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Subject:   Traveller-digest V1996 #218
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Traveller-digest            Sunday, 7 July 1996        Volume 1996 : Number 218

(R)1996. Traveller is a registered trademark of FarFuture Enterprises.
All rights reserved.

The following topics are covered in this digest:

         1. Re: Hand Computers
         2. Re: INS Prefix calling ISS Suggestive
         3. Traveller non-humans
         4. Writers Digest
         5. Re: FAQ Additions

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

From: jlindsay@direct.ca (James Lindsay)
Date: Sun, 07 Jul 1996 08:51:07 GMT
Subject: Re: Hand Computers

On Sat, 6 Jul 1996 21:14:56 -0500 (CDT), Joe Walsh wrote:

a bunch of REALLY enthusiastic questions [snipped]

> Geez, I'm just full of questions tonight! :)  Sorry if I'm overwhelming 
> you, but I think this is a technology which can be explored a lot 
> more...even without a lot of hand-waving over how things work.

Joe's gone off the deep end.  Somebody restrain him before he hurts himself
8-)

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

From: Wes Payne <n9548326@cc.wwu.edu>
Date: Sun, 7 Jul 1996 03:26:05 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: Re: INS Prefix calling ISS Suggestive

Thus spake sudet@well.com (Glenn M. Goffin):

> INS Imperial Navy Ship
> ISS Imperial Star Ship or Imperial Space Ship (i.e., any non-navy ship
> registered to a member world of the Imperium); non-navy ships could also
> follow the conventions of their registry worlds:  ESS Efate Star Ship; M/V
> (I don't know what it means, but it looks cool); shipname Maru; etc.
> IISS Imperial Interstellar Scout Service ship

Them poor Aslan.  They probably have designators based on the owning 
clan.  Otherwise, well... fill in the blank...  The Beavis or Butthead in 
you might appreciate it.

- ----------------------------------------------------------------------
Wes Payne, known to you as:  n9548326@cc.wwu.edu
Western Washington University -- Bellingham, WA -- The Great Northwet!  
"What is FUN?  Why is it usually colored BRIGHT PINK, and where does
 it go when JESSE HELMS comes around?" 
- ----------------------------------------------------------------------


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

From: Wes Payne <n9548326@cc.wwu.edu>
Date: Sun, 7 Jul 1996 03:45:18 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: Traveller non-humans

Thus spake Derek Stanley <dstanley@direct.ca>

[previous discussion snipped]

> Regency source book has decent, not extensive but decent, information on 
> Vargr, and Aslan's, they also do the Joes and the Darin's but lets face 
> it both of these are just human sub-species.

I still find that the DGP sourcebooks are the best resources for the 
first three races you mentioned.  The Regency Sourcebook is, 
unfortunately, my only resource (besides library data) on the Darrians.
 
> If you've got a sence of humor "Sneaks and Geeks" is an excellent source 
> book.  Unlike the old Traveller alien supplements where they told you 
> everything in "Sneaks and Geeks" there's still a certian amount of 
> mystery about the aliens, which I think is better.

It really helps to not take it, or yourself, seriously while reading 
"Aliens of the Rim."  For all of the bad jokes (with which life is full 
of, unfortunately), it is still a good resource if for no other reason 
than the player-readable sections give your PCs just enough rope 
(information) to hang themselves with.  I also like the way they treated 
that darn original text on Hivers (Hiver Mechnod Photo Hello) which I 
first saw as MT library data, and could never really stomach as 
originally presented (no offense intended to the original authors-- how 
am I to know that they didn't intend it that way?).

Actually, I've found that the 'bad jokes' can serve to keep PCs on their 
toes, or trip them up.  Imagine the looks on their faces when you tell 
them that they're having their butts kicked by Santa Claws.

- ----------------------------------------------------------------------
Wes Payne, known to you as:  n9548326@cc.wwu.edu
Western Washington University -- Bellingham, WA -- The Great Northwet!  
"What is FUN?  Why is it usually colored BRIGHT PINK, and where does
 it go when JESSE HELMS comes around?" 
- ----------------------------------------------------------------------


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

From: Rob_Prior@nynet.nybe.north-york.on.ca (Rob Prior)
Date: 07 Jul 1996 06:54:17 GMT
Subject: Writers Digest

The same ad for the Writers Digest book club that I answered was inside the
front cover of the lastest (August I think) Analog.  I have seen the Writers
Digest mystery series (How-dunnit) in the Ottawa mystery bookshop, so
obviously booksellers can get them.  Not idea about addresses though (and I'm
now packed and leaving for a while - all magazines put away).

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

From: Wes Payne <n9548326@cc.wwu.edu>
Date: Sun, 7 Jul 1996 04:25:14 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: Re: FAQ Additions

Thus spake jamesd@spirit.com.au (James Dempsey):

[snip]

>   Could each of the participants in the debates on Virus and Rocks please email 
> me a description of their position including their conclusions/agreements and 
> the outstanding points of contention. I will assemble them into a summary and 
> send that back to those who contributed, for approval.

What?  And start a new round of us arguing?  We'll be disagreeing about 
what we agreed about!  I mean, has it been settled, and is their any true 
agreement on what common points, if any, were reached?  For my part, I've 
totally ignored the Rocks debate, instead focusing my energies on the 
Virus debate.  Although being pro-Virus, I have found some points of 
agreement with the anti-Virus crowd, or perhaps they've found some with 
me.  Who knows, and who wants to commit something like that to record?  
Since we can't get agreement in either camp on even what exactly Virus is 
(some people have no idea what the canon is, others aren't sure, and 
still others ARE sure, but only accept it with certain personal 
reservations or modifications), how can we logically draw up a list of 
conclusions that have been reached?

I'm not really sure that either debate has been solved, or is even 
solvable, considering all of the variables.  Or perhaps I'm just being 
defeatist.  If I were to write the FAQ entry, I'd say that the anti-Virus 
crowd dismiss the possibility of the Virus phenomenon because it does not 
obey conventional wisdom in computer science.  The pro-Virus crowd 
supports the possibility of the Virus phenomenon on the basis that it is 
something that the paradigms of "Program" or "Data" cannot be applied to, 
and therefore the conventional wisdom of computer science does not apply 
to it, as it actually has its basis in silicon-based life rather than the 
artificial systems which it subverts.  The anti-Virus camp, extrapolating 
from the evolution of contemporary computer systems the probable 
properties of such devices in the 57th century, and citing laws of 
mathematics and computer science which are immutable (or at least don't 
seem likely to change even over such a long span of time) and therefore 
applicable to 57th century computers, argue that even such capable 
systems, extensively integrated with other devices and manufactured 
according to widely adopted standards (the Imperial Data Package) are so 
unlikely to even execute, unexamined and without human input, the program 
code or data which comprises the invading Virus, that the possibility of 
such a Virus causing the Collapse is not worth considering.

The pro-Virus camp, proceeding from the argument that any assertion on 
the nature of future technology cannot be proved with sufficient 
certainty to dismiss the possibility of Virus, argues that the computers 
of the 57th century are actually an ideal environment for the 
development and sustenance of Virus which, even in its primary 
generation, had a deep and intimate working knowledge of all Imperial 
designed computing systems (derived from the IDP) and the ability to 
learn to subvert those systems not manufactured in accordance with it.  
Such a phenomenon inflicted on the societies present in Charted Space, 
whose infrastructures were primarily high-tech with massive computer 
integration, could easily have caused such a massive, destructive event 
as the Collapse.

Of course, if I were to write such an entry for the FAQ, I'd be darn sure 
to note that I'm ultimately not speaking for anybody but myself on this 
issue.

- ----------------------------------------------------------------------
Wes Payne, known to you as:  n9548326@cc.wwu.edu
Western Washington University -- Bellingham, WA -- The Great Northwet!  
"What is FUN?  Why is it usually colored BRIGHT PINK, and where does
 it go when JESSE HELMS comes around?" 
- ----------------------------------------------------------------------


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

End of Traveller-digest V1996 #218
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