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Message no. 1
From: Marc Renouf renouf@********.com
Subject: Gearheads: The Nature of the Matrix
Date: Wed, 1 Dec 1999 17:06:40 -0500 (EST)
On Tue, 30 Nov 1999, Tzeentch wrote:

> -------------WARNING, IN CHARACTER DISCUSSION FOLLOWS-----------
>
> *****But waittasec! Your deck does all the translation for the signals!! And
> it's all simsense!*****
> "Wrong chummer, if the Matrix was set up in a constant realtime simsense
> feed nothing would work beyond a slow crawl."
>
> "Instead your deck simply has a "library" of pre-recorded simsense
> "sensations" stored in it that are played in various orders and strengths
to
> simulate reality at least partially."

>>>>>[Right, and better decks will be able to store much larger
"libraries" of emotive blocks, and will be faster at combining them to
achieve subtle effects.]<<<<<

> *****Hey, I thought that's how that "Black ICE" stuff worked?*****
>
> "You up past your bedtime kid? Black ICE is something the trid shows use
> to scare away decker wanna-bes. You can't force an open simsense link and
> only the truly sickest user would have a set of samples that could actually
> harm him. If anything the safety toggles would kick in. So your mythical
> Black ICE could not hit your "Open File" sample and jack it to Level 10000
> strength. Does not work that way."

>>>>>[Are you tryin' to get this kid killed? Look kid, it works like
this: Your deck has a certain set of signals that it can give you. If it
encounters an emotive that it doesn't have a signal for, it gives you the
raw stuff coming in from the system. That raw signal is modulated by your
deck, sure. And if you're smart, you'll be running and ICCM filter to
keep the simsense feed from peaking out to dangerous levels. But
filtering slows you down. Limiting your ASIST levels means that you have
less mental feedback from the system, which in turn means you need to
concentrate more intently on soemthing to get it to happen.
It's like trying to type with gloves on. You can't feel where
your fingers are or how hard you're hitting the heys, so your typing is
slower and less accurate. ASIST levels are the same way. If you want
your concentration to get the biggest bang for its buck, you need to be
able to really feel what's going on. Unfortunately, that means opening
yourself up to getting hammered by something that corrupts your deck's
sense-routines (which is exactly how Black IC operates).]<<<<<

> "Yeah, yeah, I've seen the stories about drek like "Black-Hammer".
Listen
> kid it's all bogus. You have a lot more things to worry about then getting
> your brain fried by a program. Like them tracing your sorry hoop and sending
> the not-so-friendly Lone Star chappies over to say hello."

>>>>>[Speaking as someone who's done network wetwork, I can't disagree
more. There are a lot of guys who will push their ASIST drivers to the
max just to shave that extra nanosecond off their concentration-response
time. These guys are vulnerable, and if you have some clever code that
can exploit their open emotive tracks, you can put the hurt on 'em.
What you won't do is "fry their brain." There won't be smoke
coming from their jack, or any drek like that. The easiest way to put the
jam on someone is to mess with their medullar functions. Those same
simsense feeds that make you feel all jazzed and excited when you're
bangin' a virtual Maria Mercurial can be used to much more dangerous ends.
Sending your bloodpressure through the roof, stopping your breathing.
These are the ways Black IC will kill you.]<<<<<

> *****And sculpted systems are essentially using their own custom simsense
> libraries?*****
>
> "Well, among other things. Usually nonstandard simsense is just one of the
> differences. In some of the REALLY bizarre sculpted systems they use
> realtime generated simsense feeds for system operation. Why they waste all
> that bandwidth is beyond me! But it does pretty much limit system use to
> local users due to system load and reaction penalties/lag from non-local
> clients."

>>>>>[Actually, if they're smart about it, they can "sculpt"
their system
by combining UMS Default emotives carefully. Visually, there will always
be a drain, because how things "look" will depend on point-of-view,
lighting, shading, texture, etc. A good system can do all the necessary
calcs and just send you a "picture" though. With the recent advances in
processor speed, bandwidth, and compression of the data it takes to convey
a virtual environment, a lot more people have the juice to do it. It used
to be that only the big boys could afford it, but now I swear every
mom-and-pop joint on the net has some level of sculpting. It's just too
easy to do nowadays.]<<<<<

> "Not related to simsense per se is that some of the higher-end sculpted
> systems (I'm not talking of Mom and Pops so-called "sculpted systems" limit
> access through their utilization of nonstandard protocols. In many they have
> a standard UMS compliant section with limited capability and another layer
> on top of that with their own sculpted code. Without being able to interpret
> their data you can't do JACK chummer. You have to do things THEIR way. The
> UMS standards for pulling files, opening datastores, etc won't work in most
> sculpted systems. If you're unfamiliar with the system you're out of luck.
> And a lot of the operations you won't be able to emulate by watching other
> visibile users either, not that easy. Don't expect any but the best Sensor
> program suites to help either - those rely on UMS complient system calls and
> exploits to work."

>>>>>[Ditto what the man said.]<<<<<

> "An even nastier variation of sculpted systems are what I call
"two-tier"
> or "cloudy" systems.

>>>>>[I'm gonna cut through all the bulldrek and doublespeak. What the
man's talking about are virtual machines. Two worlds at once, with you
none the wiser that what you're seeing isn't what it really is. You
should always check a host to see if it's running as a virtual machine.
There are a few ways to do that, but as protocols change, so do the
methods of determining your environment state.]<<<<<

> *****You said some sites require simsense links to operate, could they use
> 'Black ICE' effects on you?*****
>
> "A good question actually. Unless you are a truly clueless chummer you
> don't make your ASIST any "hotter" then you need to. Contrary to common
> belief, experiencing the Matrix at better then real intensity does NOT make
> you a faster or better decker. Only the truly clueless believe that. Are you
> a better musician just because you blast your instruments louder?"

>>>>>[The man's talkin' out his ass again. He just doesn't want any
competition. He's running hotter than hell right now, I'd put money on
it. Remember what I said earlier about concentration-response time, and
how hot ASIST gives you finer mental control? That's exactly what we're
talking about here. It's not playing your instrument louder, it's
listening to the music in stereo. There's just more information there for
your brain to use, and control goes both ways.]<<<<<

> "REALLY REALLY worried about black ICE? <display_big sigh> Well then
run
> a filter program like those cheap import sensedecks use. Or buffer, then
> downsample the simsense feed to smooth it out and block out nonstandard
> information.

>>>>>[Yeah. Get yourself an ICCM. This is *exactly* what it's designed
to do. With one of these babies running, you'll never have to worry about
terminal biofeedback. The ICCM unit will filter out anything it deems
"dangerous." It'll slow you down a titch, though. You don't get safety
for nothin'.]<<<<<

> *****In Netrunner I can prevent a trace by moving from RTG to RTG before
> hacking a site.*****
>
> "HAHAH. Only on the trideo...."

>>>>>[Are you *trying* to get this kid busted?
Jeez...]<<<<<

> "Still not getting it? Ok. To use a 20th century allegory doing the
> Mexican Jumping RTG trick would be like visiting a succession of webpages
> all over the world and then expecting to outwit goverment attempts to ID you
> when you then attacked their servers.

>>>>>[Okay, now I'm starting to suspect this guy works for the 'Star.
This is a load of bulldrek. When you hop LTG's it's not like surfing a
series of pages from home. When you access those LTG's you're logging on
to them. That is, you're making a call that gets routed. When you do a
redirect, you're actually hacking the phone company's list. You're
altering your slot in their lookup table without altering where the data
is going. It's subtle. It's integral to the telecom grid. It's like
telnetting from one host to another but changing all the tty records on
each machine to give the wrong connection. When a trace is initiated,
it's going to go to that lookup table to try to figure out where the call
is getting routed from. If that table lies, it's harder for the trace to
figure it out (although they'll use cross-checking and adaptive searching
to try to find you). It's a bitch to sort out, and will make you harder
to trace to your actual real-world location. Make it a standard
practice.]<<<<<

> "This is why if I flit from RTG A to B then C then D, and then back to A
> and drop to an LTG to attack a system my path still only leads from that
> LTGs RTG right to my home RTG. It does NOT still travel through B,C, or D."

>>>>>[Not so. When you make that last call, the LTG you've dropped into
thinks it's getting a call from Bangladesh. So it queries the Bangladesh
RTG's lookup table for your signal. But as I said before, that lookup
table lies if you've done the Redirect correctly. So the Bangladesh RTG
will have to figure out just what went wrong and which signal you're
actually using. Lo and behold, it's from the Berlin RTG. So it queries
the Berlin RTG's lookup table (which is a lie), and so on.
This wouldn't work if you were just making a call, but you're
actually spoofing the telecom system to think you're making a call from
someplace you're not. You faking out a router and sliding your signal
in from an unauthorized channel. Look at the source code of your Redirect
utility and you'll see what I mean. Pay special attention to the telecom
system calls and router edits.]<<<<<

> "Well playtimes over. Same bat time same bat channel!"
>
> ******Huh?*****

>>>>>[Yeah, it is. Get smart kid, or this cop-in-decker's clothing is
gonna apprehend your naive little behind.]<<<<<



<chuckle>

Marc Renouf (ShadowRN GridSec - "Bad Cop" Division)

Other ShadowRN-related addresses and links:
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David Buehrer <graht@******.net> GridSec "Nice Guy" Division
ShadowRN FAQ <http://shadowrun.html.com/hlair/faqindex.php3>;
Message no. 2
From: Tzeentch tzeentch666@*********.net
Subject: Gearheads: The Nature of the Matrix
Date: Wed, 1 Dec 1999 19:27:53 -0800
From: Marc Renouf <renouf@********.com>
> On Tue, 30 Nov 1999, Tzeentch wrote:
> What it boils down to is advertising space. Are you honestly
> telling me that if someone came up with a way to display a massive number
> of corporate systems by easily recognizeable icons in a "space"
> simultaneously, that the average browsing (l)user wouldn't prefer that to
> text-based searches?

Difficult question, especially if we really want to talk about if the setup
in VR2 is really any better then a hyped up VRML web of today. Would it be
great for "local" systems? You bet! But what about trying to find sites all
over the world? As it is now I type in "swedish meatballs" on my start page
and whammo a list of thousands upon thousands of sites dealing with that.
I'm not just limited by what I can "see" in my LTG.

I think we can both agree on a common middle ground where you have the local
LTG iconography as well as advanced heuristic search "agents" (think really
dumb knowbots or frames) that go out to the worldwide Matrix for searches.
You don't type anything. You just say "Hey Bob, do a lookup on swedish
meatballs please." The agent would do all the work for you. I can't
recommend Tad Williams Otherworld books for a REALLY good description of an
advanced search agent (that also works like a real world virtual pet!).

> > Heh, yes - but why bother? Just as easy to call up a simple network
diagram
> > in your "field of view" showing chokepoints. It would be a LOT more
accurate
> > then relying on trying to figure out what the Matrix metaphor was trying
to
> > show.
> That's *exactly* what I'm talking about. This "field of view"
> *is* the metaphor.

As I mentioned before a metaphor implies simplification of compex data. It
might be a lot more efficient to "see" the actual routing diagram and
specific detail rather then just looking at the system and trying to 'guess'
what your system is trying to render. For general "top level" diagnostics it
may be fine, but since you don't "see" the low level hardware it can be a
bit tricky trying to diagnose problems through the VR interface alone.

Sure if I do a "ping" to a site I may see that it's timing out. But until I
perform a more exhaustive troubleshooting I might have n oidea what that
could mean. Is the cable to my NIC unplugged? Is the router malfunctioning?
Am I fine and an intervening piece of hardware is broken?

> > I'd follow this a bit better if you said the system sent out System
> > Diagnostic messages of some sort and the deckers equipment just rendered
> > that as "traffic" or whatnot.
> Bingo!

We are agreed then.

> > How do you propose one "sees" backbone architecture such as this?
> > Routers..ok I can see you displaying those since they are factored into
the
> > host 'icon'. But a celltower or microwave link tower pretty much just
relays
> > traffic. The Matrix just..IS..you would not see and would not want to
see
> > the HALO relays floating over the city, celltowers, microwave links and
all
> > the other "hard"components of the net. It's all prettyfied and
everything
> > hidden.
> If you want it to be (and most users would). In my campaign, if a
> decker wants to "see" this kind of stuff, they have to specifically ask
> for it, and in higher security RTG's and LTG's, they need to break out of
> the "virtual machine" that is the Matrix and start looking at the guts of
> the telecom system. In other words, they need to hack the phone company
> to get it to give them this kind of information.

Still not possible. there is simply no way you would be able to "see"
certain aspects of the telco grid. Simple relays like HALO craft or
microwave towers only rebroadcast data, they are not tacking on extra
"identification" info. Cellphone towers DO however, so if your deckers have
a database of local celltower locations and their ID codes they could
actually potentially track users moving from cell area to cell area (yes you
can do this right now, I've seen it demonstrated).

> > Exacty, it requires you get "between" the data somehow so you could be
a
man
> > in the middle. There ARE ways to potentially detect people doing this
> > however. The average joe decker coming from an illegal jackpoint tap
from
> > Bobs Bar and Grill would have no hope of interecepting the traffic -
even
> > though it's being sent through the "matrix".
>
> Actually, he does. He uses his jackpoint at Joe's Bar and Grill
> to log onto the Matrix (i.e. the local telecommunications system), then
> uses that as a starting point to logging on to other hosts. Additionally,
> he could break out of the phone company's virtual machine and start
> listening in on routers to get the information he wanted.

You were reading too much into my description. Your description implies
additional effort and hacking. I was referring to someone just sitting at
the line. Still not convinced of your "virtual machine" analogy but
generally we are in close agreement.

> How do you think hackers today do it? You compromise something
> small and work from there. You use telnet hacks and port/packet sniffers
> and all sorts of other goodies. But you needed to start from somewhere,
> and so long as that somewhere has the ability to communicate elsewhere,
> you're in business. It's why universities are so concerned about account
> security among students and faculty - a large percentage of hacks are
> traced back to compromised university accounts.

<sniff> This I well no from my old Tymenet hacking days. Ahh the days of not
paying $25/hr for dialup access...

> > I'd make the decker hack the system, not just perform some cheesy test.
>
> The cheesy test *represents* hacking the system. It just does it
> more directly and with fewer rolls.

Hmm, that's a bit lenient for my tastes. But in the interests of simplicity
(the rules are complex enough) I'll lend my full agreement here...assuming
the GM adjusts TNs to relate to difficulty for the local systems..

> So you agree that even though "Tap Commcall" is an abstraction,
> the mechanics behind it can be representative of what's really going on.
> Sure, I agree with you that it could be a lot more realistic and detailed,
> but I don't want to spend forever rolling dice.

Yup.

> Also, you make repeated mention of "script-kiddies." Keep in mind
> that they are doing something analogous to what a decker does with "Tap
> Commcall." They are using a program (in this case a Commlink utility) to
> make something complicated (going through all the steps of hacking the
> telecom compnay's routers) easy (like making a single test). After a
> while, security loopholes that allow those utilities to work will get
> closed down. That's what SOTA is all about. The ratings of utilities
> degrade as the industry gets smarter about plugging up holes.
> Unfortunately, new holes get opened up, and so on and so forth.

Ahh the SOTA rules. Work GREAT for decking, pity they went a bit wild and
applied them to everything in the SR world. What a joke :)

> HTML is less efficient than telnet or LYNX, but people like it
> better. Hell, MS Word is less efficient than Notepad. It's all about
> customer satisfaction and ease of use. It's about "dumbing down" the
> complexities of modern telecommunications to make it easier to use and
> understand.

Simpler does not equate to more efficient. You used vi lately? :) And I dare
say you would be making yourself nearly a deaf-mute if you tried to use Lynx
on todays net. Dumbed down or "user friendly" or "feature laden" does
not
mean you are less efficient - sometimes its the only way to get information.

I personally think HTML is a LOT more efficient then gopher or telneting to
hosts and ftping information btw.

To apply this to SR if you tried using a browser of today on it you may
find...nothing! It would be like using a browser back in 1985. Simply
nothing used that technology.

> Actually, Spokane would probably be and LTG all its own, so only
> users within that LTG would be affected.

I assumed I was explicit that Spokane (insert individual city grid) would be
it's own LTG. Smaller density areas (like around Couer D' Alene and such)
would be lumped into another LTG. Areas with really low connection density
could have LTGs that span hundreds or thousands of square miles. But they
are grouped into one LTG.

BTW if you're not from the Pacific Northwest Spokane is a mid-sized city in
eastern Washington and Couer D' Alene is a small city about an hour away in
Idaho surrounded by bedroom communities. I used them to comparison small
geographic areas with high density of connections and large area with lower
connection densities.

> > <shrug> I don't see how actually performing some metaphoric action is
all
> > that more efficient for certain tasks then a keyboard. For many things
it
> > will be a GODSEND but for something like file maintenance? A metaphor
> > implies simplifcation of data, I don't want to be doing account security
in
> > a metaphor enviroment unless it's drekhot - probably be easier to use a
> > simple dialog box and dials to do that sort of thing.
>
> I dunno. I've used "admintool" and I've hacked up /etc/password
> files and created user accounts by hand. Guess which I prefer. Remember
> that with ASIST, if you can think it, you can "type" it. I'd think that
> even simple things like word processing would be blazingly fast with ASIST
> technology.

Ahh, this causes problems later on in this message. I'm assuming you have a
MUCH lower level of "mental control" through ASIST then you do. Keep this in
mind in my other responses :)

And I doubt you can compare the Matrix to admintool and a manual tool to
using vi :) It would be more like using a built in admintool (Matrix
standard) to using a badass tailored third party tool (manual tool).

> > True, but it can make simple tasks MUCH more complex. It's the
difference
> > between UNIX and Windows. Generally you can do the same things but you
have
> > to perform more "user friendly" steps in Windows then UNIX.
>
> Certainly. But how long does it take to teach someone to use UNIX
> effectively? It has a pretty steep learning curve, especially if you've
> never used a computer before. The savings you get in an intuitive
> envrionment are substantial when teaching new users. That's why Apple had
> a lock on educational computing for so long.

Agreed. But we can safely assume that your systems admins are a different
level of beast then the common users. I admin systems and it's not rocket
science to me, but to an average user they would be totally lost.

> > You won't suddenly be faster or more "l33t" just because you crank
your
> > ASIST into the danger zone.
> This is one area where I'm ambivalent. It could easily be argued
> that you have finer control over your virtual actions when your ASIST
> levels are in the danger zone simply because you have more feedback.

And how is this good? To use another allegory am I a better programmer if I
listen to music at 200decibels? Intense impressions can be more distracting
then none at all. Especially with things requiring as much concentration as
decking.

> It's
> easier to type without gloves, but if your keyboard is hot, your fingers
> are are going to get burned.

From your description a decker would be a better decker because the keyboard
was so hot he would have to move his fingers faster to keep from getting
burned :)

>Taking this analogy to ASIST, if you have
> finer control, it doesn't require as intense concentration to complete a
> given task, making it much quicker. This is an easy, believable way to
> justify the reaction bonus for hot ASIST, and I don't have a problem with
> it.
> Again, this boils down to the nature of ASIST technology, and no
> two GM's look at it the same way.

Very much agreed. ASIST is a nice "toy" in my universe. A reasonable
extrapolation of both gaming and commercial desire. It's not the end-all of
computer interfaces. I can't swallow it's advantages but if others can
rationalize it more power to them!

> > That's always a thought, a Plastic Warriors style Matrix book. We could
beat
> > whatever cheesy Target: Matrix book they make into the ground :)
>
> Amen, Brother!

I'll break this into a separate message..


> > Sculpted systems..ahh a favorite topic of mine.. So they look nice...but

> > B) Take a LOT of resources to make; it's non-standard so you have to
train
> > people to work with it, make your own development tools, and possibly
even
> > new administration tools.
>
> And how is this different from what we have now? When I came to a
> private company from a university system, I spent a lot of time trying to
> get acclimated to my new environment. Even though I was working in UNIX
> in both locations, there were a number of fundamental differences in the
> way things are done. It took me a little while to get the hang of doing
> things in a new environment, and I know for a fact that both systems have
> very different administration and development tools.

That would be nothing compared from going to a UMS to a sculpted system. It
would be akin to learning VAX then being told you are now working in an NT
domain. Total difference top to bottom. Even the simplest of tasks like
creating a directory would be different. Not just jumping from one flavor or
UNIX to another or one common way of working to another.

> > Not to mention the insane bandwidth such a system would take, how older
> > cyberdecks would be compatible, and what would happen if you just turned
off
> > all the extra data for representing the sculpted system (there is NO WAY
it
> > would "force" you to see things its way, sorry).
>
> Actually, there is. Have you ever tried to look at modern-day
> webpages with your auto-load graphics feature turned off? A lot of times
> you just get a blank screen with a bunch of image icons on it. If you
> want to be able to successfully navigate the site, you need to load the
> images (most of which are actually pictures of text) to know where the
> hell to go.

You cut out the part where I covered this already. We are in agreement. I
take serious issue with literally having your decks rendering system being
FORCED AGAINST YOUR WILL to display the sculpted imagery. That is majorly
bogus. If they could do that then hackers would have a VERY low life
expectancy (sculpted systems would be another form of ICE!)

> Using images for text allows web designers to "force" you to see
> their site the way they want. If you don't want to see it that way, you
> don't see anything. Sure, you can look at the source, but that doesn't
> necessarily tell you anything (especially if there's cgi or the links are
> non-intuitively named).
> I have no problem with sculpted systems "forcing" their view on a
> user because it happens now.

Being necessary to see anything and having your deck control ripped away are
quite different :)


We agree on almost every major point! Wow this must be a first in internet
history! :)

Kenneth

> Marc Renouf
Message no. 3
From: Tzeentch tzeentch666@*********.net
Subject: Gearheads: The Nature of the Matrix
Date: Wed, 1 Dec 1999 19:57:07 -0800
From: Marc Renouf <renouf@********.com>
> On Tue, 30 Nov 1999, Tzeentch wrote:
>
> > -------------WARNING, IN CHARACTER DISCUSSION FOLLOWS-----------

Biggest problem with your responses is that we're coming from different
ideas on some things. Especially the effectiveness of ASIST... Keep that in
mind :) Good points though, hope I answer them to a decent level. I've
snipped the stuff I agree with you on.
> > *****Hey, I thought that's how that "Black ICE" stuff worked?*****
> >
> > "You up past your bedtime kid? Black ICE is something the trid shows
use
> > to scare away decker wanna-bes. You can't force an open simsense link
and
> > only the truly sickest user would have a set of samples that could
actually
> > harm him. If anything the safety toggles would kick in. So your mythical
> > Black ICE could not hit your "Open File" sample and jack it to Level
10000
> > strength. Does not work that way."
>
> >>>>>[Are you tryin' to get this kid killed? Look kid, it works like
> this: Your deck has a certain set of signals that it can give you. If it
> encounters an emotive that it doesn't have a signal for, it gives you the
> raw stuff coming in from the system. That raw signal is modulated by your
> deck, sure. And if you're smart, you'll be running and ICCM filter to
> keep the simsense feed from peaking out to dangerous levels. But
> filtering slows you down. Limiting your ASIST levels means that you have
> less mental feedback from the system, which in turn means you need to
> concentrate more intently on soemthing to get it to happen.
> It's like trying to type with gloves on. You can't feel where
> your fingers are or how hard you're hitting the heys, so your typing is
> slower and less accurate. ASIST levels are the same way. If you want
> your concentration to get the biggest bang for its buck, you need to be
> able to really feel what's going on. Unfortunately, that means opening
> yourself up to getting hammered by something that corrupts your deck's
> sense-routines (which is exactly how Black IC operates).]<<<<<

>>>>[What are you smoking chummer? As the man mentions several times no
system can "force" you to open a simsense link to the Matrix. Sure you can
agree to it but what drekhead does that? If the UMS simsense data (keep in
mind it's NOT sending raw simsense, just data for your UMS simsense
'triggers'!) falls outside standards its simply ignored. It does not 'sneak
past you'. Don't get me wrong, I'm a big fan of ICCM filters when I do run
live simsense feeds but it won't help in most cases since you're not using
raw simsense.]<<<<<

> > "Yeah, yeah, I've seen the stories about drek like
"Black-Hammer".
Listen
> > kid it's all bogus. You have a lot more things to worry about then
getting
> > your brain fried by a program. Like them tracing your sorry hoop and
sending
> > the not-so-friendly Lone Star chappies over to say hello."
>
> >>>>>[Speaking as someone who's done network wetwork, I can't disagree
> more. There are a lot of guys who will push their ASIST drivers to the
> max just to shave that extra nanosecond off their concentration-response
> time. These guys are vulnerable, and if you have some clever code that
> can exploit their open emotive tracks, you can put the hurt on 'em.
> What you won't do is "fry their brain." There won't be smoke
> coming from their jack, or any drek like that. The easiest way to put the
> jam on someone is to mess with their medullar functions. Those same
> simsense feeds that make you feel all jazzed and excited when you're
> bangin' a virtual Maria Mercurial can be used to much more dangerous ends.
> Sending your bloodpressure through the roof, stopping your breathing.
> These are the ways Black IC will kill you.]<<<<<

>>>>>[You sound like the program director for the Netrunner trideo show to
me. Sure a hot ASIST can make running the Matrix a lot edgier. But it won't
make you better or faster that's for sure. Get a faster deck and some good
persona programs before you boost your decks simsense levels. And as you may
have noticed while studying, someone playing loud music in the background
hurts your concentration. Unless you know what you are doing and are careful
your oh-so-drekhot ASIST can be more of a hindrence then a help.]<<<<<

> > *****You said some sites require simsense links to operate, could they
use
> > 'Black ICE' effects on you?*****
> >
> > "A good question actually. Unless you are a truly clueless chummer you
> > don't make your ASIST any "hotter" then you need to. Contrary to
common
> > belief, experiencing the Matrix at better then real intensity does NOT
make
> > you a faster or better decker. Only the truly clueless believe that. Are
you
> > a better musician just because you blast your instruments louder?"
>
> >>>>>[The man's talkin' out his ass again. He just doesn't want any
> competition. He's running hotter than hell right now, I'd put money on
> it. Remember what I said earlier about concentration-response time, and
> how hot ASIST gives you finer mental control? That's exactly what we're
> talking about here. It's not playing your instrument louder, it's
> listening to the music in stereo. There's just more information there for
> your brain to use, and control goes both ways.]<<<<<


>>>>>[Actually I run a "cool" deck. Hot decks are for those who
need
compensation for their lack of skill or hardware. Running a hot ASIST is no
different then jacking your home simplayer with a california hot or other
restricted simshow. It just jacks what would have been a low level 'safe'
PC/EC track into an high level unsafe one. It's not stereo by any means. Not
to mention most of the time you are not getting realtime simsense off the
net, you're just playing samples off your deck.]<<<<<

> > "REALLY REALLY worried about black ICE? <display_big sigh> Well
then
run
> > a filter program like those cheap import sensedecks use. Or buffer, then
> > downsample the simsense feed to smooth it out and block out nonstandard
> > information.
>
> >>>>>[Yeah. Get yourself an ICCM. This is *exactly* what it's
designed
> to do. With one of these babies running, you'll never have to worry about
> terminal biofeedback. The ICCM unit will filter out anything it deems
> "dangerous." It'll slow you down a titch, though. You don't get safety
> for nothin'.]<<<<<

>>>>>[While I don't see the usefulness of an ICCM in most aspects of
decking
they are VERY VERY useful in standard day-to-day work. The corps found early
on you could load a simsense sensory and emotive track with all kinds of
garbage. Not exactly subliminals but freakin close! ICCM sniffers look out
for odd "tweaks" the studio puts in their shows and prevents you from
possible harmful effects with nonstandard sensory track information. It CAN
be useful on a standard decking run though, especially on a lot of scuplted
systems that require realtime simsense feeds for you to see anything.]<<<<<

> > *****In Netrunner I can prevent a trace by moving from RTG to RTG before
> > hacking a site.*****
> >
> > "HAHAH. Only on the trideo...."
>
> >>>>>[Are you *trying* to get this kid busted?
Jeez...]<<<<<
>
> > "Still not getting it? Ok. To use a 20th century allegory doing the
> > Mexican Jumping RTG trick would be like visiting a succession of
webpages
> > all over the world and then expecting to outwit goverment attempts to ID
you
> > when you then attacked their servers.
>
> >>>>>[Okay, now I'm starting to suspect this guy works for the 'Star.
> This is a load of bulldrek. When you hop LTG's it's not like surfing a
> series of pages from home. When you access those LTG's you're logging on
> to them. That is, you're making a call that gets routed. When you do a
> redirect, you're actually hacking the phone company's list. You're
> altering your slot in their lookup table without altering where the data
> is going. It's subtle. It's integral to the telecom grid. It's like
> telnetting from one host to another but changing all the tty records on
> each machine to give the wrong connection. When a trace is initiated,
> it's going to go to that lookup table to try to figure out where the call
> is getting routed from. If that table lies, it's harder for the trace to
> figure it out (although they'll use cross-checking and adaptive searching
> to try to find you). It's a bitch to sort out, and will make you harder
> to trace to your actual real-world location. Make it a standard
> practice.]<<<<<

>>>>>[Pay attention chummer, this was specifically intended to dispell bad
notions you could get from watching Netrunner (OOC: IE playing Cyberpunk
2020). Don't read too much into it. Yes you can do exactly as you describe.
Any weeflerunner knows that, the author was saying you could not simply
bouce around and have the trace follow THAT. He was describing simply
visiting one RTG after another, your obvious method involves hacking systems
in these RTGs and routing your traffic through them. Don't think that's
always a foolproof plan though chummer, especially if the only sites you
have are low bandwidth..no fun then.]<<<<<

> > "Well playtimes over. Same bat time same bat channel!"
> >
> > ******Huh?*****
>
> >>>>>[Yeah, it is. Get smart kid, or this cop-in-decker's clothing is
> gonna apprehend your naive little behind.]<<<<<

>>>>>[Well hopefully he's not quite so self-assured as you. See you on the
grid chummer.]<<<<<

-----------------------------------------------------

Heh, I like this in-character shadowtalk stuff. :) I'm getting my other
network savvy friend to join the list. He'll have some comments as well.

Seems our only real differences in this are what effects ASIST has on
decking and reading too much between the lines (or me not accurately
describing my points!)

Ken

>
> <chuckle>
>
> Marc Renouf (ShadowRN GridSec - "Bad Cop" Division)

Further Reading

If you enjoyed reading about Gearheads: The Nature of the Matrix, you may also be interested in:

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.

Thwap!