Superhero skills

Hi everyone,

I'm currently writing a novel in which the hero has to save the day by defusing a massive bomb that is linked to a countdown on a laptop. With only basic knowledge of coding, the hero has to find a way into the programme and deactivate it, but she has been warned that blundering around taking indiscriminate action could set the whole thing off.

I'm not very much of a tech so I'd appreciate any help you could give in describing how she should go about it. It doesn't have to be that detailed. I just don't want to spoil the enjoyment of readers who are knowledgeable in this area by making the story hopelessly naive or by saying anything that is clearly wrong.

Many thanks. I'd appreciate any help you can give.
 

Oussebon

Multiverse Poster
These forums are mostly for discussing specs/hardware relating to PC Specialist systems.

Someone may be able to go into what you're looking for, but you may want to try other forums too (especially as they might have larger user bases).

As well as tech forums, you can always try writing forums like https://nanowrimo.org/forums

Just in case nobody here can help with what you're after :)
 

Tony1044

Prolific Poster
Well if it's Windows, press Ctrl + Alt + Delete, launch task manager and close down BOMB_TIMER.EXE ;)

Slightly more seriously the problem you have here is without the necessary experience (and even with it in some cases), how do they know what they're looking for? And even if they found it, what is it that's running? What operating system? How's it connected?

That's why the get out of jail card in these kind of books is the knowledgeable sidekick.
 

ubuysa

The BSOD Doctor
Write about what you know.

Even Dan Brown screwed up big time with the techies in his novel Digital Fortress, the technical part of the central plot was such naive rubbish as to be laughable. Even the best get it seriously wrong when they write about stuff they don't understand.

And I'm with Tony1044 and his tongue in cheek response, just reading the line the hero has to find a way into the programme and deactivate it, but she has been warned that blundering around taking indiscriminate action could set the whole thing off makes me groan. The idea of a plucky amateur coming across a system they've never seen before and about which they know nothing and spectacularly finding a way to shut it off is never going to be believable. Nobody who is knowledgeable in this area would buy your book having read that summary. Sorry.
 
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These forums are mostly for discussing specs/hardware relating to PC Specialist systems.

Someone may be able to go into what you're looking for, but you may want to try other forums too (especially as they might have larger user bases).

As well as tech forums, you can always try writing forums like https://nanowrimo.org/forums

Just in case nobody here can help with what you're after :)

Many thanks for the feedback. I'll try some author forums as well but I thought I'd start here first. I wanted to get the view of people with specific knowledge.
 
Thanks Ubuysa. I'm not trying to go into detail in the rescue. The book is aimed at 9-12 year olds who are generally more interested in the excitement of the countdown than the detail. But I take your point. I may have to find another way of dealing with the problem.
 

Tony1044

Prolific Poster
It's like in films where the bomb maker always rather handily takes the time to put in a countdown clock so our heroes know exactly how much time they [don't] have.

The film Speed actually impressed me there - if you recall, Keanu Reeves' character was radioing in information about how the device was constructed and his oppo was looking through notes and schematics to try and piece it together. It adds a touch of realism.
 

ubuysa

The BSOD Doctor
Thanks Ubuysa. I'm not trying to go into detail in the rescue. The book is aimed at 9-12 year olds who are generally more interested in the excitement of the countdown than the detail. But I take your point. I may have to find another way of dealing with the problem.

Ah, it would have helped if you'd mentioned the age range up front. :)

The smart computer wizz (experienced or not) who fixes the problem is pretty old hat now, I'd look for something different to stop the clock. A mistake in the original coding for example, suppose it's a leap year which the programmer didn't allow for and that fouls up the timing program?

Decades ago I worked with some software that worked perfectly, until October when all hell broke loose. It turns out that the programmer had mistakenly allowed only a single character for the month field and it worked fine until the tenth month... That is a true story by the way.
 

polycrac

Rising Star
Well, since it is for kids, you could try:

Cutting the internet connection (so it can't auto-update) and changing the time on the PC so that the countdown thought it had years still to run or thought it was already past the 'Kaboom' point

Adding extra lines of code to the countdown that did basically nothing but were computationally expensive and made the program so slow that it would never reach the countdown

'Under'clocking the processor so much that the program ran incredibly slowly

Running Crysis so that all the laptop's resources were drained and it couldn't run the countdown program

Reversing the polarity

:p
 

Stephen M

Author Level
How about upgrading the laptop to Windows 10, by the time Microsoft have finished pouring updates into it and wrecking all the drivers the bomb's circuitry will have corroded away and it will be impotent.
 
Many thanks for these suggestions. Would it be possible for the villain to install a programme that controlled the countdown and after a bit of searching around the hero manages to locate the programme and uninstall it just in time?
 

Oussebon

Multiverse Poster
Yes, although if it was that 'simple' the hero could probably have just smashed the laptop / unplugged the PC.
 

Oussebon

Multiverse Poster
Notwithstanding the caveats about writing what you know, you could research raspberry pis (and school coding clubs).

Maybe they were given a raspberry pi + accessories and needed to be talked through using it to hack the computer, the wifi network it's on.. whatever. Or maybe they have the knowledge themselves but are just up against the clock.

School coding clubs teaching young kids more about programming and software than I'll probably ever understand are very in-vogue at the moment, so you could look there for ideas of what's age-appropriate in terms of (advanced) IT knowledge and have a tie-in to something fashionable in STEM.
 
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