Rebel Earth No?

[Quaddy]

So it works perfectly. Laras is meaning to be complimentary, but Mia can take it as mean, too. Especially as she's basically saying she's only really good at falling down.

[Quaddy]

He's*

[Zephyr Shenkiken]

Are you not getting my messages Quaddy?

[Quaddy]

I haven't gotten any alerts that you sent messages, but having checked them...

Yes. Ferry to Belfast, which is where he meets Mia. They are driven to Kilkenny, where they then get out and walk.

[Quaddy]

So...watching the news. There's this amazing program available on the New Yorker website for anonymous sources to send stuff to reporters and I think it'd be something really awesome for the Rebellion to use.

Basically, you can upload information to the internet and send it, and between the time it leaves you and gets to your destination, it basically gets encrypted to hell and then split up and sent through a bunch of other networks before it is finally put back together at the destination. This encrypted file is then removed from the computer and taken to another computer that is neither connected to the internet nor in possession of a hard drive before the file is decrypted. So...in essence, total anonymity for the original source. And it's open source, too. If someone needs to get in contact with the original source, they upload a message to a sort of forum, and the original source can choose whether or not to reply.

We could totally work with this a tweak it for our rebellion's network, yes?

[Zephyr Shenkiken]

Heck yeah we can That's pretty cool.

[Matt]

That is pretty awesome. We have something like that for the Times here - but I didn't know the details. =) Definitely usable. So how long have they had this tech? Also... just a thought... I guess it would be fine as long as it was all kept within Rebel Tech??? I imagine that even with the NYorker there will be ways of tracing things back because it'll be their technology. So if the principles are the same but then with unique Rebel algorithms etc???

[Quaddy]

Actually, the guy who developed the program is dead...He killed himself after the government decided to prosecute him for stealing JSTOR articles in an attempt to make them free to the public. If you don't have JSTOR, it's an online repository for scholarly articles that normally costs a lot of money to access if you aren't a student. He wanted free access to that stuff for everyone. So...no, they have no way of accessing that information because it isn't their technology, it's someone else's and that guy is dead.

I was thinking this was part of the WWN that they develop. Perhaps it's Omega tech that they steal and manipulate for the purposes of the network. Helio could steal it from Omega using his bug thingy and Charon, who has access to Omega code from his time as a double agent, could manipulate it.

[Matt]

We have JSTOR. It's a right godsend. I tend to think that scholars get paid little enough as it is. Why the hell shouldn't people have to pay to read their work when something like this stops the assholes of this world plaigerising people who have actually done the work...? I mean, I'll miss it when I leave Edinburgh, sure. But you can get in via a lot of libraries too here. But sad that the guy killed himself... He was clearly a smart smart guy. =)

Sounds interesting about the tech stuff for potential WWN though. This way we could also connect it to Denny and the Lapontes in France, as well as the South American contingent. It would link everyone literally, but the development of the tech could be a good way to introduce them all and their different views on the tech.

Sorry lots of tech tech tech.

[Quaddy]

His idea was that learning shouldn't be something only the rich could afford. He, like so many of the tech people of today, was a very egalitarian individual.

[Quaddy]

OK, so on to more important things...

I think Denny/Charon at Blarney, Helio/Miguel in Rio, and your French peeps would make a great triad for the development of our network, and they can each bring something different.

-Rio can bring the idea of this open source, totally anonymous sendy bit.

-Blarney can bring knowledge of Omega code, and coding skills.

-France can bring even more coding skills and the apparatus they already have in place for their own network.

What do you think?

[Matt]

So the scholars should have to write their theories and ideas and get little to nothing for it too? I think that's foolish. And I think half of the time these egalitarian types forget that there's also the person trying to earn a living on the other end of the scale. Someone who needs people to buy their intellectual property in order to have a livelihood.

Considering this is likely going to be part of my imminent future, I can say I sympathise with the desire to spread knowledge but I think it's naive to think that it's just about the rich getting their education and leaving the masses to struggle without the same resources. Every British school, college and university has access to these sources - if not JSTOR then to various similar sites. Many libraries do too. If a person is so eager to learn that they desperately need JSTOR then they can invest in free memberships to libraries, to going to school, to maybe attending university - albeit this latter is less necessary than some think.

I don't know. I'm quite passionate about the value of intellectual property haha. It's why I buy the boxsets of tv shows even when I've watched them all already - because if I'm going to watch something online, I want to make sure I've contributed back to the cast and crew of shows... So... hmmm... yeah. That came out a bit more forceful than likely necessary but I'm going to put it down to the fact that I'm writing a dozen philosophy essays atm.

As for RE. I think you're right about a good Triad. The risk will be... do they want to include the Russians in that?

[Quaddy]

I wouldn't say I'm not a huge proponent of intellectual property. Illegal downloading is a big no-no for me. But I do believe in a wider dissemination of ideas than we currently have here in the States. JSTOR, for example, should be available in ALL libraries, not just University libraries, where only currently enrolled students can have access to it. I'm not saying I agree with stealing articles from JSTOR, no, and I think whatshisface (I can never remember his name) should have paid some sort of penalty for that, but I do wish databases were more widely available to the populace. Through legitimate pathways.

Basically, I think someone should be able to go to their local library and use JSTOR. Like...the library should pay for the service and let members access it. Because they don't now.

[Quaddy]

Anyway, in order to bring this forum back to the campfire it's ostensibly about...

I don't know how I feel about the Russians. Perhaps that's the reason Charon suggests sending someone over there? To have an envoy for the WWN? Someone trustworthy who can help develop the network over there. Charon doesn't want to send Laras because he needs Laras at Blarney, but they can't find anyone else who might be suitable, so no one goes until Laras up and leaves following the fallout with Mia. And then he returns once he finds out that Russia doesn't want in to the overall Rebellion; they just want to destroy shit, and think the Rebellion is all sorts of weak and shit. And Laras is no terrorist.

Actually, I think I like the idea that Laras returns because he formally breaks with his Father and is all like "bitch, I ain't a terrorist" and storms out. And only when he gets back to Blarney does he find out Mia has gone on this mission that will quite likely end up with her dead (and this is BEFORE everyone finds out Omega knows they're coming), and decides to go after her.

[Matt]

They were originally meant to be quite a big part and I know we had plans for them... They've certainly developed more and more into terrorists but I don't want them to be black&white bad guys. They're not the absolute bad guys and what I'm going to try and show with Miguel/Lev is how every enclave has its evils. ie. how the French now want to kill Miguel but the Russians have taken him in - despite the non-Gaian blood that is oft viewed by the European rebels as distasteful. Similarly, I want to develop the difference between the individuals involved and the larger whole. So Lev is fully supportive of Miguel and I think there's a subtle attraction between them that could be developed to show that the Russians aren't all monsters. Admittedly, they are more bitter about everything - they're lead by a man whose main premise is revenge; their country was largely destroyed and they're largely despised by the Dekhlans. It's a more extreme and prolonged version of Rio.

I think they have a lot of manpower, which is part of the reason they're useful for the rebellion. And I think they have a lot of technology that's been looted from the Omega bases... that's the sort of implication of Laras' father and the 'surrounded by computers' thing. I don't think they necessarily have it all working but instead of sending it off to Bermuda, they kind of hoard it and try to turn it into something much worse. Like... the synterine bomb thing? They'd want to drop it on cities that are v.pro Omega.

Mhhhh... I remember half of conversations but I'm too full of Hegel to really focus for long haha.

[Quaddy]

Get Hegel out of your mind first. We don't need syntheses here.

Your time in Russia will definitely let you develop them more. I am fine with making this campfire a lot longer and better developed than Renegade.

[Quaddy]

I had a dream last night that Matt and I were celebrity authors because of the Earth Rising trilogy.

We were gangsta!

[Matt]

Such gangstas. That saying gangsta comes out like gang-stir.

[Quaddy]

Well, we are pretty gangster, too.

[Zephyr Shenkiken]

So aside from incredibly late and delayed, how was the add guys?

[Quaddy]

It was pretty good, man.

[Zephyr Shenkiken]

Okay, pm me any complaints please

[Quaddy]

No complaints. I think Matt giggled at the Ferryman's accent, so he might want you to change that, but I had no problems with it.

[Zephyr Shenkiken]

Oh sweet. Yeah, he said he'd make some corrections and send them to you for me lol. Now that I look at it, it sounds pretty damn Scottish.

[Quaddy]

I don't rightly know what it sounds like...it is fun to try and figure out, though.