I've long found it hilarious to see people complain about how unrealistic the original Matrix was because, duh, that's the idea. It was a network built by megacorporations with the hindsight of seeing all the things that were wrong with a free, open global network. The RealIdentity card bit reminded me exactly of mentions from the old books about deckers needing stealth chipsets (IIRC, the Masking in BSEM ratings didn't exist in legal cyberdecks)

This was linked on BoingBoing, and I found it funny because it's a good start to how awful the Matrix was from the perspective of unauthorized users (like, you know, shadowrunners). I think SR4's Matrix is far too kind and lacking in the dystopian vision of a global communications network controlled almost entirely by megacorps whose only purpose for existence is to make more money for themselves.

How to Access the Internet (A Guide from 2025) - http://blogoscoped.com/archive/2010-06-24-n15.html

This is fantastic. I may just make it required reading for all my players.

Excellent idea! I'm in the middle of reading the Corp Guide, so this is striking me as the sort of thing a AAA would put out to its citizens. And I hope like Hell its not prophetic.

iirc, only Body and Sensors existed in a legitimate cyberterminal.

Evasion was added to security cyberterminals, but only in cyberdecks where Masking found.

The first two where legal to own, and so would not get you any trouble. The next one would require a license. The last was fully illegal and could land you in prison if you where discovered even carrying a device with it installed (or perhaps the chip on its own).

interestingly enough tho, non of the hacking programs in SR4 are F classed. Not even programs like exploit or black hammer.

still, realidentity can be translated to SIN, and when connected up to the accessid (an id that is technically hardwired to every device and agent out there) it starts to get "interesting".

however, i would love to see a table like whats found in SR3 where various classes of offense is defined, and the usual penalty for it. That table really gave one the feel of how nasty lone star could be if they caught you. SR4 in comparison just give you a quick rundown of Legal, Restricted and Forbidden, with the last one landing you in trouble no matter what (with no real detail added).

the text linked to kinda reminds me of the opening shadowtalk in VR2.0, btw. There a mother have gotten hold of a cyberterminal aimed at kids learning to access the matrix, and is uploading the outputs of the teaching program to shadowland. The resulting banter in almost 4chan poser in style at times, and really give a nice insight into attitude of the deckers inhabiting the SR matrix. Heck, there is one talking about cooking his own chips to pop into the schools terminal to slip past its safeguards (much like kids in USA and elsewhere today finding their way past school installed spyware and activity blockers).

The beginning bits are how I assume the datanet would be, and how it should be run...
...The SR version of the Datanet is ludicrously unusable.

Very nice! I love it!

Heh, good read

That's awesome

OBTW, Speaking of invasive controls built into the hardware...

http://boingboing.net/2010/05/07/fcc-hands-hollywood.html

"FCC hands Hollywood the keys to your PC, home theater and future"

i cant see that intro without thinking hackers

I'm still smirking, that was great.