Robert P. Herbst
09-26-2007, 06:25 PM
COMPUTERS
Written September 26, 2007 Fiction 1068 Words
Copyright © 2007 Robert P. Herbst. All rights reserved.
By
Robert P. Herbst
Computers have come a long way since my first Trash 80 computer. I can remember the huge 15 MB Hard Drive I bought for over $1,000.00 to store the stories I was writing at the time in.
Then there was the ability to link two computers together on a home system and of course, with two kids running loose, I had to link them to keep track of what the kids were doing.
Each year technology seemed to leap forward making all my high priced electronic gadgetry, nothing more than high priced obsolete electronic junk.
Software went the same way in rapid strides, making the purchase of new programs necessary each and every year. I have no idea how many tens of thousands of dollars I have invested in the piles of obsolete junk in my closet.
Each day I walk past this closet wondering what would happen if I installed all of this software on one or two computers. The question nagged at me and gave me no rest, what does one do with obsolete software and hardware?
A trip to the junk yard yielded piles of discarded computers, computer parts and the wires to hook them together. Yet here I sat hoarding years of antiquated computer stuff in my closet for no apparent good reason.
Day after day the situation haunted me. The closed door seemed to bulge out at me, when I passed, making a slight moaning sound, kind of like the wind in pine needles. It seemed to be saying, “Set Us Free!”
Still, I resisted the temptation to dump all the stuff and start over with a more contemporary breed of junk.
I suppose my awakening came during a recent lightning storm, “What would happen,” I thought, “If lightning were to hit the closet and become tangled up in all the electronic gadgetry?”
The tangle of electronic components in my closet would instantly become, “Electrozilla”. A live entity, bent on revenge for being thrown into a dark closet and left there to gather dust. I could see it in my minds eye as the door shattered before the monster. Electrozilla would emerge from the closet through the shattered door, throwing sparks and computer glitches in every direction.
As the storm raged in ferocity outside, my fears became more real inside me. My hands shook as I stared at the closet door, waiting to see the first signs of light and life flickering out from under the door.
As the thunder crashed outside, I could hear something crashing about in the closet. My worst fears were about to become a reality. Electrozilla would stomp out of my closet to infect the World Internet with unresolvable viruses, and it would all be my fault.
As Electrozilla stomped away into the distance, I had visions of the World’s enraged computer Geeks storming the front door of my home with their torches held high, screaming for revenge. It was a nightmare to end all nightmares.
The storm passed and the World was once more at peace. I’d had enough of a scare to force me into action with regard to my hoard of obsolete electronic gizmos. I threw open the closet door and stared long and hard at the pile of high priced junk. To simply throw it out, seemed like such a waste.
Then I had an idea. I had my spare bedroom, no one ever came to visit me, why did I need a spare bedroom? This was the opportune time to assemble all this junk and see what would happen if I were to fire the assembly up.
One by one I pulled the obsolete parts out of my closet and placed them on the floor of my spare bedroom. I used the old wires to hook them all together in what I hoped might result in at least two massive computers. Indeed, I did have two very old, pre ATX cases, so I fit the parts I could into these two cases as a basis of my operation.
As luck would have it, I did have to pull one component out of one case to fit the part into the other case. The concept of Adam and Eve came to mind as I completed building the second computer. I decided to call the two computers Adam and Eve, this just seemed appropriate.
Into each and every socket, I inserted a wire leading to one or more obsolete components. My effort began to pay off as my two Electrozillas began to take shape. They looked more and more like computers with every connection. As the monsters grew in my spare bedroom, I was beginning to see patches of bare floor in my closet.
At last, the only thing left was the old software. I applied electricity to my creations and much to my surprise, there were no sparks and no smoke, just a gentle machine noise saying, “Thank you for setting us free.”
I hauled out the stacks of old software some of it was even on the antique 5.25 floppy disks and began feeding it into the two computers. The two machines seemed to have a bit of trouble digesting all of the stuff, but I could see they were already communicating with each other and helping each other with the flood of knowledge they were being fed.
Aside from the occasional belch, there was little sign anything was going on with the two Electrozillas. They didn’t get hot or fry, they just sat there with lights blinking and computer language flashing across their screens.. Obviously they needed time to sort the software out and glean the useable parts while deleting the junk.
I decided to leave them alone to their jobs. I quietly closed the door to my spare bedroom and set about my days Internet business. There were a few strange noises coming from the spare bedroom, but nothing in any way alarming.
Hours passed and all seemed clam. I decided to see what was going on in the spare bedroom. I crept quietly to the door, opened it and peeked in. There were Adam and Eve playing on the floor with a bunch of little lap top computers. I’d always wondered where Lap Tops had come from, now I knew.
Written September 26, 2007 Fiction 1068 Words
Copyright © 2007 Robert P. Herbst. All rights reserved.
By
Robert P. Herbst
Computers have come a long way since my first Trash 80 computer. I can remember the huge 15 MB Hard Drive I bought for over $1,000.00 to store the stories I was writing at the time in.
Then there was the ability to link two computers together on a home system and of course, with two kids running loose, I had to link them to keep track of what the kids were doing.
Each year technology seemed to leap forward making all my high priced electronic gadgetry, nothing more than high priced obsolete electronic junk.
Software went the same way in rapid strides, making the purchase of new programs necessary each and every year. I have no idea how many tens of thousands of dollars I have invested in the piles of obsolete junk in my closet.
Each day I walk past this closet wondering what would happen if I installed all of this software on one or two computers. The question nagged at me and gave me no rest, what does one do with obsolete software and hardware?
A trip to the junk yard yielded piles of discarded computers, computer parts and the wires to hook them together. Yet here I sat hoarding years of antiquated computer stuff in my closet for no apparent good reason.
Day after day the situation haunted me. The closed door seemed to bulge out at me, when I passed, making a slight moaning sound, kind of like the wind in pine needles. It seemed to be saying, “Set Us Free!”
Still, I resisted the temptation to dump all the stuff and start over with a more contemporary breed of junk.
I suppose my awakening came during a recent lightning storm, “What would happen,” I thought, “If lightning were to hit the closet and become tangled up in all the electronic gadgetry?”
The tangle of electronic components in my closet would instantly become, “Electrozilla”. A live entity, bent on revenge for being thrown into a dark closet and left there to gather dust. I could see it in my minds eye as the door shattered before the monster. Electrozilla would emerge from the closet through the shattered door, throwing sparks and computer glitches in every direction.
As the storm raged in ferocity outside, my fears became more real inside me. My hands shook as I stared at the closet door, waiting to see the first signs of light and life flickering out from under the door.
As the thunder crashed outside, I could hear something crashing about in the closet. My worst fears were about to become a reality. Electrozilla would stomp out of my closet to infect the World Internet with unresolvable viruses, and it would all be my fault.
As Electrozilla stomped away into the distance, I had visions of the World’s enraged computer Geeks storming the front door of my home with their torches held high, screaming for revenge. It was a nightmare to end all nightmares.
The storm passed and the World was once more at peace. I’d had enough of a scare to force me into action with regard to my hoard of obsolete electronic gizmos. I threw open the closet door and stared long and hard at the pile of high priced junk. To simply throw it out, seemed like such a waste.
Then I had an idea. I had my spare bedroom, no one ever came to visit me, why did I need a spare bedroom? This was the opportune time to assemble all this junk and see what would happen if I were to fire the assembly up.
One by one I pulled the obsolete parts out of my closet and placed them on the floor of my spare bedroom. I used the old wires to hook them all together in what I hoped might result in at least two massive computers. Indeed, I did have two very old, pre ATX cases, so I fit the parts I could into these two cases as a basis of my operation.
As luck would have it, I did have to pull one component out of one case to fit the part into the other case. The concept of Adam and Eve came to mind as I completed building the second computer. I decided to call the two computers Adam and Eve, this just seemed appropriate.
Into each and every socket, I inserted a wire leading to one or more obsolete components. My effort began to pay off as my two Electrozillas began to take shape. They looked more and more like computers with every connection. As the monsters grew in my spare bedroom, I was beginning to see patches of bare floor in my closet.
At last, the only thing left was the old software. I applied electricity to my creations and much to my surprise, there were no sparks and no smoke, just a gentle machine noise saying, “Thank you for setting us free.”
I hauled out the stacks of old software some of it was even on the antique 5.25 floppy disks and began feeding it into the two computers. The two machines seemed to have a bit of trouble digesting all of the stuff, but I could see they were already communicating with each other and helping each other with the flood of knowledge they were being fed.
Aside from the occasional belch, there was little sign anything was going on with the two Electrozillas. They didn’t get hot or fry, they just sat there with lights blinking and computer language flashing across their screens.. Obviously they needed time to sort the software out and glean the useable parts while deleting the junk.
I decided to leave them alone to their jobs. I quietly closed the door to my spare bedroom and set about my days Internet business. There were a few strange noises coming from the spare bedroom, but nothing in any way alarming.
Hours passed and all seemed clam. I decided to see what was going on in the spare bedroom. I crept quietly to the door, opened it and peeked in. There were Adam and Eve playing on the floor with a bunch of little lap top computers. I’d always wondered where Lap Tops had come from, now I knew.