Super Tuesday

Matsu: Ah, welcome back. I believe the memory modules you were asking about came in last week.

Hal: Thanks. Any word on the bare-metal ARM CPUs?

Matsu: I've been asking around, and it really doesn't look like anyone is doing that. Let me go check on the memory modules.

Non-chan: Worried about the election?

Hal: Heh. Nah, not really. Well, maybe.

Kay: I'm worried, and I'm not even an American. If that clown Cornet gets re-elected, this world is done for.

Bee: I'm far more worried about what would happen if the former vice-president Call were chosen.

Non-chan: There really don't seem to be any decent candidates.

Hal: That's what has me worried. It's like all the good people in the US have just given up and stood down. Like none of them is willing to make the sacrifice.

Non-chan: Well, trying to be an un-bought president in the US these days means setting yourself up for all sorts of attacks.

Hal: Taking a bullet could be too literal a metaphor these days.

Kay: Well, some incumbents could make themselves less of a target.  I don't think Cornet can do anything that's not stupid.

Bee: Call is any better? Half senile. If he weren't propped up by the party, he'd fall over. And that's another worry, if he dies. His running mate might as well be a communist.

Kay: There's nothing wrong with a little socialism.

Bee: There's nothing wrong with being sociable. Socialism is putting society at too high a priority.

Non-chan: Calm down, you two. We're here to look at memory modules.

Matsu: Ah, here's the memory module you were asking about. Just got it in today.

Kay: Eight megabytes. Wow. Lots of RAM.

Hal: Heh. Yeah. Neo-retro computing has a different set of parameters. Eight Megabytes is plenty for a 24-bit address 3801.

Kay: Do you have any 16 gigabyte modules that work in ordinary AMD-based notebook PCs?

Matsu: You mean like these?

Kay: Yeah. Like those.

Bee: Would they work in the ARM-based computer I bought here last month?

Matsu: Let me see. You bought the Guava Epsilon version seven-point-three, right?

Bee: That's it.

Matsu: Should work. Do you want a couple?

Bee: Yeah.

Kay: I'll take a pair, too.

Non-chan: Do you need RAM for yours, Hal?

Hal: Not today. How about you?

Non-chan: I think 64 gig is enough for now.

Matsu: Did you vote?

Hal: Yeah. I'm not sure it was meaningful for anybody but me, but I sent in my vote for the only candidate I felt I could even half-way support.

Matsu: One of the third party candidates?

Hal: Yep. One more tiny voice to ask both major parties to back off. I wish we had a none-of-the-above, do-it-over choice.

Matsu: That wouldn't support the power structures, though, would it.

Hal: Precisely.

Matsu: Agreed.

Kay: More conspiracy theory?

Non-chan: Guys, even the people who think they are at the tops of the social hierarchies need to be allowed to make their mistakes.

Matsu: Sometimes I wonder.

Hal: Sometimes it's hard not to wish they'd quit, though.

Bee: Conspiracies do exist, Kay, even if the source of the conspiracy never can keep his stories straight.

Kay: Yeah. True. I'm convinced the devil is a woman.

Bee: And just what is that supposed to mean?

Non-chan, Hal, and Matsu: Guys, ...