Slashdot Mirror
Ruby 1.8.0 Released
waieitch writes "A long-waited new version of the scripting language, Ruby 1.8.0 has just been released. You can download from here, and the changelog is available. With many new libraries, say dRuby, ERB, REXML, this version is doubled by 1.6.8 in size."
My mind blanks as the earth reforms. I focus on the the individual particles, it must be perfect, an action which would have taken me days and completely exausted me before, now takes only a few seconds. When the structure is completed I pick her up and levitate with her in my arms one last time. I set her down in the coffin, thinking about what could have been if I came to her help a few minutes earlier. I step outside the room and order the earth to seal it. Nobody shall ever know what lies beyond this barrier, I tell it. It obeys, knowing my pain.
I form a dagger of pure crystal out of nothing. I think about what powers will be lost to humanity, how many will die because I will not be there to help them, but it is meaningless to me. She was everything to me and I lost her to my greed. It is better this way, I tell myself.
I walk outside and see the sun setting behind the hills. It asks me if I need anything, and I tell it I need guardians. Moments later, the link is broken and out of the fire come four giant fire elementals. They request instruction. I tell them to destroy this forest and then return here, forever guarding this building, never to yield to any intruders. They turn and go.
I force my body fully into this plane. Feelings of vulnerability overwhelm me, I become mortal again. I walk back into the building and the earth understands, opening the passage for me. I sit next to her, touching her cold hand. I am sorry, I think, the thought echoing through the fabric of reality, a sign of how powerful I have become. I drive the dagger into my heart feeling not pain, but relief. I am sorry, I think again, and this time I feel she is responding. Perhaps we will be together in whatever is to come, I silently say to myself. I smile as I close my eyes and submit to the darkness.
But the powers that be will not let me rest. I have been assigned the role of the deathbringer of a strange world I have never seen before, with the promise that I will be reunited with my love at the end of time. There is nothing but death for those whom I set my gaze upon, and nobody understands why I do it. I am hated and feared by them, but I do not care.
I have become a Troll.