Anyone else read the little intro blurb on the last page of the Emergence preview? There's a team busting into some insane asylum and some Technomancer kid hacks all of their PANs and overloads their earbuds, effectively disabling the entire team.

How did he do that?

The Hacker mentions wi fi emissions in the asylum, even though all the security is hard wired, so maybe we can assume that the kid managed a matrix perception roll v. the Hacker, so that means he can start spoofing. Through spoofing he can get the other comms to give up their commcodes. Then he would thread the bejesus out of his Stealth and start Hacking on the fly, eventually reaching everyone's earbuds that must be attached to their PANs.

Does that sound right to anyone else? Can earbuds get that loud or there some artistic license being taken?

i smell artistic license. either that or they are going to throw in some AR attack rules somewhere in the book

but hey, in theory earbuds can get as high as they can physically take it. and that will probably be far above what the human ear can take.

oh the joys of freelancer crack....

The kid didn't just override their commlinks, could be it hacked their cybereyes, too, along with its two sprites 'Nausea' and 'Vertigo'.

I think it probably was artistic liscence, but I had a hacker in my game break into a kid's wireless mp3 device one time to turn up the volume and get his attention. Not outside the realm of believability to think that a TM could somehow transmit to people at high volumes (especially if they have a sound link of some kind) after gaining access to the group's PAN.

The implication in the initial story is that the kid is actually generating his own wireless signal, in that everything is said to be hard-wired presumably as an attempt to stop him hacking everything.

It's probably artistic licence, but it's a very punchy introduction piece, so I don't care.

I dunno, I'd find it suprising if they allowed a lot of atristic licence on the piece of fiction that opened the new book. My vote goes to 'sign of things to come'.

Hey, Ronin hacked someone's brain once, in Technobabel.

he also complains that they bring voices. im guessing that the wired security isolates him from the matrix in general.

It must be awesome walking around in 2070+, having all those holographic ads waving giant penises at you and promising they can be yours.

"KNOCK DOWN WALLS WITH A TROLL SIZED DICK!" as the first thirty five out of forty messages waiting for you when you put on your smartglasses every morning.

You think strong firewalls are a good idea now, wait until when you can boot your commlink and suddenly be assaulted not only by images of said troll-sized members, but also taste them and feel them violating you as a sales pitch.

Firewalls are required to save your damn sanity.

One sprite for each runner, nuff said.

If Corp A runs a mall and is very stricht about selecting tennants, then Corp B would not be even in the mall. So yeah, in Aztechnology's Flagship mall in downtown Tenochtitlan, you probably would find Azzie brands only. But that doesn't mean that ARO's, Spam, MegaSale AR-blips etc. would be regulated in any way. mall owners today hardly dictate a Retail store's layout and design other than in ensuring it doesn't violate any safety or totally destroy the mall's aesthetic appeal. After all, the corp wants to make money, and to do soit needs to attract customers. How do you do that? Either specialize in certain market fields or offer a variety of brands and commodities.

This is even more true for public (non-corp owned malls). How these guys advertize might be regulated (the same way today's store front signs and logo sizes might be limited, maybe the ARO's could be regulated, too) but not whether or not at all. All tennants would need to be allowed to advertize their product.

Good point, but maybe Corp A actually has a stake in the advertizing company that programmed the ARO's or has connections to the data mining outfit that evaluates the losers that actually click on the 'Troll sized Penis scam'...sure they have a lot more control, but that doesn't mean it's managed better. I'd see these ARO's as the 2070 version of that pesky guy trying to hand you a handful of flyers for the store three levels down in the back of the mall near the washrooms...and mall security is doing nothing against the flyer today

Shopping malls? LOL

Example that that wonderful place in Hong Kong, the mile+ long escalator, just think of the AR spam.

Corps have little they can do about spam on the streets so to speak.

With the ease of hacking etc that the New rules allow, any script kiddies with is PDA can hack anything the Corps put up to stop spam.

Then for those corp enclaves of spam free enterprise, I give you the script kiddy armed with a spam drone, to bring spam into their hollowed spaces.

Spam Zones along streets have a better chance of being "controlled" by various organizations such mafia/yaks etc. And such control is mainly where is my nuyen. They could careless if any person walking along said street was inconvenienced by AR spam.

My example of a spam protection racket is a possibility and a fact. It falls right in with the agendas of underworld types/organizations.

If you spam on corporate ground without permission, the corp will most likely have some thugs track you down and kick your teeth in.

My main question is twofold.

A. Did they have Datajacks, cause if they did the kid can just get all up in their business. "I'm in UR head. Hackin UR brain"

B. Is it just me or are the blurb example teams way stupider than your average decent PC runner team? Some how if these were PCs and they heard Apes, they'd be "Seeya Mr. J"

Side question, is it just me or do all the really nasty threats in SR have funky acronyms?

In the past? Sure.

Now that everything is supposed to be wireless by default including your cyberarm, I'd have to disagree.

Which is an interpretation that makes zero sense, since a lot of the Essense loss involved in cyberwear is from the invasive proceedures done to link all your cyber to your own neurology. And making stuff wireless just to give hackers ways to screw with people in a firefight is not only lame, it's all the more reason that everybody who makes cyberware would stop making wireless cyber after the first production run, when they come back with massive complaints about rogue hackers literally forcing people to shoot teammates.

the wireless part of the cyberlimb may well be diagnostics and similar.

as in, its for doctors/techies so that they dont have to break out a cable.

and wheres does it say that you cant turn the wireless off?

I quite agree that RAW has a stupid take on this issue, which is why in my campaigns I assume that although Wireless is built into everything just in case it is assumed to be turned off and your cyber can talk to each other and your brain via DNI.

Still even so, a it seems to me that a Datajack would be an exception to this, because its only fragging purpose is to connect with the Matrix, so Wireless Access actually serves a purpose instead of merely being a neon "Hack Me" sign for every passing Decker.

btw, i have a distinct feel that while earlier versions had a clear writing from the view of a runner, SR4 seems to have a more joe on the street feel.

and for the latter, it may well not be a problem to have wireless on all the time.

I'd tend to agree about Wireless...

Without the ability to shut off your cyber's wireless anytime you don't need it - such as at the cyberdoc's for maintienance - it's just making your body into an array of big glowing NEON ARO's saying "How would you like to turn this Cybersammie against himself on this initiative pass"? A schmorgasboard of click-and-frag options.

Of course, Joe Slighty-Cybered Average is probably clueless and leaves his wireless on all the time, which could be humorous and tactical.

I don't know ShadowDragon8685, it seems to me that you'd be right and the first generation of Wireless-Enabled Cyber was On by default, but that option would quickly be patched or recalled as millions of Joe Slighty-Cybered Averages was hacked by passing Deckers and Script-Kiddies.

How many of Joe Slighty-Cybered Average bothers to pay attention to patches and recalls?

Hell, patches are something they won't even bother with, meaning they won't get them unless their machines do it automatically. To comply with a recall, first they'd have to hear about it (big if), then... Here's the unimaginable part... They'd actually have to go to the trouble of visiting the cyberdoc, having the cyber taken back out, and sent back to the company.

It's more work than most bother to obey a recall of car safety seats. How many are going to comply with a recall if it involves major invasive surgery coming out of their pockets?

If the entire problem is "my wireless network is open all the time so anyone that wants to can contact it" wouldn't it actually be really easy for them to hear about the recall, really?

I don't know about you, but if I made cyberarms (and a billion other things that I liked to advertise), I'd set it up so the spam filters that got built into my cyberarms didn't apply to my products. You could even then, in fact, pass it off as a method solely for the company to keep you updated with changes in products and emergency recalls (when in actuality it's free reign for all your sub-companies to spam the hell out of someone, since they agreed to be on the distribution list in exchange for $50 off their cybearm).

And, well, if I was going to BUY a cyberarm, I'd pay attention to anything I got that said "PRODUCT RECALL ON YOUR FUCKING ARM" that I got from the guys that built it for me.

But, okay. I don't want to argue just for arguments sake. If you think no one would bother to get their unsecure cyberarms upgraded (largely because the company couldn't get past their own spam filters, or because no one would pay attention to product recalls on their limbs), so be it. In your game, a bunch of people still have unsecure cyberlimbs, I guess. *shrug*

Do YOU normally buy a cyberarm with an implanted commlink?

No. In fact, your commlink is the wireless device which recieves your incoming spam, and your commlink is that which decides, with whatever settings are on it, who and what gets filtered.

A couple of thoughts guys.

1.) There are areas/times when your required to have your comlink in active mode, think secure areas and during police sweeps. ( Hence having a fake SIN on board is a good idea.)

2.) Cyber tech would most likely be covered under the same idea, the "Why would joe cyber boy want to hide his tools from the police?" frame of mind.

Cyberware is also considered low brow technology, crude and for those hard up. ( Bioware is of course the way to go, if you have the access and the credit.)

Whats so suprising about what the kid did? As soon as they got close enough he hacked them. Anything thats got wifi on or subbed to your commlink is fair game to a hacker. Techno's have built in commlinks.

You can easily hack cyberware even if it isn't broadcasting a wifi signal. All you have to do is either hack the comm that's controlling their PAN, or get at the hacker's. That's pretty much what the kid did in the short story.

Well that is what is at the crux of knasser's question and ShadowDragon8685's and my point, IF RAW encourages the idea of Deckers being able to hack into cyberware in order to frag the other team then RAW has a stupid take on this issue whether the Decker has to go through a commlink first or can directly zap the cyber.

However, based off Synner's post I'm not entirely sure that cyber was really meant to be hackable by every passing Decker.

You don't even need to get into the comm first if the enemy is dumb enough to leave their cyberware on wifi. Not to mention that Corptypes will keep their comm on to get incoming messages, etc.

With everything electronic and mechanicial made with wifi enabled by default, the world is a hacker's paradise.

Well, excluding anyone with a sense to get a firewall. Most hackers are script kiddy little freaks anyway, and they couldn't hack their way into a daycare.

One thing that makes me wonder...

I can certainly... Entertain... Not accept, though entertain... The notion that cyberware could be wireless, in order to transmit diagnostics and such...

Why do they need to recieve? Shoulden't/coulden't they be transmit only?

Anyway, Sammy, don't get too excited. You're not going to go hacking cybersammy's smartgun links or cyberarms and ordering them to fire on their teammates. If their eyes are set to recieve visual from someone else, it's possible... But you're definately not gonna shut down someone's cyberheart or anything.

Although if someone has a cranial bomb, you might figure out how to set it off.