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Dumpshock Forums _ Shadowrun _ Looting Comm Links

Posted by: bigdrewp Jan 19 2007, 07:26 PM

How bad an idea is it to take comm links from the dead and use them for your own?

Posted by: HappyDaze Jan 19 2007, 07:27 PM

As long as you have the skills and equipment to 'clean' them, it's no different than taking someone's gun.

Posted by: bigdrewp Jan 19 2007, 07:31 PM

Thanks.

Posted by: Teulisch Jan 19 2007, 10:26 PM

Well, if you can make sure they cant transmit/recive, then your okay. or, you could remove the batteries, but that takes longer.

A commlink is part phone- and today, they have a 'screaming phone' secruity feature- type in the number, and your phone will scream until the batteries die.

if you format C: the commlink, you have some nice new hardware. If you wanna play with the data on it, then beware viruses, but there may be some paydata.

Posted by: Kesslan Jan 20 2007, 04:35 AM

Yeah. If I were stealing some one's comlink I'd definately shut it off and then have the team hacker mess with it later.

Posted by: dog_xinu Jan 20 2007, 05:06 PM

You need to not only shut it off but it could have RFID screaming its location while the phone is off. RFID tag can be inside or inside the battery case, etc. My suggestions it get a small bag (think large dice bag size or the size of the crown royal bags) and have it coated on the inside and out multiple times with wireless blocking paint. Thus making a little bag of holding that wont let any signals out as long as it is shut. So you get a new phone (off a fallen person either good or bad), you hit the off button, and toss it in the bag. Then hand the bag to the groups hacker/TM later. And if you dont have a group hacker/TM, then whomever is your group's hacker-type contact.

In my group, the TM has a foot locker in his van that is coated inside and out. He drops anything that he picks up in the locker until he can safely take care of it later during slow periods (aka downtimes). Whenever he knows one of the team picks up something he is suspicious, he has them dump it in the locker also.

in SR4, you have to worry about hidden wireless signals, especially things like RFID tags.

dog

Posted by: ornot Jan 20 2007, 05:25 PM

I have to say, I'm a little confused by this talk of removing batteries and battery cases on commlinks. I think these things are far more likely to have integral power cells (be they running off hydrogen or just lithium type cells). Many personal electronics these days charge up through a dock or a USB port or similar. In fact I don't think I own anything that runs off AA batteries.

Posted by: dog_xinu Jan 20 2007, 05:35 PM

QUOTE

in RL, I own a BlackBerry Pearl.. I love that darn thing. It is today's version of a commlink.. and it charges via USB cable.. like most phones. But I can take the BB battery out of the BlackBerry. It is not like the old phones where the battery connects to some outside part and can be recharged seperately. but all phones that I have seen today (and since I am a geek I see lots of them...) can remove the batteries...

so I dont see that changing in the future....

dog

Posted by: hobgoblin Jan 20 2007, 06:42 PM

the iphone cant have its battery removed...

Posted by: yoippari Jan 20 2007, 07:01 PM

Is that supposed to be a feature? Is it also water proof? Does the battery ever deteriorate?

Posted by: ornot Jan 20 2007, 07:15 PM

QUOTE (dog_xinu)

[QUOTE]in RL, I own a BlackBerry Pearl.. I love that darn thing. It is today's version of a commlink.. and it charges via USB cable.. like most phones. But I can take the BB battery out of the BlackBerry. It is not like the old phones where the battery connects to some outside part and can be recharged seperately. but all phones that I have seen today (and since I am a geek I see lots of them...) can remove the batteries...

so I dont see that changing in the future....

dog

I specifically didn't mention phones. I think to a certain extent mobiles still have removable batteries as a hold over from the days when the batteries would wear out, and you'd have to buy a new one that would hold a charge every year or so. Technology has progressed to the stage where these batteries last significantly longer than a consumer is expected to hold onto a phone.

Your Blackberry may have a removable battery, but many other palm tops do not, and I see this trend developing into the future. The iPhone is an example of this.

Ultimately it's not important and is just a flavour thing, I just thought it was strange that people were talking about battery compartments WRT comlinks.

Posted by: hobgoblin Jan 20 2007, 09:01 PM

QUOTE (yoippari @ Jan 20 2007, 08:01 PM)

Is that supposed to be a feature? Is it also water proof? Does the battery ever deteriorate?

knowing apple, yes (i think there was some BS About the esthetics's of not having a battery cover that created lines all over the device). no. afaik, yes (i have yet to see one that do not)...

its apple, do i need to say more?

Posted by: kigmatzomat Jan 21 2007, 03:28 PM

Removable batteries are generally a necessity for any device that will be used heavily under diverse conditions where you may go days without access to a power source or be so busy that you can't let you device sit while it charges.

The iPhone is a consumer-grade product; it has no support for corporate users and is pretty much an infotainment device (MP3, video, telephony but no business app support, no office, no outlook, nothing'). Since its design assumes the device is non-vital to the user, the aesthetics of the smooth form can be accommodated by a permanent battery.

The exception to the removable battery is if the life is soooo extreme that it is rare to be an impact. If the iPhone had a 10-30 day battery, for instance.

Any device that can be drained in under 2-days by a typical power-user of that device class will have removable batteries. If the 90th percentile user can get 3 or more days of usage then the removable battery is optional, assuming you sell a "mobile charger" that is essentially a spare battery and a charger cable for travel to the boondocks or the 99th percentile user.

Posted by: Mistwalker Jan 22 2007, 03:11 AM

Apple lists the iphone at 5 hours talk time, 16 hours playback time.
I would say that the batteries are removable for it

Posted by: Gauvain Jan 23 2007, 12:14 AM

I seem to recall something about Apple getting busted for pulling the same thing on the ipod.....

Looks like they didn't learn, but have other companies?

Posted by: hobgoblin Jan 23 2007, 09:07 AM

i dont know of any other company that do not allow easy access to the device's batteries. ok, so some use some very odd batteries, but they always (iirc) user replaceable.

Posted by: dog_xinu Jan 23 2007, 12:50 PM

the iPhone like the iPod has a removable battery. But for those products, it is not the easiest to remove. I have removed the battery on my 1st gen and my 4th gen iPod. It just takes some tools, some practice and patience.

and like someone above me mentioned the iPhone is just an extended iPod. a real phone/commlink like device like the Treo and BlackBerry and several phones all have removable batteries. Someone metioned the palm phone doesnt. the Treos we have in the office do, and their owners have to remove the batteries at least once a week to reset something. for the BB owners it is more like once a month.

I can not see going to a sealed device that you can not replace things like batteries on it. If the battery fails do you through the whole device away? it is not cost effective, it is cheaper to replace the battery.

In your game if you wish you can have non-removable batteries. it is your game. My game they are removable.

to each his own...
dog

Posted by: hobgoblin Jan 23 2007, 02:04 PM

QUOTE

It just takes some tools, some practice and patience.

anything can be removed that way, but i dont see joe wageslave doing it unless its his job or something

Posted by: kigmatzomat Jan 23 2007, 09:25 PM

My Treo650 has a removable battery. I think the original Treo (150?) had an integrated battery. It was a short lived fad.

And a battery does not qualify as "removable" if it requires a surgeon's touch with a knife to open the to case without scratching it or a jeweler's screwdriver and a loupe to remove the tiny microscrews.

Posted by: Kesslan Jan 24 2007, 04:42 AM

QUOTE (dog_xinu)

Well you dont need to use paint at all. There is wireless signal blocking paint yes. But that wouldnt work too well for a bag, afterall the paint would dry and eventually flake or peel off. There are other more solid materials that do the exact same thing. The wireless absorbant paint thing really only comes into play as a 'retrofitting' of existing facilities. I mean think about it.

All this wireless stuff comes out in a period of 5 years. How often do you totally gut a building? Not that often. Maybe some of the more fluid ones using temporary walls and such but thats ALOT of disruption any time it's being done. It's far cheaper, and faster in such a case, to just paint over the existing walls with this new absorbant paint.

In the menatime for any new consturction theres more reliable actual wall materials that do the same thing, arguably only better since they wont chip, flake etc.

And if you can build that kind of thing into paint, there's no reason what so ever that you couldnt just have a lined bag that will do the same thing. Its why you have these tinfoil bags for various electronics and how you used to have (And i'm sure if you relaly look you can still find them) these bags to put your rolls of camera film into when putting it through an x-ray machine or something at an airport. Otherwise the film is ruined. Used to be very common but of course now most folk just use digital cameras.

And since any such material is legal and readily available for security/privacy protection reasons you can probably just buy something like that at some store or other. Or worst case order it online. It might even be better just to get an assortment of such lined bags, small ones you can pocket to backpacks and dufflebags for those times when your litterally looting everything that isnt nailed down and a few things that are.

Posted by: Demerzel Jan 24 2007, 05:23 AM

On the battery issue, I'd say http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6129460.stm would make your removeable batteries pretty obsolete.

Posted by: Moon-Hawk Jan 24 2007, 04:20 PM

Every team should have at least one large (human body sized) wireless blocking dufflebag. Preferably several smaller ones as well. The trunk of the runners' car should block wireless, etc.

Posted by: cetiah Jan 24 2007, 09:01 PM

QUOTE (Moon-Hawk)

Every team should have at least one large (human body sized) wireless blocking dufflebag. Preferably several smaller ones as well. The trunk of the runners' car should block wireless, etc.

Honestly, we need a whole table of "dufflebag" upgrades.

Posted by: Charon Jan 24 2007, 10:07 PM

Hey, how about you just set a difficulty for how hard it would be to "clean" the commlink (0 for Joe's commlink, 4 for paranoid hackker's).

Then you make a hardware test and if you succeed, voilà.

Just how much time in a session should be dedicated to making sure the commlink is usable? I say 10 seconds. I mean, we got a run to roleplay through, you know?

Posted by: Kesslan Jan 25 2007, 05:00 AM

QUOTE (Charon)

Eh depends again on the format your playing in. Tabletop? Definately hardly any time.

IM/IRC not much usually. Its alot like tabletop.

MUSH and other high capacity text formats with coded dice and (ideally) sheets.. you can spend quite abit of time and still be entertaining. Though for alot of that stuff I'd leave it to socializing between the group members etc and not really make it a focus unless the PC really wants that.

I've allways prefered RP in MU* Shells (Well, not MUD) since.. well in the end your little adventure litterally is a small fanfic. By the time the whole campain is done you litterally have a small book with a good group if you've logged it all. I tend to log alot of that stuff myself and once you clean out all the other crap it makes for some really good reading usually.