| From: | J Gavigan <csc086@*****.LANCS.AC.UK> |
|---|---|
| Subject: | Re: A Couple of 'deck questions. |
| Date: | Sat, 16 Apr 1994 16:19:58 +0100 |
> 1. What kind of power source do decks use? Are they internal or
> external? The reason I ask is because in the
> _Choose_Your_Enemies_Carefully_ novel, Hart has Jenny check the power
> consumption of the apartment before she goes in. Yet, in other places,
> it refers to Dodger decking from the forest in Tir Tairngir(sp?).
Personally, I would say that a cyberdeck would normally get it's
power from outside - i.e. when it's plugged into the wall, the
cable not onlyforms the connection between the Grid and the deck,
but also supplies it with power. However, what's to stop there
being a battery that you can use to power the deck when you are
decking from an area where the power supply may not be reliable?
I doubt whether the battery would be built-in, but surely,
considering that we have notebook PCs and so on today, a small
power supply, perhaps the size of a thick paperback novel could be
plugged into the back of the deck, and supply it with at least a
few hours power?
> 2. Are cyberdecks capable of accessing the Matrix via the cellular
> phone network? Or are they limited to hardwired telecom lines?
Ah, yes. This is a particular bone of contention with regard to
decking in Shadowrun. SRII states quite specifically that there
_must_ be a _physical_ connection - ie. a cable, or a lead -
linking the deck to the Grid to allow deckers to access the
Matrix. Obviously, this is to prevent deckers with cranial decks
carrying a modem and a cellular phona around with the and being
able to jack into the Matrix from anywhere they like. The
justification for this rule involves the amount of data that
passes between the Grid/Matrix and the deck. Imagine the amount
of data necessary to produce a fully interactive 3-D view of
somewhere, and you're beginning to get the idea.
So, you can't use your cellular phone to jack in.
However, in several campaigns I have run, I have allowed the
decker to purchase a sattelite uplink package, which, allows
him to set up a small sattelite dish, with a largish briefcase-
sized piece of equipment, and, after perhaps twenty minutes
setting it up and so on, a decker would be able to jack in
using the sattelitle link. In my opinion, this is the method
Dodger would have used in 'Never Deal with a Dragon', which, I
believe is the novel you are referring to.
Note the constraints on this method, though:
1: It takes approximately twenty minutes to set up, and
calibrate, etc. You've got to point the dish _directly_
at a geostationary sattelite, and, although there's an
inbuilt calculator-type thingy in the 'briefcase' to aid you,
it's still not too simple.
2: Because the dish has to be pointed directly at the sat, the
whole package, deck, dish, and decker, has _got_ to be
stationary. Move the dish an inch, and the decker gets dumped.
This means that there's no decking on-the-move, so to speak -
ie. in cars, boats, etc. You could do it from a car alright,
as long as it was parked, but I wouldn't allow it be done from
a boat.
3: It is the size of a largish suitcase which means that it's
not exactly the type of thing you'd be too keen on carrying
around with you.
4: It costs a _hell_ of a lot. I forget exactly how much, but
it's not something starting characters should be able to pick
up.
5: Note that the sattelite you're linking to must _accept_ the
link, so you've either got to pay 'rent' so to speak, for the
service, or you've got to crack the Matrix system of the corp
that owns it, and leave a little loophole that'll allow you
to use the sat.
In my games, I decreed that the decker had to hack the sat's
owners' system every month, and it was a pretty tough system
as well.. :)
6: It takes about five minutes to pack the equipment away, being,
as it is, fragile, and designed to be packed compactly and
neatly into a carrying case.
7: You need a fair few 'power-packs' as I called them, to power
the whole setup. I forget the details, but I do remembere that
in my games, they were rechargable, by plugging them into a power
socket, but that they took a few hours to recharge. And they
weren't that terribly cheap, either.
Basically, this means, that, like Dodger, a decker can deck in
from anywhere, as long as he is stationary, and has all the
necessary equipment with him. It also means that the decker will
want to be in a _very_ safe place, where he's unlikely to be
interrupted - once, I had the PCs opponents track them down, and
there was a nice big fire-fight, with the decker packing up his
costly satlink as fast as he could, and the other players yelling
at him to hurry up...
One big advantage, though, is that the decker is virtually
untraceable. You've got to trace him back to the sattelite,
normally, and then you've got to hack into the sattelite's matrix
system, which, as you can guess, is kinda scarlet-6 if you get my
drift - after all, you can imagine the havoc that could be caused to
the grid if a decker was able to hack into a sat's on-board control
'puters, and instruct it to turn itself off, or turn around, and face
the wrong direction, or something - once inside the sat's 'puter,
you've got to find where the information regarding the location
of the decker is stored, (the sat has to know where to send it's
information, as in a grid reference which is correct to the nearest
few centimeters). Once you've got that, however, you know _exactly_
where the decker is uplinking from.
Well, that's my $0.02-worth, anyway. I hope that someone finds it
useful. By the way, most of it is based on my experience with SNG
(Sattelite News Gathering) and some technology that has been
developed recently, allowing you to st up a small (12" in diameter)
sattelite dish, and use it to uplink your phone to a sattelite.
I used to work in a TV station where I was VT editor for the news
program, and I used to often go out as part of the ENG team, taking
the cellular phone and a Dell 486 color notebook PC with me, with
a bult-in modem, and would tap in various details of the video that
was filmed at the scene, and I would then sort it out in the jeep
back to the studio, and link up to the studio's main computer on
the way.
I've come across one or two other methods of linking a deck to the
Grid without needing a physical link, specifically microwave and
infra-red laser links, but, in my experience, microwave and laser
links are better suited for transferring info one-way only (eg. from
a roving TV camera to a control station) which isn't suitable for
decking, where the data needs to flow in both directions.
Jackin' out...
/> Dodger
/<
O[\\\\\\(O):::<======================================-
\<
\> Dodger - csc086 @ cent1.lancs.ac.uk
Jack Gavigan, "Live and learn. Die and forget..
Lancaster University, Unless you're an expert system."
England. - Zapper Weisman
dodg.er \'da:j-*r\ n 1: one that dodges; esp : one who uses tricky
devices 2: a small handbill 3: a cake made of cornmeal
- Websters English Dictionary
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