Kevin's Watch

Truth be told, I've always mentally pronounced it similarly to the brand of pickles...

To me, it rhymes with a computer language.

Neither of those helped...

--A

Savor Dam wrote:Truth be told, I've always mentally pronounced it similarly to the brand of pickles...

Yeah, THIS. I pronounce it, "VAA-sik".

Thanks for the endorsement, Cord!

Admittedly, this is not a global brand, so I should have provided a further visual aid:



Still have no idea what programming language Way was referring to, but my coding days were back in the keypunch era, so I may have never heard of the language he meant...or I may be chagrined at having not figured it out.

Haha, I haven't either.

I suppose I usually pronounce it Vaasheck in my head, but I rarely worry about things like that, simply skating by it as it were.

--A

I don't know if there is even a correct answer to the original question defined in the text...

But, the computer language being referenced was developed (I believe) at Dartmouth, and a variation of it put a certain William G. III on the map. Enough so, that he managed to snare a rather lucrative deal to provide a little Disk Operating System to a certain (at the time) computer giant for a radical little pet project then known as a "Personal" computer. (I think the original estimate was that they would sell 17,000 over the life of the product...)

Ah, thank you, IS. I was making it too complicated, when clearly the answer was much more BASIC.

So, we seem to have a consensus on everything but whether the first vowel is a short A or long A.

Vay Sik or Vah Sik?

I say Vah Sik, but now I'm curious about how it's pronounced in the audiobook version.

So, this one is a tie, and SleeplessOne has to ask another question.

--A

I have sent SleeplessOne a PM, requesting another question. If he doesn't respond in 2-3 weeks, I volunteer to ask the next question (unless someone else wants to ask one).

Time for a new question:
What's the code word that allows Angus to have access to all his databases?

Like most, I immediately have this down to two possibilities, but don't recall which of them has this effect and which another. I could check...but that isn't quite cricket in this game.

No ambiguity in my mind what yet another word might set in motion.

Apotheosis?

--A

Avatar wrote:Apotheosis?

--A

Exactly right, Avatar! Give yourself a big hand!
Your question!

(I've often wondered why actual words were considered a good code...I might not ever have used "apotheosis" but I certainly have used "vasectomy" and "sepulchre" in everyday conversation. Not frequently, but it crops up. Doesn't seem very safe to me.)

Hmmm...question...What makes Soar's proton cannon so devastating?

--A

I'm in the middle of a reread right now. Couldn't find my copy of The Real Story, so I started on book 2. I'm now in book three, where Trumpet is about to arrive at Billingsgate, so I suspect I will be able to answer definitively soon. But, my guess from vague memory is that it has to do with being unexpected on that class of ship.

It has more to do with the general class of weapon...

--A

I interpreted the question as to what made her Super Light Proton Canon more devastating than any other Super Light Proton Canon (such as the one equipped to the Amnion vessel(s)). As I said, my memory on that is vague, and I figured that the fact such a small ship had such a powerful weapon was itself a big enough surprise to make it devastating. Or is it that her SLPC is actually small enough to be on her ship?

I guess I will have to wait until I get to that point in the book to have the real answer.

Perhaps you are suggesting a comparison between the super light canon and the matter canons more commonly found on spaceships in The Gap? I believe that there were some kind of sinks which could be used as protection against matter canons, while there seems to be no defense against a super light proton canon? Additionally, super light proton canons can be used as orbital weapons against a planet's surface.