			    TRAVELLER Digest 418

Topics covered in this issue include:

  1) Anti-Virus Measures - a strange idea
	by aswfh@acad2.alaska.edu (William F. Hostman)
  2) Re: Some FFS Help Please
	by aswfh@acad2.alaska.edu (William F. Hostman)
  3) Correction.
	by toad@ugcs.caltech.edu (Benjamin Lane)
  4) ??
	by toad@ugcs.caltech.edu (Benjamin Lane)

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Date: Fri, 15 Sep 1995 16:56:16 -0800
From: aswfh@acad2.alaska.edu (William F. Hostman)
To: traveller@MPGN.COM
Subject: Anti-Virus Measures - a strange idea
Message-ID: <v01530501ac7fcb91b4ad@[137.229.100.53]>

Rather than disconnect the internal nets, run a system of "dongles". Each
terminal is connected to each of the sub nets, but the physical connection
requires a dongle to complete. Only with the right dongle can you connect
into the bridge circut from the engineering terminal. Make the dongle a two
sided card, and only allow one card slot per terminal, and a given terminal
will only be able to access the net set up on the card. The card could also
have a (separate) chip for configuration details for the user.

For those unfamiliar with the term, a dongle is a small device used for
(currently) copy protection. it contains a firmware ID code, or in a few,
very rare cases, it passes data on a specific throughput path to allow
access.

More specifics: the jump computations could be reduced down below the size
of a viable Virus kernel, and be routed through a small, isolated machine
with a built-in checksum. It has two dongle options: NavComp and
JumpDriveLPU.
it works thusly:
1) the navigator generates the course.
2) the navigator gets a checksum.
3) he inserts the dongle to the course buffer, and transfers the jump
commands to the course buffer.
4) he removes the NavComp-CrsBuf dongle, checks the checksum.
5) he then tells engineering the course is in the buffer, and what the
checksum should be.
6) at jump time, the engineer checks the checksum, and then inserts his
dongle for CrsBuf-JmpDrvLPU.
7) Jump engage proceeds, and the engineer pulls his dongle.

an extra step could be included to verify the course.

since any connection is throgh special buffers, which are not capable of
executing code, AND all routes in and out are restricted to data read only,
the Virus could not change the course after it hit the buffer. The
computing is still highly distributed, requires oversight, but the data
flow is only open when in use. Also, it allows for more automated
operations, but also prevents rapid infection.

Comments?

remember... this is just an idea thrown out for your consideration.


-Wil

William F. Hostman

EMail:          ASWFH@Orion.Alaska.EDU
HomePage:       HTTP://orion.alaska.edu/~aswfh/home.html

"History is the story of the life of societies; geography is the study of
what they evolved in."



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

Date: Fri, 15 Sep 1995 16:56:10 -0800
From: aswfh@acad2.alaska.edu (William F. Hostman)
To: traveller@MPGN.COM
Subject: Re: Some FFS Help Please
Message-ID: <v01530500ac7fc8c40c48@[137.229.100.53]>

>Thanks for the help.  Now I've just got one more questions (doesn't
>this get annoying?  8).  I decided to settle for .07cm of armor which
>would equal an AV of 1.  No, I've got a simple chassis and a moderate
>front slope.  This makes the front AV 1.5.  Do I round this up to 2 or
>round it down to 1?  Also, lets say that by some freak occurence I
>ended up with another fractional value like 2.7, does this become an AV
>of 3 or not?
>
>       --Jerry

I would round it down, but (based upon examples in T:TNE) it appears they
(GDW) rounded normally (IE, as they taught you in algebra; =>.5 goes up).

Also, a warning about the design example: I forgot to figure in the maximum
speed from the hull configuration. Mea culpa, mea maxima culpa.

In truth, jerry, pick a method that reflects the feel of your campaign; if
you're running a "hard as nails" approach, go ahead and round down... but
whatever you do, be consistant.


-Wil

William F. Hostman

EMail:          ASWFH@Orion.Alaska.EDU
HomePage:       HTTP://orion.alaska.edu/~aswfh/home.html

"History is the story of the life of societies; geography is the study of
what they evolved in."



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

Date: Fri, 15 Sep 1995 17:56:09 -0700
From: toad@ugcs.caltech.edu (Benjamin Lane)
To: traveller@MPGN.COM
Subject: Correction.
Message-ID: <199509160056.RAA24754@beat.ugcs.caltech.edu>


Oops, I made a mistake in the last message concerning TL-16 CNO cycle 
fusion; the cycle should be C + p, N+p, O+p, reforms carbon...
chalk one up to late nights and no easy access to my astrphysics 
textbooks.
cheers,
/ben

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

Date: Fri, 15 Sep 1995 23:43:23 -0700
From: toad@ugcs.caltech.edu (Benjamin Lane)
To: traveller@MPGN.COM
Subject: ??
Message-ID: <199509160643.XAA28259@lust.ugcs.caltech.edu>


I haven't received any Travellers Digest message for two days now.
What's up?
/ben

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End of TRAVELLER Digest 418
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