#but programming and databases and stuff like this looks like gibberish to me

[hunter-rodrigez]

Say what you want about furries, but they do know IT like nobody else.

All these billionaires who invested in the metaverce and Neuralink must be questioning their life choices looking at what what furries are doing in VR chat.

[hearsayhorizons]

The Silent Partner

My name is Beatrice Abbot. I am the first documented case of “long-term scrambling” as a side effect of “neural-interface auditory restriction.”

Well, maybe the first unsilenced case of scrambling; I’m hoping a post on this backwater site might get missed by the censors and AI scrubbers.

For posterity: auditory restriction is a process used by government agencies, trillion-dollar businesses, and anybody else who can afford the tech to secure their conversations in public. The cheaper versions convert the speakers’ dialogue for unauthorized listeners into some language that the program’s algorithm says is really uncommon in the area. Pricier versions blank the sound entirely, or convert it live into true gibberish: no word or piece of word is a match for anything in any other language in the database.

This is where I, and the scrambling, come in. Day starts as normal as... something really normal. Pass by a couple of bigheads chatting at the local drink bar. Think that if the conversation is that important, they should have it in private entirely. Then when the barista talks to me, I hear sounds, but they aren’t words.

The bigheads’ company and the creators of that brand of anti-eavesdropping software claim that the other is responsible and that I am seeking payout for a condition I already had.

They both have people watching me, censors following me. I can’t order drinks without a tablet. Can’t have a conversation with people who keep trying anyway. My interface can do half-assed subtitling, but maybe "they" are paying someone to fuck it up; I can't work.

It’s not all bad, though. Not anymore. Maria Noyes suffered... something similar. I can’t talk about her stuff, but she has no sound, there isn’t any sound around her. She slams her hand on a table, nothing. She shot a gun (once, at a range; she gave me a very sardonic look when I grabbed hearing protectors), and there was no sound when it fired, only from the impact.

Maria is amazing. After the incident, I felt less like a person. People talked to me emphatically, slowly, as if I could get it if they tried harder. But she doesn’t even try; we both slip up and try to say stuff, but then she SIGNS it. She’s been teaching me LSM. Being able to have a conversation in person... the tablet has been a lifesaver in my day to day, but having some way of inflecting, of emoting over just emoticons... and through Maria, I've met a collection of others who either can't or won't use the cheapo disability aids that are meant to provide equality but mostly just serve to silence complaints about a lack of sufficient services.

Maria's company is after her, too, either to silence or study her. The two companies involved with me just want me gone because I’m an indicator that all their safe shiny tech isn’t as safe as they make people think.

("I Can't Hear Myself Think," an older piece explaining Maria's situation, hosted here)

[vydante]

ey babe! i jus wanna ask, how’s restart? ya wanna share any plans you have for it for the future? and btw, i love the story and your writing!

Hi hun!

It’s- honestly?

Ch.11 went a whole different route than what I was planning on doing (hell, I’ll even put the TWO whole ass drafts under the read more; warning, it’s SUPER long and I’m never using it so no losses on my part) but I’m happy it went the way it did haha. I finished it in 2 solid days, even if it took me months to update.

Uhh, as for future plans...?

*SPOILERS FOR RESTART? But not really?*

Next two chapters we (SHOULD BE, NO GUARANTEES) are gonna be dealing with CA:TWS... Then, right afterward, we may or may not have a filler chapter, and then we’ll dive into a certain Sokovian base (wink wink). As for AOU... Hm. ;)

AAAH I have so much stuff I wanna tell you guys about :,)

Well, so far that’s what I (canonically) have lined up.

As for other junk: I have 4 specials drafted, 2 What If’s (not canon, but mainly for filler and exploring unused ideas :D) and like, a couple out of place chapters that I wanna slide in the future arcs.

BTW, I have a question to ask: if I had any trashed drafts or whatever, do you guys wanna read it? I’ll post it all in one post (other than Ch.11, I don’t have any other trash right now, but still), probably here.

Anyways. Below cut is the cut draft PT.1 for Ch. 11. WARNING: it might be super incoherent.

Admittedly, Project Renaissance was a huge file.

Of course, it wasn't just all about one particular thing. No, there were files and files that lay underneath it, but even then each one was just as large as the other.

There were ones like 'World Domination', where it was just filled with new projects and products for Stark Industries, like prosthetics (SI really branched into the medical field after your dad made Rhodey his leg braces) and newer editions of tablets, phones, and laptops, too. Hell, even your car and motorbikes blueprints were on there, too- something SI had never dived into up until you had taken over. Improvements in cleaner energy were also there, but that's been the main target for SI for years, so that didn't really count.

Then there were files like 'Supernova' and 'Milky Way', which were a bit more important than others. Project Supernova had to do with Extremis. You wanted to stabilize it as much as possible, then throw it into the darkest corner possible and never have to look back at it; you only wanted it to serve as a... The last resort, of sorts.

Yeah, sure, Tony had a stable version of Extremis locked and loaded, hidden deep into the Tower's database, but it was barely usable. And as for Project Milky Way, it's more or less a Stark Internship program. It'd be really beneficial to high school (and maybe middle school) students, so you suppose...

("More like an excuse to properly recruit that Parker boy," DAHLIA snarks. Brat.)

But what had your constant attention were the big dogs, which, if you remembered correctly, should be happening quite soon.

Files like 'Snakes In The Grass' (S.H.I.E.L.D.-RA), 'Hot Tub Time Machine' (Sargeant Barnes), and 'On Your 6' (Project Insight) all had your attention right now, and for obvious reasons, as you nervously glance at your calendar.

3 more months. 

That was about all the time you had left before the big day was supposed to happen, and you were nowhere near as prepared as you should be. 

Sure, you had lots of contingency and protocols planned out already, but there was only so much you could predict what would happen. 

God, it sucks that you're not 21 yet, because your mind sure is buzzing for some Jäger right about now. You're not an alcoholic by a long shot but... You glanced at a picture of you and your dad.

You sure as hell understood alcoholics, though.

And for that, you needed to get your hands on B.A.R.F. All you need is to remember that one guy's name...

"DAHLIA, pull up the files for, ah... What was his name? Quin... Quincy? No, no... Gw- Quenti- Quentin Bank- Beck? Beck. Quentin Beck- give me his file."

"I was worried you were having a stroke."

"I will if I don't see his file in T-minus 1 second."

You wiped your jittery hands clean of any leftover muck, definitely feeling 5 shots of espresso and 2 hours of intermittent sleep finally taking its toll. You glanced through the files that she had pulled up. There were the basic files: his biography, works, and reports, but those weren't what you were interested in.

"Filter it for anything regarding- uh- B.A.R.F. Like- eh- Binarily Augmented Retro-Framing."

All of the files slimmed up to where it was all organized in one, neat folder. You quickly skimmed through all of it, but it all seemed to be experimental work. For now, anyway.

"Progress on B.A.R.F.?"

"Mr. Beck and his team are currently

There he was, in all of his glory. Though he was immaculately dressed in all black, just as you remembered when you and your dad had to clean up the mess that was the fight on the highway. 

God, he's even bigger in person.

"Identify yourse-!"

As much as you didn't want the room to look like a hospital room, you hadn't exactly had all the time in the world to prepare the room for the man of the hour. 

Still knocked out, 

"Hey, Jon Snow. You 'wake?"

Taking a closer look at him, he looked a lot more worse for wear than you had remembered him being. Then again, the Barnes you saw was completely free of the brainwashing, a-la Princess Shuri and the Wakandan scientists.

(You knew eavesdropping was wrong. It didn't need an explanation as to why.

But despite all that, you made no effort to walk away from listening to the conversation that was going on between your dad and Prin- King T'Challa. It was obvious to you and your dad- along with anyone else with a brain in their skull- that the ex-Avengers (or, at least, Barnes)- was in the nation that was Wakanda. You didn't know how your dad had managed to skirt around that with T'Challa, but you didn't really care.

You just wanted to know what they're gonna do about it.

"Are you sure you want to do this, Dr. Stark? While I know that I, along with Mr. Barnes as well, would appreciate your more than generous offer... I also understand that there is... Tension between the two of you..."

Generous offer?

What the hell is T'Challa going on about? What offer?

"Just... promise me one thing."

"Just... I don't want him to- to try and find me. And if you can't do that- then... Then at least make sure he doesn't get near (Name)."

You bristled.

What?

"(Name)? Your son?"

"Yeah."

"If you could oblige me, may I know your reasoning?"

You strained your ears to the best of your abilities, but even your dad's murmuring was too intelligible for you to make out any words.

"I... I see... If those are your terms, then we will graciously accept the use of your Binarily Augmented Retro-Framing technology for Mr. Barnes's recovery..."

What?)

Your dad was more than happy to not take partial credit for Barne's recovery, so long as it was kept a promise that Barnes stay every little bit away from him (and you, surprisingly enough).

So, it was really unfair that you pitted 2023 Barnes against...

That.

Blank eyes stare directly in front of him, and interestingly enough, he doesn't make an effort to look you in the eye. He's strapped in his chair for extra precautions, but the lingering resignation in his eyes, no matter how blank they are, makes you want to vomit. It makes you sick, knowing that after each mission he's sent out on, he's probably getting strapped back into a goddamn chair and getting his whole hard drive wiped and reconfigured...

You glanced away from him, subtly bringing your hand up to your mouth. You coughed, praying that nothing comes up to your mouth as disgust fills your gut.

"Mission parameters incomplete."

His voice was quiet, for what it was. You weren't sure what you were expecting, but the softness of it was a surprise.

"Excuse me?"

"Mission parameters incomplete."

"Ah, man..."

"Yeah, no, how am I not surprised...?"

"Uh, hm. Hm, hm, hm..."

You pursed your lips.

He visibly perked up- either that, or you're kind of losing it.

"Oh well, that doesn't matter, I can fill the air with my gibberish anyways."

No response. Just a bleary and blank stare.

At least he was looking at you.

You smile.

"That's fine. Either way, as long as I have a say in it, you're not going back to HYDRA. I'll make sure of that, Barnes."

[charlotte-codes]

A $_POST about PHP (and MySQL)

PHP is great. 

No, really. It is. The syntax is very much like JavaScript, save for a few fundamental differences. 

PHP is a server-side (backend) scripting language that works in the background to enhance your HTML file and make it more dynamic. For instance, paired with a database like MySQL, it can help you create working forms (thus far, our HTML forms have looked pretty, but have done absolutely nothing useful). 

The way I see it right now is that If HTML and CSS were the contents and layout of your home, PHP and the backend is a little bit like Marie Kondo organising all of the crap in your cupboards so that if someone needs to find the Sellotape you know exactly where to look for it (a rare occurrence in our house).

It’s more complicated than that but, for now, that metaphor has carried me through.

That’s great, but how do I use it?

There’s a few things you need to do in order to start using PHP.

Unlike CSS stylesheets and Javascript files, you don’t link a PHP file to your HTML in the <head> tag and just start coding. Because PHP works in the backend, it needs a server to work with. In fact it needs a few things to make it work properly - usually in the form of a LAMP stack.

LAMP is an acronym for the four ingredients (software components) needed to make a website work:

L is for Linux (a common operating system used by Macs) 

A is for Apache (a web server)

M is for MySQL (a database)

P is for PHP (a scripting language)

These are the four things you need for a dynamic website (there are other versions of a LAMP stack [eg. a WAMP stack for Windows]).

We’ve been using Vagrant to create virtual machines (servers) on our computers so that we can learn PHP. For some reason I find this concept a bit magical and had a Zoolander moment when it was first explained to us. 

Furthermore, typing vagrant destroy into the command line feels like the programming equivalent of Daenerys Targaryen saying “Dracarys”:

PHP syntax

Once you’ve got your virtual machine running, you can start using PHP. Like Javascript, PHP deals with strings, functions, arrays and so on. Some differences between the two include things like: 

1. You use a $ to declare variables, rather than Javascript ‘let’

2. You can whack it right in the HTML if you wrap it in <?php ... ?>

3. You output stuff to the browser using echo

4. You use dots to concatenate, rather than +’s

5. Variables are often written in snake_case, rather than camelCase

6. Arrays get a bit more fancy in PHP. An associative array is made up of key => value pairs so you can do things like this ... 

I’ve just realised that will output ‘Legolas is a elf’ which is truly awful grammar but you get the idea. The <br/> added to the end means that the list will output on separate lines ...

You can have a look at what’s going on in an array using var_dump($array_name). This will return a load of info about the array that looks something like this:

array(3) {             [“Frodo”]=>            string(6) “Hobbit”            [“Aragorn”]=>            string(5) “Human”            [“Legolas”]=>            string(3) “Elf”            }

Otherwise, conditionals (for and while loops, switches) and functions work in pretty much the same way as Javascript.

PHP and Forms

Much of PHP week was spent creating a login system - of the type where you register your details using a form, then get sent a verification email with a link that takes you to a login page. 

This is something we all use all the time but I did not appreciate just how much effort and coding goes into building one from scratch. 

In order to actually do something useful with a login form, you need to use PHP to communicate between the client device and the server (i.e. the user submits a form and, on pressing ‘Send’, the information they have inputted is stored somewhere in a database and they are sent a response to tell them what to do next). 

This is done using GET and POST methods. I’ll probably talk more about these when we come to Laravel and APIs but, for now, the essential idea is that a GET method requests data from a specified resource (eg. GET asks the server for the contact.html page and the server responds by loading it) and a POST method submits data to be processed by a specified resource (eg. POST posts form inputs to the form-handler.php file on the server which then responds with a success page or whatever).

Obviously, when someone inputs information into a form, it has to go somewhere to be stored: that’s where databases come in. 

MySQL

MySQL is a database management system that helps you store all your info in neat little tables using even neater commands. 

Once you get the hang of the syntax, and how to navigate to MySQL in the first place (using vagrant ssh and typing in your username and password to access mysql), it’s really easy to figure out what’s going on in there.

For example, to create a table, you use the following command:

CREATE TABLE `people` (  `id` int(11) NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,  `fullname` varchar(255) NOT NULL,  `location` varchar(255) NOT NULL,  `age` int(11) NOT NULL,  PRIMARY KEY (`id`) ) ENGINE=InnoDB  DEFAULT CHARSET=latin1 AUTO_INCREMENT=1 ;

Looks nasty, but it just says ‘create a table called ‘people’ with the following column headers: ‘id’ (that auto-increments each time a new row is added), ‘fullname’, ‘location’ and ‘age’. The table’s primary key is the ‘id’ and then there’s some default stuff at the end. 

This creates an empty table, so you set up your PHP to add data to the table as and when it is inputted by the user. 

You can also input data manually in the command line:

INSERT INTO `people` (`id`, `fullname`, `location`, `age`) VALUES (1, 'Frodo Baggins', 'The Shire', 47), (2, 'Aragorn', 'Various', 40), (3, 'Boromir', 'Minas Tirith', 38), (4, 'Galadriel', 'Lothlorien', 17988);

To check out your table, you use:

SELECT * FROM `people`;

Please don’t write in to tell me how wrong my LOTR estimates are. 

Databases are fun. There’s something satisfying about organising tables that I cannot quite explain. I’m getting married next year and one of the first things I made sure we did was to create a wedding spreadsheet, which I call ‘the wed-sheet’. Pete’s a lucky guy... 

Building a Login System

Right, I’m not going to be able to put all the fine details of building a login system here but here’s the general gist of it. 

Disclaimer: I’m writing this a few weeks after the fact, having done Wordpress, Object Oriented Programming, Laravel and React in the interim - my brain is swimming in React right now, so please forgive anything I miss out. 

1. The user inputs their details on a registration page to create an account:

2. I’ve got some conditionals in my register.php page that will alert the user if they haven’t entered a valid email address or password. If they don’t they get a variety of different error messages:

3. If they do it right, they get this success message:

A successful entry also creates a unique activation code and adds the new user details to the database securely by hashing the codes and passwords.

You can see the MySQL syntax in the db query below:

Here’s part of the entry in the MySQL db. The password looks like crazy gibberish because of the hashing. 

It then sends the new user an email with a link. The slug of the link’s URL is the activation code, so is unique.

Here’s what they see in their email inbox: 

Notice that when they click on the link, the url contains the activation code:

There are various error messages on the activation.php page for anyone who is trying to access the site without registering correctly.

4. Clicking on the link shown in the image above takes them to this login page:

Here, they re-submit their username and password. Again, there’s various conditionals in case they get it wrong, including queries to the database to check that the information they have provided actually exists.

When they’ve successfully logged in, they start a new session, which continues until they log out again. I also coded in a ‘forgot password’ system - which I’m not going to go into now but eventually I’ll add a link here to my completed login system so you can have a look.

When all of this finally came together and worked, it was potentially one of the most satisfying moments on the course up to this point. 

When it was done, I was so proud of myself that I just spent 30 minutes registering new people just to go through the motions of what I’d just created. I then made Pete do the same when I got home. Again, lucky guy. 

Who knew login systems could provide so much joy. I’m definitely going to be including it as part of my portfolio website - more on that next time when we look at Wordpress! :)