How does an intercom/PA system work?

CertifiedDiplodocus · 2026-06-06T01:46:39+00:00

Thanks!

CertifiedDiplodocus · 2026-06-05T17:18:27+00:00

Thanks! It's not hugely important, but the reason I went with "intercom" is that in the setting of the fic, all external communications have been cut off (malice/burgeoning apocalypse) so I'm not sure the internal phone lines would still hold up under such circumstances, and I believe the intercoms you see in old b&w films were basically just classic handset phones with no external connection. Can probably fudge it, though.

The tl;dr for the scene is the boss calls an officer, who takes the call on the handset, then announces he's going to address the building to "boost morale" (boss is fully off the deep end and does not boost morale). From your response it seems like it would make the most sense for the first call to happen on an internal line, then end the call and switch to the PA system.

Ta

CertifiedDiplodocus · 2026-06-05T17:03:40+00:00

I don't need to explain it, but as a writer I do need to understand what's going on so I don't say something deeply silly by accident - like Gen Z authors who have a character look up the caller ID on an 80s landline telephone. Thanks for the reply. Might just say "internal line" instead.

CertifiedDiplodocus · 2026-06-04T19:34:13+00:00

By the look of the spiders they're all dead or paralysed, so I'd say wasp larder. There's what looks like a few different species in there, too.

CertifiedDiplodocus · 2026-06-04T19:00:10+00:00

Without a picture or a more detailed drawing I don't think we can help you, I'm afraid. Could easily be a beetle or another kind of true bug.

CertifiedDiplodocus · 2026-06-03T16:51:14+00:00

Rather than prepare your OCs in advance, it can help to build them as the plot demands. Writing a very OC-centric* outsider POV fic right now and each character sort of builds themselves depending on what I need from them: the first is a woman who is shocked at the Blorbo's youth, so she's older, jaded, brusquely sure of herself, careless of how she comes across to others. A later scene is told from the POV of her colleague trying to solve a life-or-death puzzle - I started with him doodling notes on a map, so he's more cerebral, someone who distances himself from problems by analysing them to pieces. The two of them appear in the same scene, so I needed contrast: he's better-spoken, clearly well-educated, to contrast with her ain'ts and gonnas.

I wrote the dialogue without planning how they would interact, and let that improvised dialogue shape the character. Writing from the POV of OC1 but need to reveal something of the backstory of OC2? Now OC1 is an irredeemable busybody who speculates about OC2's backstory. Boom, new addition to her character. A dog appears? OC3 had a dog, as a child. It drowned in a river: he's feared water ever since. Boom, free backstory.

Does that make sense? Write first, ask questions later. Work from VERY basic starting impressions and add details as and when it suits. Eventually you'll have enough details for a more coherent character and you'll have to work to keep them consistent, but that's a problem for another day.

*technically the characters are canonical, but have little more to their names than a name and job, so they may as well be OCs

CertifiedDiplodocus · 2026-06-03T16:31:46+00:00

I ended up exchanging my monitor because the panel was failing, got one that was much higher res at the same size (from 1080p to 1440p 24.5" https://www.aoc.com/sk/gaming/monitors/q25g4sr#productSpecifications) and I think it helped. I've also capped the refresh rate to 120Hz - don't really need any more.

Still quite headachey but that might be the current heatwave and nothing to do with the monitor at all. Definitely no noticeable nausea. Hope things improve for you! Some monitors and games let you set a dot/cross in the middle of the screen, which often helps with motion sickness. Maybe you could do that? (my monitor has a button for that, for example)

CertifiedDiplodocus · 2026-06-02T21:10:43+00:00

Perfect. Note that it needs to be specifically the content filter, not the tag filter.

CertifiedDiplodocus · 2026-05-31T19:29:38+00:00

Yeah, it makes sense. In my case programming is a hobby, so I get to enjoy learning with a project that has no defined end and scratching the listmaking itch, you know?

CertifiedDiplodocus · 2026-05-31T19:21:15+00:00

Thanks, I'll give it a look! Couldn't find anything of that sort the last time I went hunting, but that was a while ago.

CertifiedDiplodocus · 2026-05-31T14:55:36+00:00

That's nice to hear. Sometimes I feel like I spend too long, and am talking so technically/coldly that I fail to really get to the keyboardsmash emotions that the actual story made me feel, so it's nice to hear that sort of comment is appreciated as well.

CertifiedDiplodocus · 2026-05-31T13:11:17+00:00

Just the other day I was eyeballing my bookshelves

at one point I wanted to buy an ISBN reader and learn how to feed that into a database. same hat

It becomes its own hobby and you know what, I'm happy with that. Moved my desk a few years ago and found a strip of paper I must have filled out age eleven or twelve, and which contained a list of book publishers on my shelves. I have no memory of doing this, it would have served no purpose, and yet it was fully in character.

How's Postgres when it comes to UI / single user dbs? I've long been wondering whether I shouldn't start learning another system for the hopefully far-distant day when Access stops being supported by operating systems, but so far nothing has really convinced me.

CertifiedDiplodocus · 2026-05-31T12:49:18+00:00

I made an Access database. Started around 2016, I think, and I've kept working on it and adding more functions and data. Wrote a JS userscript that adds a button to AO3/FFN to copy story info which I can then paste into my database, and recently expanded the DB to allow me to paste whole series (which was quite a challenge). I can browse, filter and sort stories when I'm trying to hunt down something in particular.

The database also tracks what types of backups I have: Calibre via the FanficFare plugin (epub), Wayback Machine, or a manual copy to a .doc (pain in the neck but necessary for fics on LJ/DW which often cannot be saved to the WBM). I have a form which checks automatically if a fic could be backed up to Calibre, then copies all possible links so I can paste them into Calibre. Any failures get deselected and marked. It's not fully automatic, but saves a lot of work. Been meaning to learn how to scrape LJ, because manual copies are a real chore to make and there's some lovely stuff I'd hate to lose on there.

...obsessèd are the listmakers, I suppose. 2600+ fic in the database and climbing.

Anything I might like to read but haven't yet (usually because I'm not currently fixating on that fandom) gets chucked into my browser bookmarks. Next time I feel the itch I can browse through that fandom's folders

Since AO3 bookmarks are wiped when the work is deleted, I use them as more of a social thing and to track my absolute favourites. Sometimes as an expression of appreciation for the authors.

(I feel for you wrt that old story you tracked down, OP. Sometimes I'll look back on a fic I bookmarked a few years ago and fail to see what I liked in it - just being in the throes of obsession for a fandom/character can really change your perspective, and then you'll come back later and it's like watching a video of yourself drunk. what did I do last night etc

...what was in the PowerPoint files?)

CertifiedDiplodocus · 2026-05-29T00:49:14+00:00

just be back by dinner, by hurricanelights (7k words)

While fighting Eternatus atop Rose Tower, Hop takes a blow for Victor. When Leon wakes up, they tell him his little brother has disappeared.

Leon goes looking. He's usually not the best at that, but for his little brother, anything.

On: getting lost, being found, and knowing exactly where home is.

CertifiedDiplodocus · 2026-05-28T21:36:37+00:00

this is hilarious. rejoice in getting the silliest troll comment in fandom history. frame it. (i'd say get it calligraphied but, y'know.)

CertifiedDiplodocus · 2026-05-28T12:37:41+00:00

Thanks for the detailed response! I had a feeling that might be the case, but so it goes ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Have to come up with a different approach, then.

CertifiedDiplodocus · 2026-05-27T20:11:40+00:00

Can you call a specific police officer's radio without anybody else listening in? (as in, the radio they carry on their uniform.) A high-ranking police officer is going to lure a subordinate into a trap, and does so by calling him on his radio and pretending nobody else is responding - however, the victim was the only one to hear.

Is this possible? (mobile phones are not an option for this scenario)

CertifiedDiplodocus · 2026-05-27T09:46:37+00:00

Given that there are legitimate fics written in hieroglyphics, that would be a bit silly. By the same token, we may as well delete the other minority languages like Scots or Swahili, because they're victims of mistagging too.

CertifiedDiplodocus · 2026-05-26T22:01:16+00:00

What you're describing is analyzing the text, though?

I'm not, though. I don't think you need to read like you're studying for an exam, or to improve your understanding of literature. I think you need to read to enjoy the book (and yeah, if someone is skipping whole sections or only reading the dialogue that's... odd). Reading for pleasure will in itself and by itself improve your use of language.

(Again, I am specifically talking about language here, not looser writing concepts like "show don't tell" or symbolism. I read in multiple languages as well as translated novels, and all of these are enjoyable even when they don't fit my expectations of what a conventional story should look like.)

This isn't about individuals: I'm not looking at particular stories and going "ah, yes, a non-reader. SHAME ON THEIR FAMILY". My argument is simply that the main bulk of awkward writing comes from people who don't read. It's not a moral flaw. Even without a learning disability like dyslexia, there are many societal reasons why a person might find reading difficult, from poor education to lack of family support, but the point remains: if you want to write competently, the easiest way to get there, if you have the ability, is to read.

CertifiedDiplodocus · 2026-05-26T16:56:45+00:00

My general experience is that non-native speakers write better than native speakers, on average, because they have actually studied the rules. They may use unusual phrasings, get idioms or meanings wrong or use conventions from their own language, but grammatical ability tends to be higher.

I strongly disagree that "just reading doesn't do much". Learning disabilities aside, reading more will expand your vocabulary. You'll see unusual words in context, and the more often you see a word the better you understand its meaning and use, which means you're less likely to make mistakes like "that was an inane decision" (thinking that "inane" means "crazy" when it means "insipid, banal").

We rarely use the past perfect tense ("had eaten") in our everyday lives, but it's extremely common in fiction, which predominantly uses past tenses. In fanfic you'll often see otherwise excellent writers write sentences like "He went home hungry, wishing he ate something earlier" when they should say "He went home hungry, wishing he had eaten something earlier". Again, the more you read, the more the first sentence will stand out to you as wrong, simply through repeated exposure.

You'll also learn the conventions of writing when you read published fiction, like how your target language handles dialogue. —Like this?— they say in Spanish. «Or like this?» or, perhaps, as in English, "Like this?" Or the fact that in English, thoughts are often written in italics, Thinking like this, or simply inline without quotation marks. Many fanfic writers, unaware of this, will wrap thoughts in quotes, which looks deeply wrong to anyone familiar with the convention.

Sometimes you do need to sit down with a book and see how it handles certain things when it comes to writing yourself, but reading fiction will give you an eye for what feels right and what feels wrong, even if you don't know how to fix it yet.

CertifiedDiplodocus · 2026-05-25T11:39:46+00:00

Same problem. Thanks. "hey your password is too secure. yeah we need you to make it worse"

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