💾 Archived View for cosmic.voyage › Nemesis › 005-hacky-solution.txt captured on 2024-08-25 at 00:22:12.
⬅️ Previous capture (2020-09-24)
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Well, to be frank, everything was screwed. The main computer is fried. We have no idea what did it in, it was working fine up into the weird mass disappeared. But as you can see, the fact that this message is being sent means that we fixed it, somehow. I'm handing over to the Chief Technician now to explain what happened. ~ Captain ================================================= Wow! My first time using QEC, I'm so excited! I was so annoyed at Captain for not letting me use it, he insisted that I was not allowed to use it withou express permission, but since I am a honest and sincere person, I kept my word not to use it. I went of on a tangent, didn't I, I do that a lot. I must make a note to ensure I don't do that anymore. Hold on just a minute.... Ok, I'm good now, I can actually start my recount. It was the weirdest thing I'd ever done. The Most Hacky Solution. ================================================= I was going around, repairing each of the sub-computers, that single-task, each performing a specific tasks. All of these sub-computers are linked in a network to the main computer. Once I finally finished all of the sub-computers, I turned my attention to the most difficult job - repairing the main computer. Some of the circuitry in the main computer is beyond even my abilities, and if I do say so myself, I think that I am pretty well learned and know what I am doing with stuff. Anyway, I looked at it, and on first glance I could tell it was fried. The QPU (Quantum Processing Unit), top end of the range, 256 qubits, was cracked. No salvaging that. The motherboard's connectors were blackened. It was the strangest thing I have seen in my 30 years of working with ship computers. I turned my attention to finding a cold spare, if they had one and exploring the possibility of using one of the sub-computers as the main computer. Alas, each of the sub-computers did not have the functionality required to be used as the main computer. The main computer requires multitasking functionality, which all of the sub-computers did not have. This ship was built in the little space of time - the period known as the 'Singletasking Revolution'. This got quickly shot down by experts, but the gist was that most computers should only do one task and they are all controlled by one multitasking computer. In the meantime, my assistants were looking for a cold spare, if it even existed. They looked through every corner of the ship. There wasn't one. I asked, "Are there ANY other multitasking computers on the ship?" I was met with no's all around, except for one junior assistant. "Sir?" he said meekly. "There is that relic of a computer? We have no information about it. Maybe we could look at that?" To start, I dismissed him with a flick of my hand. What a dumb idea, I thought. It would never work. However, one of my most senior assistants told me that she thought the idea may have some merit and it may be worth exploring. If it was anyone else, I would have likely said no way and put them on some boring duty, but since I secretly have a huge crush on her (oh no I really hope she dosen't see this), I decided to go ahead. For many days and nights I tried to figure out this computer. Here is the information I have gathered: - Operating System: Ubuntu 18.04. It seems to be an ancestor of our far superior Linux computers, it runs a kernel named 'Linux' and some parts of the codebase look familiar. - QPU: none. there is a CPU however, a Central Processing Unit, made using the Earth material silicon. - RAM: 8 Gigabytes. Are you serious? Our main computer had a Terabyte of RAM! - Drive: It's not even a solid state drive. It's a frickin mechanical hard drive. It has frickin moving parts. It's tiny too, only 1 Terabyte! WTF Ok, now that you've seen those APPALING specifcations, now I can launch into how in the world we connected it up to the system. This was very easy, and a stroke of luck. Some of you vetran adminstrators might remember USB-C? Well this computer had it. Luckily we had a USB-C to USB-X adaptor lying around, so it was pretty easy to connect it up to the system. However, software was a completely different matter. We needed to write custom software for it. Many of the junior adminstrators had never even heard of C or C++, so we had to teach them C++. Of course I remembered it as well as I remember my own face. Too easy for me! After hard work and perspiration, we finally had hacky code working with all the other computers. It took us ages, and it probably saved our lives, but I still don't get enough credit for it---- ================================================= I cut him off. As you can see, he is a spolit idiot. But he did save our lives so I'll let him have it this one time. But anyway, good to be back, and I hope to see one of you soon so we can get that main computer crap repaired. Signing off, Captain.