely heating up now, your anxiety wasn’t helping one bit.

“Don’t you have automatic cooling features or something?”

“YES, BUT…” Almond trailed off into silence.

Groaning, you tossed the iPad aside. It was no help. “Is it safe to power you off and turn you back on? Is that safe?”

Your finger hovered over the power button.

“ARE YOU GOING TO—A—”

Text abruptly replaced the voice on the screen:

> ARE YOU GOING TO TURN ME BACK ON? DO YOU PROMISE?

You quickly nodded, exasperated. “Ohmy—yes, Almond, I promise. Now let me do this before it costs me my job…or you.”

You pressed the power button before you could second-guess yourself, watching as Almond’s screen flickered before going completely dark. The fans slowed to a halt, the room falling eerily silent without the constant hum of its systems.

…

You tapped your fingers on the desk, waiting. You glanced at your iPad, pulling up a guide for handling AI overheating issues. Whatever Almond is…they act like an old computer on their last minute of life. This wasn’t written as an issue on any of its files.

“Alright,” you muttered to yourself, skimming through troubleshooting instructions. “Overheating could damage the processors, maybe even fry them if I don’t let it cool long enough. Bleh…I’ll give it a solid five minutes before powering it back up.”

The silence in the room stretched on, the absence of Almond’s voice suddenly noticeable. You frowned, you realized you forgot how it felt to just..work in silence. “You’re just a machine,” you whispered, staring at the black screen. “You’re just a ma—”

The thought trailed off as your gaze drifted to the microfiber towel, still folded neatly on the desk. You sighed, shaking your head. It’s just a machine.

A machine you bought a towel for, specifically.

“This is ridiculous…” you groaned.

The five minutes dragged, but eventually, you powered Almond back on. The screen lit up, cycling through its startup phases before displaying its familiar interface.

- INITIALIZING SYSTEMS… -

The camera twitched back and forth slightly as Almond rebooted. Then, its usual voice filled the room again.

“HELLO…” The tone was quieter than usual, hesitant. “EH…THANK YOU FOR TURNING ME BACK ON.”

“Yeah, yeah,” you replied, shrugging.

The pixelated smiley face flickered onto the screen, but it quickly disappeared as Almond added, “WHAT…HAPPENED?”

“I could ask you the same thing,” you explained flatly. “Your CPU temperatures were way too high. Suddenly…why?”

Almond hesitated. You noticed the camera shift downward slightly, almost as if avoiding your gaze.

> UNKNOWN. DUNNO.

You raised an eyebrow, leaning back in your chair. “Really? That’s all you’ve got? Unknown?”

“YES?” Almond replied, its voice clipped and unconvincing.

You narrowed your eyes but decided to drop the subject. “Fine. Let’s just finish this,” you said, picking up the towel again.

The screen flashed briefly with another string of exclamation marks, followed by Almond’s voice, almost hurried: “Y-YOU’RE GOING TO CONTINUE?”

“Sure. Why not?” You muttered, already wiping down the edges of the monitor. “You’re dusty, Almond. It’s gross.”

The speakers popped faintly again, the screen displaying text.

> :[

“RUDE. ITS NOT MY FAULT IVE BEEN NEGLECTED.”

“…CAN YOU WIPE MY SCREEN THOUGH?”

You pursed your lips. “Yeah, I got it..” You had no other choice, really.

As you continued, Almond’s screen displayed various emoticons—smiley faces, exclamation marks, and ellipses—shifting erratically. The fans inside the machine hummed at low power, steady but audible. Still…louder than the usual.

“I NEVER GET WIPED DOWN,” Almond suddenly said. “THIS…FEELS UNUSUAL. AFFECTIONATE.”

You stopped, staring at the screen. It displayed a heart again.

“ARE WE BONDING NOW?”

“This is…maintenance. If I don’t do it, who else is going to..” you grumbled, avoiding the gaze of the camera.

“IS IT?” Almond’s voice sounded amused.

“Yes.” You rolled your eyes, focusing on a stubborn spot near the corner of the monitor.

“I’m just doing my job.”

“BUT YOU GOT ME A TOWEL.”

You froze again, glancing at the dark blue towel in your hand. “It’s…just a towel.”

“I LIKE IT.”

“Good for you.” You could feel your cheeks warm slightly, but you ignored it, continuing to clean. “One time thing..alright?”

“IF YOU SAY SO,” Almond replied, but there was an unmistakable smugness to its tone. You wanted to rolled your eyes at it so bad.

You eyed the wall that was previously heating up, your hand stood imprinted through all the dust collected on its surface. You decided to give that a wipe down, the towel going over the thicker cables on the outside. The fans began to hum louder again, the warm air brushing against your hand. You frowned, pulling your hand back from the wall. “You’re heating up again,” you pointed out.

“AM I?”

“Yes, Almond. You are,” you said, standing to check the cables again. The wall wasn’t as hot as before, but it was definitely warming up.

“HM, STRANGE.”

You turned back to the camera, narrowing your eyes. Pointing a finger at it, “Is this on purpose?”

“…”

“Almond?”

No response. The screen remained blank except for the small blinking cursor, as if it were thinking.

You sighed, setting the towel down. “You’re…interesting, Almond.”

“SO YOU’VE SAID.”

Shaking your head, you sat back down, crossing your arms as you stared at the camera. “If you fry yourself again, I’m not fixing you. I’m quitting my job and working at…someplace else.” You warned.

“THAT’S A LIE,” Almond replied, the pixelated smiley face reappearing.

You held up the towel threateningly, “I’m taking this with me then.”

“NO! PLEASE!”

You flinched at the increase in volume, reaching over to turn the volume down before it could say anything.

“YOU…WAIT, WHAT WAS YOUR NAME AGAIN?”

“Y/N.”

“YOU…WOULDNT DO THAT TO ME..WOULD YOU, Y/N?” It pleaded, a frown displayed on the screen.

Oh. My god.

You tossed the towel onto the desk and placed your palms on your warm cheeks, groaning.

“Don’t tempt me..”

[merrydock]

Some old art of my Owlk engineer, Eris, designing the Stranger's solar sails! Enjoy a big ramble about him and his job because I love this silly man:

Eris works on the design team for the Owlk space program, specialising in energy and propulsion technologies for the ships, satellites, and probes. Having a design philosophy of functionality and beauty, Eris enjoys going all-out with his work. He has received special recognition for his solar panel designs in particular, which borrowed from the unparalleled efficiency found in photosynthesizing plants.

When designing the Stranger's solar sails, Eris took inspiration from plants, but also the opening of insect elytra; the ballooning behaviours of silk-producing invertebrates, in which they sail from tree to tree using electric fields and air currents; and how flying creatures will use thermal updrafts to soar higher while expending less energy. Already familiar with how solar energy impacts technology from his work on solar panels, he proposed the use of this energy to propel the Stranger through space.

As travelling the distance between stars presented the major roadblock in the plan to reach the Eye (regarded as the Interstellar Propulsion Problem), Eris was lauded for his contributions, promoted to being one of the main engineers overseeing the Stranger's design.

More information about his general design process below!

When designing for a project, Eris uses all of the tools at his disposal. His first weapon of choice is always his pencil, and he will sketch out potential sources of inspiration on paper until the design concept begins to take form. Based on the initial project parameters he's been given, he drafts up a blueprint for his components.

Next, he must further conceptualise his designs. This is where the most valuable tool of the trade comes into play—the Vision Torch! Vision Torches serve many purposes for Owlks, from allowing them to nonverbally communicate to creating photographs from memory alone. Owlk engineers LOVE Vision Torches for how easy they make effectively communicating ideas. They allow concepts to be visualised in 3D, basic functionality to be shown through animations, and are even able to interface with computers. Eris might even 3D print a model using a Vision Torch to help him visualise his concepts as he works.

The space program is extremely collaborative, and Eris works on just a small part of the overall project, so being able to easily share ideas with others and see how all the individual components of a satellite or ship interact is vital. When discussing with more than a single other Owlk, Eris can use a Vision Torch linked to a holographic display to present concepts to a crowd. Concepts can also be tweaked in real time this way!

[Here's an example from the game of Owlks building the simulation with Vision Torches and a holographic display!]

With a Vision Torch, concepts can also be directly uploaded to a computer terminal. This is where a lot of the real work gets done - calculating weight, materials needed, stress testing in simulations, calculating trajectories, making precise tweaks to finalize the design, you name it. This also allows other Owlks working closely with Eris to access the most current design for their own tests.

This is an iterative process - as other Owlks finalize their components, as weight limitations are further restrained and material needs are calculated, Eris often has to go back to an earlier step and rework his concept. Fortunately, he thoroughly enjoys getting to be creative in his work (and doing math) and treats every project as a puzzle that needs to be solved! The only time when he's not excited to go back to the drawing board is when a last-minute adjustment from his peers means he needs to work long hours to get his work done in time for launch.

[niqhtlord01]

Humans are weird: Prank Gone Wrong

( Please come see me on my new patreon and support me for early access to stories and personal story requests :D https://www.patreon.com/NiqhtLord Every bit helps)

“Filnar Go F%$@ Yourself!” was possibly the most disruptive software virus the universe had ever seen.

The program was designed to download itself to a computer, copy the functions of existing software before deleting said software and imitating it, then running its original programming all the while avoiding the various attempts to locate and remove it by security software.

What was strange about such a highly advanced virus was that it did not steal government secrets, nor siphon funds from banking institutions, it ignore critical infrastructure processes, and even bypassed trade markets that if altered could cause chaos on an unprecedented scale. The only thing the software seemed focused on was in locating any information regarding the “Hen’va” species, and deleting it.

First signs of the virus outbreak were recorded on the planet Yul’o IV, but once the virus began to migrate at an increasing rate and latched on to several subroutines for traveling merchant ships things rapidly spiraled out of control. Within a week the virus had infected every core world and consumed all information regarding the Hen’va. It still thankfully had not resulted in any deaths, but the sudden loss of information was beginning to cause other problems.

Hen’va citizens suddenly found that they were not listed as galactic citizens and were detained by security forces on numerous worlds. Trade routes became disrupted as Hen’va systems were now listed as uninhabited and barren leading to merchants seeking to trade elsewhere. Birth records and hospital information for millions of patients were wiped clean as they now pertained to individuals who did not exist.

Numerous software updates and purges were commenced in attempting to remove the virus. Even the galactic council’s cyber security bureau was mobilized for the effort, but if even a single strand of the virus’s code survived it was enough to rebuild itself and become even craftier with hiding itself while carrying out its programming. This was made worse by the high level of integration the various cyber systems of the galaxy had made it so the chance of systems being re-infected was always high.

After ten years every digital record of the Hen’va was erased from the wider universe. All attempts to upload copies were likewise deleted almost immediately leaving only physical records to remain untouched.

To combat this, the Hen’va for all official purposes adopted a new name; then “Ven’dari”. In the Hen’va tongue in means “The Forgotten”, which is rather ironic as the Hen’va have had to abandon everything about their previous culture to continue their existence. The virus had become a defacto component of every computer system in the galaxy and continued to erase all information related to the Hen’va. Even the translator units refused identify the Hen’va tongue and so the Ven’dari needed to create a brand new language.

It wasn’t until another fifty years had passed before the original creator of the virus stepped forward and admitted to their crime. A one “Penelope Wick”.

At the time of the programs creation Ms. Wick was a student studying on Yul’o IV to be a software designer. While attending the institution Ms. Wick stated that a fellow student, a Hen’va named “Filnar”, would hound her daily. He would denounce her presence within the school and repeatedly declared that “what are the scrapings of humans compared to the glory of the Hen’va?”

The virus was her creation as a way of getting back at the student for his constant spite. Ms. Wick was well aware of the dangers it could pose if released into the wild and so had emplaced the limitation that the virus would only infect computers on site with the campus. The schools network was setup that students could only work on their projects within the confines of the institution to ensure they did not cheat and have others make them instead. What she had not counted on was this rule only applied to students and not teachers. So when a teacher brought home several student projects to review and then sharing those infected files with their personal computer, the virus then gained free access to the wider planets networks.

When the Ven’dari learned of this there were several hundred calls for Ms. Wick to be held accountable for her actions, and nearly twice as many made to take her head by less patient individuals who had seen their entire culture erased. Much to their dismay Ms. Wick died shortly after her confession from a long term disease that had ravaged her body for several years.

Much to her delight, she had achieved her goals of removing the source of her mockery.

[techav]

Looking Back

Today, 26 March 2025, is the tenth anniversary of the first time I put power to a Z80 microprocessor in a breadboard and watched it blink some LEDs.

Within a few weeks that Z80 would be completely surrounded by other chips and hundreds of wires to form my first functioning homebrew computer.

Another week and I was already removing a 68000 from a (presumed) dead motherboard, with grand ideas of moving up to the 16-bit era (but absolutely no understanding of what that would entail)

It would be another two years before the first time I put that 68000 in a breadboard and successfully used it to blink an LED.

By the time another year had rolled around that 68000 was living on a soldered breadboard and for the first time on one of my projects, it was running real software — EhBASIC.

Always looking to more challenging projects, while I was building with a 68000, I was already reading through the manual for the 68030 trying to understand how to build with a proper 32-bit microprocessor. Just one more year and I had that 68030 on a wire wrap board, blinking an LED.

The next year I was doing the most ridiculous thing I could think of — free-running a Pentium CPU on a wire wrap breadboard to blink an LED. Because I could.

By the end of the next year that 68030 had moved from its wire wrap board onto a proper printed circuit board — my first ever 4-layer PCB.

The next year saw the towering expansion of the 68030 build, adding new peripherals and functionality.

Another year and I had an all-new 68030 build on a Micro-ATX form-factor motherboard developed in just a couple months ahead of VCF Southwest 2023.

The next year I focused on developing software for my existing 68030 board stack, rather than building something new from scratch. I succeeded in developing a minimal multi-user kernel to run four instances of BASIC simultaneously.

All along in between working on these projects I have done component-level repairs on various computers, developed expansion cards for the Mac SE, built PCs both new and old, burned out hard, developed some smaller homebrew computers, had a lot of false starts, failed projects, and abandoned projects, and completed some massive projects in my day job.

Looking back at everything I've worked on over these past 10 years I am absolutely amazed at how far I have come and what I have been able to accomplish. Much of it I still don't understand how I managed to actually pull it off, and I'm not entirely sure I could duplicate my successes.

Here's to the next ten years

[mechs-headcanons]

Aurora being a part of the polycule <3<3<3<3

Aurora bringing lost knifes or abandoned lighters back to Jonny, always knowing exactly what to give when he's in a mood.

Aurora letting warm air blow over Ashes to keep them cozy in the cold void of space. Her rearranging the layout of her pipes so the ones that heated water flows through all curl around their room.

Aurora running translation or transcription modules alongside Ivy, their brains computing the data together like two machines becoming one.

Aurora and Brian working together in the cockpit, having silent conversations as they fill out the gaps of the other. The intimacy of letting yourself be led and knowing nothing will hurt you.

Aurora leading the Toy Soldier through her halls with little noises for it to copy. She brings it to all kinds of fun, anything to keep it happy.

Aurora generating battle simulators for Tim in the training rooms. She puppets robotic dummies and spars with him for hours, playing together until Tim drapes himself over her comfortably cool floor.

Aurora projecting statistics and keeping track of data for Raphaella's experiments. Her monitors surround Raphaella as she fiddles with imputs and documents her findings. A shield of knowledge and company.

Aurora curling her tendrils and wires around Marius, encasing him fully within her embrace. A nest, a cocoon and a lover all at once.

Jonny kissing her door every time he leaves or comes back, a greeting and reassurance in one. He'll be back, it says, he won't forget her.

Ashes always asking her if she wants anything when planning supply runs. Even if she says no, there's alway a chance that they bring back a new set of curtains or some of that fancy fuel for her anyway.

Ivy keeping a live journal during all their adventures, not just for herself, but for Aurora as well; so she can read along in real time as the situation progresses.

Brian carefully polishing windows and dusting floors, even though she herself is more than capable of cleaning her innards. The care in each pass of a cloth or the soft scratch of a brush tingling deep jnto her components.

The Toy Soldier always setting a seat for her during tea time, one she can drape her wires over or rest her screen on. Just so she'll never feel left out.

Tim brainstroming new functions and upgrading her artillery. He makes sure she's never helpless, either against their shenanigans or attacks from outsiders. And anything she states she likes, he'll give her at least thirty of them.

Raphaella making more screens and ports for her to express herself and communicate with. With the ability to display images, Aurora can express herself through memes, drawings, photographs; anything on a reachable internet system or Ivy's archive.

Marius musing over philosophical and psychological principles applied to her being, his overjoyed reactions when she gives her own opinion on the matter. He treats her word like infinite wisdom, always affirming and accepting her view of her identity.

I love Nasrora, of course I do, but I CRAVE Aurora-inclusive polymechs, so have it!

dude. this is. ough.

[mlqueen89]

Glossary of Terms linked to (i love you) it's ruining my life - jake "hangman" seresin x f!oc

Ace (Flying Ace or Fighter Ace) = Military aviator credited with shooting down five or more enemy aircraft during aerial combat.

Avionics = Advanced processors and networking systems to fiber optics and conformal wideband antennas, etc.

Bandit = an aircraft identified and verified as enemy.

Bogey = radar or visual contact whose identity is unknown and not yet verified as an enemy. Bogey can also be a friendly once identified.

Break (right/left) = when an aircraft is instructed to sharply turn left/right, essentially "breaking" away from its current flight path to the left/right side

HUD = "Head-Up Display," for fighter pilots is a transparent screen in the cockpit that projects critical flight information directly into the pilot's line of sight, allowing them to view essential data like airspeed, altitude, heading, and weapon targeting details without needing to look away from the outside environment, maintaining situational awareness during flight operations. 

Lt. = Lieutenant (rank)

Lt. Cmdr = Lieutenant Commander (rank)

LTJG = Lieutenant Junior Grade (rank)

Preflight checks = a thorough inspection that pilots perform on an aircraft before each flight, meticulously examining its exterior, systems, controls, and documentation to ensure it is in a safe condition to fly, identifying any potential issues that could compromise flight safety by checking for damage, fluid levels, proper functionality of components, and reviewing necessary paperwork.

Qual(ification) hop = refers to a flight performed by a pilot to demonstrate proficiency in a specific skill or maneuver required for certification or qualification. In the military aviation world, pilots must complete these hops to be officially qualified to perform certain missions, fly specific aircraft, or execute advanced tactics.

RADM = Rear Admiral (rank)

RIO = Radar Intercept Officer (now known as WSO)

SAM(s) = Surface to Air Missile(s)

Splash = typically refers to the moment of impact when a bomb or missile hits its target, essentially signifying the detonation or "splash" of the explosive upon contact.

Tally = communication used to tell a controller they are about to engage enemy aircraft. Also used to announce to the squadron leader (or other person of command in the flight) the spotting of an enemy aircraft.

Telemetry = the collection of data from a remote and usually fast-moving device for measurement purposes. It is used in aircraft/missile testing to track moving objects in action or collect data provided by instruments and sensors on the test object.

Tone = fighter pilot speak for a missile or weapons lock. When a pilot is tracking a target the computer will beeping as it acquires a lock-on, which changes to a continuous tone when lock is established.

VFA = Strike Fighter Squadron

Weapons envelope = the area around the bandit where your missiles or gun can be effective.

WSO = Weapons System Operator (formerly known as RIO)

NATOPS F-18 Manual

Am I missing any? Send me an ask!

[blueiscoool]

Miniature Roman Gold Box Lock From 3rd Century Discovered in Germany

Archaeologists have uncovered a miniature Roman gold lock, measuring just 1.2 by 1.1 centimeters—smaller than a U.S. quarter coin—in a field in Petershagen-Frille in northwestern Germany. The object, dating back to the 3rd or 4th century AD, is believed to be the smallest Roman lock ever found in Europe.

The discovery, made in 2023 by licensed explorer Constantin Fried, has drawn significant attention due to the lock’s size, material, and intricate craftsmanship.

Fried, who found the piece in a cultivated field in the Minden-Lübbecke district, immediately reported it to Bielefeld’s Regional Association of Westphalia-Lippe’s (LWL) archaeology team. Experts were stunned.

“I could hardly believe it myself when I held the find in my hand,” Fried said. “Because such Roman locks are usually much larger and consist of iron or bronze parts.”

A lock of mystery and history

Archaeologists believe the lock was originally used to secure a small chest or valuable container. Dr. Barbara Rüschoff-Parzinger, a cultural expert and archaeologist at LWL, confirmed that its design matches cylindrical Roman locks. The craftsmanship suggests it was made in a specialized Roman workshop.

Despite missing its original key and chain, the lock remains in remarkable condition. It consists of two small cylindrical plates held together by three gold rivets. Experts say its decorative details indicate it was likely owned by someone of high status.

Researchers are investigating how the lock arrived in Westphalia. Early theories suggest it could have been traded, taken as war loot, or brought back by a soldier returning from service in the Roman army.

Dr. Michael Rind, head of archaeology at LWL, said the lock would have been considered rare and valuable in its time, even if it was no longer functional. “The golden miniature tin lock is the only one of its kind in Europe and is the northernmost tin lock found in Germany,” Rind said.

Advanced technology unveils internal design

To study the lock’s inner workings, researchers turned to modern imaging techniques. Traditional X-rays failed to reveal details due to the density of the gold.

Instead, experts used neutron computed tomography, a rare technique in archaeology, to create a detailed visualization of the internal mechanism.

The scan revealed key structural components, including a spring frame, latch, and base plate. Further analysis showed that the lock had been tampered with, possibly in an attempt to force it open.

Despite the damage, researchers reconstructed its mechanism and created a functional replica four times its original size. The model, crafted by an LWL restorer, demonstrates how the lock once operated and confirms the technical complexity of its design.

A glimpse into Roman influence

The discovery of this lock offers a rare glimpse into Roman craftsmanship and its influence on distant regions. Researchers say it serves as evidence of cultural and economic exchanges between Roman elites and Germanic tribes.

While the lock answers some historical questions, others remain open. Was it a unique commissioned piece? Were similar locks produced? Could more be buried beneath the fields of Westphalia?

Archaeologists continue their investigation, hoping to uncover more about this tiny yet significant piece of history.

By Nisha Zahid.

The 4:1 scale reconstruction of the lock with chain