The Northern War

Encyclopaedia Fritz, Edition CLVII (2672 Atomic Era)

The Northern War

Border dispute between to adjacent star federations in the Northern Quadrant. Crimes of war led to rapid escalation with eventual depopulation of the sector. See also Blight, Hur'rikku, Tar-Aiym.

Historical Perspective

The Golden Boom was a period of extreme prosperity during the second half of the second millenium of the Atomic Era. This time saw advances in culture such as the cooperative multi-star-system development of the Golems, with massive conquest and unification achieved through the use of such massive war machines. During the peace between the Golden Boom and the White Era, ownership of one Golem came under dispute: the Mul'ulanki federation had originally built the Luk'naga Golem and, after unifying their federation, had set to work on preempting a number of internal issues with the goal of long-term nonviolent federation stability. The Luk'naga was left in orbit around Niffleheim, a cold, methane-ensconced world that was widely viewed as being neutral space in the region.

Capture of the Luk'naga

It was during this time that the artificial intelligence responsible for the Luk'naga's operation locked on to a set of stray Quantum Resonance Discharge transmissions from the Nar'ara federation. (Various theories explain why; until it is fully rebuilt, no one will know why exactly this happened.) When the small supporting fleet discovered that the Luk'naga was no longer responding to their control signals, they sent a scout to the capital world in order to figure out what to do, and started to attempt to reestablish communications with the AI; in the meantime, the Luk'naga had responded to the Nar'ara signals and had started establishing tactical feeds from their command center. According to what few records are available, the Nar'ara response was cautiously optimistic with some trepidation regarding the Mul'ulankis' response to the theft of their Golem.

The conflict began when the Luk'naga decided to jump into hyperspace.

Military Mobilization

[...]

Battle of the Diaspora

[...]

While the two battle fleets kept missing each other in hyperspace along the frontier between the federations, the Luk'naga's AI had been forced by its circumstances into a hyperaware, decision-making state akin to an electronic adrenaline rush. Deciding to stay with its maker rather than expand its experience coffers, it analyzed its trajectory in hyperspace and decided that the only way to stay out of full Nar'ara control was to self-destruct. According to the telemetry the Mul'ulanki control station received, it locked its engines into phase, coupled their impulsors, and simply went to full power. The resulting energy concentration took approximately one month to reach critical; at some point, the fabric of reality formed a discontinuity and an explosion ensued. This cataclysm enveloped several star systems and left a lifeless scar in the local cluster known today as the Black Void. When both federations' fleets heard the news, they simply returned home to watch and see what the other would do, making the Northern War one of the least bloody conflicts in recent history.

After the War

The loss of the frontier star systems around the explosion dealt a deathblow to the politics of Golem projects. If loss of such an important asset were possible, what else might be lost? Was not the Golem designed to lay waste to far more systems than what had been in the Black Void? What moral right had anyone to build such phenomenal engines of destruction?

Henrich von Kramptdatz had been one of the head engineers and architects of the Mul'ulanki Golem project. He was in the federation's control center when the telemetry stopped, signaling the great ship's demise; however, he stated that his team had built a better ship than would simply self-destruct and leave nothing. His primary claim was that salvaging the wreckage and understanding the AI's decisions was the single most important priority the federation could set. This research would reveal how such tremendously complex systems operated under duress, and might lead to better designs in the future. Sizable debris has been found in several adjacent star systems and towed to Niffleheim for inspection, but after widespread criticism of "thinking of the Nar'ara first," he was forced into obscurity and now leads a droll life at 42 Wallabee Lane, Sydney, Australia.

Few have taken note that several of the frontier worlds burned off in the explosion were not Mul'ulanki, but rather belonged to the Nar'ara. The military standoff between the federations has prevented assessment of and humanitarian assistance with the loss, though it can't be all that bad because the Nar'ara now have another Golem.

Economic recovery among the Mul'ulanki was slow but thorough. Construction began on another Golem, based on the design of the first, and is now an integral part of the federation's Defense Fleet. Certain limits on the AI are in place should a similar set of circumstances arise, and the AI is more self-aware than the first.

Childhood Dream #503

I'm not 5.

Quite a bit past it actually. Almost a menace to society...except that I'm not exactly single. Quite married, I'd say.

I'm at Disney World presently, and I'm having a blast along with my wife and her family.

I've gotten into it, though I'll admit the plush I clung to in the store wasn't Mickey or Goofy; it was Perry the Platypus. I don't know all the references, and some things are surprising like seeing Jack Skellington merchandise, but everyone's excitement and the immersiveness and the not-quite-too-controlled-yet-manicured atmosphere helps a lot.

Due to parking arrangements, my first ride was the tram and my first line was at the bus. They run very efficiently, which means that sometimes they're a bit...infrequent, and often packed. Getting to the park early is very much worth it, and I recommend the single riders' lines and FastPass--in that order.

The initial launch of the Rock'n'Roller 'coaster is rather...rapid. I would enjoy running some analytics on good accelerometer data from it... :) My wife's grandfather says it's the closest he's felt to an aircraft carrier's catapult, and now I understand why, and it's a blast...almost literally. That's the Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular. I could've tried harder to be one of the extras for it, but those that made it were ecstatic and looked like they had a ball...all except the guy the main actress beat up. ;)

Expedition Everest was the first 'coaster I've been on where it runs backwards, and that was trippy. It was also dual lift with track switching. The line has a fascinating Yeti museum, though high FastPass traffic after the parade easily doubled the promised 15-minute wait .

Construction and theming of the park are excellent. One area felt chintzy, but my wife says that's by design. We rode the dino version of the Dumbo ride and the actual mechanics were superbly functional--not like the poor little biplanes at Six Flags back home (my favorite ride as a child). Of course, I understand the pneumatic control system a LOT better ever since I did robotics in high school.

No sign of Tron, and a Portal theme park segment of this caliber would be AWESOME...but more at home at Universal methinks. Set design could use cameras, 3D, and careful construction to provide the illusion of portal passage, though proper flings would, themselves, be a special challenge.

One more detail: there is free, seamless wifi everywhere. My planless phone is quite operable and some great apps exist just for Disney World, including line wait readers. I think the wifi is a stroke of genius, as "coarse" phone location uses the nearby wifi points' info to guess your location and such coverage as is had here means that when GPS is compromised (like in any of the buildings) there is still a lot of precision available for their ride-load-balancing informational apps.

On Quanta of News

Sure, the Duke of Gramm had been dealing with a number of his own problems. That came with a planet-duchy. It still didn't help with what he was seeing.

The trader had pulled in and, as usual, was full of newsreels from the other systems in the quadrant. This one had just come from Trammelsham, one of Gramm's close allies, and he had been excited to get the news.

Invaders -- FROM SPACE!

I am presently enrolled in an embedded systems class. Over the last three weeks, my lab partner and I had the opportunity to (dear readers: keep reading) implement Space Invaders on a Digilent Atlys board. It was fun.

I think my favorite part was the lab writeup where we had to describe the game in detail; upon encouragement from the denizen of a treeless plain in Africa, I have decided to post it here verbatim for your amusement. See, I don't like dry technical writing. It puts me to sleep. I also don't like arbitrary requirements. :D

Space Invaders for the Digilent Atlys

By:

[my lab partner and I]

Lady Elegans

A waltz was playing somewhere.

Well, it certaainly felt like a waltz was playing. After a terse conversation with Lady Elegans he had been directed to this hall, hidden like her cellar behind an impenetrable, unmarked wall. He had stepped in to find himself floating up towards the middle of the room, and from there he had discovered that walking--oddly enough--was an effective means of propulsion along the corridor.

As such, it was quite the impressive corridor. Ribbons and arcs of baroque pillars danced between each other, mostly obscuring the long chamber's square profile. Occasional gaps revealed plush carpeting, ornate dining areas, shadowed niches, abandoned servants' areas, and other scenes of abandoned grand living. The walls were odd, though he couldn't quite make out why, and each area he passed felt like it followed the last, as though the long hall were a concatenation of segments of time.

If you don't find something strange about The Hall, she had said, you can never help us and so will never leave.

Does floating through the air on a predetermined track count? How about flying through an ancient hall behind a solid stone wall? Perhaps the eery waltzing feeling as he strode through the air, the lack of servants, the abandoned air in so elegant a place?

He thought for a moment, staring off into space. It was something simple--

What the-- What moved? It took a moment to bring his thoughts back to reality...well, the present reality. Something in the shadows cast by the pillars? The sojourner began a slow and careful examination of the shadows. The nearest ballroom looked well-lit by a chandelier or two out of his line of sight. Still, they would be about there, and the web of pillar-like laces was thin above there, so the wall over there should be...

Laced with shadows.

It was black. Not a trace of the ample lighting was making it to the wall, and the lattices that landd there seemed to have shadows lapping at their bases. The walls certainly were odd light here where shadows should be, shadows bunched in plain sight, the right shadows sitting the wrong way in some spaces, all just orderly enough to evade the unwary mind.

Wrong shadows in a hall of memories...

IP 9258 HTTP Parsing Problems

Hi!

Warning: technical dump.

I've recently had the opportunity to work with the IP Power 9258 PDU. It's actually quite nice in many ways, but its HTTP query string and header parsing have a few terrible bugs in them.

Header field names ("User-agent" in "User-agent: my-super-browser") should be case insensitive. This PDU requires both "User-agent" and "Authorization" to be capitalized.

Query parameters are normally delimited with "&". The PDU expects "+", though between "cmd" and "p6x" you can use &.

Query parameters are also supposedly order-independent. This lovely device requires "delay" to be first (if present) and to be followed with the "+" delimiter. Using "&" will put the port in an unusable state, further testing required.

curl is your friend, the AHR2 module for Node.js is not...for now. Fixen are in the pipes.

Shadows

*slam*

From the frightening whirl of the ether he impacted the floor, and with a lurch reality settled around him and sealed the gap through which he'd come.

Fate liked doing this. She tended to land him in places where help was needed, but they were usually strange, alien places. Now it was his turn to get off the--well, floor, judging by its smoothness--figure out where he was, and solve the puzzle(s) set before him.

As usual, he was unharmed and still had his full tool belt from the work site. Fate was not always kind--he'd once saved a race of arthropods from destruction while...less than tastefully clothed. Turns out clothing was a mark of evil in their society, so in a way she had still been kind.

Looking around, he noticed that it was a well-lit room. The dead lack of ambient noise hinted at a deep, underground installation, and he was curious just where he was... Seven smooth, space-age-style doors lined one wall while the opposite wall was, oddly enough, smooth-hewn stone. From the strata and the temperature he was quite some distance down. A few curious-looking machines stood idle at one end of the room; earth-movers by the grinder-conveyor belt face and the tracked bottom, though the machinery that followed the grinding head was quite mysterious. It was big enough he found it hard to imagine how it had gotten in here--likely sealed in as construction progressed.

He walked to each door in sequence. As he approached, they opened revealing more door-lined walls, vast, orderly rows of segments of much larger machines, one completely empty room with a tiny sign in the back: "Lost + Found." Seeing that little danger was visible, he became more bold and started opening doors in more rapid succession, covering vast swaths of ground until he discovered one of the original doors was locked. Realizing what a locked door meant--danger--he immediately started examining the door for weaknesses.

The doorframe was smooth, and the sensor that triggered the door itself was nowhere in evidence. No tool he had would fit into the crack, and nothing in his belt would so much as scratch the surface, so he tucked away the door's location and moved on.

The next door was a junk room. He stepped in and just about fell off a cliff--the room was huge! Hundreds of little trinkets sat around, some of them gleaming in the randomly-placed lights around the chamber. There were doors in the ceiling and floor, junk was haphazardly welded to segments of the walls, the walls were outright broken in a few places, and nothing was in use. The cavernous room felt dead. Again taking note of which door he had been in, he stepped back out.

The last door was odd. It slid open hesitantly, as if something were nervous about letting him in. This, like the sealed door, was intriguing, so he stepped cautiously into the largest library he'd ever seen--well, it felt like a library. Massive shelves ran all the way up to the arched roof, lit by magnificent crystal chandeliers.

The shelves were empty.

The place felt alive somehow, too. Shadows clung to the edges of the pillars and shelves, seeming to spite the lights. As he wandered around and past the first layer of shelving, he noticed strange things: cobwebs, moving shadows, books that weren't books hovering just on the edge of existence. Occasionally one of the outside walls was broken by another of the sealed doors, and he tried with less and less vigor to pry them open. Other breaks in the shelves were normal doors, behind which was a motley mix of library shelves and more doors (sic). Each room was well-lit in the middle, but the shadows hung around the outside, seemingly right on the brink of destruction.

Finally, he found it. In the back of the deepest room he found a broken wall. Shelves still clung to it, but their disarray only highlighted the wall protruding from itself.

Finding a crowbar and hammer in his kit, he discovered that the shelves cleared away easily. The fissure was just wide enough to give his tools purchase, and he began the slow process of prying the panel out.

Several minutes later, the crack was wide enough to slip through. Behind it was pitch black, so he fetched out his flashlight. All he could discover was that the floor was stone--the same as in the root node he had started in. He wriggled in.

The room was dark, but the shadows were natural. Cobwebs hung, partially obscuring the piles of boxes and crates that filled the room leaving narrow paths to walk through. Clearing the spiders' testament of time back, he found that the crates were labelled--some were old records of the library's operation, some were marked with periods of older history, and some were completely unmarked. Some of the crates were styled like the doors, while others fit better with the library's decor. It was a strange place. Crates were aging, and occasionally somewhere in the distance one would groan and collapse under the weight of its neighbors.

After what seemed forever (and about sixteen armfuls of discarded cobweb and three pyrotechnic urges) later, he found an open space with a single chair, a small end table, and a book. A sudden chill ran down his spine, and he took a step into the open space. The reluctant feeling from the library's entrance was met with an angry, dismal feeling and an argument began. He took another step. The argument felt more heated, and the sadder of the two seemed to be winning. As he arrived at the chair, he looked down at the book. It was beautifully gilt, with deep red leather wrapping its covers and bearing its title. Before he could make out the characters, the hesitant feeling yanked the table and book out of reality, and the angry feeling started condensing into a dark, elegant lady with a cold face sitting in the chair.

"I see you've been exploring the library, Amadaeus. I hope to help you find what you are looking for."