Up-goer Five on xkcd, the inspiration for this.
The Up-goer Five text editor.
The Up-goer Five text editor.
We make talking-boxes. You speak into them, and your voice comes out of another talking-box somewhere else.
Our talking-boxes are really little computers.
My job is to whisper to computers - our talking-boxes - and to write directions that tell them how to work. I work with tens of other people-who-whisper-to-computers. It can be fun but is sometimes quite hard. This is because our talking-boxes can be hard to understand and I have to spend time learning why they work in they way they do.
I help make new talking-boxes that work better than the old ones. Sometimes the people we make talking-boxes for want them to work in a different way, so I write new computer-directions. I like to make things that help me, and the other computer-whisper-people, whisper better and write better computer-directions. I sometimes also have to fix wrong directions that I, or the other computer-whisper-people, wrote.
When I have finished writing some computer-directions I have to have my work checked. The direction-checking-people check that it does what it should, and the other computer-whisper-people check that they understand my directions and that what I wrote makes sense. Then I give my directions to the people-who-build-our-talking-boxes.
Sometimes I work with the head computer-whisper-guy to decide what kind of directions we need to write next, and explain this to the other whisper-people. Sometimes I have to help the other whisper-people understand the different kinds of computer-directions that we use.
It makes me happy when I have written a lot of directions for our talking-boxes and they work in the way they should. This is because our talking-boxes help people work and live better. Many people, around the world, use our talking-boxes to help keep other people safe, and to help keep power and water working.
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Talking boxes? They don't talk *themselves*, so maybe more like the well-known tin cans and string communications device - but without the string.
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