Universal Remote Pt. 2

[dalejr38]

By this point Steve was starting to get hungry and decided to go to get something to eat. He finally decided on the burger joint two blocks from his apartment. He slipped the remote into his pocket and was on his way. Along the way Steve decided he was going to do another scan with the remote, just to see what cam up. “Scanning” again flashed on the screen, accompanied by the scrolling status bar. This time the scan took about three minutes, but it had a list of about fifty things on it. Steve was amazed, street lights, parking meters, cars, ATMs, computers in people’s houses, cell phones, PDAs, they all came up on the screen. “Boy, this thing must have some range”, Steve thought.

Steve was so amazed at the seemingly infinite capability of his new Universal Remote that he almost missed the Burger joint. After tucking the remote into his pocket he went inside. Steve gave his order to the cashier, got his food and then found a seat at a table at the back of the restaurant. A cheeseburger, fries and a drink wasn’t necessarily the greatest meal, but it was still a change from the normal.

Instead of leaving right after he finished his meal, Steve pulled the remote back out of his pocket. He did a scan of the restaurant and waited for the screen to stop blinking. Same as last time, there were quite a few things on the list that came up on the screen. Steve started to scroll through the list until he came to one that through him off. There was a listing with the name Adam. Steve selected the listing named Adam and waited for the buttons and screen to change. The remote change to reflect almost the same configuration it had with his computer. The five buttons at the top were selection buttons, those along with the on and off buttons were exactly the same. But the screen now showed different groups, along with some of the same groups, for the functions. There was still Hardware, Files, Network Connection, and Software but it also had the headings for Users, and Modes. This was really beginning to get interesting now. Steve knew that the only “Electronic Devices” that would have options like those would have to be androids, but Steve had never seen a real android to know for sure.

Steve selected the Software option and the screen change to show what programs “Adam” was running. The first thing on the list was “Cashier 2.0”. At this point Steve started looking around for this android and spotted him running the register at the front of the store. “Alright, now for some fun”, Steve thought, “Lets see what this thing can really do”. Steve went back out to the main screen and selected Network Connection. This brought up two connections, one from a main computer inside the restaurant and one from Adam back to the computer. Steve decided to turn off Adam’s connection to the main computer and see what happened. Adam abruptly stopped and stood ramrod straight, “Connection with central computer lost. Trying to reestablish connection”. “Connection failed, waiting for further instructions”. At this point all the customers at the counter are very confused and one is even demanding that someone come fix him so they can get there food. This goes on for about 3-4 minutes before Steve turns Adam’s connection back on and Adam goes back to work as if nothing had happened. “Now that I’ve had my fun for the day, I guess I’ll be going” Steve said. Tucking the remote back into his pocket, Steve slipped past the large group of people waiting at the counter and walked back toward his apartment.

The walk back to his apartment seemed longer this time. Maybe it was because he wasn’t messing around with the remote. Before long Steve had made it back to the apartment building. Steve walked in the front door and pulled out his remote. He figured he would have just a little more fun before heading back up to his apartment. Steve walked over to some seats toward the stairwell. They were far enough out of the way so that the desk attendant couldn’t see him, but still give him a good view of the lobby. Steve did a scan of the lobby and found the desk computer, the TV, the desk phone, a fax machine, and two vending machines. Steve decided to watch a little TV. He accessed the TV and changed the channel from the usual news station to the Spanish channel. The desk attendant quickly looked up from what she was doing, thinking she had accidentally changed the channel, and looked for the remote. Finding the remote not close enough for her to have hit the button she looked very confused, but changed the channel back anyway. After the attendant had settle back into what she was doing Steve changed the channel again, but this time to Sports Center. Again the attendant quickly looked up with the same bewildered look, but this time she looked around as if something else must be causing this. Upon not seeing anything out of the ordinary, she changed the channel back again.

Steve was just about to change the channel for a third time when, “Ding, new device detected”. “What the heck does that mean”, he thought. Not knowing exactly what had happened, Steve checked the list of the electronic devices with in range. As he went down the list, he still saw all the same devices from the lobby until he got to the bottom. At the bottom of the list there was now a device listed only as Melanie. “No, it couldn’t be”, Steve thought, “Besides, I don’t even see anyone but the desk attendant anywhere near hear”. It was at this moment that he saw Melanie walking to the front door from outside. “What the heck, can’t hurt to see”. Steve accessed the device labeled Melanie. The same grouping that had come up with Adam came up when he accessed Melanie. He allowed Melanie to walk past the desk attendant and to the stairwell, so as to make sure she was past the view of the attendant, before he tried anything. Upon Melanie reaching the stairwell Steve pressed the off button. Melanie stopped, ramrod straight, head down with her chin on her chest, and arms at her sides.

[bilbo]

Now this story has got so much scope, and its just started to get interesting with Mel. Be nice to know what she looks like.

[dieur]

Great story so far! I hope Melenie sounds like a much more complex model than the burger droid. How will she react to the remote??

[Karel]

I see a classic in the works.

[F117pilot89]

Love it can't wait to read the next part!!

[Karel]

OK, so the last story I wrote was a little off the wall, and people clearly weren't digging it, so I abandoned it, and I haven't seen anyone ask me to bring it back.

But this one was shaping up to be a classic, and I was actually really looking forward to the next installment. So what's up, dalejr38? Don't quit on us now! I'm asking you to bring it back!

Whenever you can, of course: just so long as you're not baselessly dejected or anything.