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3026
Paragraph 14.5 "Already, reports of nausea, nosebleeds, and other radiation symptoms are dropping, according to data we are receiving from Sickbay. Our death-rate is now declining. A-3 is home, now, to 782 souls, and we are going to recover. We are going to rebuild our numbers. We are going to thrive!" It maybe just me? but a couple of word changes makes it read better I think, see what you think: 'Already, reports of nausea, nosebleeds, and other radiation symptoms have started dropping, according to data we are receiving from Sickbay. Our death-rate will also decline. Currently A-3 is home to 782 souls, and we are going to recover. We will rebuild our numbers. We are going to thrive!'
-Perry Mowbray (July 01, 2013, 07:55 AM)

Not sure about that, the way it's written sounds as if the second sentence should be part of the first, ie.

Already, reports of nausea, nosebleeds, and other radiation symptoms have started dropping, according to data we are receiving from Sickbay, our death-rate will also decline.

Better would be to transpose the start and end of the first, the second would then not sound like it's hanging in mid-air, ie.

According to data we are receiving from Sickbay, reports of nausea, nosebleeds, and other radiation symptoms have started dropping.  Our death rate will also decline.
3027
General Software Discussion / Re: License Key BS
« Last post by 4wd on June 30, 2013, 10:19 PM »
All the apps on DoCo are of high quality ....

I'll refute that!

At no point have I ever tried to make any of my apps high quality, and I'll vigorously defend my right to not do so!

If at any point someone finds that one of my miscellaneous small programs/batch files is of high quality, please tell me and I'll fix it.
3028
Off the top of my head:

for /r c:\scrap %a in (*.txt) do type "%~a" >> C:\output.txt

Haven't tested it, (middle of the night atm), but in theory it recursively lists each text file and appends it to C:\output.txt by using the type commend.

If you want the input files sorted by name then:

for /f "usebackq tokens=*" %a in (`dir /on /b *.txt`) do type "%~a" >> C:\output.txt

For sorted by date use /od instead of /on

Try typing the files in a CLI, if they look OK then the above should work.

EDIT: Huh! x16wda beat me by seconds  ;D
3029
I've now got to read this to Sandi... and come to grips with what's happened

You do realize what child Shima was carrying?  >:D

Are you kidding?

I've been waiting for it since chapter 3  ;D

I'm just surprised it has happened more often, these aliens must have the same ability as the Wamphyri, (Brian Lumleyw), ie. make their 'seed' sterile through force of will.

Starting to get really interesting K.  :Thmbsup:
3030
I'm about 60% done with this novel which, of course, will end on a cliffhanger...

Oh god!  It's not going to be a quadrilogy written at a rate of one per year is it?

That'd be...... evil!
3031
"Estimated time remaining is one-hundred ninety-four seconds..." When reading I added an 'and' in there without it being there... also, you don't think it'd be made more human? '3 minutes, 14 seconds'? Or that Mephord has a personal setting on his workstation to round to the quarter? 'about 3 and a quarter seconds'
-Perry Mowbray (June 29, 2013, 08:53 PM)

America doesn't use and in numerical descriptions for whole numbers, (something that was new to me).  Come to think of it, without going back through a load of books, I wouldn't be able to tell you if any of the other American writers I read put it in or not - I just automatically skip/insert it.  It's only because of the proofreading that I actively try looking for things to query.
(Dammit!  Now I gotta go grab a Dean Koontz book and have a look...)

The ship orbited slowly, scanning vigilantly all around it, getting closer to the continent called North America with each passing hour.

The ship orbited slowly, getting closer to the continent called North America with each passing hour, [close proximity|near space] defensive scanning protocols in [operation|place|effect|?].
3032
I'm going to go Sherlock on you again :)

2283-07-12T10:19-5:00
Tomorrow would mark the passage of one entire month since he’d first listened to Sethra Slatten’s recorded audio message.

Sethra is last seen a month previous just before the five "conspirators" then go to the Shaft:
“Residential Corridor cameras recorded him entering his cubicle on the eleventh of June at 18:36 hours, local time.”

Now, given that supposedly anyone who used the encryption key that Sethra provided is now either terminally dead, (Eddie), or dead and virtualised, (Sethra, Veronee, Zuzana, Byron), the following search by Mephord should have turned up almost nothing:

“June eleventh through ... now.”

I'm assuming the implants become inert with bodily death, otherwise wouldn't it be too easy to locate people via implant signal, (ie. the four missing people)?

So is it meant to be a search for communications/activity for a month prior to their disappearance, (May 11th - June 11th) ?

Also:
She gathered up the ultrasound equipment on its wheeled rack and departed the examination room.

She gathered up the ultrasound equipment onto its wheeled rack and departed the examination room.

I’ve entered a log into her work record that she’ll be off-duty the remainder of the day.

Possibly:

I’ve logged an entry into her work record that she’ll be off-duty the remainder of the day.

or:

I’ve made an entry into her work record that she’ll be off-duty the remainder of the day.
3033
Chapter 17:
The most significant thing he’d learned so far was that, of all three-hundred twenty-eight chimes sent by Sethra Slatten...
...Designee 2445’s last three-hundred twenty-eight chime messages.
...there were four-thousand seven-hundred twenty-three locations specified...
He studied the details. “Three-hundred forty-eight bits!”
...Designee 2445’s most recent three-hundred twenty-eight chimes, ...

Didn't realise it until I looked it up, America doesn't use the and between the hundreds and tens designation.

That was about the only thing I found with two quick reads of Ch. 17, but as it's colloquial it can safely be ignored.

So basically nothing stuck out as being weird  :Thmbsup:

Possibly one thing but it works either way:
“No, you stay bent over, or even lie down face-first if you want. You don’t wanna risk aspirating if you puke again.”

“No, you stay bent over, or even lie face down if you want. You don’t wanna risk aspirating if you puke again.”
3034
BTW, you still have Glen Forkovian as the creator in content.opf:

<dc:creator opf:role="aut" opf:file-as="Forkovian, Glen">Glen Forkovian</dc:creator>

Also, you've created quite a little mystery there with:

He noted the creature seemed to have no anus.

and

There was a burst of water bubbles, like those produced by an Underwater Propulsion Device.

 ;D
3035
I'm gonna have to be careful what I write here in future  :-\


3036
Although, he also noted with some consternation that the creature appeared to have no anus.

That would have to be relief, surely?
-Perry Mowbray (June 27, 2013, 02:10 AM)

I guess my imagination runs a bit stranger than yours  ;D

 :-\ I was just thinking no waste products / nothing going in / no fear of being eaten  ;)
-Perry Mowbray (June 27, 2013, 04:16 AM)

Ah well, from a steady diet of horror, SciFi and similar material for the last 40 years, I'd immediately think: Short lifespan due to internal build up of waste products finally causing catastrophic rupturing of the organism possibly resulting in nearby organisms being covered in a mess of internal organs and fecal matter.  If said explosion happened underwater it could prove fatal to nearby organisms.

See, I said my imagination was stranger :)

I think I'll stop at this point before Mr. K decides I'm a total nutcase and is better off not listening to me.
3037
Chapter 16
Paragraph 25.38 "where a pair of robots was installing a lockable metallic grille over the entrance to the tunnel" Was is probably right, but it sounds wrong to me :(
-Perry Mowbray (June 27, 2013, 04:12 AM)

Should be were, I think.
3038
Although, he also noted with some consternation that the creature appeared to have no anus.

That would have to be relief, surely?
-Perry Mowbray (June 27, 2013, 02:10 AM)

I guess my imagination runs a bit stranger than yours  ;D
3039
Then it turned, and swam back out into the underwater cave until it was beyond the range of Grant’s helmet light.

After Grants previous meticulous scientific observations I was hoping for something a little more descriptive than 'swam' ;)
-Perry Mowbray (June 27, 2013, 12:53 AM)

Then it turned and propelled itself gracefully through the water towards the tunnel opening.  Grant, who hadn't yet seen the back of the creature, then noted that his earlier presumption regarding the creature's dorsel fin was correct, it did run the full length of its back.  
Being silly again
Although, he also noted with some consternation that the creature appeared to have no anus.

3040
A quick run through chapter 16, kind of getting caught up in other things atm.

Chapter 16:
Her chime containd only two pieces of information: her location, and an urgent request for him to come immediately.

contained

The tech turned crimson; she hadn’t realized the pickup sensitivity of the mic Dr. Ericson wore.

I think you could drop 'pickup'.

The tech turned crimson; she hadn’t realized the sensitivity of the mic Dr. Ericson wore.

He’d seen divers suffer decompression benz, and didn’t ever want to experience it.

I believe it's decompression sickness or the bends.

We’ll secure the tunnel on our end, as a precaution.

50/50

We’ll secure the tunnel at our end, as a precaution.

“Still, we don’t want to allow free access to our cavern to these creatures just yet.”

“Still, we don’t want to allow free access to our cavern by these creatures just yet.”

And the implications this will have for us as deep dwellers, survivors from the surface.

Feels like it's unfinished starting with 'And', perhaps if it's meant to be an exclamation possibly drop the 'And', and seeing it's an exciting moment you could probably get away with an exclamation mark at the end which would finalise it.

The most likely source of all that water is the river flowing through this cavern. Not only does it rush powerfully along its main channel, but it’s the likeliest source of whatever complex of flooded caves may exist beneath the cavern.

Possibly just me but these two sentences seem slightly garbled in my brain, especially the second - it may be the duplicated likely|likeliest that somehow makes me reference the second back to the first.

3041
Chapter 3:
He set the TCPI to the left of the rack of vials, and added the power cells to the same plastic rack that held the chemical vials.

Seems to be a duplicated reference, a little rearrangement maybe:

He added the power cells to the rack that held the [chemical] vials and set the TCPI down to its left.

He took the now empty vials and the plastic rack, and a few other scraps from his project and...

He took the now empty vials, the plastic rack, and a few other scraps from his project and...

Chapter 4:
He’d restored the Shaft’s cameras to proper functioning upon learning that Administrator Mephord intended to remove from his post.

He’d restored the Shaft’s cameras to proper functioning upon learning that Administrator Mephord intended to remove him from his post.

Sethra, Byron and Zuzana now stood on a circular platform of heavy-gauge aluminum mesh flooring that surrounded the Infrastructure Pole. The mesh flooring almost completely filled...

I'll go with Perry on this, I don't think the first occurrence of the word flooring is necessary since you've already described that it's a platform and what it's made of and it's also referenced as flooring in the next sentence.  If you were to keep the first occurrence I think you could change the second to: 'The platform almost completely filled...'

“And if we checked those units, we’d find the same thing we’re seeing here,” said Sethra. They won’t have been properly maintained, despite what our robotic video logs tell us.”

“And if we checked those units, we’d find the same thing we’re seeing here,” said Sethra. They won’t have been properly maintained, despite what our robotic video logs tell us.”

Beneath him were writhing, scaled tentacles, each easily fifteen feet in length and a foot across where they met beneath his torso.

We'll get you Americans converted to metric eventually, even if it's only one person at a time  ;)

Beneath him were writhing, scaled tentacles, each easily [four|four and a half] meters in length and thirty centimeters across where they met beneath his torso.

The alien, which had taken Michael Covington’s identity several years ago, almost danced upon his tentacles, so pleasurable were the psychic emanations of terror pouring off of Eddie Hasser.
He snaked closer to Hasser, who had run out of breath, and was leaning forward,...

I'm wondering, once you've specifically identified it as an alien, should references to it then become genderless ?
Those are the only two I could see in that paragraph, everything else was 'it' or 'the alien'.

There was a deafening crash, and the entire platform rang with the impact and dropped almost a third of a meter, canted at a shallow angle.

Should that be catwalk ?  To differentiate it from the references to the platforms above, just wondering.

There was a deafening crash, and the entire catwalk rang with the impact and dropped almost a third of a meter, canted at a shallow angle.

Chapter 5:
There were loud murmurs of approval, even a few people clapped their hands.

There were loud murmurs of approval, a few people even clapped their hands.

The other, a short-duration but high-energy beam, probably a laser in wavelength. That would have drawn so heavily and quickly on the power cell that tremendous heat would have been generated.

The wording seems to suggest the two sentences should be one:

The other, a short-duration but high-energy beam, probably a laser in wavelength, that would have drawn so heavily and quickly on the power cell that tremendous heat would have been generated.
3042
Tresorit - You can see if you can still get 50GB here.

http://lifehacker.co...torage-from-tresorit

Sorry, on my phone.
3043
The 'go under' feels redundant coupled with immersion but it's a 50/50 thing, maybe:

Corrected to:

once we go undergo immersion,

I think it should be: once we undergo immersion,

I even get amazed at the different things I picked up going back and reading it aloud to Sandi.

Yeah, that's trick I've read about several places: reading aloud. When we read silently our mind tends to fill in missing words, but not so much when we read aloud.

It's the difference between flying over the potholes compared to hitting every single one  :P
3044
@4wd:

Missing quotes:

“Thanks for the ‘UT’, buddy.” He set his cup on the table, then slid the data chip across the table. “You keep that damned

safe, S-man. We’ll talk later. Door, open for guest to exit.”

I'd missed that one in my own review of the Prologue. Had prematurely congratulated myself that the Prologue had no errors, LOL. Thanks, 4wd!

Don't open that can yet, you got one but missed the other  :)

“Thanks for the ‘UT’, buddy.
3045
I found the couple or so days of not having updates let me put it aside and then start looking at it afresh....onto chapter 3 later :)

I'm going to end up knowing this book better than my all time favourite: The Stainless Steel Ratw
3046
General Software Discussion / Re: Log CPU and memory usage
« Last post by 4wd on June 25, 2013, 12:40 AM »
Still-to-do
Filenames should contain the date-time when they are generated. Right now I'm overwriting files. Appending data could be a solution, but I did not find such an option yet in my travels.

$time = Get-Date -format yyyyMMdd-HHmm

Then add $time into your output filename, possibly:

Out-File -FilePath G:\Temp\$time.csv

I think I need to play around with PowerShell :)

Edit: Seems to work.
3047
You might have picked these up in your proofing.

Prologue:
“Thanks for the ‘UT’, buddy. He set his cup on the table, then slid the data chip across the table. You keep that damned safe, S-man. We’ll talk later. Door, open for guest to exit.”

Missing quotes:

“Thanks for the ‘UT’, buddy. He set his cup on the table, then slid the data chip across the table. You keep that damned safe, S-man. We’ll talk later. Door, open for guest to exit.”

Chapter 1:
...and maybe a couple dozen meter deeper.

...and maybe a couple of dozen meters deeper.

Sallow-faced, and he had to have been even notably fatter, six months ago, than he appeared to be today.

Possibly:

Sallow-faced, he also appeared to be noticeably [leaner|thinner] than he had appeared six months [previous|ago].

...trying to take the emotional temperature of the group as a whole.

Possibly:

...trying to [gauge|judge] the emotional temperature of the group as a whole.

“Ease down off that railing and I’ll answer both questions, in either order you prefer,” quipped Sethra.

I'm probably being unusually dense but every time I read that, I keep wondering what the other question is/was.

Such puling drivel just about justifies their slow deaths he reflected.

The 'just about justifies' feels strange to me, possibly:

Such puling drivel almost justifies their slow deaths he reflected.

Chapter 2:
...and power cells to run them for up to at least thirty-six hours.

It feels a bit contradictory to me, ie. the 'up to' specifies a time limit of 36 hours, whereas the 'at least' specifies a minimum of 36 hours.  Possibly:

...and power cells to run them at least thirty-six hours.

Nothing will hinge on one single weak leak in the chain.

I think Perry mentioned this one and I'm sure there's been updates since but it still seems to be there: link

...once we go under into immersion, ...

The 'go under' feels redundant coupled with immersion but it's a 50/50 thing, maybe:

...once we're immersed, ...

That night Veronne stayed with Sethra in his cubicle.

Veronee
3048
Living Room / Re: Beware the vaportini
« Last post by 4wd on June 24, 2013, 09:24 PM »
I just keep thinking what a really good FAE it'd make  >:D
3049
Page 16.23 "He eased his bulk onto the front edge of his massive office desk, crossed his arms, and cocked his head up at Jaimie." So Jaimie is standing and taller than Jim when he's almost standing (perched on the desk)?

By my calculations, it would put his eye-level at approximately 140-155cm from ground level, (based on average leg to torso ratios) :)

You're awesome... so Jammie is standing and taller than 155-170cm?
-Perry Mowbray (June 23, 2013, 06:35 PM)

Well, it wasn't that hard  :-[

Average leg:torso ratio for males is slightly more than 50:50, average desk height I put at around 700-800mm, (going by the desks I have), we already know his height, (170cm), add a little for eye-level - and I'm probably way off   ;D

155cm = ~5'1", which I would have thought is on the short side, add about 100mm for their eyes to be level.  So in theory, she'd need to be about 166+cm when standing, (then extra 1cm is so he has to look up).

But, of course, this is all academic now   ;)
3050
Page 15.22
"The medical robot has not been supplied with biological or synthetic compounds to slow and reverse this depletion. These organic machines will cease to function." I'm guessing that the 'cease to function' is meant to relate / caused by the lack of compounds? If so, maybe something like: 'The medical robot had not been supplied with biological or synthetic compounds to slow and reverse this depletion. When blood sugar depletion becomes terminal the organic machines will cease to function.' 'terminal' isn't right... but I couldn't think of the right word  :(
-Perry Mowbray (June 23, 2013, 04:20 AM)

I'm assuming that the medical robot is referring to the 4 bodies in the pods, in which case should it be "organisms" rather than "organic machines" ?

Maybe:

Continued depletion of blood sugar will result in failure of organisms to sustain life functions.

Page 16.11 "The autoguns’ computer-aided sighting systems are programmed only to fire on creatures whose physical parameters are outside those of humans." not exactly sure what's not sitting right... but I think it's that the sighting systems don't fire, that they'd inhibit the firing of the autogun. Or is that just being pedantic?

Drop 'sighting systems', (you've already said it's computer aided), and re-arrange:

"The computer-aided autoguns are programmed to only fire on organisms whose physical parameters are outside those of humans."

Page 16.23 "He eased his bulk onto the front edge of his massive office desk, crossed his arms, and cocked his head up at Jaimie." So Jaimie is standing and taller than Jim when he's almost standing (perched on the desk)?

By my calculations, it would put his eye-level at approximately 140-155cm from ground level, (based on average leg to torso ratios) :)

Chapter 8
Page 17.1 "A-3: Friday, 6/15/2283, 1422 hours, The Core Chambers" I would go back to a more international date format :) Surely date formats would have been standardised by 2283, especially as imperial measurements have disappeared ;)

Always did prefer International Date Format, (YYYY/MM/DD).

Page 17.7 "We’re almost to the point right now where we’re going to have to pause and robotically collect and transport what we’ve drilled through, getting it out of our way." Would she say it like this? It's a bit clumsy, tho' maybe it's meant to be that way? I'd say something like: 'We’re going to have to pause soon and robotically remove the overburden, as it's getting in our way.' Though not sure about 'overburden'?

I think the generic 'waste', (rock waste, waste material), might be more suitable, overburden is what is on top of something you specifically want to get to.

Page 17.44 "There was a lengthy pause before Sethra admitted, “If they do either of those things in the near future, then our existence will suddenly end, as if an appliance’s power cell were removed. But remember this: just as our former reality provided a means of entering this new reality, and leaving our former bodies behind, we may discover access points onto yet other realities that can be reached from this world, realities wherein the substrate for our consciousnesses is not dependent upon computer power.” Every time I read this I think that he's forgotten the most obvious: that they'd not be alive in either reality ;)

I think that's more a question for philosophical debate, "I think, therefore I am." :)
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