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Snow Crash [chat] - Day 1
Dynagrip
Break me a million heartsHoustonRegistered User, ClubPA regular
Break me a million heartsHoustonRegistered User, ClubPA regular
Ilya Prodolzhenie studies the avatars milling about the Hacker Quadrant. The Black Sun has had its physics engine redone since the Snow Crash scare, so he fingers his sniper rifle and shifts position on the raised platform in the center of the Quadrant. So far everything looks pretty hunky-dory, but Hiro is pretty much never wrong about these things, so Ilya is prepared for anything.
A voice whispers in his ear: “Anything yet, Recur?â€
Ilya shakes his head, even though of course the person on the other end can’t see him. “Nothing so far, Mr. P. I have my eye on a few guys I don’t recognize, but they haven’t done anything out of the ordinary yet.â€
“Alright, well keep a vigilant eye out for anything weird, I’m pretty sure something’s about to go down.â€
“Yes sir, Mr. P.â€
Ilya settles back into his position and looks through the scope at the avatars he’s been following for awhile. Hiro calls him Recur because Ilya hasn’t told him his real name. Recur is a screenname of sorts; his Metaverse persona is completely different from his Reality persona, which is semi-common among hackers.
Ilya works for Hiro Protagonist Security Associates, which has been spending 100% of its resources pursuing the Snow Crash virus. Whoever is behind the most recent outbreak has begun creating daemons that distribute the virus, rather than risking actual people. Some of these daemons are basically ninjas; they attack their victim and when their prey is vulnerable they unleash the torrent of information that causes the hacker’s brain to basically freeze in place. Some are more subtle about it, though, which is what he suspects he’s dealing with here.
It’s apparent that some of the conspirators are in the upper echelons of the Black Sun, because daemons have been able to gain access to the building when they should have no business doing so. Due to these infiltrations, Jethro, Da5id’s successor, has allowed Hiro to retool the physics in the building to allow for certain projectile weapons, including Ilya’s sniper rifle. The rifle delivers a program that will instantly kick a user off the Metaverse, or will delete any daemon program it encounters.
Ilya notices one of the strangers looking suspicious, and peers at him through his scope. The avatar reaches into his pocket and pulls out a syringe, sticking it surreptitiously into a hacker’s avatar. The syringe is the visual representation of a unique version of the Snow Crash virus; once the virus has spread through the system of the victim, the hacker is instantly kicked out of the Metaverse, and the Snow Crash “white noise†fills his goggle display. Occasionally the hacker has the presence of mind to quickly snatch off the headset, but most of the time the virus does its work too fast, and another hacker falls victim to the Snow Crash virus.
Ilya only has a couple of seconds before the virus completely infects the hacker’s system, so the first thing he does is put a bullet in the hacker’s head. This kicks the hacker out without Snow Crash appearing in his goggle display; it’s a pain, since he’ll have to wait several minutes to log back on, but certainly better than becoming a vegetable. The daemon starts to run towards the exit, but Ilya is very good at this, and tracks the daemon’s progress before drilling a bullet through its ear. The daemon falls to the ground and disintegrates. Ilya relaxes and sets the gun down before getting back in contact with his boss.
“You were right again, Mr. P. There was another one of them here.â€
“Did you take care of it?â€
“Yeah, I had to take out the hacker, but he should be fine. The daemon’s gone.â€
“Alright, good. Come on back to the office for a general meeting. I think it’s time to go on the offensive…â€
My mastery of f5 won this [chat]
A voice whispers in his ear: “Anything yet, Recur?â€
Ilya shakes his head, even though of course the person on the other end can’t see him. “Nothing so far, Mr. P. I have my eye on a few guys I don’t recognize, but they haven’t done anything out of the ordinary yet.â€
“Alright, well keep a vigilant eye out for anything weird, I’m pretty sure something’s about to go down.â€
“Yes sir, Mr. P.â€
Ilya settles back into his position and looks through the scope at the avatars he’s been following for awhile. Hiro calls him Recur because Ilya hasn’t told him his real name. Recur is a screenname of sorts; his Metaverse persona is completely different from his Reality persona, which is semi-common among hackers.
Ilya works for Hiro Protagonist Security Associates, which has been spending 100% of its resources pursuing the Snow Crash virus. Whoever is behind the most recent outbreak has begun creating daemons that distribute the virus, rather than risking actual people. Some of these daemons are basically ninjas; they attack their victim and when their prey is vulnerable they unleash the torrent of information that causes the hacker’s brain to basically freeze in place. Some are more subtle about it, though, which is what he suspects he’s dealing with here.
It’s apparent that some of the conspirators are in the upper echelons of the Black Sun, because daemons have been able to gain access to the building when they should have no business doing so. Due to these infiltrations, Jethro, Da5id’s successor, has allowed Hiro to retool the physics in the building to allow for certain projectile weapons, including Ilya’s sniper rifle. The rifle delivers a program that will instantly kick a user off the Metaverse, or will delete any daemon program it encounters.
Ilya notices one of the strangers looking suspicious, and peers at him through his scope. The avatar reaches into his pocket and pulls out a syringe, sticking it surreptitiously into a hacker’s avatar. The syringe is the visual representation of a unique version of the Snow Crash virus; once the virus has spread through the system of the victim, the hacker is instantly kicked out of the Metaverse, and the Snow Crash “white noise†fills his goggle display. Occasionally the hacker has the presence of mind to quickly snatch off the headset, but most of the time the virus does its work too fast, and another hacker falls victim to the Snow Crash virus.
Ilya only has a couple of seconds before the virus completely infects the hacker’s system, so the first thing he does is put a bullet in the hacker’s head. This kicks the hacker out without Snow Crash appearing in his goggle display; it’s a pain, since he’ll have to wait several minutes to log back on, but certainly better than becoming a vegetable. The daemon starts to run towards the exit, but Ilya is very good at this, and tracks the daemon’s progress before drilling a bullet through its ear. The daemon falls to the ground and disintegrates. Ilya relaxes and sets the gun down before getting back in contact with his boss.
“You were right again, Mr. P. There was another one of them here.â€
“Did you take care of it?â€
“Yeah, I had to take out the hacker, but he should be fine. The daemon’s gone.â€
“Alright, good. Come on back to the office for a general meeting. I think it’s time to go on the offensive…â€
My mastery of f5 won this [chat]
Dynagrip on
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This discussion has been closed.
Posts
Games: Ad Astra Per Phalla | Choose Your Own Phalla
!Feral
edit: so beaten
let the monsters do their dirty work.
pleasepaypreacher.net
pleasepaypreacher.net
Quid: PAX is 8/29 - 8/31.
the "no true scotch man" fallacy.
yeah, it's been well over 2 weeks since his last post.
No wonder chat seems so much more pleasant.
the "no true scotch man" fallacy.
But his real reason for being in Flatland is that Hiro Protagonist, last of the freelance hackers, is hacking. And when hackers are hacking, they don't mess around with the superficial world of Metaverses and avatars. They descend below this surface layer and into the netherworid of code and tangled nam-shubs that supports it, where everything that you see in the Metaverse, no matter how lifelike and beautiful and three-dimensional, reduces to a simple text file: a series of letters on an electronic page. It is a throwback to the days when people programmed computers through primitive teletypes and IBM punch cards.
Since then, pretty and user-friendly programming tools have been developed. It's possible to program a computer now by sitting at your desk in the Metaverse and manually connecting little preprogrammed units, like Tinkertoys. But a real hacker would never use such techniques, any more than a master auto mechanic would try to fix a car by sliding in behind the steering wheel and watching the idiot lights on the dashboard.
Hiro does not know what he is doing, what he is preparing for. That's okay, though. Most of programming is a matter of laying groundwork, building structures of words that seem to have no particular connection to the task at hand.
He knows one thing: The Metaverse has now become a place where you can get killed. Or at least have your brain reamed out to the point where you might as well be dead. This is a radical change in the nature of the place. Guns have come to Paradise.
It serves them right, he realizes now. They made the place too vulnerable. They figured that the worst thing that could happen was that a virus might get transferred into your computer and force you to ungoggle and reboot your system. Maybe destroy a little data if you were stupid enough not to install any medicine. Therefore, the Metaverse is wide open and undefended, like airports in the days before bombs and metal detectors, like elementary schools in the days before maniacs with assault rifles. Anyone can go in and do anything that they want to. There are no cops. You can't defend yourself, you can't chase the bad people. It's going to take a lot of work to change that—a full-on mental rebuilding of the whole Metaverse, carried out on a planetwide, corporate level.
In the meantime, there may be a role for individuals who know their way around the place. A few hacks can make a lot of difference in this situation. A freelance hacker could get a lot of shit done, years before the giant software factories bestir themselves to deal with the problem.
[EDIT] I should note that it's from the actual book.
Shit, it's past 1! I need to leave to make my flight. See ya, [chat].
Later gooey.
pleasepaypreacher.net
No, it was everyone else's fault.
Have a good one Gooey.
Where are you off to? Assuming you're not running to the airport right this minute...
Well, that's sweet of you, dots. But whyfor?
the "no true scotch man" fallacy.
Oh wait, Church too. They're sharing needles.
Smells good
Ohoho, looks like I hit part of your network, eh? Well I'll be sure to earmark my vote for you tomorrow!
Was this book graced by the presence of Cuba Gooding, Jr.?
No?
Oh, well, that's too bad then.
I'm not supposed to be saying this, but since you guys are my biggest fans, I'll trust this secret with you guys.
I'm working with director Jerry Bruckheimer to create a movie production of Snow Crash. I'll be playing the role of Hiro's former-amputee-turned-AI buddy, in the search for the truth behind Snow Crash. I am highly excited for this sequel to "Snow Dogs", because that performance was very fun and enjoyable. Expect to see more CGI huskies in high definition.
Remember, tell no one!
Best regards,
- Cuba Gooding, Jr.
Show him the money.
Because you're rad.
Everybody is dead, Dave.
Everybody is dead, Dave.
Everybody is dead, Dave.
Everybody is dead Dave.
the "no true scotch man" fallacy.
I liked that movie, actually.
I'm just confused about what the hell I ran into here, it's like phalla-chat without the voting.
---
Feral: Es muy cerebral, no?
*e: you too, Gim.
No.
Bueno.