C James

ACK! Click on the CLiFf link in my sig.... It's a group dedicated to saving Cody from the evil realms!

ROFL! Yep. I heard about a book recently, "The Dangerous book for Boys" that bucked the trend by encouraging such normal activity as treehouse-building, etc. I'm glad it was such a hit; it struck a serious blow at the growing "cocoon-culture". I'm against genuinely hazardous behavior, but the fact is that life is a risk (none of us will get out of it alive). The fear-based society where any risk is deemed too great worries me greatly; if you succeed in making the world truly idiot-proof, you will end up with a world full of idiots. When my uncle bought his two grandkids for a visit last year (They are from Europe), I taught them how to hike, build and launch rockets, and shoot both rifles and handguns (they are too small for shotguns, couldn't handle the recoil.) My uncle was okay with it (He was with us and had a literal blast with my assault rifles), but my cousin (their father) sure wasn't when he found out (he wasn't on the trip with them so only found out after the fact)! He went balistic. LoL And before anyone hollers at me; the FIRST thing I teach is gun safety, and keep plugging it. Same with the rockets and hiking, of course. ROFL, yeah, about ten years ago I had a neighbor with a small kid, about nine. The kid and his friends decided to try smoking. They did it in the garage. Apparently they thought they hears someone coming, so they hid the lit cigarettes in a handy box of rags. Oil rags. The shelf above apparently contained paint thinner and furniture polish. The fire department found the cigarette remains in the ashes of what had once been a detached garage, and one of the kids fessed up; they'd panicked and his the cigarettes, and then panicked more when they saw the flames. They were luckly they got out ok; If they had stayed and tried to put it out, they could have been killed when the thinner cans cooked off (I've had a fire with those so I know that all too well). Yes, he is evil, isn't he? And he DOES use EEEvil cliffhangers! Very evil! I can't help but think that scince kits and model planes and rockets were far, far better for the mind than today's video games and TV. I was lucky; when I was growing up the science kit had gone out of fasion, which meant they became quite cheap, especially used. I ended up with many and loved them all. Never had a nuclear one though, though I'd have loved it. I did manage to make mercury fulminate once. A contact explosive... I had some real fun with that! I was able to do it because one kit had nitric acid (That would be impossible today), and another ethyl alcohol . All i had to do was acquire a few other suplies and mercury; it was very common in the silent electrical switches of the day, and also in dial thermostats. Amazing what you could find in junk yards in the 80's...

Congratulations, Steve!!!! Welcome to the Millennium Club!!! You posts are always informative and incisive. Thank you so much for all you do here at GA; from the forums to your wonderful stories!

That's true, and IMHO sad. When i was growing up model rocketry was a great hobby, but now it's looked on in horror by some. Well, okay, I'll give you his background.... As a child, Jerry lived in Idaho with his parents on their goat farm. One day, while out herding, Jerry was reading a magazine and saw an add for that nuclear physics kit. He craved it, with every ounce of his little heart. But times were tough and Mom and Dad said no... So Little Jerry grew up, never forgetting his unslaked thirst for the nuclear sciences. Until, one day, some plutonium became available in Russia, and so that's where our story began. Poor little Jerry. The commenters are correct; the gamma source would actually be the only real concern. Alpha radiation (such as in the cloud chamber) is harmless. As for the gamma source, it would depend on the strength. If it's minor, it is of no concern. For example, you likely have several in your home already ; that's how most smoke detectors detect smoke. Also, got Granine, such as in countertops or building materials? If so, you likly have Uranium (that's why Jerry shipped his plutonium into Australia inside granite; the latter is a natural emitter, so it makes radiological detection of the plutonium near impossible.) The U-238 is quite harmless unless inhaled. In all likelihood, this set was far more benign than a typical chemistry set.

Just to let everyone know; both versions of the directory (upper case and lower case) are now on the site, and I'm returning to use the old directory for all new and existing chapters. The lower-case directory will likly end up with redicrect pages instead of the chapters soon. Sorry for the inconveniance. BTW, for those who bookmarked the ltmp index, both versions of it will remain, so no need to change anything.

I wonder if Jerry had one of these when he was a kid? BTW, if you want a laugh, read all the other entries, but do read the comments for the linked one; the readers really let the dumb reporter have it! (The readers are right incidentally). Come to think of it, I haven't seen anyone using the smilie lately? Poor, misunderstood Jerry. He's just a sweet (The got Brandon and Chase together, didn't he?) self-reliant kinda guy, who just wants to be left to his own (nuclear) devices.

Very good! That's a large part of it. Jerry's actions were brought about by circumstance. Dimitri's less so. Dimitri, though, took pleasure in looking into the eyes of his victim as he died. Jerry has shown himself, more than once now, to be quite willing to kill when the perceived need arises (such as any threat to his plans). It was very risky indeed. However, he was trying to protect his devices, and Adam's intent to examine them had to be stopped somehow. I won't say what they are yet, but the clues are there and Dimitri and Jerry each have their strengths and weaknesses. CJ

I never thought of an external antenna, that's a great idea! I'll file it away for future stories. The external antenna could be hidden inside a bumper; so many are plastic or composite these days, and that's radio-freq transparent. Thanks! I hope you enjoyed your fictional dinner? Sacha just knows a cliffhanger when he sees one, and more importantly knows when he doesn't see one, and observes accordingly. BTW, if I was disposed to using cliffhangers, there could have been a good one at the end of chapter 30 if I'd parsed the chapter breakpoints a little differently. Say, end the chapter just as Jerry is thinking of killing the guys? :2hands: But, of course, I didn't do that. See? I always avoid cliffhangers! BTW, speaking of Jerry... this is the first time we've seen him kill. Well, sort of. He did kill the first guy he tried to get Kryton switches from, but we didn't see the murder itself. Did anyone notice any differences between Jerry, when killing, and Dimitri, when Dimitri did the "employee termination" thing? Do you think Eric will pay a visit to Jerry's Toowoomba facility? BTW, the title of Chapter 31 is "Problems and Solutions" CJ

I mentioned, way back in the beginning (and i sure don't expect anyone to remember, heck, I barely do and I wrote it) that one of the reasons they had Joe as singer is that the three brothers can't sing. Brandon is vocals, and Brandon is shown as drinking very lightly at most after the concerts. These, however, are all excellent points. Partying like they are (especially Jon and Eric) is pushing it a little. Also, Jon and Eric having a couple of drinks half a day before a concert was a bit out of line (they were right to be concerned if Helen found out). But, the way I see it (and I may of course be wrong, this is just my opinion) is that rock bands are known for some excessive behavior. More than one has shown up on stage drunk. I recall reading somewhere, for example, that Van Halen was drinking backstage before going on at a big concert (US festival, I think) and ended up getting booed off the stage becuase they were too drunk to play. Thanks though for the link and comments; I hadn't known that alchohol before singing was detrimental to the chords themselves. Oh, and Sasha? HAve you considered the ramifications of your questions? Screaming a cliffhanger would be bad to do if one had consumed alcohol within recent days, correct? Thanks everyone for the GPS conversation and checking! YaP, I know you didn't mean for me to change anything, and I very much appreciated the topic coming up! Thanks! And Gary, thanks for checking under your hood! All that would be required is for the GPS to get a few hits. Its model isn't specified, but it is listed as a high-end (due to the price; I introduced the GPS in the "shop 'till you drop" chapter) Magellan. In the chapter where it was planted, Brandon uses the 12-volt lead (that normally allows the GPS to be plugged into a cigarette lighter) and wires it into the live side of the starter relay. That way the thing has power. It wouldn't need to record everything; Just a few hits would be enough to get them the location of the Toowoomba facility and see that the vehicle had also been making runs west (to the desert compound). If it ran out of tracks after a day or so, it wouldn't be a problem: it should still give them what they are seen to have; the fact that Jerry has been going to a spot in Toowoomba, and also out into the outback. However, this raises an interesting question; what would be a better way to plant an improvised GPS bug on a vehicle? I toyed with several other locations, but the need for a convenient full-time power source nearby was an issue. The other location I came up with was inside the spare tire; on some land rovers, the spare is on the back door, exposed. However, I couldn't figure a way for Brandon to get it inside the tire and re-inflate; he wouldn't have the high-pressure air in order to get it back and seated on the rim. A tire-inflation air pump would not be sufficient. The wire could have come out between the tire and the rim, sealed by a tiny bit of chewing gum or the like. The wire would have had to go to the brake lights or similar, and that was getting too complicated and too risky. I also wasn't sure what would happen if the internal battery GPS went flat while the vehicle was parked; would it resume tracking upon power-up? Another idea I had was the stuffed kanagaroos, but how would they get the GPS back, or get power to it? The inside of the Rover was another option (wire the thing under a seat, with power from the power-seat bus) but that would have required interior access. I was assuming that Jerry would not leave it unlocked. Another idea I had was the horn relay; that would have allowed the GPS to be placed just behind the radiator grill, a better location signal-wise. They'd have needed to pop the hood to install it, but they could have likely retrieved it without doing so. Basically I'm idea-shopping here, in case the GPS is used in future stories (I used on in FTL, too). Thanks!! CJ

GPS update... OK, I tried using a GPS, though a different model from the one in the story. I scurried under a large SUV and tried it. I got mixed results. The starter motor is low in the engine compartment, so it's not totally surrounded, BUT, from on top I had a darn hard time getting a signal and it took quite a few miniutes sometimes. YAP was right. I did get SOME in certain positions (having the vehicle in a very open space, in dirt, seems to help, as does parking it north-south rather than east-west, but it's marginal. I think (but do not know) that in record mode, it would get an occasional fix, especially on rough roads where the vehicle isn't always parallel to the ground. GPS's are too expensive for me to be willing to test mine by taping it to the starter motor. LoL So, a question: Is this close enough; I think it might work, enough to get a few fixes though probably not record the entire journey accurately. (though for the purposes of the story, only the former is needed) Or, I can edit the posted chapters so that the GPS is taped to the underside of the starter (which would be a rather risky proposition in many respects). Opinions? BTW, should I have gotten a little more inside Adam Creston's head in those final moments? I was trying to show that he really didn't have the ability to think, just react to the pain. Thanks! CJ

Ahhh. I'm afraid that one will have to stay broken; the main index had to change from htm to php

Thank Joe if it works! He made the change. From which URL?

Thanks... There was more to it than a case change; all the links in every chapter changed becuase the main site index changed from index.htm to index.php. That part wasn't the problem though, it was me deciding to "tidy up" by changing the structure that caused the problems. I should have followed my own advice, which is "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" and left the directory structure alone. LoL! Thanks Gary.

Yes! Tell me my best course of action. Thanks! Currently, what changed is not just the directory name, but the ltmp index file in the main dir. The old one was named LTMP.php, and the new one is ltmp.php That seems to be the main cause of the most broken links. As an iterim measure, I asked Joe if he could copy the existing file so both versions would be there. I know that wouldn't work in DOS but it should in UNIX. Then, I have a dilemma; I can either put the old file structre back. This isn't much work on my end; I use a find-replace utility to handle all instances of the links on my site. The question is, would restoring the old locations be best? or, re-crate the old dir but with each "chapter" file being a redirect to the new location? So, should I just go back to the old structure? Or is the second index file, with the old name, good enough? Or, should I re-create the old dir but with redirects in place of all the chapters? Thanks!! CJ

I wish I'd have asked, too.

Don't change your bookmarks yet... I'm working on it. Sorry for the mess!

Uhoh. Hmmm, I'll check on that. What I did was crawl under my 4x4 with a gps. It worked for me UNDER the starter motor but I think I had the GPS in the story located at the top or side of the starter. I'll check and see if that would work. I don't have a land rover, but the body style is similar on mine... Thanks!! CJ

I thought a mix of capitals and lower case was bad, so I thought I was fixing a problem. The real problem is that I screwed up and should have left that directory name alone. I'll see about adding redirects. The search engine problem never occurred to me (yet another goof on my part) Lol...

Oh crap... You mean on bookmarked pages? The ltmp directory did change. I originally had it as LTMPfiles and the mix of upper and lower case on servers is not good, I'd heard, so I changed it to ltmpfiles and tried to change all the site links. I still have to do the ones in my forum. BTW, I have learned my lesson; if it works, DON'T try and fix it! Changing that dir name was dumb on my part.

ROFL! You're right, making one's own site dissapear is not a good thing. It wasn't trying to do a redesign, just change the links and file structure. But, I managed to goof. The goof went in every chapter of every story, becuase I used a bulk find-and-replace program to do the coding changes. OOps. BTW, Joe added some code to the main page! It now displays recent forum threads, and links to them! (Thanks Joe!) Take a look... about halfway down the main page. (and the site is working again now, too; Joe fixed it). CJ

The story is still there; it's just the main link from the main page that is broken (I screwed up). Link directly from my sig to the last chapter, and then from there you should be able to use the nav table at the bottom to access the files. (including the new Chapter 30) Sorry about this! It should be fixed soon! I changed the directory name so old links won't work... Stupid! I forgot about the forum links to chapters, now I have to go edit all the announcments and all the chapter threads. Duh!!! Thanks!! CJ

Well, now, I think SPiCE should be pleased so far? Eric is fine, no harm since he hurt his ankle, and he's happy! See? Everything is fine.

Congratulations Kevin!!! Thank you so much, for brightening our days, and for your always thoughtful posts.

Well, don't worry about accidental leaks; I think the Echidna primarily has spines for the author. And yep, I know you like the title; you picked a great one! Yep, Shadowgod named this chapter, and I love the new title, thanks! See, Shadowgod does far more than just add any perceived cliffhangers! It should be.. However, it was sent in as part of a major site update (most of the files on my site, including all chapters, had changes in the URL references. mainly changing structure, etc, and if I fouled up the PHP, it might not go online. Or, it might not work if it does. The site update is complicated, so we'll have to wait and see what Joe says. I would guess it will be up sometime today, but if I messed up, might be longer. CJ

Would I do such a thing as that?