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Mailing List Logs for ShadowRN

Message no. 1
From: Nightblade <wgreason@*****.ocis.temple.edu>
Subject: Cyberterminal & Tortoises
Date: Wed, 10 Jul 1996 13:12:41 -0400 (EDT)
Listen, I know this was kinda case closed when RHayden addressed the issue.
But it is causing a severe character development problem for me. I have only
one real character on this BBS -- Rosha. She doesn't own a deck. However,
she can jack into cyberterminals belonging to other people and access the
Matrix.

She doesn't have her own persona etc. No programs (per se) ... not at all
a decker in any real sense. Her Matrix abilities are similar to those of
tortoises. Working at a cyberterminal kinda in the same way I'm typing
this email.

This causes a problem when she accesses the Shadowland BBS. According to
RHayden, the identity is coded into the decker's deck and automatically
leaves the actual decker ID at the of the message with the T/D stamp.

B/C my character doesn't have a deck, there isn't an ID stamp to leave.
I understand that the T/D stamp would come in regardless, but a Tortoise
accessing from a cyberterminal would leave the signature of the
cyberterminal's primary user right?

I can't find any real detail on this in the sourcebooks, but I am appealing
to the everyday posters on here for a "special dispensation" to allow my
character to shift her "decker ID" from post to post because of her way
of accessing the Matrix.

Although this probably sounds like a small detail, it is causing more
problems than I imagined for Rosha's character development.

If you want me to explain that further, I'll send another mail.

Please stand up for cyberterminals and tortoises! :)

peace
Dave
Message no. 2
From: "Mark A. Imbriaco" <mark@******.net>
Subject: Re: Cyberterminal & Tortoises
Date: Wed, 10 Jul 1996 13:21:32 -0400 (EDT)
> Although this probably sounds like a small detail, it is causing more
> problems than I imagined for Rosha's character development.

Just put something similar to this:

-- Rosha <13:17:53/07-10-57>

like the rest of the non-deckers. No-one really cares what you

are using to access shadowland. You're worrying too much about
this one.. don't worry so much about the mechanics of how it's
done.

-mark
Message no. 3
From: mneideng@****.caltech.edu (Mark L. Neidengard)
Subject: Re: Cyberterminal & Tortoises
Date: Wed, 10 Jul 1996 10:20:50 -0700 (PDT)
IIRC (I don't have my sourcebooks in front of me since I'm at work; if the
issue is open to contention I can quote chapter and verse this evening) one of
the chief difference between a deck and a cyberterminal is that the deck
_doesn't_ leave an ID stamp when you use it. Decks can also have weird little
goodies like offensive and defensive hardware which one is unlikely to find
on a cyberterminal. =)

Note that just because a "deck" doesn't stamp its ID everywhere it goes
_doesn't_ mean that decks are untraceable: it just means that they're not
_trivially_ traceable.

In other words, there's no problem going to Shadowland over a "cyberterminal".
I've got folks logging on from everything from cellular modems to mobile
sattelite connections, and about half of those characters don't "deck" at all.
--
/!\/!ark /!\!eidengard, CS Major, VLSI. http://www.cacr.caltech.edu/~mneideng
"Fairy of sleep, controller of illusions" Operator/Jack-of-all-Trades, CACR
"Control the person for my own purpose." "Don't mess with the Dark
Elves!"
-Pirotess, _Record_of_Lodoss_War_ Shadowrunner and Anime Addict
Message no. 4
From: winter@******.med.harvard.edu
Subject: Re: Cyberterminal & Tortoises
Date: Wed, 10 Jul 1996 13:35:56 -0400
That's not it Mark. He wants (as a bit o' character flavor) to use a
new ID every time she posts as she is stealing others acess
to the "net". She does not use her own deck, so there is
nothing to leave her name attached to the posts.


-winter
Message no. 5
From: winter@******.med.harvard.edu
Subject: Re: Cyberterminal & Tortoises
Date: Wed, 10 Jul 1996 13:40:35 -0400
R's post _would_ be traceable, but only to their point of origin, ei.
some poor shumck's account/workplace (by which time R would be long
gone...).


-winter
Message no. 6
From: mneideng@****.caltech.edu (Mark L. Neidengard)
Subject: Re: Cyberterminal & Tortoises
Date: Wed, 10 Jul 1996 10:52:14 -0700 (PDT)
According to winter@******.med.harvard.edu:
>
>That's not it Mark. He wants (as a bit o' character flavor) to use a
> new ID every time she posts as she is stealing others acess
> to the "net". She does not use her own deck, so there is
> nothing to leave her name attached to the posts.

Ah, I see...well, there's no problem with that....there's certainly nothing
precluding the actual character from even inserting some sort of .sig in the
body of her messages, in contradiction to the attribution in the T/D stamp.
--
/!\/!ark /!\!eidengard, CS Major, VLSI. http://www.cacr.caltech.edu/~mneideng
"Fairy of sleep, controller of illusions" Operator/Jack-of-all-Trades, CACR
"Control the person for my own purpose." "Don't mess with the Dark
Elves!"
-Pirotess, _Record_of_Lodoss_War_ Shadowrunner and Anime Addict
Message no. 7
From: "Paul J. Adam" <shadowtk@********.demon.co.uk>
Subject: Re: Cyberterminal & Tortoises
Date: Thu, 11 Jul 1996 00:31:21 +0100
In message <Pine.BSD.3.91.960710130415.24525C-
100000@*****.ocis.temple.edu>, Nightblade <wgreason@*****.ocis.temple.ed
u> writes
>Listen, I know this was kinda case closed when RHayden addressed the issue.
>But it is causing a severe character development problem for me. I have only
>one real character on this BBS -- Rosha. She doesn't own a deck. However,
>she can jack into cyberterminals belonging to other people and access the
>Matrix.

>I can't find any real detail on this in the sourcebooks, but I am appealing
>to the everyday posters on here for a "special dispensation" to allow my
>character to shift her "decker ID" from post to post because of her way
>of accessing the Matrix.
>
>Although this probably sounds like a small detail, it is causing more
>problems than I imagined for Rosha's character development.

I figure, for my characters, Lynch and Lilith get their posts thrown
onto SLand by the Agency, Quinn has a tame geek at the University, and I
still don't know how Easy gets access. None of them own decks either.

I'd say if Rosha's good enough to reach SLand she can tweak the
identifier. The Shadowland admins let her, because she's just amending
the 'originator' to reflect 'author' rather than 'posting host', if you
want a reason :)

--
"There are four kinds of homicide: felonious, excusable, justifiable and
praiseworthy."
Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary"
Paul J. Adam paul@********.demon.co.uk

Disclaimer

These messages were posted a long time ago on a mailing list far, far away. The copyright to their contents probably lies with the original authors of the individual messages, but since they were published in an electronic forum that anyone could subscribe to, and the logs were available to subscribers and most likely non-subscribers as well, it's felt that re-publishing them here is a kind of public service.