10236/Geeks and Their 'New' Toys

Geeks and Their 'New' Toys
Date of Scene:	28 November 2019
Location:	Computer Lab - Xavier's School
Synopsis:	geeks and computers priceless
Cast of Characters:	Smart Alek, Samuel Morgan

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Smart Alek has posed:
Alek enters the computer lab and is just smiling ear to ear, he looks over the various new machines, shiny and full of manufacturer specialized software aka bloatware. He rubs his hands together and he goes over to one of the old machines that was already setup the way the school wants it. He touches the case and he begins to make a clone of the disk drive, "It's like an early christmas, I can't wait to break these babies in."

Samuel Morgan has posed:
    "Personally, I can't wait to see how far they overclock." Bean mentions on his way in, looking every bit as excited as Alek. New computers! And more than that, new computers that needed purging, installing and configuration. A blank canvas to work with... nay, a whole room full of blank canvas to work with. Christmas has indeed come early.

    He has a thumb drive with a clone program and plugs it into one of the old, now disconnected systems, letting it run without bothering to set up the monitor for the old box. "So, just the Xavier OS and nothing else? I mean... be easy to install a backdoor at this point..."

Smart Alek has posed:
    "I didn't hear anything over the sound of modem noise. Too bad modems are barely around anymore." He clones his own copy of the computer without the need for software or a USB drive. In Alek-world, he watches bits flash before his eyes. "I'm wondering who the donor is." He glances over to one of the new machines. "I would figure if it was Mr. Stark he'd stamp his name on the screensaver."

Samuel Morgan has posed:
    It's an interesting question. And, as such, Bean actually reaches out his senses to figure it out. Or at least, rule out a few of the more obvious manufacturers. "Hmmm. Decent hardware, but the configuration is a bit... how to put this... I'd have done it differently." From that initial scratch of the surface he goes onto a deeper delve, frowning and leaning closer to one of the new PCs while removing his personal thumb drive from the old one. "Hang on... is that a custom PCB on the chipset bridge? Who even... why would... oh." The answer comes to him, and he sits down at one of the system, plugging in the drive and taking control of the nearest eight computers at the same time.

    "Good hardware, customised after manufacture by someone who had a good idea but no skills in how to implement it. Means it's not Stark, probably Hammer. Feels... Hammer-ish, you know?"

Smart Alek has posed:
Alek removes a hand from the old machine, he heads over to the nearest two new machines and places a hand on each and begins to upload a cloned replica of the machine he just scanned, he does however take a quick scan of the hardware while he's at it, the living atomic microscope gets a brief layout of the machine's innerds, "Yeah, I would agree, course half of this stuff is all made in Malaysia just like the rest of the manufacturers."

Samuel Morgan has posed:
    First things first... erasing the old 'new' drive. Nothing a zero fill and reformat won't accomplish. Shouldn't even take long on these modern machines, and Bean puts his feet up on the desk, relaxing. From here on out, he doesn't need to touch anything. "So, how've you been Alek? Haven't seen you in a while."

Smart Alek has posed:
Alek says, "I.. been around, finished working on the bike mostly... " he seems to go distant a moment, his own computers are copying his mental image of the PC that was the 'source' for the two machines, he's cheating by directly manipulating the electrons vs. having the PCs do any work. He moves onto the second set as he lets the two reboot and install their drivers. "So what happened that day outside? when you got kinda... scary?""

Samuel Morgan has posed:
    The Zero Fill and reformat finish, and that means Bean can re-boot the new systems, mentally link them together, and copy data across while the one nearest to him installs the old-fashioned way. He even registers as a wi-fi hotspot on some devices, although with an ID that none of them can parse. "That was... a misunderstanding." One he had hoped not to have to explain. Especially not to Alek. Drat...

    It's around that time that Bear trots in, having finished his nap and coming to sit next to his human, the German Shepherd as usual infinitely interested in whatever Sam might be doing. "Vi had something on her when she joined. Something that reminded me of the bad old days. I... came to the wrong conclusion. And since it came up, you have to know something else. That wasn't me being scary. That was me being myself. That was the real Sam, Alek."

Smart Alek has posed:
Alek seems confused a bit, as he finishes the next two machines, he could possiblely do it the way Sam is doing his wirelessly but Alek enjoys getting his hands dirty or at least likes touching things. He ponders his response for a bit, "I guess we didn't all come good families, I.. hope the Sam I see across from me will be what I see most of the time."

Samuel Morgan has posed:
    "That's been the goal, that's why I'm here." Bean confirms, with a ghost of a smile. The system nearby completes and reboots, the other seven following in sequence. Someone with an analytical mind could possibly use that to determine the speed of data transfer on Sam's abilities. Abilities that have, so far, gone mostly untested. "And it's getting easier to just... mellow out. It's better now with my buddy Bear around as well." This earns the Shepherd a hug, which in turn earns Bean a happy lick on the cheek. "Can focus on the important stuff now."

Smart Alek has posed:
    "Your software just sounds like it needs a few patches as time goes along." relating mental healing of trauma to software yep... geek, "So, I guess you can fight.. something I've never done.. would be nice to be able to keep myself from getting hit in the face by those bullies back in the day."

Samuel Morgan has posed:
    "Software is being patched by experts." Bean grins at the analogy, and takes it a step further. "Biggest job is to deal with the sector faults on the storage media. Some data got corrupted." Yeah, it's easier talking about it as if it's a programming issue. And the end result is the same anyway. "You know, if you can get a teacher to agree to it, I can teach a self defense class."

Smart Alek has posed:
Alek hmms, "Hopefully the sectors can be repaired... A defense class would be cool." as he does his own wireless check of the computers he's worked on, they seem to be setup. He has them begin to run speed check for kicks. "Once we're done with setup, then we get to see when we mesh them together and hack Mastercard." he grins, "just kidding."

Samuel Morgan has posed:
    "Not as hard as you'd think." Okay... possibly worth not asking further questions there, Bean has that smile on his face that promises any further information asked for will probably end up being a lie. Probably for a good reason too. "But I'm thinking, now that we have dozens of old systems going spare, how about we see how far we can push them? Machine our own waterblocks, hook up a few pumps, daisy chain a few boards together... Whaddya say?"

Smart Alek has posed:
Alek says, "Sounds like a bit of fun, if we get some leaks, just some old machines get ruined right?" Ahh, the fun of geekcraft with a friend."

Samuel Morgan has posed:
Samuel nods at that, grinning. "Just a student project, nothing fancy." Some students build models, some refurbish engines. Sam and Alek? They build supercomputers.