\u00a0<\/p>\n
JS: Sadly, how the rest of this interview is going to go. Oh well, it is much too late to wait for another.<\/p>\n
The reason you won’t go and spend a day where I asked is the same reason it is a forbidden region. Back in the day of Earth That Was, there was a facility there known as the Braidwood Station. It was a nuclear power plant powering much of what was then the northern end of a state called Illinois. It was the largest plant in the state. Like most plants, it stored its nuclear waste on-site because nobody ever put in place a method of recycling the spent fuel rods or eliminating the deadly radiation from them. When the earth spun and the land cracked, the containment facilities all crumbled. Most likely, there are still massive quantities of radiation being given off, since the half-life for that stuff was measured in thousands of years.<\/p>\n
SK: So, were there really multiple wars and why were they called the Microsoft Wars?<\/p>\n
JS: I can see that you have no intention of recording anything useful for your readership or posterity. What is your current circulation?<\/p>\n
SK: We are the most trusted newspaper in the country. We have the widest circulation and most frequent distribution cycle: 5,500 readers look to us for information about the world, twice monthly.<\/p>\n
JS: It sounds more like you provide them entertainment instead of journalism.<\/p>\n
SK: Why is that?<\/p>\n
JS: You are looking for the headline instead of the story. The same thing happened to the supposed news services back in the days of Earth That Was.<\/p>\n
SK: Earth That Was?<\/p>\n
JS: That picture hanging on the wall to my right. When you came in, you commented on it being a piece of art. Do you know what it really is?<\/p>\n
SK: A painting of some kind.<\/p>\n
JS: It’s a map of Earth That Was printed out on an engineering printer, which took four-foot-wide rolls of paper and used what were called ink-jet cartridges. Once it was printed, it was run through a process the elders called lamination, which sealed it in some kind of clear substance to help preserve it. Otherwise, it would be yellowing like those books stacked to your left.<\/p>\n
SK: That still doesn’t explain Earth That Was.<\/p>\n
JS: The seven continents.<\/p>\n
SK: What are you talking about? There are twelve continents!<\/p>\n
JS: Today, yes. Back in the day of Earth That Was, there were only seven continents and that is a map of them. The picture hanging beside it is a picture of Earth That Was taken from outer space on a clear day. As you can deduce from the map, it shows much of the North and South American continents.<\/p>\n
SK: American?<\/p>\n
JS: <sigh> What is the first continent you encounter today when heading in the direction of where our sun sets?<\/p>\n
SK: Dians.<\/p>\n
JS: What is the country we are in right now?<\/p>\n
SK: Rica, but shouldn’t you already…<\/p>\n
JS: Back in the day of Earth That Was, Canada was a country occupying the northern portion of the North American continent and the United States of America occupied the lower portion of it before you got to this skinny connecting piece. The sun traveled from this edge to that edge of the continent each day.<\/p>\n
After the events of 2013, or during, depending upon how you look at it, part of Canada became the land mass you now call the Dians continent. The rest of the North American continent also turned and split up. Some say it simply had an ocean form over part of it. The difference between split or sink doesn’t really matter. Today, you cannot walk from one chunk to the other, so they are considered separate continents.<\/p>\n
The country we live in now was once called America. Several other chunks floating around the globe were also part of America. You are having trouble believing what you have been told because some big pieces that are at the root of the story are under the ocean now. As a country, we no longer have any means of getting to them or taking pictures for others to see. At some point, perhaps we will regain that but not at this point.<\/p>\n
SK: Do you really expect me to believe that you have hanging on your wall a picture taken from outer space? A beautiful picture in full color that was somehow taken while someone or something was in outer space and then given to you?<\/p>\n
JS: It wasn’t given, it was downloaded by my grandfather. Many people had them back at that time.<\/p>\n
SK: Downloaded?<\/p>\n
JS: Yes. With a thing called a computer over something called the Internet. America had some kind of organization known as NASA, which sent ships, satellites and people into outer space.<\/p>\n
SK: Internet? People in outer space? I don’t know what you’ve been drinking but it would have been polite to share!<\/p>\n
JS: <chuckle> Do you see that black rectangle resembling a book sitting over there?<\/p>\n
SK: Yes.<\/p>\n
JS: On the front of it is a little ridge, which you can push to the right, then lift the top portion of it to open it. Good. Now near the bend where the two pieces come together is a button with a circle and a line sticking out of the circle.<\/p>\n
SK: I see it.<\/p>\n
JS: Press it.<\/p>\n
SK: It is making noises. There are lights flashing. Things are appearing and disappearing on the top piece that feels like glass. What is OpenVMS?<\/p>\n
JS: It is the most robust computer operating system ever created by man. Here, let me log in.<\/p>\n
SK: Log in? Computer operating system?<\/p>\n
JS: Yes. Computers with operating systems, which could support multiple users, assigned each user a user name and password. When you tried to gain access to such a computer, it would prompt you for the user name and password. If you provided values it recognized, it would allow you to sign onto the computer. It would also write information to a computer log file somewhere, much like a ship’s manifest or a store’s receipt, indicating who signed onto the computer, from where, what they did, etc. Eventually, the culture surrounding these devices shortened the name to \u201clog in\u201d or sometimes \u201clog on.\u201d<\/p>\n
SK: I have never seen or heard of such a thing. Is this some kind of witchcraft or peddler’s trick?<\/p>\n
***********************
You are reading a special promotional version of \u201cJohn Smith – Last Known Survivor of the Microsoft Wars.\u201d This is the third book of the “Earth That Was” trilogy. You can obtain the entire trilogy in EPUB form from here:<\/p>\n