Servo 17:1
Servo 17:1
Dagwood and I rode home at breakneck speed. We’d totally thrown caution to the wind as we pedaled manically down the busy road. I was so excited I had a horrible case of the hiccups. Truly it did make bike riding more of a challenge. I couldn’t wait to show Rory what we’d recovered. We pulled up to the barn in time to see Grandpa and Rory putting the tractor away. Once the thunder of the engine quieted, I waved. “Rory, come see what we got!”He scrambled off the fender and trotted over. “What? What’d you get?”I removed my backpack and took out the gingham check napkin that Grandma had previously wrapped cookies. Now it held the precious cargo of the memory core and junction interface. “We went over to Jimmy’s and Dagwood helped me get into the bot’s head.”“But it was smashed to bits. What could you find useful in there?”Dagwood clapped his hands in excitement. “Show him!”Carefully I cradled the package in one hand while the other gently peeled back the corners of material. My heart was still pounding, and I doubt it was from the exertion of riding home. As the last corner of material fell free, the memory core lay gleaming in the warm sun. Rory’s mouth fell open. “The memory core?!”“And the junction interface!” Dagwood said proudly.“But it was smashed, we saw it.”“The tractor tire missed the important bits.” He made a circular motion with one arm. “The treads missed it.”“Do you think it’ll work?” Rory was still in shock.“All we can do it try,” I replied, heading for the barn. Rory and Dagwood were right on my heels. We gathered around the workbench and I quickly dove in. “Shouldn’t you check all the code first?” Rory asked.“No, I’m gonna plug it in as is. Maybe I messed up something with the other core.”“Ah, true. Guess we’ll see if this is the magic fix.”My fingers deftly swapped out the cores and junction interfaces. I’d done it so many times it felt like a natural sequence of events. Deep inside I was hoping this would be the magical solution. Just to have the bot function again even in a rudimentary fashion would be a triumph of my technical prowess. Not bothering to put the bot’s face back together, I prepared to throw the on switch. “Okay, here goes nothing.”“Something,” Dagwood said, “You want something to happen!”“Well, yes, we do. Then here goes something.” I flipped the switch and heard a clicking noise followed by a faint whirring. All three of us leaned over, the tops of our heads knocking together. The left “eye” began to glow.“It’s working! It’s working!” Dagwood jumped up and down.We watched and waited for more to happen. Several minutes went by as we stared in anticipation. But nothing transpired. The bot remained lifeless. “No!” I slammed my fist onto the workbench. “What happened?”I rubbed my face in frustration. “I dunno, Dagwood.”“Gosh, it looked like it was gonna work.”Rory wandered over to the window and gazed out. “At least we’re a few steps closer.”“Darn few,” I said, throwing the switch. The amber glow in the bot’s eye faded. “Guess it’s back to the drawing board.”“Now what are you gonna do?”“I’ll take this core in the house and check everything.”Dagwood looked at his watch. “Gosh, I’d better get home. It’s gettin’ late.”“Thanks for the help today, I really appreciate it.”“You’re welcome. But too bad the new core didn’t do the trick.” He left the barn, walking with hunched shoulders, climbed on his bike and pedaled out of sight. I could tell he was disappointed that the core didn’t work. But it at least worked a little more than the one I had. Admittedly I was very unhappy. With everything we’d gone through to put the bot back together, and it still wasn’t functioning. Should I give up hope? “Hey, Jonah?” Rory said softly.“Yeah?”“Do you have the capabilities to attach both cores to your tablet?”“I’d either need another cable or a splitting device. Why?”“I was wondering if you could scan both cores for differences and inconsistencies.”“Hmm. The software would have to be modified.”“Can you do that?”I thumped my fist against my chest. “Am I not the son of the finest bot programmer ever?”Rory chuckled. “Yeah, I get it. Do you think that would help?”“Well, it certainly can’t hurt. I may have already screwed up one core.”“But what if this one has a bad line of code where the other one doesn’t?”“Running them in a parallel program might just uncover the bug.”“Exactly!” I ushered Rory out of the barn and we closed the doors. “I have a lot of work to do.”
Dagwood and I rode home at breakneck speed. We’d totally thrown caution to the wind as we pedaled manically down the busy road. I was so excited I had a horrible case of the hiccups. Truly it did make bike riding more of a challenge. I couldn’t wait to show Rory what we’d recovered. We pulled up to the barn in time to see Grandpa and Rory putting the tractor away. Once the thunder of the engine quieted, I waved. “Rory, come see what we got!”He scrambled off the fender and trotted over. “What? What’d you get?”I removed my backpack and took out the gingham check napkin that Grandma had previously wrapped cookies. Now it held the precious cargo of the memory core and junction interface. “We went over to Jimmy’s and Dagwood helped me get into the bot’s head.”“But it was smashed to bits. What could you find useful in there?”Dagwood clapped his hands in excitement. “Show him!”Carefully I cradled the package in one hand while the other gently peeled back the corners of material. My heart was still pounding, and I doubt it was from the exertion of riding home. As the last corner of material fell free, the memory core lay gleaming in the warm sun. Rory’s mouth fell open. “The memory core?!”“And the junction interface!” Dagwood said proudly.“But it was smashed, we saw it.”“The tractor tire missed the important bits.” He made a circular motion with one arm. “The treads missed it.”“Do you think it’ll work?” Rory was still in shock.“All we can do it try,” I replied, heading for the barn. Rory and Dagwood were right on my heels. We gathered around the workbench and I quickly dove in. “Shouldn’t you check all the code first?” Rory asked.“No, I’m gonna plug it in as is. Maybe I messed up something with the other core.”“Ah, true. Guess we’ll see if this is the magic fix.”My fingers deftly swapped out the cores and junction interfaces. I’d done it so many times it felt like a natural sequence of events. Deep inside I was hoping this would be the magical solution. Just to have the bot function again even in a rudimentary fashion would be a triumph of my technical prowess. Not bothering to put the bot’s face back together, I prepared to throw the on switch. “Okay, here goes nothing.”“Something,” Dagwood said, “You want something to happen!”“Well, yes, we do. Then here goes something.” I flipped the switch and heard a clicking noise followed by a faint whirring. All three of us leaned over, the tops of our heads knocking together. The left “eye” began to glow.“It’s working! It’s working!” Dagwood jumped up and down.We watched and waited for more to happen. Several minutes went by as we stared in anticipation. But nothing transpired. The bot remained lifeless. “No!” I slammed my fist onto the workbench. “What happened?”I rubbed my face in frustration. “I dunno, Dagwood.”“Gosh, it looked like it was gonna work.”Rory wandered over to the window and gazed out. “At least we’re a few steps closer.”“Darn few,” I said, throwing the switch. The amber glow in the bot’s eye faded. “Guess it’s back to the drawing board.”“Now what are you gonna do?”“I’ll take this core in the house and check everything.”Dagwood looked at his watch. “Gosh, I’d better get home. It’s gettin’ late.”“Thanks for the help today, I really appreciate it.”“You’re welcome. But too bad the new core didn’t do the trick.” He left the barn, walking with hunched shoulders, climbed on his bike and pedaled out of sight. I could tell he was disappointed that the core didn’t work. But it at least worked a little more than the one I had. Admittedly I was very unhappy. With everything we’d gone through to put the bot back together, and it still wasn’t functioning. Should I give up hope? “Hey, Jonah?” Rory said softly.“Yeah?”“Do you have the capabilities to attach both cores to your tablet?”“I’d either need another cable or a splitting device. Why?”“I was wondering if you could scan both cores for differences and inconsistencies.”“Hmm. The software would have to be modified.”“Can you do that?”I thumped my fist against my chest. “Am I not the son of the finest bot programmer ever?”Rory chuckled. “Yeah, I get it. Do you think that would help?”“Well, it certainly can’t hurt. I may have already screwed up one core.”“But what if this one has a bad line of code where the other one doesn’t?”“Running them in a parallel program might just uncover the bug.”“Exactly!” I ushered Rory out of the barn and we closed the doors. “I have a lot of work to do.”
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