I am about to run my first game of 4th edition. I do have a question about AR though. Does everything have an ARO? For example, walking into your local Stuffer Shack™ would every object with a computer chip or RFID tag be seen. As in the gun behind the counter displaying it's location and how much ammo in loaded. (Though if it's part of the shop owners PAN I guess not.) How about every item on the shelf having it's own ARO, in addition to the general advertising, and more for every device in the store. For that matter, why have a shop owner if all you do is hit the ARO to unlock the case and another to buy the item.

Seems to me there would be an endless sea of ARO's on everything, or do RFID's not show up? How would you know what is hackable or not?

Essentially I am trying to figure out how to describe the setting to the players, one of which is a hacker.

I believe there are levels of filtering available to deal with the ARO overload. Not sure of the reference. It only makes sense, though.

Depends on how dystopian you want things to be, truth be told.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSfKlCmYcLc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_u34kV9go0

Oh, I like. Got any more like that first one?

I feel like it's asking if everything has a label, an ad, billboard, flyer, etc., today. …Yes. All products have brand names; colorful, deceptive labels; nutritional and technical facts; coupons and offers; gawddamned QR codes; prices and menus in the windows; and so on. AR just makes them web-present (and yeah, filterable).

Not yet ... that one was done up for a school project of all things.

And I've lost a link to an older German one, where a Sreet Sam had been shot and his body had to reboot him. Had some nice biodata ARs.

In essence, the type of browsing you do will open you up to all kinds of adware, from the overwhelming "Every square centimeter of your home can be rented" level of the first to a more sedate level when in high-scale areas. That's not to say that rich people aren't targeted ... your Lexus, your Zoe fashion, etc, but that they're for more classy and less intrusive. The shopping center will be the most obnoxious I'd think, but it'll beomnipresent ... the buses, the cabs, the school systems, the doctor's office ... any type of captive audience has both flat space and eyeballs, and that means profit's just waiting to be taken.

Oh! I stand corrected! Looks like he's done up a new one after all.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3TL80ScTLlM

Wow, those are good. I think I saw that first one somewhere before. Defiantly gives me a grasp of this.

My big question though is how do you find the nodes you can hack when you walk into a room? I imagine they are all not just out on display. Do you have to deliberately search or is there a setting on the comlink that would show you everything on AR? I am trying to gage the limits of what you can see and can't see in AR.

And thank you for the responses.

First thing, AROs are not RFID tags. I imagine each product on the Stuffer Shack shelves would have an ARO with sales blurb, price, nutritional and allergen info, and bulk-buy/multi-buy deals. Each product would have an RFID tag that screams if not neutralized by being scanned at the cash register. Any minimal cyber or weapons the shop clerk has will be hidden and invisible to matrix detection.

As for nodes, the shop will have a public node with info on today's specials and other sales-speak that can be accessed by anyone with a mind to. I imagine most shops will have 2 hidden nodes, one for accounting, automated stock ordering, payroll etc, and one for security (cameras, mainly, but also locks, security door etc.). Both these will have a fairly good firewall and maybe a bit of IC. These can be found by scanning for hidden nodes, and accessed by a fairly newb hacker, but I am not sure why they would bother apart from maybe removing their image from security cameras, as I am sure cred would flow from the tills straight to the Shack's highly secure account at the bank, with enough counter-checks and mini-audits in place to detect anyone siphoning off these funds.

Not even sure if money is ever stored somewhere. I suspect it is more a case of "promise to pay" or IOU in digital form. That is, during a transaction each party contact their respective bank/credit company and those two cross check with each other about the requested transfer. Once those are in place one side notes a withdrawal, the other a addition. After that the store and the customer are both notified about the payment being accepted, and the customer gets the goods. Certified cred is likely a version of this where there is no ID attached to the account, much like how one can get VISA gift cards and such today. Also i suspect they can not have funds added to them once created, only withdrawn.

I don't know how you do it, but you find the neatest things Wak.

It's a trade off... you got the costuming skills, the pretty, and social graces.

I have the Internet as my personal playground.

Tis a fair exchange!

(I'd dump Google for a galpal tho, I'll be the first to state.)

I can teach you to sew ya know

And I'd rather have internet leet skillz. I can only dig up personal info online, not neat videos like that.

Just with the playground did not hold so many freakish sights from time to time...

This is true. Mind you, when I started rummaging through it, there were no such things as graphical browsers, so...

Oh DOS, how I miss your prompts.

Still present if one so want. And i kinda like my zsh terminal