I Need Help with Some Techno-Babble
I know I need to attempt to research my question but I am at a loss. I don't know where to begin without taking a computer course when all I need is two or three lines of dialog...
I know that when I move my fingers across these keys, words appear on the screen in front of me. I don't know gigabits from megabites from terrabites or even if I have spelled any of that correctly. I don't even really know the difference between software and hardware.
I've asked at several computer communities, and they suggest I come here...
SO!
I am writing a space opera story...
What I need is some technobabble about computers...
We are on a small spaceship, think the Defiant from "Deep Space Nine," or the Millennium Falcon from "Star Wars" or Serenity from "Firefly." They encounter this GIGANTIC ancient starship. As the story begins, must of the functions on the little spaceship's computers have locked up or something. The crew is having to figure things out without the friendly computer answering all their questions. Life support and a few things are still working, but they can't even get scans to figure out what the HUGE ship is, what it is made of, anything...
So I am going at the angle that the HUGE ship tried to contact the small one and its supercomputers have somehow overwhelmed our hero's computer.
I think about how when I have a dozen windows all open at once and all it takes is one person IMing me and suddenly everything locks up.
So basically, I need my first officer to tell the captain what is wrong, or what he thinks is wrong.
Would this be gigabite talk? Is the computer locked up? Frozen? Overwhelmed? I can say it in English, but I need the computer geek lingo so that anyone who knows shit about computers won't roll their eyes and say, "Well, this guy doesn't know anything about computers!"
The point of my story is the people and what happens to them. I just need to play lip service, just lip service, to reality.
PLEASE help ASAP! My deadline for submission quickly approaches!
I really hope you can help...
I know that when I move my fingers across these keys, words appear on the screen in front of me. I don't know gigabits from megabites from terrabites or even if I have spelled any of that correctly. I don't even really know the difference between software and hardware.
I've asked at several computer communities, and they suggest I come here...
SO!
I am writing a space opera story...
What I need is some technobabble about computers...
We are on a small spaceship, think the Defiant from "Deep Space Nine," or the Millennium Falcon from "Star Wars" or Serenity from "Firefly." They encounter this GIGANTIC ancient starship. As the story begins, must of the functions on the little spaceship's computers have locked up or something. The crew is having to figure things out without the friendly computer answering all their questions. Life support and a few things are still working, but they can't even get scans to figure out what the HUGE ship is, what it is made of, anything...
So I am going at the angle that the HUGE ship tried to contact the small one and its supercomputers have somehow overwhelmed our hero's computer.
I think about how when I have a dozen windows all open at once and all it takes is one person IMing me and suddenly everything locks up.
So basically, I need my first officer to tell the captain what is wrong, or what he thinks is wrong.
Would this be gigabite talk? Is the computer locked up? Frozen? Overwhelmed? I can say it in English, but I need the computer geek lingo so that anyone who knows shit about computers won't roll their eyes and say, "Well, this guy doesn't know anything about computers!"
The point of my story is the people and what happens to them. I just need to play lip service, just lip service, to reality.
PLEASE help ASAP! My deadline for submission quickly approaches!
I really hope you can help...