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Mailing List Logs for ShadowRN

Message no. 1
From: Sidhe tirnanog@****.com
Subject: TechWatch! Deckers can control your homes!!
Date: Mon, 16 Aug 1999 12:03:17 -0700
Ok, so it is not as bad as that but pretty soon, using technology like this,
designed to make our life "easier", it will be possible to do what
deckers/security riggers do in shadowrun, jack in through a phone line and
control the systems in a building.

http://www.cnn.com/TECH/computing/9908/14/tiny.computer.ap/

it talks about tiny computers embedded in all your electronic appliances
(which could extend to controls such as alarms/doors/windows many of which
can be fully automated now). these computers (made for about $1) connect to
the internet using tcp/ip protocol and thus you can turn on the oven to warm
it up so you don't have to wait to cook something. or turn off any lights
you accidentally left on as you hurry to work in your car. or for someone to
hack into it, disable your security, record your moves with ccss cameras you
have installed in your home in case someone breaks in...

you get the idea.

-----------------------------
k. david hayes
tirnanog@****.com
rook_aerie@*******.com
-----------------------------
fart in the face of authority
-----------------------------
Message no. 2
From: Wildfire Wildfire@*************.com
Subject: TechWatch! Deckers can control your homes!!
Date: Mon, 16 Aug 1999 15:51:58 -0400
<large snip>

you get the idea.

Yes, another brick in the road of the embedded java-crazed masses who insist
that your toaster should "learn" how you like your toast and your golf clubs
need embedded firmware. Be comforted in that your predictions are a long way
off, however, in terms of practically. Considering the reliability of tcp/ip
now, and the Great Raging Security Debate, the first person/company to try and
suggest it would be buried in testing to prove its safety and confronted with
the generally paranoid tech sector. Once I2 is realized, or at least a little
more widespread, then you might have a problem...

Wildfire
if ((simple=good) & (Code=complications))
java-in-the-toaster == GPFing-toast

Further Reading

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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!