Beneath

Never thought I would find myself posting on a forum again. Didn't realise until now how much I've missed it. Still, they do say history runs in cycles, and it's starting to feel a lot like old times again in recent months.

So, with the sudden flurry of activity the Cavern has seen in the past year, my thoughts have turned to considering the best way the Restoration can keep explorers in the loop as to the assorted projects that are afoot. Social media has been useful in this regard, but keeping track of all of the currently active blogs, feeds and group postings can be a considerable undertaking at the best of times, and given the very spotty access to the Internet down here I feel it's far more in the spirit of our endeavours if we can put some of the D'ni's own technology to good use.

With that in mind, I have been helping co-ordinate with several of the more engineering-savvy explorers in the restoration effort to get the sound system in the Kirel auditorium up and running again, with a view to using it to provide regular updates as to the Restoration's latest activities. It's my hope that regular recordings can be made available providing explorers with the latest news about ages that have been restored, new areas of the cavern opened up, updates to ongoing projects, public service announcements, new texts to the Chiso library, ways in which explorers can assist the restoration efforts, all of that good stuff.

Progress on getting the absolute horrorshow of the podium's inner workings has gone well (shoutout to Hazado and Hoikas in particular for making sense of it all, and for Calum and Patrick in their support for originally pitching the idea), and I'm in the process of sorting out a last minute addition to the first recorded message to cover the most recent developments in the lake lighting project. A rather excellent idea also was floated in which to make the recordings available in other languages, and currently we have some French and Italian-speaking explorers who have put themselves forward to help in this very thing. We've even manage to dredge up the old recording that Dr Watson made all back in the days of the DRC's first restoration, and we hope to have that available to hear as well for posterity. I'm sure the good Doctor would be heartened at the thought of his efforts over the years continuing to live on down here.

Barring any unforeseen technical mishaps, we're looking to have the podium firing on all cylinders sometime either this month or the next, with new messages recorded every few months or so. I'll update this thread when the first message goes live, and each one after that.

- Jules

Echoing my support to the idea from back when Jules first pitched it, I think we've got a good opportunity here to give folks a way of catching up on events if they've not been paying attention, or have missed an AGM or two (or six).

Those hood podiums are a down right mess, though, compared to Kirel's even at its worst. I've taken a few looks at them over the years and hooo. BOY. Are they a mess of broken mechanics, fused electronics, and other ancient D'ni mechanisms I have no hope of deciphering. Something happened there that didn't in Kirel, though I suspect the DRC just put more effort into fixing the podium in their own hood back in the day.

Still, good to hear Watson's voice again.

Right, final version of the first message is locked down. Anything short of the second coming of Yeesha is going to have to wait until next time.

Fingers crossed we can sort things out after poor Hoikas had his ears blown across the room yesterday.

Saw that video he posted, yes. Any idea what caused that kind of mishap?

I think it had something to do with some piece of coding getting reverted to an older version somehow, Kels.

Danged D'ni technology can be resistant to change if you nudge it the wrong way at the right time. It's much like a wild animal, in that way. Poke something wrong, it's liable to scratch your hand in retaliation... or assault your ears, in Yesterday's Case.

No idea. Gremlins, I would imagine. I hear they do the rounds this time of year.

... now THAT'S a sequel idea. Must remember to pitch it to Joe Dante next time I see him down the pub.

Gremlins! Of course.

Any idea when we might be seeing the revamped audio pushed towards a speaker test? I'm curious to hear what's in store.

Kelsei, I think the new audio got pushed for testing last night, so if you're curious, you know where to go to check it.

Or perhaps it did just a few minutes ago? I just saw the notification about it.

I just saw that as well. Heading down for testing in a few.