			    TRAVELLER Digest 230

Topics covered in this issue include:

  1) Re: Motorcycles Off'noah	by eclipse@ultranet.com (Mark Urbin)
  2) Re: Trans - what? (digest #226)	by Derek Wildstar <wildstar@qrc.com>
  3) [FIX] TL-6 Off'noah Civilian Motorcycle	by Boris Zaidfeld <cs911408@red.ariel.cs.yorku.ca>
  4) 	by eclipse@ultranet.com (Mark Urbin)
  5) Re: TRAVELLER digest 228	by CyHiggin@aol.com
  6) Re: Dark Conspiracy Novels	by cs5025@wlv.ac.uk (L.T.Bryant)
  7) Space travel in the Wilds	by "David R. K. Robertson" <Dave.Robertson@newcastle.ac.uk>
  8) Dark Conspiracy Trilogy	by Mark Clark <markc@strauss.udel.edu>
  9) Hiver Plots	by pd82495@wapol.gov.au (Michael Bailey)
 10) Virus	by Hugh Foster <100326.446@compuserve.com>
 11) Starship Damage Tables	by "David A. Nelson" <34TYHPE@CMUVM.CSV.CMICH.EDU>
 12) Virus and Solomani crackpots	by pd82495@wapol.gov.au (Michael Bailey)
 13) WWW & Traveller	by ccjoe@showme.missouri.edu (Joseph Heck)
 14) Re: TRAVELLER digest 229	by mtr@globalx.net

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: Mon, 20 Mar 1995 20:46:49 -0500
From: eclipse@ultranet.com (Mark Urbin)
To: gdw-beta@quark.qrc.com, traveller@MPGN.COM
Subject: Re: Motorcycles Off'noah
Message-ID: <9503210146.AA28779@remus.ultranet.com>


   GDW published Harley stats in DarkCon.  I don't have those, but there are
dirt bike stats in TW2K.  

Price:  $5000
Night Vision: Headlights
Fuel Type: G, A, AvG
Load: 300 Kg
Vehicle Weight: 156 Kg  <==============*
Crew: 1 + 1
Maintance: 2

Tr Mov: 190/75
Com Mov: 45/20
Fuel Cap: 16
Fuel Cons: 8

Combat Stats:  None.  Driver and passengers are fired at as mounted targets.


  This is a far cry from attempts to build a motorcycle using FF&S.  I think
the designer had the right idea.  Just like the Grav Belt, some rule mods
will be needed to design something that far off the center line.

[entire message included because it wasn't posted to the TML]
At 05:24 PM 3/20/95 -0600, KELLOGG@qrc.com wrote:
>Hmm.
>Well, you've got a motorcycle that Arnold Schwartzenegger couldn't
>pick up at 2222 pounds loaded.
>
>Even with the fuel and cargo empty, it's still 1300 lbs.
>It carries 220 pounds worth of cargo...
>Has a 54 horsepower engine...
>and has a 20+ gallon fuel tank...
>
>This thing still weighs more than your average modern day family car
>with a larger fuel tank as well.
>
>Suggestion:  In order to have a functional bike, you need to be able
>to pick up the thing, even with a lever in order to ride it.  I'm no
>expert on motorcycles, but I'd say that it certainly shouldn't
>weigh any more than 500 kilograms.  Believe me, even that will be an
>unweildy mass to throw around.  You will NOT be able to pick that
>thing up if it falls over.
>
>My personal guess is that most street bikes out there weigh less than
>150kg.  And at 300 pounds you and several friends SHOULD be able to
>pick that one up.
>
>Remember:  Bikes are LIGHT and FUEL Efficient.  That is their function.
>They're not supposed to carry any cargo, unless it's a second passenger.
>You know that bump in front of the passenger's seat?  THAT'S the gas
>tank.  To me it looks like it might hold say... 5 - 6 liters tops.
>Not even my Taurus station wagon has an 80 liter tank!
>
>Does anyone out there have any idea on how much a Harley weighs?
>I know my friend's Honda weighs in at a lot less than 100kg.
>If we can get the stats on weight and horsepower of a Harley, then
>we should get a base line as to how to reverse engineer one, cause
>then we'll know what to shoot for.
>
>Good luck,
>
>Scott 2G Kellogg
>
>
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
eclipse@ultranet.com -- These opinions are mine, no one else wants `em.
"[Clinton's] Administration is easily the most reckless in interfering with 
the integrity of Federal investigative agencies since that of Richard Nixon."
   -- NY Times editorial, "White House Ethics Meltdown", 3/4/94
              http://www.ultranet.com/~eclipse/
-------------------------------------------------------------------------


------------------------------

Date: Mon, 20 Mar 95 23:49:41 -0500
From: Derek Wildstar <wildstar@qrc.com>
To: traveller@MPGN.COM
Subject: Re: Trans - what? (digest #226)
Message-ID: <9503210449.AA18518@qrc.com>

Hugh Foster <100326.446@compuserve.com> wrote in reply to me:
> >> Personally, there are many things about the Deyos and the Virus that
> >> strain my suspension of disbelief to the breaking point.  This is one
> >> of them.  Unless you're wedded to the T:TNE canon, these items are
> >> 'retcons' added for the New Era, and don't belong (and don't exist) in
> >> Classic or MegaTraveller. <<
> 
> Ay-men! We never moved up from CT, really, except with some 
> of the rule fixes; no starship in either Ace's or The Dog's 
> campaigns has a transponder. 

Not exactly.

There's a perfectly good reason for starships to have a transponder system
onboard (transponder in the same sense that modern aircraft are equipped
with a transponder, and NOT the Deyo/Virus hokum that GDW created for T:TNE).

In my Classic/MegaTraveller universe, starships have the following systems
as part of the standard communications and navigation suite:

1) Transponder.  This is a radar reciever and transmitter, that also has
   a simple, hard-wired process-control computer built into it.  Standard
   traffic-control radars operate on one of several bands, and broadcast
   coded data pulses as the sweep their beams through space.  The
   transponder recieves this radar pulse, decodes the data, and transmits
   a similar pulse, with new data.

   The data pulse from the traffic control radar contains a traffic control
   ID code (see notes under "Navigation Reciever" below), and a scan
   position code.  The transponder removes the traffic control ID code and
   inserts its own transponder ID code in its place, and then repeats the
   scan position code back as a broadcast (as opposed to the narrow beam
   used by the traffic-control radar).

   The transponder ID code is an the ship's official registry number, a
   (relatively) short alphanumeric code, unique to each ship.  Registration
   information is distributed througout the Imperium in varoius databases,
   so that in theory anyone recieving the transponder signal can determine
   who the ship is, and display this information on the bridge.
   
   Merchant ships transponders are equipped with an on/off switch: the
   transponder can be silenced if need be.  Of course, operating a starship
   without showing a transponder is a serious offence unless there were
   extenuating circumstances.  Broadcasting the incorrect transponder signal
   is also a very serious offense.  Failure to show a transponder signal has
   been cited by the Imperial Navy as sufficient reason to presume a vessel
   has hostile intent - and such vessels have been fired upon in the past.

   In addition ot that, military ships have programmable transponders, and
   can transmit false registration numbers and/or false scan position codes.
   Transmitting a false ID can make the warship seem to be a harmless
   transport (or a larger threat than it is!), or can be for a wholly bogus
   registration, while false scan position codes will make the ship appear
   where it actually is not, or can make the ship appear to be a 'false' or
   'ghost' trace on the Navigation reciever's display, and even dissapear
   entirely if the decoding logic rejects the signal as entirely spurious,
   and removes it from the display (quite litterally, transmitting an "I'm
   not here" code).  While these measures won't fool an enemy vessel all of
   the time, they are generally effective on pirates, raiders, and other
   small forces.

2) Navigation Reciever.  This is a reciever very similar to the one built
   into a transponder, which feeds data into the ship's navigation computer
   systems.  By combining the traffic control radar signal with data
broadcast
   by other transponders operating in the system, the navigation computer
   can determine the locations and (given several observations) the courses
   of every ship in the system).
   
   Some traffic control radars are used to provide position and advisory
   information to starfarers, while others are used to locate ships (either
   by direct radar reflections (at short ranges) or by activating their
   transponders (at longer ranges).  The function of the beacon is coded
   in the traffic-control ID code.  Some beacons are used to interdict a
   a world or a system, while others provide traffic lanes and flight paths
   to manage traffic.  Like ship registration numbers, the traffic control
   ID codes are maintained in a database, so that a ship can quickly
   determine the purpose and charted location of the beacon and act
   accordingly.

   Tampering with traffic control beacons, or otherwise interfering with
   their operations is a very serious Imperial crime (and one that pirates
   have been known to engage in).

3) Black Box (or Flight Data Recorder).  This is a data storage unit (at
   lower TLs, a tape recorder, while at higher TLs more exotic and durable
   technology is used).  It records several hours' worth of cockpit
   conversation, plus all flight control inputs, and the most recent jump
   co-ordinates.  Higher TL units record more parameters, and retain the
   data for a longer period of time (TL-15 units, for example, store data
   on the last 8 jumps).

   These boxes (which are orange, and very durably constructed) are
   ordinarily sealed and 'tamperproof'.  The box can only be legally
   opened and its data played back by the appropriate Imperial officials,
   and only after a warrant has been granted by the appropriate (subsector
   level) authority (although the warrant is merely a formality in any
   case where a flight mishap has caused a loss of life).

   Skilled characters can, of course attempt to tamper with a Black Box;
   they are not likley to be successful, and their tampering will probably
   be detected, unless they have high skill levels in Mechanical (physical
   access to the Box), and Electronic (for low-tecyh boxes) or Computer (for
   high-tech boxes).


wildstar@qrc.com

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                          "It's Science Fiction, if, presuming technical 
                           competence on the part of the writer, he genuinely
                           believes it could happen." --- John W. Campell,
Jr.

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 21 Mar 1995 00:35:34 -0500 (EST)
From: Boris Zaidfeld <cs911408@red.ariel.cs.yorku.ca>
To: TNE Mailing List <traveller@MPGN.COM>
Cc: GDW-Beta List <gdw-beta@quark.qrc.com>
Subject: [FIX] TL-6 Off'noah Civilian Motorcycle
Message-ID: <Pine.SUN.3.91.950321002452.26970C-100000@blue>


Hi again :-)
Well, I got some pointers from Scott Kellogg, and I tried to find a fix 
to my design, while staying with FF&S rules.  I think I got it this time :)
A cheap, 140 kg motorcycle, top speed 150 kph when loaded.. Sounds ok for 
a 1950s type motorcycle.  Please send any comments, errors, pointers etc.


========8<============8<================8<==============8<==========

TL-6 Off'noah Civilian Motorcycle                  
 
TL              6                                                       
Price:          565.46 Credits    
Size:           0.084 Cubic Meters = 0.006 Displacment Tons

Weight:         0.14 Tonnes Empty
                0.35 Tonnes Loaded                 
Power:          0.0182 MW TL 5 Improved Internal Combustion Engine

Maint:          0.1                                                       
Controls:       TL 6 Enhanced Mechanical Motorcycle Controls
Commo:          None
Sensors:        1xFront Headlight, 30 meters range.
Life Support:   Light, Heat      
Cargo:          0 kg  [All cargo is carried with riders]      
Crew:           1               
Passengers:     1               
Armament:       None            

Movement:                       
	Road:           150 Kph            
	OffRoad:        15 Kph             
	Travel:         299/30 Kilometers per 4 hours      
	Combat:         69/7 Meters/Turn       

Fuel Capacity:                  
        Fuel Type:      Hydrocarbon Distillates         
        Fuel Tank:      14.9 liters  

Fuel Consumption:                       
        Refill:         3.73 Credits           
                        4.55 Liters/hour [3 hours]
 
Combat Statistics:                      
Config:                 
Open Frame (W 1.006)    HF:     [0.2]
                        HS:     [0.2]
                        HR:     [0.2]
Deck:   Open            Belly:  0.2  
 
 
DESIGN NOTES:                  
 
HULL:           Passengers:     1
Rate:   0.006   Crew:   1
Volume: 0.084   TL:     6
MV:     0.03                         
MVM:    2       Config: Open Frame
     
 
HULL PLATING:                   
Material:       Light Alloy             
Thoughness:     1.7     AV: 0.204
Thickness:      0.12            
Volume: 0.0072          
Mass:   0.0432  
Price:  8.64            
 
SUSPENSION:                                     
Type:   Restricted Wheel                                
TL:     5                               
Volume: 0.0084               
Mass:   0.00168             
Price:  2.1              
Surface: 2.1             
 
CONTROL SYSTEMS:                                        
Type:   Enhanced Mechanical                    
TL:     6                       
Volume: 0.000084                        
Mass:   8.4E-06                 
Price:  1.8              
Power:  1.2E-06 
 
CREWSTATIONS:                   
Type:   Open Crewstation [Motorbike]            
Volume: 0               
Mass:   0.04            
Price:  300             
 
SENSORS:        
Type:   1xFront Headlight               
TL:     4               
Range:  30              
Volume: 0.002  
Mass:   0.001  
Price:  50              
Power:  0.0001
 
SEATS:                  
Type:   Restricted Seat [Motorcycle]         
Volume: 0               
Mass:   0               
Price:  100             
 
POWER PLANT:                            TRANSMISSION:                   
Type:   Improved Internal Combustion    Type:   Wheel           
TL:     5                               Volume: 0.00546 
Volume: 0.0455                          Mass: 0.00546      
Mass:   0.0455                          Price:  8.19  
Price:  91                               
Power:  0.0182                              
Fuel Type:      Hydrocarbon Distillates                                
Fuel Tank:      0.0149                                          
Fuel Mass:      0.0149                               
Fuel Price:     3.725                           
Endurance:      3.274725                                
                                                              
TOTALS:                                                         
Volume:                                                         
Used:   0.083544                                                        
Left:   0.000456                                                        
Cargo:  0                       
Mass:                           
Loaded: 0.351748        351.7484 kg               
Empty:  0.136848        136.8484 kg               
Price:                          
565.455                         
Surface Area:                           
Used:   0                       
Left:   2.1                     
 
SDR:    Type:   W  1.006           
Power   Used            Engine          
0.0182  0.000101        0.018099                
Movement:                               
Road:   149.6346     
Cross:  14.96346                                                        
Type:   Wheel                                                   
Combat: 69.2808         6.92808                                         
Travel: 299.2931        29.92931                                        
Maint:  0.117249

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 21 Mar 1995 07:54:34 -0500
From: eclipse@ultranet.com (Mark Urbin)
To: traveller@MPGN.COM
Message-ID: <9503211254.AA09097@remus.ultranet.com>

>aboulton@cix.compulink.co.uk (Andrew Boulton) writes:
>In-Reply-To: <199503101437.JAA25169@Ambassador.MPGN.COM>
>  > From: "Harold D. Hale" <hdhale@smtpwpo.dayt.tasc.com> To:
>  > Subject: Re: Battledress 
>  > restrictions on the extra strength, etc. suits can provide. You may
>  > even have instances where you have both military and civilian models
>  > of the stuff (much like you have selective fire weapons for the
>  > military and semi-auto versions of the same weapon for civilians...or
>  > at least you used to....). 
>But why would a civilian *need* BD?

   It's not marketed as Battle Dress.  It's the ultimate in civilian
survival suits.  It's for the explorer, the adventurer.  It's perfect for
exploring caves on uncharted planetiods.  It's tough, it's durable, it's
real expense.  It has nifty options.  Instead of the rifle analogy, think of
sports cars.  Leather interiors, advanced life support systems with scented
air filters.
  Come on kids, why would a civilian *need* a sports car that does three
times the legal speed limit (i.e. Shelby Cobra)?  
  Of course, you can impose various restrictions on Civilian Survival Suits.
Restrict the extra strength to standard or even 1.5 standard.  Put
transponders on them, so they can be tracked by the government.  Tie the
transponder into an override circui, so the government can freeze you at
will.  Strict licensing and permit systems needed to own and operate.
Civie models produced with out the standard mountings for weapons systems of
course.  The bright, designer colors kinda stand out too.
  Needless to say, such things would be the toys of the rich.  Folk who have
enough money, could probably obtain, illegally of course, real battle dress
if they wanted.  
  

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
eclipse@ultranet.com -- These opinions are mine, no one else wants `em.
"[Clinton's] Administration is easily the most reckless in interfering with 
the integrity of Federal investigative agencies since that of Richard Nixon."
   -- NY Times editorial, "White House Ethics Meltdown", 3/4/94
              http://www.ultranet.com/~eclipse/
-------------------------------------------------------------------------


------------------------------

Date: Tue, 21 Mar 1995 08:16:52 -0500
From: CyHiggin@aol.com
To: traveller@MPGN.COM
Subject: Re: TRAVELLER digest 228
Message-ID: <950321081651_56095322@aol.com>

Michael T. Richter:

> The technical facets of it are equally obvious after a few minutes'
thought.  
>(How the hell does a PROGRAM, a set of states and state transitions, on one 
>computer change the underlying HARDWARE of another, often completely 
>unrelated, computer?)

Oddly enough, the technical aspects of the Virus make more sense than
the societal ones, as I hope to show you.  How does the Virus, nominally
a program, change (1) hardware on (2) another computer?  

Item (2) is easy -- the two computers merely have to be in communication.
Anything Virus can do to computer A, it can do to computer B if it can 
communicate with it.  I believe the "canon" does require computer-to-
computer communication as a prerequisite to infection.  
Remember, the Virus is a grandmaster-class hacker -- the originals
were programmed with all the accumulated dirty tricks known to the
Imperial spook agencies. Second, they're very, very smart, even 
sentient under the right circumstances.  This isn't a dumb virus
program, this is the Bulgarian Underground Hackers on a chip.  That's
how it does it to ANOTHER computer.

Item (1): how does software change hardware?  A few things to note: one
thing I postulated some time ago is that Imperial technology computers
carry the concept of PALs and PLAs and microcode even further along
and are very likely composed of self-configuring processors; i.e., they
can literally rewrite their own circuitry as needed.  Doing lots of number
crunching with little output?  The unused holographic processors re-
configure themselves into more floating point units.  Now imagine the 
VIRUS getting loose in circuitry like that.

More primitive technology is vulnerable to another form of attack: it IS
possible to alter the physical characteristics of a CPU with software.  It
is very, very tricky to do deliberately; the one Real World example that 
I know of was done by accident.  In the early days of the space 
program (and one of our TML rocket scientists [that's you, George!] 
may have the details on this), a satellite program developed a bug 
because a certain 2 instruction code sequence, repeated endlessly 
in a tight loop, actually caused dopant migration in the substrate, 
changing the electronics of the transistor.

Third, though the Virus can be present only as software, its
normal form is that of a living semiconductor chip, a gene-tailored
version of the silicon lifeforms of Cymbelline.  Those lifeforms had
the ability to crawl up to another chip, and consume/subsume it
into themselves, and use it as raw material to make more little chipoids.
The Virus can do that if in actual physical contact with the hardware.

There you go.  Now do you see why I, among others, consider the
technical aspect to make more sense than the societal?  In fact,
the pocket-empire list had a wonderful time trying to figure out how to 
keep the Virus-induced crash from being SO severe that the 
New Era was 700 years later instead of the 70 years later it officially 
is -- which time is too short anyway to be the Complete Collapse of
Civilization as We Know It that GDW makes it out to be.  A severe
economic depression for 70 years, I could believe, but not this 
severe a collapse.

                                                -- Cynthia


------------------------------

Date: Tue, 21 Mar 1995 13:45:56 +0000 (GMT)
From: cs5025@wlv.ac.uk (L.T.Bryant)
To: traveller@MPGN.COM
Subject: Re: Dark Conspiracy Novels
Message-ID: <m0rr4Fx-0003tvC@ccub.wlv.ac.uk>

Hi 
	The D.C Novels were written by Michal A. Stackpole
the trilogy is called  " Fiddleback Trilogy"
and consists of 
		A Gathering evil
		Evil Asending
		Evil Triumphant

		and  these are the sort of noval that made me  go
out  and  bye  the trilogy in one go when i saw  it ,  and  after
reading  them  my freind went out and got the set  himself.   The
referances  to all the D.C. gear are in there but the  ideas  are
expanded on end some extra items are listed, 

	If  the  Traveller  noval was up to  this  standerd  then
people would be queing up to play the game, But a bad noval  will
put off people.

Hope that helped 
Lawrence Bryant
	With help from J.W.Moore ( FID) and S.C.Currill
		
-- 
oh rose thou art sick
               the invisible worm that flys by night.....STEEL


------------------------------

Date: Tue, 21 Mar 1995 14:17:10 +0000 (GMT)
From: "David R. K. Robertson" <Dave.Robertson@newcastle.ac.uk>
To: traveller@MPGN.COM
Subject: Space travel in the Wilds
Message-ID: <Pine.3.05.9503211410.B378-9100000@borg>

Could anyone throw some comments my way as to how much space traffic there
is likely to be in the Wilds, now that strains of suicidal Virus are
fewer? What I mean is - what chance to my players have of encountering
starfaring vessels, both Vampire and human?
Also, could anyone shed any light on the Guild, and how extensive their
trade routes in the Wilds are?

Cheers,

Dave.




------------------------------

Date: Tue, 21 Mar 1995 09:26:23 -0500 (EST)
From: Mark Clark <markc@strauss.udel.edu>
To: traveller@MPGN.COM
Subject: Dark Conspiracy Trilogy
Message-ID: <Pine.SOL.3.91.950321092037.17717A-100000@strauss.udel.edu>

Author is is Michael A. Stackpole; the series was published by GDW 
Books.  Check with GDW if they still have a copy to sell you.

Frankly, the series went downhill - the last of the three is just 
average, but I read it just to find out what happened to the characters.  
The first book, on the other hand, is very good, especially the first 
third, where the hero wakes up in a body bag and can't move, and then has 
to try and escape, when he has no memory of who he is.  The pacing 
and suspense is great - I still remember it even though I read it four 
years ago.

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 21 Mar 1995 22:37:20 +0800
From: pd82495@wapol.gov.au (Michael Bailey)
To: traveller@MPGN.COM
Subject: Hiver Plots
Message-ID: <9503211437.AA10380@phq1002.wapol.gov.au>

>From an anonymous witness after J.F. Kennedy's assassination:

"Man, I thought I was seeing things.  I looked up towards the 
 grassy knoll and there was this _starfish_ thing aiming a weird
 looking gun at the president's car..."


Michael Bailey, Police Dept. of Western Australia:  pd82495@wapol.gov.au
                        Any opinions expressed above are strictly my own.
     "..when you list all the qualities that you despise and you realise, 
          you're describing yourself"    Marillion, 'the Rake's Progress'





------------------------------

Date: 21 Mar 95 12:13:54 EST
From: Hugh Foster <100326.446@compuserve.com>
To: <traveller@MPGN.COM>
Subject: Virus
Message-ID: <950321171354_100326.446_BHG58-4@CompuServe.COM>

>>  what sorts of PSG (pseudo-scientific gobbledigook) is
used  to make Virus palatable.  The canonical explanation
simply doesn't make any  sense at any level <<
 
You're absolutely right. Nothing explains it
satisfactorily. It's complete cobblers. Sad that a system
with so many options as to the technical approach forces
the use of such a feeble plot device.
 
 
 
 
-----------------------------------------------------------------
| Hugh Foster [100326,446]                                      |
|                                                               |
| Confidence is simply that quiet assurred feeling you have     |
| before you fall flat on your face. (Dr. L Binder)             |
-----------------------------------------------------------------
 


------------------------------

Date:         Tue, 21 Mar 95 12:53:05 EST
From: "David A. Nelson" <34TYHPE@CMUVM.CSV.CMICH.EDU>
To: traveller@MPGN.COM
Subject: Starship Damage Tables
Message-ID:   <950321.125722.EST.34TYHPE@CMUVM.CSV.CMICH.EDU>

Here's an idea for a CHALLENGE article, or maybe someone could post something
like this here;
   I would like to see a DETAILED, step-by-step example of how to do the
Damage
Tables for ships designed with FFS. The instructions aren't unclear, but I'm
having a heck of a time making the tables look like the ones GDW does!
I'm doing a modified Far Trader based on the ship in DEATH OF WISDOM, and I
would like the tables to look at least SOMETHING like the original, with
the modifcations. I'll make you a deal; someone help me out with this, and
I'll
post the ship when I get it done! :)

------------------------------

Date: Wed, 22 Mar 1995 05:48:23 +0800
From: pd82495@wapol.gov.au (Michael Bailey)
To: traveller@MPGN.COM
Subject: Virus and Solomani crackpots
Message-ID: <9503212148.AA12587@phq1002.wapol.gov.au>

Remember that fringe group in the Solomani Party, the 
Society for Soveignty of Man over Machine (SSMM)?
Remember how they refused to let their lives be 
placed in the hands of 'soulless machines'.  Remember
how we laughed at them?

I guess the SSMM had the last laugh. 
Just a random thought.

Oh, BTW...where can I get hold of a copy of the FF&S 
errata?  I've got a first printing copy of FF&S (the
one with the misprinted page 75).  Thanx.
Michael Bailey, Police Dept. of Western Australia:  pd82495@wapol.gov.au
                        Any opinions expressed above are strictly my own.
     "..when you list all the qualities that you despise and you realise, 
          you're describing yourself"    Marillion, 'the Rake's Progress'





------------------------------

Date: Tue, 21 Mar 1995 17:20:24 -0600 (CST)
From: ccjoe@showme.missouri.edu (Joseph Heck)
To: traveller@MPGN.COM (TML Submissions)
Subject: WWW & Traveller
Message-ID: <9503212320.AA134738@showme.missouri.edu>

For those of you interested, I linked some code for generating Traveller
words (i.e. words in Vilani, Droyne, Aslan, etc) into a WWW Form:

http://www.missouri.edu/virtual/wordgen

-- 
 joe                          (314) 882-5000
 ccjoe@showme.missouri.edu    University of Missouri - Columbia  
 "with a little practice, writing can be an intimidating and
 impenetrable fog!" -- Calvin
 <A HREF="http://www.missouri.edu/~ccjoe">ccjoe</A>

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 21 Mar 95 18:50:12 -0500
From: mtr@globalx.net
To: traveller@MPGN.COM
Subject: Re: TRAVELLER digest 229
Message-ID: <9503220256.AA0044@Cl.globalx.net>

> Did you ever see "Raiders of the Lost Ark"? Were you one of those people
who
> said: "Hey, no way the Ark of the Covenant could work like that!"? Or did
> you (like me) say: "OK, the film postulates that the Ark of the Covenant
> works like it does in the Bible. Let's see what kind of story that makes."

There is a key requirement for enjoyment of any fiction by any person:

	Suspension of Disbelief <add echo effect here>

The standards of what will cause this suspension vary according to the
individual and, often, to the genre.

In my case, I have a VERY bad problem with Virus.  I have more than passing
familiarity with computer technology at both theoretical and practical
levels.
Because of this I simply cannot suspend my disbelief whenever I hear about
Virus.

I don't have a problem with _Raiders of the Lost Ark_ because a) I'm not an
expert on the various pieces of nonsense it incorporated into the story, and
b) because the genre is one in which overblown, overstated action and magic
are part of the tradition.  I have problems with Virus because a) I'm an
expert in the specific field in question, and b) because the genre of "hard"
SF is traditionally supposed to be more science than fiction.  (Hell, reading
the purple prose introducing FF&S should tell you what Frank Chadwick's stand
on the subject is!)

So, as it exists now, I simply cannot stomach Virus.  Whenever the subject is
brought up in a T:TNE supplement or adventure I get queasy.

So I reiterate:  What PSG have people found useful to get past the technical
implausibility of Virus?

---
Michael T. Richter
mtr@globalx.net
(613)592-7994

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End of TRAVELLER Digest 230
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