Date: Thu, 12 Apr 2007 17:03:30 -0400
From: Deke Kassabian
To: engineering@isc.upenn.edu,
Subject: the cyberpunk version of the PennNet-21 story (fwd)
Message-ID: <AF7BE6B5D89C77FB11E33C2B@wal3097.isc-net.upenn.edu>
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X-Soup-Of-The-Day:  Split Pea and Ham

Folks,

Each of the three editions of PennNet-21 included use case "stories". 
Some were far fetched, most were ambitious, all, looking back, are 
humorous.

The first, written 10 years ago and printed 9 years ago was this:
<http://www.net.isc.upenn.edu/networking/PennNet-21/1st/story.html>

Shortly after I wrote that, I wrote the "cyberpunk" version.  Many of 
you won't have seen this, so I'm digging it out and re-sending it :)

^Deke

------------ Forwarded Message ------------
Date: Friday, September 25, 1998 2:04 PM -0400
From: Dikran Kassabian
To: NESS, wehrle, deifer, gerber, esnyder
Subject: the cyberpunk version of the PennNet-21 story

Shortly after I wrote the story that appears in the PennNet-21
document, I distributed this one to a few of you.  This is only funny
if you've ever read cyberpunk books.  And it's funnier if you read the
actual PennNet-21 story first.

^Deke

On Thu, Dec 18, 1997 at 10:46:01PM -0500, Dikran Kassabian wrote:
>
> A minor edit of the story I sent earlier, just for fun :-)
> ^Deke
>
> -----
> Biz in the Sprawl
>
> It was just after dusk when Skiz slipped quietly into the big
> building where he had worked until only days ago.  The neon sign at
> the Mondo Spoke buzzed softly.  It was about 30 minutes before his
> scheduled vid-call, and Skiz set Blitz, his handheld comp, next to
> his old desktop deck.  The handheld and desktop exchanged session
> keys almost immediately and started to auto synch their data over
> infrared.  His backdoor into his old desktop deck was still good.
>
> "Any contacts, Warlock?", Skiz asked the deck.
>
> "Three," his deck replied in Skiz's favorite jazz-girl voice, "two
> from callers on your hot shot list, one that seems to be just an
> advert call." Skiz tells Warlock to jack the two hot messages to
> Blitz, where he can check them later on the go, and to flush the
> advert. "I keyed some vid time for later," Skiz whispers, shaking
> his head slowly and rubbing a hand over his two-day beard.  "Bring
> up a filter list."
>
> Schedule information for his reserved vid-call, and three scheduled
> vid shows he bid on last week display on the deck in a box just
> above the Hosaka Exchange ticker.  Most of the blue-chips were way
> down, Skiz noticed.
>
> He confirmed the video call and clicked 'reject' on two of the
> multicasts and 'accept' on one. Warlock completed the network
> reservation requests necessary for all of it to be routed here.
>
> One of the vid shows Skiz rejected was NEWS83 coverage of a
> revolutionary rally on a Sprawl crackdown.  Skiz had taken part in
> the early doings on this particular battle and felt a pang of guilt
> at his failure to follow through.  But things were different lately.
> And showing up just now in such a public place might not be his best
> move.
>
> He decided to take a moment to search a likely directory for some
> current information on the Mil-Pol movements and ended up listening
> to a short audio clip of recent testimony by 3Jane, an old
> girlfriend of his.  Jacking back into his deck, Skiz pulled up his
> sched-tool and clicked up the cipher level to max before trying to
> arrange a meeting with 3Jane.  Skiz had expected her sched-tool to
> answer, but surprisingly, the call was "picked up" in voice-only
> interactive mode. Skiz didn't know for certain whether 3Jane picked
> up the call on an old style handset or on her deck.  He knew she
> sometimes preferred the antiques.
>
> "Been a while, 3J.  Things okay?"
>
> "You shouldn't call, Skiz.  Things aren't safe here."  After a
> pause she asked, "You need my help?"
>
> Skiz jacked out without warning and without entirely knowing why.
> Maybe  he wasn't expecting the voice contact.  Maybe he thought
> better of making contact at all tonight.
>
> He glanced over at the tight screen on Blitz and saw that he still
> had almost 20 minutes before his vid-call, so he picked up the
> little comp and walked down the empty hall through the purple
> shadows toward the java machine.  He had a long evening ahead...
>
> -----


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