Subject: #1(2) TRAVELLER digest 232
Date: 95-03-23 21:10:42 EST
From: traveller@mpgn.com
Sender: traveller@mpgn.com
Reply-to: traveller@mpgn.com
To: traveller@mpgn.com (Multiple recipients of list)

Mail Split By Gateway

------- cut here --------
			    TRAVELLER Digest 232

Topics covered in this issue include:

  1) Re: Bonded Superdense	by eclipse@ultranet.com (Mark Urbin)
  2) Transponders and Terras and Jews (Oh my!)	by Hans Rancke-Madsen <rancke@diku.dk>
  3) General apology	by Hugh Foster <100326.446@compuserve.com>
  4) Traveller:  The New Errors	by "Salisbury, Tim" <salisbury@ftdetrck-atmo1.army.mil>
  5) Re: Virus Incredulity	by ehenry@Newbridge.COM (Ethan Henry)
  6) Spinward Ho!	by "Bob Brown" <Robert.Brown@newcastle.ac.uk>
  7) VIRUS Insights	by "Eric B. Smith" <doc@eznet.com>
  8) A Known Star Update	by "Harold D. Hale" <hdhale@smtpwpo.dayt.tasc.com>
  9) Re: TRAVELLER Digest 231	by "Harold D. Hale" <hdhale@smtpwpo.dayt.tasc.com>
 10) combat system	by ThorC@UH.EDU (thor christensen)
 11) Striker & Alternate Campaign	by John Muir Macpherson <muirmac@uclink.berkeley.edu>

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

Date: Wed, 22 Mar 1995 21:29:06 -0500
From: eclipse@ultranet.com (Mark Urbin)
To: beta <gdw-beta@qrc.com>, Traveller <traveller@MPGN.COM>
Subject: Re: Bonded Superdense
Message-ID: <9503230229.AA13918@remus.ultranet.com>

At 12:48 PM 3/20/95 PST, Post, D L (Dan) wrote:
> Someone was making comments on putting armour on planes.
   Something the pilots like. :-)  They like even more
armor around the cockpit.  Kinda like the titanium bathtubs the
A-10 pilots sit in.

>This brings up a  point on FF& S. It only provides 1 type of armour
>at any tech level.  Bonded superdense is great unless you want
>to be a aircraft or speeder. Then you turn into a lead sled, or
>end up with huge powerplant to power the device. Surly high
>tech levels have come up with a light wieght alloy that provides
>reasonable armour.  Perhaps you could use the preceeding
>armour technology for a current version of a alloy.....
   A fine idea.  It's much like one that was raised for small arm
design.  Alloy for the receiver, hard steel for the barrel, plastic for
the stock and magazines.

> Here could be a potential example:
>TL 12 lightwieght Crystaliron alloy - Toughness 7 Mass 7.5 Cost .042
>Compared to bonded superdense it would be half the
>toughness, half the mass and triple the cost. Any
>thoughts?
   I like it!  The cost can be justified by a performance aircraft.

>                         Dan
>pg 3221 of imperial tank manual......
>"Never land your 200ton grav tank in a swamp......"

  Unless you *want* to hide!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
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: Thu, 23 Mar 1995 03:57:46 +0100 (MET)
From: Hans Rancke-Madsen <rancke@diku.dk>
To: traveller@MPGN.COM
Subject: Transponders and Terras and Jews (Oh my!)
Message-ID: <199503230257.DAA27660@embla.diku.dk>

Harold D. Hale writes:
>   Basically I am putting in my two credits worth.

And very wellcome you are too. Only, try to make a little more clear when
you're speaking about the official Traveller universe and when you are
speaking about your own private version. For my own part I speak of the
official version unless noted (My own version makes a lot more sense, at
least to me ;-).

>Psionic manipulation would theoretically be possible, but I was thinking in 
>terms of simple duplication.  At TL 15, cloning Deyos would be a rather 
>easy.  Manipulating the clones into useful transponder chips would take a 
>bit longer, but it could be done. 

If you have access to some chips, yes. In the _official_ universe we are
told that you can't get hold of those chips, because they are fried to a
crisp if anyone tries to open one of those tamperproof boxes. So no chips
to begin with.

>>Read what I'm saying, Harold. The chips are not a standard that the
>>other governments can design their own chips to, they are small 
>>electronic etc...
> 
>   At TL 15 genetic manipulation is quite common.  Megacorporations
>probably go around designing new living, breathing pets the way that toy
>makers now make a new teddy bear.  Why should Deyo chips be more
>unique than human beings (who are also the subject of genetic
>manipulation)? 

Because supposedly you wouldn't have any breeding population to start your
program with.

>The specs on how to make your own Deyo should be no more complicated than 
>that--and like I said, if the Imperium wasn't in the mood to dispense the 
>information, it wouldn't take long to figure it out.

We know that it took the Imperium 20 years to do so, because we are told
so in _Survival Margin_.

>>Try coming up with one example of a people who, _having established 
>>themselves comfortably in exile_, really were anxious to return to their 
>>ancestral lands. Note the qualification, because that's the lynchpin of 
>>my argument. The people, especially the rulers, of Home are IMO comfortably
>>established on Home. They might talk a good return to Terra, but when it
>>came to action...
> 
>   The Jews after their captivity in Babylon.

Does the word 'captivity' have any sort of connotations to you? It dosen't
quite bring the phrase "having established themselves comfortably in exile"
to my mind. For a counterexample I'll give you the Jews in Egypt now that
we've turned to biblical myths. (Mind you, I admit that if I had The One 
True God breathing down my neck and telling me to get back where I belonged
then I would be willing to leave anything behind and try to get back home.
Otherwise, well, I'd want a guarantee of a pay rise when I got there...  

>   I'm not saying that there won#t be a significant percentage of the
>population that consider consider themselves to be Homeians and not
>Terrans, but the overwhelming majority would refer to themselves as
>Terrans first.  

If you were right then that would be a terrible problem for the Home rulers.
The logistics of repatriating the people of Home would be a nightmare. It
takes the entire naval taxes of 2,494,800 people for ten years to finance 
the building of a ship similar to the Aslan transport on page 88 of 
_Rebellion Sourcebook_. That is a jump-3 transport with room for 10,000
(low berth) passengers. A round trip from Home to Terra and back carrying
10,000 people will take 20 jumps. Figuring 10 days per jump on the average,
no, let's make it 9 days, that's half a year. At a rate of 20,000 people
per year it would take 125 years to transfer them all.

Mind you, it would be an incredibly good thing for those fortunate few that 
were left in possesion of the beautiful Home when all the fanatics went home.

Harold, fanatics are created by suffering, either your own or that of
someone with who you can identify. The Zionists of Scandinavia were
working on behalf of fellow jews who DID have a hard time. I defy you to
find an example of any people who were reasonably well off in exile who
were really seriously fanatic about returning.  

>We aren't told the population of Home prior to the First Solomani Rim War, 
>nor are we told how many Terrans imigrated from Terra to Home during and 
>after the war.  These are important facts in our conversation that we can 
>only speculate about.

At least someone with access to the UPPs of Aldebaran Sector could tell us
the present-day figures. Anybody have them handy?


>>Haven't we reached a consensus? The Deyo chip may hold water in a
>>technical sense, but in terms of human nature the official history 
>>leaks in all directions. Right?
> 
>   It leaks here and there, to be sure.  Whether you throw the baby out
>with the bath water, or try to make sense of the official storyline with
>some creative reinterpretation to patch the holes seems to be the
>question.
 
Not my question, at least. I have made all the sense of the official
storyline I need by making up a Grand Adventure that gives the PCs a
fighting chance to save (most of) the Imperium. Wether they will pull
it off remains to be seen.


      Hans Rancke
University of Copenhagen
     rancke@diku.dk
------------
        "The referee should determine the nature of subsequent
         events based on the individual situation."
                                _76 Patrons_, p. 8

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

Date: 23 Mar 95 07:27:25 EST
From: Hugh Foster <100326.446@compuserve.com>
To: <rq-rules@hops.wharton.upenn.edu>, <traveller@MPGN.COM>, <xboat@MPGN.COM>
Subject: General apology
Message-ID: <950323122724_100326.446_BHG30-8@CompuServe.COM>

Residents of this list may have been observing me posting 
messages of dubious relevance. This is entirely due to 
software/datacom burps plus temporary personal incompetence 
and not intentional malice and anarchy... I think the 
problem is resolved; please accept my apologies. Thankyew.

-----------------------------------------------------------------
| Hugh Foster [100326,446]                                      |
|                                                               |
| If you step on people in this life, you're going to come back |
| as a cockroach.                                               |
-----------------------------------------------------------------



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

Date: 23 Mar 1995 09:37:56 -0500
From: "Salisbury, Tim" <salisbury@ftdetrck-atmo1.army.mil>
To: traveller@MPGN.COM
Subject: Traveller:  The New Errors
Message-ID: <n1416170998.32916@ftdetrck-atmo1.army.mil>

Could someone with more patients then I explain some things about =
Starship Design.
In Brilliant Lances, ship design of the Maneuver Drive give performance =
in G-hours, but in the designs shown they list it as G-Turns, whith each =
turn equal to 1/2 hour, and they appear to use the same amount of fuel.
Which is correct:
Second, in FF&S, they say to figure the true acceleration of a vessle, =
figure 20 tons thrust per MW in HEPLR.  In Brilliant Lances, they give =
that odd equation of multiplying MW by ten and deviding by actual hull =
tonnage, but in the designed vessles they ignore both and just do a =
straight MWs per G. 
 First, if the 20TT/MW is used, you will NEVER get a ten ton or smaller =
fighter up to 6 G-rating (Hull weight is to high hor the area enlosed), =
so I have been using just the straight MWs per G to designed ships, and =
G-Hours for fuel use (otherwise, even a flying fuel tank won't be abble =
to accelerate more then about 2 days)
Any hints if I am down the wrong part of the maze?

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

Date: Thu, 23 Mar 95 09:39:55 EST
From: ehenry@Newbridge.COM (Ethan Henry)
To: traveller@MPGN.COM
Subject: Re: Virus Incredulity
Message-ID: <9503231439.AA00916@Newbridge.COM>


Michael T. Richter writes in Digest 231:

>> 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?  
>
>Actually the two make no sense at an equal level.

Well, I'll start off by saying I don't actually have ANY TNE products,
so I haven't read the descriptions of what the virus is supposed to be.
However, it seems to be a cross between software "infection" and
rogue Cymbeline chips getting loose from some super-duper ship
transponders.

Someone else suggested that it might be possible to make
software-reconfigurable
hardware using PLA and FPGAs and other EE acronyms. This make the virus
somewhat more plausible as once it gets a little foothold, it could
turn your model 9/bis into a bazillion C-64s if it wanted to - or do
anything else it wants.

>> Item (2) is easy -- the two computers merely have to be in communication.
>
>My computer is currently in communication with another one through a serial
>link.  I challenge ANYONE, ANYWHERE (Bulgarian Underground Hackers
>included!) to infect me.  I'll leave the link up for as long as they like.
>
>The fact is that my computer simply does not execute any data sent from the
>remote system unless I explicitly do so.  It takes my direct actions to
>infect this computer system the way it is right now.

Hm. Well, neither to machines on the Internet, right? But the Morris
Internet worm got lots of machines, of varying hardware architectures
to run its code. How? By logging on, compiling it and running it.
Sneaky, eh? OK, they were almost all UNIX systems, if not all. To me,
when I heard about it, I really thought it couldn't be true - but it 
was. Just because YOUR TL 7/8 computer may be reasonably secure against
"the virus" doesn't mean other computers are just as secure. Especially
those computers who run something more complex than DOS or other
terminally single-user setups.

>Also, I challenge anyone to write a program whose binaries will run both on
>my PC here and on my AIX workstation at work.  The architectures of the two
>machines, starting from the CPU and working through peripheral interfaces
>and operating systems, are so radically different that I'm pretty sure that
>no single binary file could be a valid executable on both systems.

Hm. Well, they have binaries that run on PowerPCs and original Macs. How?
They stuff two programs into one file. This is a big gross hack (IMHO) and
the operating systems does have to know about it, but in principle, you
could do it for any two systems. It wouldn't be easy and it might require
some bizzareness, but it could probably be done for any two different
systems.
(This probably isn't what you meant, but just to show there's more than
one way to skin a cat...)

>  (I can't
>confirm this for certain -- I don't know the executable formats on both
>sides.  I do know, however, that the instruction sets of the PowerPC and the
>80386 are VERY different...)  The potential avenues for unresolvable
>differences go up exponentially for each type of machine you try to build
>a "universal binary" for.  (Hell, I'm pretty sure that it's not possible to
>build a single executable which is valid for my machine running OS/2 and my
>machine running Linux...)

Huh, actaully, this might be easier than building the aforementioned
PowerPC/AIX binary, as you can modify Linux. :) Just do the same thing -
stuff the two binaries into one big mess of a file, with it looking
like an OS/2 binary by default and have Linux recognize OS/2 bins
and go find it's own Linux code inside them.

Also, I think the TNE virus is more than the simple viruses you find
around today - it doesn't just infect your boot sector and pop up
"gimmie cookie" on the screen every few minutes - it is supposed to
be somewhat intelligent, isn't it?

So, I think the virus COULD spread, but the rate at which it seems to have
infected everything seems much less believable.

Somewhat less off topic than gun control,
Ethan

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

Date:          Thu, 23 Mar 1995 16:48:35 +0000
From: "Bob Brown" <Robert.Brown@newcastle.ac.uk>
To: traveller@MPGN.COM
Subject: Spinward Ho!
Message-ID: <199503231647.QAA14815@cheviot.ncl.ac.uk>

ican't help thinking that with the collapse of the 3rd Imperium and 
all, that Norris is still going to be a good position to pick up the 
pieces. After all the Spinward Marches is a secure position, I feel 
that the Virus would strengthen Norris's position, The Aslan will 
have had their support from the Hierate severed, bear in mind the 
proximity of the Aslan homeworld to the Imperium, it's plausable that 
the virus could well spread from the inside out with the Aslan. I 
accept that the Female Aslan in the occupied territories on the 
otherside of the Rift will take over control, however there is no 
more support from the Hierate, if Norris launched an attack there 
would be no back up, I'm assuming here that Humans outnumber the 
Aslan. The Vargr are going to be pretty occupied fending off the 
Virus, and the Zhodani have got their hands full with the Primordials 
as I recall, so arn't in a position to threaten Deneb.
Am I just being to simplistic here, to me Norris is a pretty strong 
power after the Virus. What do you think? 

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

Date:          Thu, 23 Mar 1995 01:50:55 PST
From: "Eric B. Smith" <doc@eznet.com>
To: traveller@MPGN.COM
Subject: VIRUS Insights
Message-ID: <9503231821.AA06929@foothills>

 Okay, I tried to stay out of this one as long as I could, but it
seems that many of us have forgotten some of the primary premises
behind Virus.

    1.  The Deyo chip was an adaptation of a silicon-based LIFE-FORM
       from from Cymbeline.  This being is amorfous in many ways and
       is capable of learning, replication and expansion.  Very much
       like a parasitic virus that was its progeny (Several sources
       including an old adventure <I don't remember the name, but it
       came out about the same time as the Chamax Plague.>).

    2.  Transponders are not just used for ship identification.
       As explained in one of the first TNE publications, they were
       used for transferring library data, updated astrogation
       information, cargo manifests and program updates.  This
       massive communications took place without outside
       intervention and anytime two vessels or transponder equipped
       entities (governments, ships, stations...) came in contact
       with each other.  Military vessels had the luxury of an off
       switch,

These two premises are combined (about 1120?) into a system of data
exchange that allowed fast, efficient spread of knowledge throughout
known space.  (Remember Library Data) With the Deyo chip in charge,
much of the communications took place without human knowledge.  Deyo
to Deyo exchanges were optimized such that it would be almost
impossible for organics to decode their language.  As the Deyo was
almost a community unto itself, that language would evolve
continuously.

Transmission of Virus was carried out in two main manners.

    1.  RF communications: In this manner, program updates and
       modifications would probably go unnoticed.  From personal
       experience, a programmed virus can spread throughout a
       community like wildfire, striking thousands of machines
       simultaneously when activated.  Many time there is no clue to
       the source and many virii can slip right past the best
       anti-virus software and hardware.  The argument that a virus
       linked with data are forgetting point 2 above, and if you
       think that because your computer speaks a different language,
       you are safe forgets that the Deyo is an intelligent
       life-form that is operating in it's native environment.  Of
       course, by rebooting the system or using a primative enough
       system (an IBM Pentium might be safe for example due to its
       lack of sophistication and Cymbeling technology).
    2.  Physical contact: The Deyo is a living entity (it's not
       carbon-based and therefore not an organism) which learns,
       feeds and replicates.  In the introductory adventure, it had
       the abilit y to interface with, enhance or control normal
       silicon-based electronics (an optically based system,
       therefore, would also be immune).  Once it is within physical
       contact with the "standard" computer system, it could and
       would act just like a biological virus, feeding off of and
       modifying the existing system.  (How much data and
       programming can be stored in a single DNA strand?)

C ombine the above two transmission modes with the original premises.
Strip a rival transponder to find out what platform is being used.
Broadcast the programming portion of infection and sit around until
it activates and disables the opponent.  Gain physical access to the
target and insert a small portion of Deyo.  Wait for the child to
grow up.

Well, that's the scenario I have been using in my campaigns.  Maybe
it will clarify someone's ideas or help to develop others.  As for
the social aspect of Virus, I'll save that for a later discussion.

Eric

Eric B. Smith
doc@eznet.com
*********************************************************************
* "Per ardua ad astra."                                             *
* (Hard and high to the stars!)                                     *
* -- Motto of the Mulvany family, adopted as official motto of      *
* the Royal Flying Corps and still in use as motto of the R.A.F.    *
* "Oh, well!"                                                       *
* -- Unofficial motto of Landing Force Party, USS Charles F. Adams. *
*********************************************************************

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

Date: Thu, 23 Mar 1995 13:55:10 -0500
From: "Harold D. Hale" <hdhale@smtpwpo.dayt.tasc.com>
To: traveller@MPGN.COM
Subject: A Known Star Update
Message-ID: <sf717d8d.039@smtpwpo.dayt.tasc.com>

In the Aldebaran Sector:

0104  Aldebaran      Alpha Tauri (Aldebaran)           K5III M2V

Change: Aldebaran 'A' has a companion M type main sequence star.

Please mark your astrogation charts accordingly....


Harold


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

Date: Thu, 23 Mar 1995 18:25:47 -0500
From: "Harold D. Hale" <hdhale@smtpwpo.dayt.tasc.com>
To: traveller@MPGN.COM
Subject: Re: TRAVELLER Digest 231
Message-ID: <sf71bce3.051@smtpwpo.dayt.tasc.com>

Cynthia, having fully recovered from her terminal illness, writes:

>Harold (not Howard) Hale:
>
><sarcasm on, but with a smile>
>Can I read your copy of the Soviet secret projects budgets?
>I bet it's fascinating reading... <sarcasm off>  :-) :-)

   Wouldn't you know it, I threw it away after the collaspe of the
Soviet Union, darn it. <sarcasm noted and lobbed back across the court>

>I don't know about the Soviets, but we spent a great deal of money on
>such activities -- all very, very hush-hush, Top Secret, probably
>off-budget stuff.  It's part of SIGINT, signals intelligence.  

   Which is why you know that we spent a lot and can tell us without
asking our security clearance, right?  :)

>The U.S.Navy had a whole rating (that's MOS to you army types...)
>devoted to it who weren't allowed to even say what their rating
>(Cryptological Technician) did.  They  had a handful of major sites that
>did nothing but that, and various supporting sites.

   SIGNIT folks study all frequencies in an attempt to establish who's
using what.  They also try to break codes and analyze radio traffic.
They were primarily responsible for the Americans stunning victory
at the Battle of Midway, IM (and many historians) HO.  Does this mean
they were specifically looking for Soviet transponder codes?  Only they
(the SIGINT guys) can tell us for sure.  Another good question which
I know no one is allowed to answer even if they were looking for them:
did they succeed in finding them?


John Kovalic says about transponders:

>Too true! Why couldn't the Virus be factually based and extrapolated
>from real-world technology, like those nifty Jump Drive thingies that
>make so much scientific sense...

   Ouch! Good shot to the head, John.


Dan Post posts on Bonded Superdense:

> Someone was making comments on putting armour on planes.
>This brings up a  point on FF& S. It only provides 1 type of armour at
>any tech level.  

   Good point.  How about this--why is it neccessary to use iron for
the process?  Could elements with a lower atomic weight be used,
such as titanium or aluminum?  How about composites,  perhaps a
superdense graphite?


Derek Wildstar writes:

>More or less.  Assuming that there is any type of security system in
>place, the Virus on computer A will have to convince, cajole, or
>otherwise trick computer B to allow it sufficient access to do what it
>wants.

   All that would be neccessary would be for computer B to allow
computer A the capability to download things in something other than
the TL 15 equivilent of ASCII.  Binary transfers (or the TL 15 equivilent)
went on all the time in the Imperium and elsewhere without human or
sapient supervision.  It was assumed that existing computers were
sophisicated enough to detect anything out of the ordinary and deal
with the problem, or inform someone or even another computer of a
possible infection.  Virus was programmed to get by all known
anti-viral programs, and could even "play dead" if it had to until active
attempts to clear it from a system ceased.

>For some computers, this should be relatively easy - for others hard or
>impossible.  Even the best sentient cracker can't breach every
>computer every time, particularly when the security system is set up to
>be properly paranoid.

   True, but Virus was (is) extremely patient, and would catch many
systems while their guard was down.  Remember, the Imperium was
a highly automated society, so systems can't be too paranoid, least
people get POed with them and buy something else with less of an
attitude.

>Even more important, to my mind, is that Charted Space is a large,
>diverse area.  It stretches my credibility a _lot_ to postulate that every
>computer manufactured in the Imperium, from about TL-7 through
>TL-15, and whether designed on Terra, Vland, or Glisten and intended
>to control equipment from automatic forklifts to starships, military or
>civillian uses the same architecture and is vulnerable enough to a Virus
>like you describe. 

   The Virus used whatever mode of operation worked best for it at the
moment.  Remember you are talking about a sapient creature, with the
ability to learn and improvise and acccumulate knowledge over each
succeeding generation.  The tricks it pulled on people its first month in
exsistence wouldn't work as well the second time it swept through an
area, so it would employ new methods.  

   Also, the Virus didn't destroy every single computer system in the
Imperium.  There are worlds no doubt that have a completely functional
TL whatever computer net available to whoever shows up with a life
support system (which was wiped out  by the Virus when it erased all
the operations software and fried  the environmental controls) and a
power supply (to replace the one destroyed when a Virus-infected ship
took a swan dive into the one functioning fusion power plant left on the
world after Hard Times).  Many systems simply stopped working due to a
lack of spare parts (interstellar trade having been effectively snuffed
out--it's hard to build serious circuitry out of "stone knives and bear
skins, ask a certain Vulcan  :)  ).  Still others may have been functional
right up to the day that the local TEDs decided to canabalize them for
spare electronic components for their grav tanks, or were victims of
"collatoral damage" in one of the many civil wars that racked worlds
throughout the Imperium during the era after the Collapse.  Even today,
there are pocket empires here and there using some of the same
equipment they were in 1130--and have begun making crude copies
of it as they establish a new technological baseline from which to
start the next generation of computer equipment.

>It exceeds the capacity of my suspension of disbelief to postulate that
>the Hivers, the Aslan, the K'Kree, and the Vargr also used this very
>same  architecture and technology, with the same security flaws as
> the Imperium, and therefore suffered a corresponding Virus infection.

   Again, the Virus can improve and learn.  It might take some time for
it to figure out Aslan computer standards, but it would with a vengence.

>What amazes me about the whole "Official Line" from GDW is how
>unbelievable their line is: that this Virus clobbered every computer in
>known space, 

   Again, not true.

>killing 90% of the population of the Imperium

   That figure varies from sector to sector, subsector to subsector,
and even world to world.  Some worlds have populations larger now
than before the Collapse.

>and plunging worlds into a dark age so deep that 60 years later, the
>grandchildren of Imperial spacers (mostly) didn't believe the 'legends' of
>their ancestor's interstellar exploits.  

   We have children in school today who can't tell you who Neil
Armstrong is and you ask this question?

>And that 10 years after _that_, worlds are building starships again? 
>Really, now!

   Only those worlds that survived as part of a pocket empire, or are
getting outside assistance (i.e. the Hivers)  in their recovery.


Michael T. Richter (any relation to...probably not) writes:

>My computer is currently in communication with another one through a
>serial link.  I challenge ANYONE, ANYWHERE (Bulgarian Underground
>Hackers included!) to infect me.  I'll leave the link up for as long as they
>like.

   Nice set of steel balls, but I wouldn't tempt fate....

>The fact is that my computer simply does not execute any data sent
>from the remote system unless I explicitly do so.  It takes my direct
>actions to infect this computer system the way it is right now.

   Virus would arrive at your system's doorstep as something that looked
totally harmless.  After you let it in, whaam!  Assuming that you didn't
fall for that, maybe it would just skip your computer and go wipe out
the system that control the local power plant.  Hope you have a good
generator.

>Also, I challenge anyone to write a program whose binaries will run
>both on my PC here and on my AIX workstation at work. 

   Probably can't but you're assuming that things like seperate system
architectures for PCs and workstations exist at TL 15 or 14 or 13 or 12
or 11....  You seem to be stuck on what your system can and can not do
now.  Hell, the space shuttle can't get jump to Alpha Centauri and back
in two weeks, yet I'm sure you buy off on FTL travel.  Why can't your
imagination work that well in envisioning computer technology in the
future?
 
>Virus spread through transponder systems, not through physical
>contact.  Or did these silicon life forms have the ability to "crawl"
>through radio (or whatever) waves?

   Once again, with feeling.  While the transponder systems were the
primary means by which the Virus spread on an interstellar level, it was
by no means the only way.  The Virus initially existed in "hardwired"
form (on a chip), but their offspring (copies not the original) could exist
in whatever form (hardwired or as software) best suited its purpose.


Harold (not Howard, as Cynthia pointed out)

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

Date: Thu, 23 Mar 1995 18:28:50 -0600 (CST)
From: ThorC@UH.EDU (thor christensen)
To: traveller@MPGN.COM
Subject: combat system
Message-ID: <01HOHH34VQCY000RAB@Post-Office.UH.EDU>

Ever since the beginning of time ( or at least Origins 1977) when I first
got my copy of Treveller I was dis-enchanted with their personal combat
system.  The New Era stuff looks exciting, but the combat sytem again looks
nothing if not cumbersome.  Is there anyone out there that disagrees?
Agrees?  Is willing to help educate me and train me?  Anyone in Houston?
Texas?
Thor Christensen
Assistant Director
Center for Public Policy
University of Houston
Houston, TX  77204-5341

phone      (713) 743-3975
fax:          (713) 743-3978


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

Date: Thu, 23 Mar 1995 16:17:04 -0800 (PST)
From: John Muir Macpherson <muirmac@uclink.berkeley.edu>
To: traveller@MPGN.COM
Subject: Striker & Alternate Campaign
Message-ID: <Pine.3.89.9503231513.A4438-0100000@uclink.berkeley.edu>


Dan Post wrote:
>  I have been working on writing up the striker campaign I
> recently ran. One of the things I want to come up with for
> my next campaign are rules for transporting ground forces
> in spacecraft.   One of the basic questions is how many
> vehicles can I fit in a Far Trader cargo hold? I came up with this
> for a first attempt....

	I liked this rule.  If you come up with anything else for your 
Striker campaign, please post it to the list!

Michael Richter wrote:
> The flexibility and extensibility of FF&S made designing a whole
> universe's technology pretty simple, actually.  I'm still working on
> getting the ludicrous engagement distances of Brilliant Lances fixed
> up, though.  Lasers shouldn't be effective (as weapons) much beyond 
> planetary orbital ranges.  This changes the face of starship combat
> drastically...

	I'm engaged in designing an alternate world somewhat similar to 
your own.  I'd be particularly interested to see what you come up with 
for ship designs to account for these shorter range lasers.  Are you 
using gravitic focusing at all?  How about meson guns?  I haven't been 
using either, and, in general, I've found it makes for large, heavily 
armored ships with several large laser bays along the sides of the ship 
(to accomodate the focal arrays).  It also makes missiles much more 
important.  I've also been fiddling with changing the time and space 
scale for BL because at the range you mentioned above, most of the action 
takes place within a single hex.  How have you handled this?

	-- Muir Macpherson

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

End of TRAVELLER Digest 232
***************************
