A Glint In Time (History and Time) Read Online Free Page B
Author: Frank J. Derfler
Tags: General Fiction
knew it was morning in Florida as she was by his efficiency.
"Who was that and what's a rooter?" Bill asked.
"That was someone who is two steps ahead of us. They're waiting for the connection. Oh, a router, not a rooter, is a device that moves data packets from the fast local area network out to the slower wide area network link. Because you don't want all of the traffic from the fast local area network to go out to the slow wide area network, the router has to be smart. It only passes data bound for the distant end. It's really a small computer with a very specialized program. It also keeps unwanted intruders from entering the local network from the outside."
The Cisco router arrived by FedEx and Sally had it installed by mid afternoon. The Geoclock program in her laptop told her that the sun had set twelve hours ago in Indonesia, but she called anyway. "Good afternoon, Miss Langley." Woo's voice answered at the first ring. "Are we ready to establish a data link?"
"Good evening, Mr. Woo." Sally could play this game too. "Yes, Dr. Wirtz says we may proceed." She motioned wildly to Bill to come into the little closet which held the inside portion of the communications equipment. She pushed the switch on the phone that muted her side of the conversation. "This cold fish Woo wants to make a link into your network. Are you sure about this?"
Bill shrugged. "His folks are paying the bills."
Sally plugged the local area network cable into the router and keyed the phone. "Mr. Woo, I see that the routers are synchronized. Our networks are now linked."
"Thank you, Miss Langley. Good day."
The lights on the communications panel, the router, and the network wiring hub started to flash wildly. Sally turned to a protocol analyzer that broke down the network traffic into English. She pointed at the screen and said to Bill, "Well, your masters are now looking over your shoulder. They're downloading the log files. They'll see every action you've taken."
"But those files aren't in any human language!" Bill objected. “They're records of high level objects. They can only be played back on a computer system just like this one."
Sally lifted an eyebrow and paused to let the thought sink in. "Yeah, well they have all of your invoices. They know what equipment you have. They have all of your reports. They know what you do. Now, they can get your records and, from the looks of these new packets right here, they're taking your operational programs too. Throughput is about, ah, two megabits per second. That's not very good, but it's rock steady."
Bill picked up the phone and dialed Woo's number off of Sally's pad. There was no answer.
The download of files continued into the evening. Wirtz ignored what had become their nightly swim and sat at his
console as the darkness consumed the beach. At seven PM the door opened and "Ted of the Really Good Body", as Sally now thought of him, came into the beach house.
"Hi there." he said. "Satellite terminal working?" "Yeah," she replied. "Maybe too well." "How so?" he asked.
Sally explained that the people paying the bills had downloaded gigabytes of data and programs and that the link was still busy. She said, "Wirtz is in denial."
Ted appeared mildly interested and then said, "Well, I'm developing some new graphics routines. Time to get to work."
"You're a programmer?" Sally asked. This was an interesting guy and so far her relationship with Wirtz hadn't gotten past the point of occasionally brushing hands and bumping into each other on the beach. It appeared that he thought a lot more about his computers than about the opposite sex.
"Oh yeah. I speak 8080 assembler, C++, and a couple of other languages." he replied.
"Are you one of those Air Force guys?" she asked. "Yeah, one of those." he said.
Sally sensed an attraction with this strong character, but he wasn't responding. Maybe she was in heat or maybe he was in the closet. She said, "Well thanks for your help." and turned back to
"Who was that and what's a rooter?" Bill asked.
"That was someone who is two steps ahead of us. They're waiting for the connection. Oh, a router, not a rooter, is a device that moves data packets from the fast local area network out to the slower wide area network link. Because you don't want all of the traffic from the fast local area network to go out to the slow wide area network, the router has to be smart. It only passes data bound for the distant end. It's really a small computer with a very specialized program. It also keeps unwanted intruders from entering the local network from the outside."
The Cisco router arrived by FedEx and Sally had it installed by mid afternoon. The Geoclock program in her laptop told her that the sun had set twelve hours ago in Indonesia, but she called anyway. "Good afternoon, Miss Langley." Woo's voice answered at the first ring. "Are we ready to establish a data link?"
"Good evening, Mr. Woo." Sally could play this game too. "Yes, Dr. Wirtz says we may proceed." She motioned wildly to Bill to come into the little closet which held the inside portion of the communications equipment. She pushed the switch on the phone that muted her side of the conversation. "This cold fish Woo wants to make a link into your network. Are you sure about this?"
Bill shrugged. "His folks are paying the bills."
Sally plugged the local area network cable into the router and keyed the phone. "Mr. Woo, I see that the routers are synchronized. Our networks are now linked."
"Thank you, Miss Langley. Good day."
The lights on the communications panel, the router, and the network wiring hub started to flash wildly. Sally turned to a protocol analyzer that broke down the network traffic into English. She pointed at the screen and said to Bill, "Well, your masters are now looking over your shoulder. They're downloading the log files. They'll see every action you've taken."
"But those files aren't in any human language!" Bill objected. “They're records of high level objects. They can only be played back on a computer system just like this one."
Sally lifted an eyebrow and paused to let the thought sink in. "Yeah, well they have all of your invoices. They know what equipment you have. They have all of your reports. They know what you do. Now, they can get your records and, from the looks of these new packets right here, they're taking your operational programs too. Throughput is about, ah, two megabits per second. That's not very good, but it's rock steady."
Bill picked up the phone and dialed Woo's number off of Sally's pad. There was no answer.
The download of files continued into the evening. Wirtz ignored what had become their nightly swim and sat at his
console as the darkness consumed the beach. At seven PM the door opened and "Ted of the Really Good Body", as Sally now thought of him, came into the beach house.
"Hi there." he said. "Satellite terminal working?" "Yeah," she replied. "Maybe too well." "How so?" he asked.
Sally explained that the people paying the bills had downloaded gigabytes of data and programs and that the link was still busy. She said, "Wirtz is in denial."
Ted appeared mildly interested and then said, "Well, I'm developing some new graphics routines. Time to get to work."
"You're a programmer?" Sally asked. This was an interesting guy and so far her relationship with Wirtz hadn't gotten past the point of occasionally brushing hands and bumping into each other on the beach. It appeared that he thought a lot more about his computers than about the opposite sex.
"Oh yeah. I speak 8080 assembler, C++, and a couple of other languages." he replied.
"Are you one of those Air Force guys?" she asked. "Yeah, one of those." he said.
Sally sensed an attraction with this strong character, but he wasn't responding. Maybe she was in heat or maybe he was in the closet. She said, "Well thanks for your help." and turned back to
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