Well of Souls Forums

novius wrote:

icekatze wrote:I'm trying to think of what the rest of the objects in the storage container might be. Looks like there might be more rations, another more different type of data pad, and some kind of disk storage, or maybe recharging station?

Alex pretty much summed it up with "They seem to have grabbed everything that wasn't nailed down" - so different types of tablets, and depending whether they fleeced the wreckage of the crew section or not - given that they picked up rations it's likely that they did - an assortment of personal items and personal use items belonging to the crewmen....

Hmm... begs the question of what kind of charge the data pad has, how long a charge lasts, and whether they grabbed the charger(s) as well as the pads. Are all chargers (finally!) interchangeable in the future, or it it still a horrendous mishmash of competing standards?

hi hi

Keeping his pad charged does pose some technical problems, but I feel like they should be relatively surmountable. In the short term, I imagine he could grab batteries off of the damaged pads.

In the long term, I'd think they could do one of two things relatively easily.
• Alex seems to have the basic units of measurement memorized, so they could use math to figure out how to calibrate a Loroi power source to provide the correct charge.
• They could take one of the batteries from a pad and test it with whatever the Loroi equivalent of a multimeter is, to directly measure its output in Loroi units.

While I know Beryl told Alex that they would work something out (or similar) if he found he needed one of the tools from his ship, the fact that Alex is digging through them with the Loroi absent kind of says to me that he is not planning on telling them he has it, or at least not right away... though I guess it would be hard to bring it up later.

Maybe find the one he wants now, then "find" a similar one later and get something set up so it can be charged, but he's actually using a different pad? Hmm... or I'm just overthinking this.

To a large degree agreed that, should it be required, Alex and Beryl can work out what Volts and Amps are and how to get the required power input to the device, it's just a question of whether or not Alex wants them to know he has this particular device.

Its the
F U T U R E
so batteries probably last a good while longer than they do now.

RedDwarfIV wrote:Its the
F U T U R E
so batteries probably last a good while longer than they do now.

Shipstone batteries (batteries that can safely hold a lot of power) are available to humans so the tablet's batteries should last for a long time.

hi hi

I don't know just how advanced the power storage capacities of Terran batteries are, so it is hard to make any kind of estimation.

The shipstones of Heinlein's novel were perhaps unreasonably energy dense, but even if one assumes that energy density is not unreasonable, I still have to wonder just how effective they are as explosives. (Given how explosive potential tends to go up along with energy density.)

Consider also that in the here and now there is a similar device (the Samsung Galaxy S10) that can bum a charge off of another of itself. Would be surprised if that doesn't become commonplace in the next 140 years.