GrS 2:1:15 R2-D2's hidden compartment

Added a little hidden compartment on top of R2-D2's dome, with an ejector built into it. Don't know when it will come in handy, but it's a neat little mod.

While I had the dome open, I also fitted in an after-market periscope. It pops out the top of his head, and will be useful when I add the full "submarine-mode" mods.

GrS 2:1:12 Booster rockets on R2-D2

R2-D2 is coming along well. The booster rockets work like a treat, and he (I think of him as a he) seems to really enjoy rocketing around on them.

He's developing quite the little personality too.

GrS 2:1:5 My very own astromech droid

Finally bought my very own R2 astromech droid from Industrial Automaton! I've wanted one of these little guys for quite a while now.

There's been a waiting list for a while, but I upped the ante and paid around 6000 credits for it, instead of the 4245 list price.

I got all the standard bells and whistles, but I didn't spring for Industrial Automaton's more expensive addons. They've made the R2 line so easy to upgrade that I plan to add a lot of mods myself.

My unit came with the two manipulator arms, electric arc welder, circular saw, computer scomp link arm and the holographic recorder/projector unit. There's even a fire extinguisher! Its designation is R2-D2, which is a pretty cool name.

First things I'll be adding are the booster rockets.

GrS 1:3:8 More on the mystery budget expenditure

Did a little digging around in the accounting computers. Some of those folks use the same passwords for everything!

That 5 million credit expenditure that killed our profit last year was paid to someone named Jango Fett for "clone template and training services."

Did a little more digging, but can't find anything out about what clones he's training or where. Just my luck to get my funding taken away by a black project. I can't even protest about it to anyone, because I'm not supposed to know. Sigh.

GrS 1:3:1 Techno Union Budget

Sat in on a review of last year's expenditures and planning for this year's budget.

I had requested a number of things in the budget, NONE of which we're getting. I don't know how we're supposed to come up with awesome new designs and projects if we don't get funding.

I asked why, and it seems we didn't do as well as we'd thought last year. We were initially heading for a profit of 3 million Republic credits, but there was a last minute expenditure of 5 million credits at the end of the year, tagged under Miscellaneous Expenses. That's usually a code word for "Don't ask, because you won't get told."

GrS 0:1:8 The Great Resynchronization

So a week into this goofy new dating system that the Republic Measures & Standards Bureau wants everyone to use. They're calling it the Great Resynchronization. Yes, great. I wish they had some inkling of how this mucks with the inventory and supplies-ordering system we've been working on for Baktoid Combat Automata.

Speaking of Baktoid, I just got back from Geonosis, where I sat in on a review of the B1 battle droid, their latest "autonomous" battle droid.

They weren't kidding when they opened by saying that the catch-phrase during the design of these droids was "quantity over quality." If the prototype they had in the boardroom during the review was any indication, they've definitely gone for low cost above any other consideration. I'm only as strong as the next Bothan, but I was able to pull both arms off the prototype, to everyone's annoyance. They're only held on via electromagnets, if you can believe that.

I wasn't impressed, and let the folks from Baktoid know it--I criticized the cheap armor, the substandard weaponry, and the shoddiness of the limb attachment. "I wouldn't bet on an army of these guys to destroy a bunch of Gungans," I said derisively.

Oh, and another thing--they've maintained the central control idea. When I pointed out that building in some small amount of independence, might be good, in case the control ships were attacked and destroyed, I was told that the control ships would be safely tucked away in orbit. "Right," I said, "because no invaded planet would ever launch starfighters." "Exactly," responded the Baktoid people. "The battle droids will quickly move to ground all spaceflight on the planet."

I suggested maybe building in some redundancy, having fewer droids per control ship, or maybe a backup control ship you could fail over to. They rejected all my suggestions, saying production is proceeding on these droids, but they promised to take some of my ideas under advisement for the next revision.

Sigh. They have no respect for us Techno Union types.