From:	PCGOOD@******
Subject:	ENCEPHALONS AND MULTITASKING
Date:	Sat, 10 Oct 92 14:56:00 EDT

(This is my first time posting to anything so please forgive any mistakes)

First off, I think there was a small mistake in the description of
the encephalon. Stech says that the increase in intelligence only applies
to "certain Technical,Knowledge,and B/R Skills." Why would such a limited
device increase ReAction and Magical abilities? It would not, so I believe that
this phrase refers to the task pool ,not the Intelligence increse, just like
the task pool from the Cerebral Booster-2. This would mean that you can't use
an Encephalon to shoot two weapons at no penalty.
Now decking is a technical skill, but as I understand it, decking stops
the normal signals to your body from your brain and converts them to commands
in the Matrix, i.e. punching something activating an attack program. So the
reason that you can't multitask decking is that you can't multitask your body
(ever try to bend your right elbow and straightenit at the same time? Did you
succeed?) You could perhaps run more than one deck using some of the methods
suggested previously(multiple I/o spus and a memory buffer) but every persona
would have to do exactly the same thing, or you would have to split your
actions between the personas.

(P.S. I don't even know if that sig stuffis something one types or if it is
something one can tell ones computer to do automatically. I'm just a History
major with a computer major for a roommate.)
thanks for listening
Patrik