 June 11, 2012 - 3:41pm | In your SF games, do you have different operating systems. In modern terms; Windows, Un*x, MAC, other. The US Navy has signed off on a $27,883,883 contract from military contractor Raytheon to install Linux ground control software. […] After a malware attack on the Air Force's Windows-based drone-control system last year, there has been a wholesale move to Linux for security reasons.
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 June 12, 2012 - 6:37am | I have toyed with the idea, but never implemented anything beyond background fluff. I assume that each tech-savvy race has it's own Standard GUI and Data Input Periphrial Systems and each pairing or more of the Core Four produces at least one set of hybrid protocols and standards... but in practice, I also assume that most citizens of any race would be lost in the civilized colonies and outposts, if it were not for a social standard expectation that everyone is equipped with one or more personal digital assistants of some sort, that are useable as Remote Access Translators when the local inputs and interfaces are inefficient. Lose your Comloc smartphone and Padd armband, and you are screwed... even the auto-doors and street-vendors may ignore your requests for interaction. basically what this means is that everyone is on a personal OS anyway, there is at least one standard freely public OS per Council Constituent Colony, and there could be literally hundreds of templates to choose from over the entire Frontier as a whole. Quickly plugging in the number of alternate biologies and colonies, I got a quick estimate of ~304 basic publicly common systems... yet in practice their may-as-well be only one, if you haven't lost your pocket-brain. Now out in the Capellan Rim Trade Worlds, Pangal Expansion Zone, and past the Liberty Watch Sub-Sector... and among the various subversive settlements, secret-operation outposts, and private pirate ports... the numbers may grow much higher... and your personal devices may not be compatible. Oh humans!!  We discover a galactic community filled with multiple species of aliens, and the first thing we think about is "how can we have sex with them?".~ anymoose, somewhere on the net... so... if you square a square it becomes a cube... if you square a cube does it become an octoid? |
June 12, 2012 - 6:56am | Thx for feedback, good post TSC. |
 June 12, 2012 - 8:47am | Operating systems in Sci-Fi have kinda gone the way of Languages. Basically I mean by some great miracle of the Universe everyone no matter where they came from (Earth, Mars, Alpha Centuri, the Dark Regions of the Nether) all speak English (or Japanese or Norwegian). Now Aliens all seem to have Apples or something similar which makes it easy for Humans to hack into and launch viruses into. Frontier wise you would think PGC would have produced a system most beings use but their would also be variants produced by other Mega-Corps, especially those dealing with electronics. One thing which would be interesting in how starships travelling between systems would deal with differences in computer systems especially those systems which require the starship to turn navigation control over to a master control system for docking purposes. Sounds like a great job but where did you say we had to go? |
June 14, 2012 - 5:48am | Oh! I also use languages, including artificial; diplomatic, auxiliary, and utilitarian.  Some people have mentioned Mathematics is a universal language... but few have expanded on the fact that there are many varied and quite divergent diverse dialects... the language of "logic" may in fact be far from universal.  Oh humans!! We discover a galactic community filled with multiple species of aliens, and the first thing we think about is "how can we have sex with them?".~ anymoose, somewhere on the net... so... if you square a square it becomes a cube... if you square a cube does it become an octoid? |
June 14, 2012 - 6:57am | Once read a story where the alien tried to explain that the laws of his dimension were similar to the laws in our dimension but different. Quote "In our dimension it is not that 2+2=5 it is that 2+2=green" Wondering if there is some things in our math like that Sounds like a great job but where did you say we had to go? |
 June 14, 2012 - 7:01am | When the date reads "1984" 2+2 does actually equal 5. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
June 16, 2012 - 10:04am | Sometimes they are five. Sometimes they are three. Sometimes they are all of them at once. Not quite what I meant, but yes cultural consensus can cause significant changes to the laws of observed reality... and thus the basis of any derived objective logic. Two plus two equals five, or even green, if the state and people's consensus so declare.  Such a situation is then not just an obscure dialect, but in effect a completely separate language family.  Oh humans!! We discover a galactic community filled with multiple species of aliens, and the first thing we think about is "how can we have sex with them?".~ anymoose, somewhere on the net... so... if you square a square it becomes a cube... if you square a cube does it become an octoid? |
 July 14, 2012 - 6:57pm | Operating Systems may be different. However, Hypertext trasnsfer protocall is still the basic protocal for the the internet worldwide and mostly all the Operating systems have programs that will translate it for them. I can not believe that the UPF or one of the Big Mega Corps would not have already thought of this years ago. As to operating systems for different computers.... it's already in the game stats.... with computer levels and programming levels. Skill check failure could mean that your character could not use the OS on a computer. Take another class (gain a level in that skill) and/or try again later. It's a game Use that stuff for backround fluff, but dont let it get in the way of the game itself. Sorry about bad spelling or grammer. The bombing starts in five minutes. |
