I was dealing with some major system problems one day, and had Task Manager (WinXP System) set up while on hold with Tech Support, trying to figure out the problem and she *TOTALLY* freaked about how I was "Hacking" the network.

Erm, if you were wondering where this came from, it's rather in-cannon. Can't remember the damn title, can remember the illustration of the gimp ninja-shadowrunner-with katana, though)

Anyhoo: In the book...

Way back when, someone nicely uploaded a copy of an internal Fuchi memo (Fuchi! Fuchi! Fuchi! For all your computer needs) in dealing with shadowrunners, if you're a corperate suit. Miles Lanier was featured, lots of colour text there:)

Thing is, they had to type the damn memo in, as it was in a corperate format that melted this guy's top-of-the-line deck when he tried to access the company files, so he had to use a POS turtle the he lifted from a terrified corporate wallflower to read the file (the mechanism being an inbuilt company-only hardwired chip in the POS deck- they didn't go into it, but it sounded like he couldn't get it out or it'd fry said deck, as well.)


This new optional effect sounds like a lot less hardware-intensive and logical progression, especially for Omega-level security level/Company nobility info. And a great reason for your minions to loot like mofo's during a run.

-Tir

Sounds like either Matrix (SR3) or Virtual Realities 2.0 (SR2). Likely the former. I sure miss those "deck melting" properties of SR programs. Seems the comlink hardware in SR4 is a bit more resilient.

Or just so cheap to replace that Hackers don't care if their deck is melted. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/frown.gif)

I think (so far in this thread) you are close with your analogies about PFFs, but not exactly correct. Unwired is talking about PFFs on a operating system, not just a program file. They are not talking about a word file or excel (although, its close). It more akin to Windows vs. OSX vs. various flavors of GNU Linux. Try running an .EXE file on any OS other than Windows. .DLL, .COM, .BAT files are also good examples. Try running a .TAR file on something other than GNU Linux.

In the above examples, you more often than not, need a specific OS installed on your hardware in order to make use of the file. You might be able to open something with a low-level editor and kind of figure out what the file is, but you can't run it in its native OS.

Unwired opens up the door to having your commlink multi-boot with a variety of different OSs.

Well, doesn't it just say 'buy a cheap emulator'? You're right, it's a generic 'does not work here' effect for files and programs… without the emulator.

Isn't it a bit of a bummer showstopper in an era where any kind of encryption is (magically) breakable in practical time?

Isn't it a bit of a bummer showstopper in an era where any kind of encryption is (magically) breakable in practical time?

Also, why is the only specific effect of operating system brands? I think that's a missed opportunity - instead of trying to differentiate Nodes with sculpting, give the various OS brands different approaches to computer security perhaps? Much in the way that Linux and Windows are quite different, security-wise?