Shiller decided to buy himself a computer.
In his previous life, Shiller also had a computer. During his study abroad, he assembled his own desktop. After becoming a professor, he mainly used the office laptops issued uniformly by the school.
Essentially, Shiller's electronic assembly capability remained the same; how good it was would have to be asked of the trash can at S.H.I.E.L.D., which was filled with various discarded parts.
In this era, assembling a computer isn't as simple as buying components and installing them in the case. It almost equates to handcrafted production, so from the very start, assembling a desktop computer was not an option for Shiller.
His options were then limited to buying a pre-made machine, but Shiller preferred to get a laptop. This way, he could address both the lack of a computer in his office and manor. Although the laptops of this era weren't lightweight, it would be okay to carry them around in the car.
Greed had a laptop from Marvel that he'd kept aside, but this laptop was made by Stark. It was so advanced that it could probably smash through the moon if thrown, which was a bit too much for Shiller, who just wanted to check his emails. So, he decided to buy one himself.
Shiller and Merkel drove to the commercial street in the South District where the Gotham Electronic Equipment Procurement Center is located.
Thanks to the rapid development of Gotham's logistics industry, this place has become the largest electronic component warehouse in the East Coast. Many large electronic equipment groups have set up their logistics warehouses here. The retail-based electronics industry, accessible to the public, has grown far beyond that of other cities on the East Coast in only two years.
Not many people owned computers in this era, and only the wealthy could afford mobile phones, but people were still stepping into the age of electronic information. Refrigerators, TVs, fax machines, video recorders, audio systems, electronic doorbells-- households in Gotham that were slightly better off had one or two of these.
The Gotham Electronic Equipment Procurement Center is located in a commercial building. As soon as Shiller arrived nearby in his car, he noticed that the parking spaces were full. He had to circle two more streets and ended up finding a spot in the back alley of the building.
Even before he had entered the building after getting out of his car, he spotted a bustling crowd constantly going in and out of the entrance, comprised mostly of young people and families who were trendily dressed.
Gotham could not be considered a fashion capital, but in this mad city, people's daily lives are chic enough. Shiller even saw what looked like photographers from other places conducting street photography on the square in front of the door.
Shiller walked into the Electronic Equipment Procurement Center thinking that there was finally the atmosphere of the new millennium.
This place is not an electronics mega-store, but has separate offices set up by different brands. Each one placed promotional brochures of their flagship products in newspaper racks at the entrance of their offices, allowing one to review them before deciding whether to go in.
Some companies had set up exhibition booths, mostly concentrated on the first floor, which was also where most people were. Shiller knew what he wanted and wasn't in the mood to wander around. He took the elevator directly to the fourth floor, which housed the two largest offices.
These offices belonged to Wayne Enterprises and Luther Group respectively.
Where else could you buy electronic products in the DC World? The most famous computer systems in the world were not Microsoft systems, but Wayne Systems. The likes of Apple and Sony had to step aside. Whether hardware or software, Wayne and Luther were the real titans.
This was not surprising. Bruce Wayne didn't immediately focus on his Batman career after his debut; he spent several years dallying in college. He didn't spend much of his time studying psychology, but he did reach the pinnacle in all other subjects he studied, including the research and development of computer hardware and software.
In early 1994, Wayne Enterprises launched a new laptop equipped with Wayne 1994 system. Yes, the startup logo was a bat.
Shiller suspected that Bruce most likely developed a technology similar to that of Windows 95, which directly enters into the GUI interface, in order to have the bat symbol appear unexpectedly in front of everyone during startup.
It was even more likely that he developed the computer system just so that the bat symbol could be seen by the whole world.
Shiller picked up the Wayne Enterprises product manual and found that Wayne Enterprises operated almost all categories of electronic products, including various household appliances, and the new laptop was shown on the first page of the brochure.
Unlike today's laptops, which might have a screen size of sixteen inches, the laptops of this era were more like notebooks. It was a small, square box. The screen was small and the keyboard was as compact as possible. The entire machine was in a matte black finish with the Wayne Enterprises logo positioned right in the center of the front.
Shiller believed that Bruce definitely considered changing the logo to a bat, but perhaps this was not realized due to the firm resistance from other shareholders of Wayne Enterprises. After all, bats carry negative connotations in some regions, which might affect the sales of the laptops.
After reviewing the product manual, Shiller didn't make a decision right away. He proceeded to the office of the other company, Luther Group, whose laptops were much more mainstream.
About two months earlier, Luther Group also launched their latest laptop named "Light of Mankind L2" equipped with the latest Luther System.
The salesperson at Luther Group was very enthusiastic. As soon as they saw someone looking at the product manual, they quickly came out from the office. Before Shiller could express what he wanted to buy, they had already brought their latest laptop over.
The salesperson quickly opened the laptop to show Shiller its interface. The interface of the Luther Group's laptop was quite flashy, and the user interaction was quite advanced;; it looked more like an XP system.
Shiller felt a bit hesitant. Normally, a person who is well aware of Batman's technological capability would definitely choose Wayne Enterprises' product, as the quality of Batman's technology is guaranteed.
However, Shiller was really fed up with the outdated user interaction systems of this era, which required a series of code entries for anything you wanted to do.
Everyone thought Shiller didn't like to receive emails because of his old-fashioned reluctance to accept advanced electronic devices, but only Shiller himself knew that he didn't want to be tormented by these outmoded machines.
"Sir, if you require convenience and home interaction, then you must choose our L2 model. Compared to the L1 model, it greatly enhances the convenience of user interaction, simplifies operation processes as much as possible, and even has built-in functions such as multi-web page operation saving and email account password saving. If you check your emails frequently, this model is definitely your optimal choice,"
The alert sales clerk could tell Shiller was a capable buyer who had taken a liking to the product, so he continued his hard sell by bringing up the price tag.
"We're in the promotion period for three months, so we can offer you 30% off. The original price of $9,200 would be discounted to $6,440, and this is a price inclusive of taxes; you absolutely cannot miss this opportunity..."
Shiller took another look at the square black box from Wayne Enterprises, then at the silver-gray device from Luther Group which had no markings on it whatsoever, and found himself somewhat hesitant.
Ten minutes later, Merkel stowed the box bearing the Wayne Enterprises logo into the trunk of their car. Once he took the driver's seat and Shiller the passenger's, they headed back to the Rodriguez Manor.
Once back home, Shiller called Harley and Barry, who were both dirty from playing in the garden, back inside. He had Merkel help them clean up and change clothes, then set the box containing the computer on the coffee table.
"Wow, you bought a computer?!!" Harley immediately exclaimed, throwing herself onto the computer box saying, "Quick, quick, quick! Open it up, I want to play games!"
Shiller sat on the couch opposite, sipping his coffee before responding, "First, help me pull up the email interface. Once I'm done reading my emails, you guys can use it freely."
Barry and Harley quickly set to work unpacking the box, and in moments pulled out a square, black laptop. Harley, straining a little with the seven-pound device, inspected it from top to bottom.
"I bet the startup screen is a bat."
"Don't bet on such obvious things."
Harley and Shiller exchanged a look, sighed simultaneously, and Harley then placed the laptop onto the coffee table. Merkel produced an electrical cord, and once plugged in, the screen lit up instantly.
Harley and Barry started fiddling with the computer, furrowing their brows. About fifteen minutes later, Harley finally lifted her head and said, "This system's interactivity is a pile of crap."
Barry also sighed and said: "This is too complicated, to access a website you need to write a piece of access code."
Shiller accepted the laptop from Merkel, wrote his email address on it with a pen, and handed it to Harley, who tapped the keyboard for a while before turning the laptop around and saying, "Okay, this is your mailbox. Call us after you've finished, we're going to grab something to eat."
With that, Harley pulled Barry away, leaving Shiller alone to grapple with the laptop.
Merkel stood behind Shiller with a cup of coffee, watching Shiller clumsily clicking around the screen.
Many people may not understand, but in more primitive web pages, there was no such thing as UI design. Whether you could click on a place or not was only found out after the fact. There wasn't any smooth design of modern web pages where the button animates when the mouse hovers over it.
Shiller spent quite some time fiddling, and it even exhausted Merkel just watching him. He took a gulp of his coffee before asking, "Sir, why didn't you buy the laptop from Luther Group? That one seemed much more convenient."
After a sip of coffee, Shiller sighed and said, "Perhaps it's because I like the color black."
The sound of distant thunder began to roll in the distance, grey clouds once again gathering above the city. In a few minutes, a heavy rain began to fall, offering the Gothamites a welcome respite from the prolonged drought.
This much-needed downpour temporarily dispelled the stifling heat, and the rain continued from afternoon into evening, rendering the Gotham night cool and humid.
When Shiller looked up again, the lights in various parts of the manor were lit, casting a warm, blurred glow in the humid air.
Shiller stretched his slightly sore neck and grumbled with a mix of rage and frustration, "This computer has a certain supercomputer aesthetic."
Just then, a "clack" sounded from the backyard followed by the shrieks of two children.
When Merkel and Shiller walked to the door leading to the backyard, they saw a familiar figure on a familiar tree branch - it was Batman.
At that moment, Merkel had gained a new understanding of Batman's ability to crash into the muzzles of guns.