I wasn't really pleased with this one [Collsion Course], but didn't really have anything else. I spent far too long on it for what it reads.

Okay, I tried to come with the two last articles in order to now have all the things mentionned in the editorial in. Contributions is at a low level, but it should be time to end the March issue (gasp, it took four months to make as much as the previous did in two months) and start the April issue.

I had a boring day with nothing to do that I wanted to do, so instead I built a NSI webpage. This is just a demo page, only the external links work. Some might recognize it, I copied the BBC website and did it green like the Seattle Post-Intelligencer page uses. The exams are closing so I can't swear what the fate of the project will be.

I'm already starting ti think that it'd be a lot better with pictures or photo, and false ads banner for SR corps, and a random meteo for Seattle with the tiny symbol and the temperature, and...

I've added all the article for the march 2063 issue, made frames to ease maintenance, and two placeholder ads, and installed that version at http://membres.lycos.fr/nmath/NSI/ . No big visual change otherwise. I only have room on hosts that insert ads, but I figured out that one could be better than the geocities: except for those whose screen resolution remains at 800x600 or lower, lycos ad will occupy otherwise empty room.

Concerning NSI own ads, although the placeholder refers to good old SR corps we all know and love, I thought it could be better to have false ads linking to SR sites: ad for a 'shadowrunner movie' by Fantasy Productions linking to SR official website, ad for 'consulting and services' by DSF, ad for Ancient History Publishing's history books collection, and so on... There's a java script to randomly select ads. Top ads are 760x100 pixels, side ads 180x100 pixels. Kanada Ten made a .swf (thanks for the effort) but I was unable to read it, so the experience'd lead to me to prefer .gif

Links towards 'about NSI' and sub-category headers (local, international...) are still not functional. My next objectives are adding those and all the old articles, and completementary articles (the idea is to have each article linking to related others: an article about the arcology would link to Renraku corp profile, a brief history of the arc, and past articles the NSI published when the shutdown occured, the Army deployed, or when the construction started in 2049, even if there were no NSI issues for those date... on the long-term, players could browse the site to learn about SR events the way their character read about them), and a printer-friendly version to hand the NSI to players around the table.

Then it would also require a way for the GM to insert his own items in secondary or primary position depending on what happen in his adventures. There's a technical issue on that I have yet to see how to handle.

Nath, this is very cool. The sight looks really good. The "Our Partnership" section width doesn't match the link bar width, minor note.

Your ideas about ads linking to related SR sites matches my wavelength. I can convert Flash (.swf) files into .gif so I'll fire over a few later tonight.

On the linking related topics, the idea is excellent but requires work. The easiest way to identify keywords is to have the authors put *'s around them, thus allowing authors to relate files and highlight the relivent information. Then you need a script to match the keywords with articles. I think we need to use a database of some kind. I don't know what your HTLM experience is, but I have near zero. This may be something to bring into the Community Projects forum and get help from some people.

Now: It should be possible to have the authors upload their stories directly into a database (like this forum) and have a way for GMs to affect the layout. Then we could also add a toggelable shadowtalk to the news stories.

We should really talk to Adam and Synner about their secret plans for the NSI first.

A boy's gotta do what a boy's gotta do... Sorry Synner.

what is going on with this?

We're working on Issue Four right now.

[edit] Anyone is free to post articles there. There may be a recruitment and/or subscription drive when Synner comes back from Real Life, but for now...

what about the Webpages (doesn't seem to work taht fine for me)
or about pdf versions someone mentinoned?

The webpage is not doing anything at the moment. It is a planned project, but not fitting with the producers current real world happenings.

I'll see if we can grab Synner and find out what happened to those PDFs. It'd be nice to have them archived somewhere. I'm pretty sure he hasn't had time to even look at Issue Three, much less convert them over...

Light up the Syn Signal!

Editing is definitively not a job for me. I'm just a French trying to speak English afterall (no, really, I'm completely unable to spot all but the most obvious faults). For the website itself, as I told Kanada Ten I don't have a lot of time these days, having a lot to code on a software. And as I told him too, that work also gave me hints at how to make a program that could eventually allow a GM to retrieve NSI articles on the web and insert other, specific to his game, and then hand his player a printed version or let them browser it in a pseudo-browser on a computer. But calm down, it wouldn't be wise to expect that before at least one, two or three months.

I remember finding one day a webpage somewhere in Dumpshock domain that contained the pdf of the old issues, but I can't seem to find it back. I planned to include them in the website as well.

I've sent the original pdfs to Kanada since he asked and I'll be mailing the zips to you too tonight. I've also got the original Word versions which might prove helpful in retrieving the text for the webpage.

To those who care, we've almost finished the first PDF.

Long time no hear...

Anything new?

I'm waiting on artwork. I've got an otherwise totally finished PDF.