|
By: Mr. Eugene Sims Reyes
and Mr. Howard Nicholas Rabusa Andres
The following is an original "eBook" created by the CEO and COO of
Reyes Enterprises for our visitors to enjoy both on-line and on the TI-89.
Please do not copy, store, resell, republish, or in any way remove portions of
this text from this website unless you are downloading it to your TI-89 for
offline viewing.
Joe's Computer Crisis is copyrighted ©1999 by Reyes Enterprises. All
rights reserved.
Portions copyright ©1999 Mr. Eugene Sims Reyes
Portions copyright ©1999 Mr. Howard Nicholas Rabusa Andres
Encarta, Windows, Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows 2000, and MS-DOS are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation
Intel and Pentium II are trademarks of Intel Corporation
Any other registered trademarks or trademarks are property of their respective
owners.
In the early hours of the morning, Joe's computer screen glared, "A fatal exception has occurred at 0028:C000B25A in VDX VMM(01)+0000A25A. The current application will be terminated."
"Darn," screamed Joe, "I've been working on this report for eight hours straight, and now its probably deleted! I'm too tired..."
Joe dozes on top of the keyboard, pondering over his recent technological difficulties arising from his inability to work with computers. He sighed, "To sleep, perchance to dream..."
Joe opens to the sight of an enormous green board beneath his feet with tons of wiring. He takes a few steps forward, gazing at his surroundings, wondering where he was. Then suddenly out of nowhere, huge rectangular blocks, displaying the Intel Pentium II processor logo, begin to fall all around him. As he sees one about to fall on top of his head, he scampers out of the way, avoiding death by a few milliseconds. Then he notices an ever-intensifying luminescence emerging in the distance. Hoping it is a way out, he runs toward it while also avoiding the falling blocks. As he reaches it, the light disappears, and the green ground that was beneath him gives way, causing him to fall into what seems a deep, dark, pitch-black pit. After an indeterminate amount of time, he lands with a thud on an unseen floor. All of a sudden, pillars of fire engulf the space around him.
"Aaaaaaarrrrrrrggggggghhhhhhhh!!!!!!!," he screamed as a result of the intense heat.
Just then, one of the walls of fire gave way to a bright white light behind a shadowy figure. Joe asked, "Who is it, who's there?"
The rest of the fire then suddenly disappeared. Soon spotlights overwhelm the area, pointing toward what used to be the shadowy figure.
"Are you... Gates... Bill Gates?"
"Yes, I am whom you know as Bill Gates, Joe."
"How did you know my name?"
"This is your dream, Joe. I have been brought here to guide you though your computer troubles."
"What?"
"Even I do not know the answer to 'fatal exceptions'."
"Really?"
"Yes, Joe. I have been programming since my teens, but I still don't know how to completely prevent these 'exceptions'."
"So, what are you going to do? You said you were brought here to help me."
"Let me show you how it was before..."
Bill turns around to the way he came from, leading the way for Joe to follow him. They walk through a short path leading to a dark room with a computer in its center. Joe does not recognize what kind of computer it is. Bill stops in front of the computer, waiting for Joe to catch up from behind. Joe stares at the blank, black screen, pondering over the few text present.
"What the heck does 'C:\' stand for? How come when I type in 'help' it tells me 'Bad command or file name'?"
"This is UNIX, a complicated operating system for computers. It does not support many applications and has barely any drivers for hardware."
"What? Operating system? Drivers?"
"An operating system hooks up the hardware and software together. In this way, software can 'talk' to hardware, and vice versa."
"What good are the drivers for?"
"Drivers are really small programs that, when running, control certain pieces of computer equipment."
"Okay. But why the confusing interface?"
"UNIX, especially this incarnation, was based on another operating system that Microsoft did in the 80s, known as DOS."
"But why do UNIX, then? I heard about all PCs having DOS pre-loaded. How did UNIX come about?"
"This version came into being when a European college student decided to do an 'open source' operating system..."
"What? Open source? What's that?"
"It means that anyone can see the lines of code, or instructions, that the programmer instructed the computer to do."
"Okay."
"Then, it blossomed into several versions, all being incompatible with each other..."
"Stop right there."
"Why?"
"Why would they do that? Make it so incompatible?"
"I have no idea why. Maybe because it was free. Or maybe because it could be freely distributed in whatever form programmers desired."
"Hmmm..."
"What?"
"I'm trying to think."
"Okay."
"Since UNIX is so complicated and has many incompatible versions, I am assuming that it never became a hit."
"You could say that."
"So, where to we go from here? I know that the computing world has definitely become a LOT better than this thing called UNIX."
"You are right Joe, there have been a great many improvements since the UNIX era. One of these improvements includes the Apple Macintosh. Follow me."
Once again, Bill leads the way down another short path from the UNIX room into another. They emerged from darkness as they entered the other room. It was noticeably lighter than the last, but still somewhat dim all around. Colors on the walls and floor, nevertheless, were visible. The walls were rainbow striped, with even lines of reds, greens, blues, purples, and so on. The floor, also in the same condition, contained stripes that met together in the center of the room to surround the Apple Macintosh there. Additionally, there seemed to be background noises within the room that were incomprehensible and blabbering. The moans seemed to echo throughout the small room. These voices, though garbled, seemed to want to tell something to the two newcomers.
"Bill, do you know what exactly are those voices we hear?" asked Joe.
"Those sounds you hear Joe are the sounds of the millions of people demanding much more from the Macintosh."
"What more do they want? I see an easy-to-use interface and a mouse."
"They demand more programs, more options, more accessories, and even more power. The Macintosh provides superior features when compared to UNIX, but lack these aforementioned things."
"Why?"
"The Macintosh, while somewhat revolutionary, did not have strong support from developers and even Apple itself. Very few memorable applications ever sprang for the Macintosh platform. Every user, except graphic designers, desired so much more."
"Like what? You said more options-"
"People wanted larger hard drives to store more data, bigger high-resolution monitors, more buttons on the mice, faster CD-ROM drives, compatibility-"
"There's that word again. Compatibility. Why is that so important?"
"Well, let me show you..."
As the two reach the area where a path should be, Joe notices that this time there are stairs leading up. As he follows Bill, Joe thinks that the next room much be a great improvement over the Macintosh since they were moving up. The trip up the stairs took about the same time to travel as the paths earlier, but instead of opening up to another room, a field appeared in front of their eyes. The field was open and wide. It seemed to vastly extend beyond a horizon of clear blue sky. Joe did not notice any sight of a computer at first, but a glimmer of the sun's rays pointed to the direction where they needed to go. Joe noticed that the computer, not too far in the distance, was similar to the one he owned.
"Do you know what this is Joe? This is a personal computer, or PC, the same kind that you own."
"What exactly are the benefits of a PC over the previous two computers? I only saw a few when I compared my computer against those two."
"Well, in a nutshell, the PC is of higher quality when compared to those two computers. It has more software, better applications, more games, larger variety of additional hardware, and so much more. Also, using Windows 98 or Windows 2000, the PC is the easiest it has ever been."
"Oh. I have Windows 95. What has changed between all these versions of Windows?"
"First off, both Windows 98 and Windows 2000 have been designed with the Internet in mind. UNIX cannot effectively connect to the 'Net while the Apple Macintosh does not completely support some web sites-"
"Well, how come the 'fatal exception' pops up every now and then?"
"At this stage of computer development, we cannot completely prevent error messages such as that one from appearing. Sometimes, error messages flash onto the screen because of 'buggy' programming. Often, it's because of the status of system resources, being so low-"
"System resources?"
"System resources stand for the memory and storage space for applications. When the available system resources is too low, like when too many programs are running, the computer can become unstable."
"Oh, so that's the problem! Jeez, I had Microsoft Word running to do my work while I had some other stuff in the background. Some of these were the CD player and volume control. Also, I was connected to the Internet using AOL, running a chat program, and checking my e-mail at the same time."
"Well, going back to your question regarding Windows: Windows 2000 will be the most stable operating system released. We made many features and enhancements to this latest version of Windows. Security while you are online is tighter than ever. Broader support for even more programs and hardware-"
"Will that be the last Windows version released? What about the computer itself? Will it get any easier, or is this the end of the road?"
"This is not the end of the evolution of the computer. Let me take you to a vision that numerous people who work with computers believe could happen. All computer companies, including Microsoft, have been working on achieving this 'possibility' for many years."
Once Bill stopped speaking, concentric rings of light overwhelmed Joe. These brilliant flashes of light caused Joe to momentarily become blind and lose his footing. He, however, did not feel the ground when he should have fallen. Instead, he felt his weight decrease rapidly. His heart beat faster.
"Where am I going? Why can't I see?" he thought.
Joe slowly regained his vision. His eyes opened to a sight of bright, pure white enveloping him. Additionally, there were people everywhere of all ages, young and old, who wore white gowns reminiscent of angels. They were working with and talking to electronic devices unrecognizable by Joe, and the people worked very easily and happily. As he looked around, he noticed Bill standing next to him, pointing at an object directly in front of them. He focuses onto what seemed to be a small handheld device wirelessly connected to a large television set. Joe picks up the small clamshell shaped device.
"So, is this the future computer?"
"One of the various visions abound. Others have the computer built into the wall, while some shrink a fully operational computer down to the size of a credit card."
"Wow! How is this possible?"
"Sir, it is voice recognition that does a lot of the input now," says a womanly voice.
"Who said that?"
"I am Tracy, the computer you are holding now."
"Cool! But why do you actually sound like a human?"
"Artificial intelligence, partially based on Microsoft Encarta-"
"Awesome! That means you know a whole lot, then?"
"Yes. People of the future created me to assist people, such as yourself, who are relatively inexperienced with computers. Nevertheless, you do not need to call me a computer. Just call me Tracy."
Bill Gates interrupts, "Tracy, maybe you can help Joe more with his problem of 'fatal exceptions'."
Tracy responds, "Just work around it. Remember to constantly save your work and make sure you have enough hard drive space free."
Joe responds, "That's it! I can-"
The sound of the computer coming back to life in Windows 95 awakens Joe.
"Darn! I didn't even get to ask what will happen to me in the future!"
|
Download Joe's Computer Crisis to your TI-89 [12.3 KB]