| From: | Dave Sherohman <esper@*****.IMA.UMN.EDU> |
|---|---|
| Subject: | Smart Frame Capabilities |
| Date: | Sun, 11 Jul 1993 13:01:52 -0500 |
>Commanding Smart Frames
>Smart Frame Capabilties
>.... A frame cannot download or copy files. nor perform system
>operations of any kind....
>If a smart frame could be sent in to find some data and bring it back,
>what would be the point of ever running the decker. Just make up a
>kickin' frame and have it do all the decking. (Very munchinisk view)
As the person who originally suggested sending a data-retrival frame to
counter a firewall system, I'd like to point out that when I made the
suggestion, I mentioned that I was aware of this statement in VR, but
chose to ignore it. Why? Not munchkinism, but rather realism - as the
poster who originally suggested the firewalls has stated, all this quote
does is show FASA's ignorance about computers. Give me 2 or three minutes
(just in case I'm typing slowly), and I can create a dumb frame to perform
a system operation on my PC, and I'm not even good enough to break into
a basic unix box. (The 'dumb frame' I reference is also known as a .BATch
file, and I can use it to perform any DOS command, most of which are
system operations - listing, moving, or deleting files, etc.) Give me
a little time to work on it, and I can write programs that will do file
transfers without supervision - a data retrieval frame. And again, I'm not
even close to being in the standard decker's league. FASA hasn't given any
information that suggests that such activities would be more difficult in
2054, and, if it were, it would be a major step backwards, as it would
require that everything a computer does be supervised. That rule is
horribly unrealistic.
What would be the point of ever running the decker? Lots of stuff - for
starters, frames can't write themselves. Frames aren't nearly as effective
as deckers because they don't have a hacking pool. Frames can't vary the
load rating they generate, making them more susceptible to freezing in low-
capacity nodes. (Another rule I ignore is the one about all programs in
active memory increasing a decker's load rating even if they're not being
used at the time...) And, of course, the smartest frame is still pretty
stupid compared to any decker. Aside from not having to risk your neck (or
your deck), I can't find a single advantage to using a frame instead of
going in yourself. Oh, just thought of one - you can be doing something
else while the frame is working for you. Got any others?
esper@***.umn.edu
