New matrix developments posted by decker for hire: Numbercrusher

>>>>>[Woah, woah, woah...hold on. I know this idiot. One minute he says he's working for a corp, next he's for hire, and last week I saw him drunk in Syberspace getting his butt beat by a bunch of the bouncers (like the alliteration?). Don't believe a word this guy says.]<<<<<

-Datafox (23:12:43/10-05-58)

>>>[Hey, motherfragger, I speak the truth and you know it.]<<<

-Numbercrusher (01:13:22/10-06-58)

>>>>>[Oh, get off it. You're so stupid you can't even post a message with an adequate number of > and <s at the beginning and end.]<<<<<

-Datafox (03:42:21/10-06-58)

Data-Electricity

Bet you never thought you'd come across ones and zeros powerful enough to blow out a circuit breaker, but that's exactly what data-electricity can do. Believe It Or Not, the corporate Einsteins have found a way to sequence and pact data in a way which appears to be the data equivalent of what runs that little light in your refrigerator. Although the exact procedure is a closely guarded secret, rumor says it involves a complex data translation of the wave length of an electric current which is then packed tight (the tighter the packing, the higher the voltage) and then set to decompress when it encounters a certain set of conditions, like those data runs into when it hits the human brain. Kersplewie.

Trap Systems

Imagine cracking into a major system, battling your way past white, gray and the darkest of black IC, finally reaching your datastore, and waking up in hell with Satan dripping molten lead over your face. Congratulations, you just battled your way into a Trap system and got zapped with ten thousand volts of data- electricity. Trap systems are a nasty new tactic at least a few corporations and employing and if I merely stated that they can ruin your entire life, I would be the fattest liar since Nixon. Here's how they work: The company sets up a computer system identical to their normal network with the same nodes, IC, data and everything. As soon as an intruding decker is detected the decker's signal is silently shunted to this parallel system. Since the decker's new location is an identical twin to the original they usually keep on keeping on with their business until such time as the Sysop sends a data-electrical jolt into the decker's current node, blowing out the node and the decker as well. Sure the company loses a node but, hell, it's not really doing anything anyway. So, how does a decker combat such a Trap? Watch the load factor. Although the two systems are identical, the Trap system's load won't be identical to the original system because, even though it's been artificially enhanced to simulate a busy system, there's a split second jump while the decker's signal is being shunted, as well as a slight difference in the factor of the new system because it's impossible to line up the loads exactly. So, how do you get back? You usually don't. The data "chute" you fall through only stays open long enough for you to get through and then it's gone. You're only hope is to get to the CPU of the Trap system and tell it to beam you back, although odds are you'd be roasted by then anyway. The funny thing about Trap systems is the fact that you'll never find one in a larger corporation's system simply because the cost of replicating five thousand nodes is prohibitively expensive, even for the big guys. What you got to watch out for are the small systems who keep getting wracked and who's owner may have sold his kids so he can afford to buy a Trap and wax the weasels that have been snagging his data.

Data Magic

>>>>>[This one's so stupid it's funny.]<<<<<

-Datafox (07:23:10/05-06-58)

>>>>>[It may not be as stupid as you think.]<<<<<

-Matrix Magician (21:51:34/05-06-58)

We all know that magic can effect physical objects in the "real" world and we all also know that we can't use magic in the matrix because the place doesn't really exist. But magic still has the ability to effect the matrix if it is directed at something in the physical world. Computer chips, the things that make the matrix "go", exist in this physical world and it is a series of physical effects which allow the chips to go about their business. Now image a spell which can effect the way the chip operates and even manipulate it in a way that produces a matrix based, or a more general data related, effect. I admit I've only seen one and here's is how it worked: In an experiment a mage friend of mine preformed he, using a computer, combined a low powered strategic electrical spell formula and the data structure of a Fuchi MPCP chip, manipulating the formula so the electricity changed the polarity of all of the "switches" necessary to instigate a chip slowdown. The computer worked on the problem for well over a month and spat out a spell formula so complex that it took my pal a little under a year to learn it. But you know what: It worked. The deck slowed to a crawl. Of course he had to be looking directly at the chip itself and since deckers rarely haul around their decks with the hood open he's now designing one which is targeted at the case and which "finds" its way to the chip itself. Hope he doesn't use it on mine.