her uncle’s get’n outta jail cuz your Bots wrecked the FBI.”
“You what ?” Now Daniel was the one who looked horrified. Jade got up and ran down the hall, afraid that Daniel was going to swat her. “This isn’t America anyhow.”
Wesley’s mind got stuck, as if often did, and he repeated, “Oh man” repeatedly.
Daniel yelled at him with a little too much force than he had intended, “Knock it off, you bloody . . . .”
Wesley looked at him with a blank expression.
“I have a plan, remember?”
Wesley just shrugged.
Daniel’s mom knocked on the partially open door to his bedroom and said, “Dan, you have more visitors.”
Wesley asked, “Who?”
As if on cue, a trio stepped through the door into Daniel’s room. They were all dressed in dark clothing, either black, dark green, or dark blue in various combinations. It was their trademark . . . what one might call their gang colors. However, these blokes were not nocturnal explorers of urban alleyways and streets, but rather explorers of information systems. It was Wil, Billy, and Nate.
“Dan, Wes,” Wil said calmly. Billy and Nate simply nodded, as usual, leaving Wil in charge of what they called “communications routines.”
Wesley grabbed the beanbag and plopped on top of it in the corner beside the paused screen of InterWorld, curiosity aroused at the presence of these reputable troublemakers.
Coming to the point, Wil looked at Daniel and asked, “So, let’s see it.”
Daniel turned the screen so they could see.
Wil commented, “I don’t get it. It’s just a plain desktop. What’s the deal?”
Daniel smiled and said, “Try it out.”
Wil bent over the desk in front of Daniel and opened several random apps: text editor, spreadsheet, database, presentation, and a few games. About a dozen apps were running simultaneously.
Billy spoke up for the first time, “What’s so special about that?”
Daniel smiled, then stretched his hand out in front of them, revealing a solid-state storage card in his palm. “There’s no storage card in that computer. It’s running entirely on internal memory.”
Wil lifted the padd out of the dock and examined the empty storage card slot.
Nate couldn’t contain himself any longer. “Are you trying to tell us that all that stuff is running in volatile memory? If so, how did Wil open the apps in the first place if they aren't stored anywhere?”
“Right now, it's using a RAM drive.”
Daniel ran the memory manager so they could all see. Without storage, the padd was using the minimal default memory that came with the machine simply for card installation and configuration settings.
Daniel laughed, “What do you think?”
Wil protested, “It’s a scam, you’re pulling off some memory hack to make us believe it. You know, not even the OS can run in that amount of memory. It’s ridiculous.”
“The Bots have rewritten everything on this machine and made it more efficient. I mean, who knows, they’re probably using some fantastic compression that we’ve never thought of. They see what’s going on around them and then fix what they think is wrong. To the Bots, all human code is full of errors and needs to be fixed.”
“So, what does that prove?” Billy said, sounding annoyed.
Daniel spent the better half of an hour explaining all that had happened with his life experiment and the Bots, right up to the point of their escape.
“You know,” Wil said, “there are a few dozen companies that would kill for this kind of technology.”
“That’s why I need your help,” Daniel replied. “We need to bring them all back and keep them from spreading or we’ll lose them forever.”
Wil asked, “I don’t see that there’s anything you can do. They’re already out. It’s just a matter of time before they infest every computer in the world.”
Wesley spoke up, “You know, that doesn’t sound like such a bad thing to me.”
The other four looked sharply at him, “What?”
Wesley
“You what ?” Now Daniel was the one who looked horrified. Jade got up and ran down the hall, afraid that Daniel was going to swat her. “This isn’t America anyhow.”
Wesley’s mind got stuck, as if often did, and he repeated, “Oh man” repeatedly.
Daniel yelled at him with a little too much force than he had intended, “Knock it off, you bloody . . . .”
Wesley looked at him with a blank expression.
“I have a plan, remember?”
Wesley just shrugged.
Daniel’s mom knocked on the partially open door to his bedroom and said, “Dan, you have more visitors.”
Wesley asked, “Who?”
As if on cue, a trio stepped through the door into Daniel’s room. They were all dressed in dark clothing, either black, dark green, or dark blue in various combinations. It was their trademark . . . what one might call their gang colors. However, these blokes were not nocturnal explorers of urban alleyways and streets, but rather explorers of information systems. It was Wil, Billy, and Nate.
“Dan, Wes,” Wil said calmly. Billy and Nate simply nodded, as usual, leaving Wil in charge of what they called “communications routines.”
Wesley grabbed the beanbag and plopped on top of it in the corner beside the paused screen of InterWorld, curiosity aroused at the presence of these reputable troublemakers.
Coming to the point, Wil looked at Daniel and asked, “So, let’s see it.”
Daniel turned the screen so they could see.
Wil commented, “I don’t get it. It’s just a plain desktop. What’s the deal?”
Daniel smiled and said, “Try it out.”
Wil bent over the desk in front of Daniel and opened several random apps: text editor, spreadsheet, database, presentation, and a few games. About a dozen apps were running simultaneously.
Billy spoke up for the first time, “What’s so special about that?”
Daniel smiled, then stretched his hand out in front of them, revealing a solid-state storage card in his palm. “There’s no storage card in that computer. It’s running entirely on internal memory.”
Wil lifted the padd out of the dock and examined the empty storage card slot.
Nate couldn’t contain himself any longer. “Are you trying to tell us that all that stuff is running in volatile memory? If so, how did Wil open the apps in the first place if they aren't stored anywhere?”
“Right now, it's using a RAM drive.”
Daniel ran the memory manager so they could all see. Without storage, the padd was using the minimal default memory that came with the machine simply for card installation and configuration settings.
Daniel laughed, “What do you think?”
Wil protested, “It’s a scam, you’re pulling off some memory hack to make us believe it. You know, not even the OS can run in that amount of memory. It’s ridiculous.”
“The Bots have rewritten everything on this machine and made it more efficient. I mean, who knows, they’re probably using some fantastic compression that we’ve never thought of. They see what’s going on around them and then fix what they think is wrong. To the Bots, all human code is full of errors and needs to be fixed.”
“So, what does that prove?” Billy said, sounding annoyed.
Daniel spent the better half of an hour explaining all that had happened with his life experiment and the Bots, right up to the point of their escape.
“You know,” Wil said, “there are a few dozen companies that would kill for this kind of technology.”
“That’s why I need your help,” Daniel replied. “We need to bring them all back and keep them from spreading or we’ll lose them forever.”
Wil asked, “I don’t see that there’s anything you can do. They’re already out. It’s just a matter of time before they infest every computer in the world.”
Wesley spoke up, “You know, that doesn’t sound like such a bad thing to me.”
The other four looked sharply at him, “What?”
Wesley
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