comStar Firewall alert - PhaseThrough

And I’m even happier when I can immerse myself in something to
ignore the rest of my family.
> Sounder
> Careful there, Sounder. I’ve walked right through a room full of
people, all too busy being entertained to even notice me. I love AR.
> Mika
edUcation
Education has jumped on the AR bandwagon for better or
worse. School districts in the poorer areas have switched to educational
software, tutor-agents, and virtual teachers for many of their
hard-to-staff schools. For the cost of one teacher’s salary, you can
provide 400 kids with second-hand commlinks and knock-off AR
goggles. Literacy rates in the UCAS are at an all time low, as the
written word has gone sadly out of style. It’s totally possible today
for a kid to get a low-end job without being able to read or write,
since universal icons, verbal instructions, and easy user-interfaces
dominate the workplace.
Personally, I think this trend is a major contributor to the
divide between the have and have-nots, since higher education,
well-paying employment, and advancement is blocked for so
much of society. Of course, in affluent areas, or for the favored
corporate citizens, education is enhanced by the availability of
AR. Specialized teachers from around the globe can lecture to
hundreds at a time, advanced coursework can be taught through
interactive software, and advanced degrees can be attained without
ever stepping foot on a physical college campus.
Corporations, the government, and military operations
have embraced virtual training simulations. SWAT and special
ops teams can link up in virtual reality to train for any situation,
from urban combat zones to extreme weather conditions. A friend
hooked me up with an arctic training mod, run hot-sim, full VR,
and I swear, after I jacked out of that program, I had to check to
make sure I hadn’t frozen any important bits of myself off. I’ve also
heard about task-specific training, pre-op stuff that allows a team
to run through a virtual representation of a building or combat
zone, to, say, prep for a hostage recovery operation or a high-risk
infiltration. From what I’ve seen, this tech is mostly limited to
corporate black-ops teams and specialized military applications.
Still, I know a few runners who’ve, ah, acquired a copy of the tech,
and they swear by it.
eLectronic fUndS
Money these days is nothing more than bits of electrons,
shuttled between virtual banks with an implied agreement to honor
the dataflow. During the Crash 2.0, that system was severely shaken
up. The fallout bankrupted banks and common folk alike. In the
last five years, a new system has evolved. It used to be that you could
use your credstick to make purchases or transfer money. Perfect for
us shadow folks, since certified credsticks made a great anonymous
money system. Now, everyone utilizes their commlink. Registered
credsticks are almost obsolete, unfortunately, gone the way of past
human monetary systems like shells, gems, gold, and paper currency.
A lot of stores don’t even carry credstick readers anymore. That
means that to interact with the legitimate world and do anything
from hopping on a bus to purchasing a new helicopter, you need
to have a commlink with a valid SIN hooked up to a valid bank
Unwired
> Hey, with all this useful, factual info floating around,
I feel the urge to contribute. I know none of the intelligent,
skeptical, rational folk here on JackPoint believe
this shit, but that doesn’t mean that the brain-dead
masses don’t. Enjoy.
> Snopes
> If you want to “discuss” these, please take it off here
and go to Snopes’ site.
> FastJack
Matrix UrBan LegendS
the Black chip killer: A mysterious black chip
that circulates from user to user. When you slot
it, you don’t see much of anything. Without you
realizing it, though, the soul of a serial killer captured
on the chip uploads into your brain. While
you sleep that night, the killer rises from your
dreams, takes over your body, and goes on to
kill more victims. He continues killing until he’s
caught, or killed, but either way, he downloads
himself into another chip and disappears … leaving
you unaware of anything your body has done,
waking up to a nightmare of prison, or even death,
for murders you don’t remember.
ghosts in the Machine: People who die while
connected to the Matrix have their minds trapped
online. They may only live for a few minutes or
for eternity. Sometimes you can hear lost ones
screaming as they search endlessly for their body.
Split personality: While in surgery for a datajack,
your surgeon inserts a sleep regulator without
your knowledge. He also downloads the memories
of another person, who bribed him to find her a
new body. When you fall asleep, the sleep regulator
kicks in and the other person wakes up, in control
of your body. Strange clues haunt you, like finding
your things rearranged or meeting people on the
street who call you by another name, until one day
you realize you’re not alone … .
the carjacking: When driving, you see an
oncoming vehicle flash its headlights at you.
Annoyed, you flash your headlights back, not
realizing this is a hacker-gang initiation. The new
ganger must hack the first car they can get to
respond and either cause it to crash or force it to
drive to an area of town where the gangers wait
to ritualistically slaughter the trapped passengers
(and then go joyriding in their new vehicle).
Hacker revenge: An egotistic man bumps into a
scrawny little guy and is incredibly rude, bullies the
kid, or insults the kid’s race (depending on the story).
A week later, the man begins to have problems
with his commlink. His bank account doesn’t verify
funds, his house won’t open for him, even his car
continued on page 13
Simon Wentworth (order #1132857) 9
11
Matrix overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .