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Fahim is being a weenie. He has a question about a short story he started a long time ago and is now thinking of finishing. You know, for fame, fortune, that sort of thing.
He's got 1200 words written - all from late 1990s - and the opening scene is a hacker getting past cyber security. There's a virtual creature he has to get past and, well, I say it's been done to death, he says where, I say I don't remember story names and such, and he says that I remember it because I've read this story before and that's where I'm remembering it from and therefore it doesn't exist outside of his imagination. Whew!
So. Has it? Been done to death, that is? If so, could you quote the name of the piece, the author, and a little bit about it? Pretty please with a cherry on top?
posted
Oh, and Fahim being a weenie - that was because he wouldn't post this question himself. He's too lazy. So he got me to do it for him. So, yeah, he'll be reading this thread, so please, feel free to call him a weenie, too. Posts: 8355 | Registered: Apr 2003
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posted
Hi Fahim! Go smack quid with a weenie for us.
Even if a story has been "done to death" (and the hacker thing does seem familiar) readers don't always care as long as it is done well. Waifs still triumph over adversity, boys still meet girls, and the spy still saves the world through, uh, competent spying. Tell your story so that we care about it, and it is still a good story.
posted
Well, in all fairness, I did tell him that, too. Although I probably used the words, "It better be done well enough to make us care." Or something like that. Posts: 8355 | Registered: Apr 2003
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posted
If he does it with a different take on it then it doesn't matter how many times it has been done.
But what you're describing reminds me a LOT of the Shadowrun books. The only one that I remember reading was "Wolf and Raven" by Michael A. Stackpole (he also wrote the X-Wing books for Star Wars).
It's a series of stories about a group of runners and one of them is a matrix hacker. Much of the hacking referred to in the stories is done on another plane where they hackers have to battle against simulated creatures or what not in order to get past ICE (some sort of computer programs) to access the data they want. I'd consider looking there if he's trying to specifically avoid sounding generic or copycat.
At the very least, it's a good read!
Posts: 21898 | Registered: Nov 2004
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quote:He's got 1200 words written - all from late 1990s - and the opening scene is a hacker getting past cyber security. There's a virtual creature he has to get past and, well, I say it's been done to death, he says where, I say I don't remember story names and such, and he says that I remember it because I've read this story before and that's where I'm remembering it from and therefore it doesn't exist outside of his imagination. Whew!
Yeah, it was done to death back in the '90s. "Beat this virtual piece of ICE" was a major trope in rip-off cyberpunk novels.
Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
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I really, really hate computer hacker stories. They always try to make something that's not very exciting seem super-neato and thrilling. They are also riddled with really stupid made-up computer terminology from the future.
On a serious note, why in God's green earth would people waste system resources on developing graphically-intensive (and seemingly difficult to use) user interfaces and have their programs appear as giant cybernetic spiders or something when those resources would, in the real world, be spent on porn?
Posts: 4753 | Registered: May 2002
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From what little I've read, it was the user that created the interface to make the hacking easier, rather than the people trying to guard their information.
Posts: 21898 | Registered: Nov 2004
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I just think most hacking stories show a total lack of understanding of the computer industry and consumers in general. People do NOT like change and could you really see your parents putting on a VR headset or having a neural port installed in their brain stem? Yeah, it's not going to happen. There may be a small minority of people who'd like it, but the lack of demand would make it too expensive for people to bother with.
I'm not saying that SF should be realistic, I just think it should be plausable.
Posts: 4753 | Registered: May 2002
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quote:Originally posted by Primal Curve: I just think most hacking stories show a total lack of understanding of the computer industry and consumers in general. People do NOT like change and could you really see your parents putting on a VR headset or having a neural port installed in their brain stem?
Primal Curve, but isn't this what our great grand parents or their parents would have said about air-travel or space tourism? There are many factors which go into making an idea plausible Posts: 136 | Registered: Aug 2003
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But none of those involved either looking rediculous or going under the knife.
Maybe VR helmets, but not a VR environment to navigate the internet. Why would you WANT to take time to move through an environment when you could easily go there instantaneously?
Posts: 4753 | Registered: May 2002
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In True Names by Vernor Vinge, there is a Bot, that blocks people from the castle of "hackers".. It asks questions to determine if the user is who they appear to be.
Google the book. It's out there in the ether, and it's an amazing look in to the future of cyberspace. Even more amazing because it was written so long ago.
Posts: 80 | Registered: Nov 2005
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quote:Originally posted by Primal Curve: But none of those involved either looking rediculous or going under the knife.
Maybe VR helmets, but not a VR environment to navigate the internet. Why would you WANT to take time to move through an environment when you could easily go there instantaneously?
Umm ... not sure where the "going under the knife" bit came from - unless you're thinkinf of jacking in a la Johnny Mnemonic. But that isn't what I'm talking about. Which makes me think that we aren't envisioning the same thing
I'm basically talking about a virtual interface. Everybody talks about how clunky the computer interfaces today are. People have tried different interfaces at times. For instance, I think I remember something called Magic Cap (if I recall correctly) which tried to introduce a street metaphor - you have a post office where you send your mail etc. But then again, that's what Microsoft tried to do with the infamous Bob as well. I'm talking about a similar 3D virtual interface. You don't have minutes or hours of travel time to get anywhere in the interface - you point, you click (or make a gesture) and you're there. But you do have to interact with the elements of the interface - just as you do on a normal computer Posts: 136 | Registered: Aug 2003
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posted
In William Gibson's Neuromancer there is, among other things, a hacking program that embodies itself as a giant VR shark. Not exactly the same, but pretty similar.
Still, even if a certain detail has been "done to death", it can easily be made up for if the rest of the story is solid.
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For heaven sakes people, it is "cracking", not "hacking"! Hackers are people who "hack" code, ala programmers. Crackers are things you eat! I mean... They are people who crack into places they shouldn't be... yeah, that.
Posts: 1209 | Registered: Dec 2003
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posted
Um, evidently, it's not supposed to be a hacker in the story, but a cracker, so that's my bad, but that's been changed to something entirely different, as sometimes happens with writers.
Thanks, y'all, for all your comments and suggestions.
And human, are you sure it's not a biscuit? They taste better...
Posts: 8355 | Registered: Apr 2003
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quote:why in God's green earth would people waste system resources on developing graphically-intensive (and seemingly difficult to use) user interfaces
In all seriousness, this is done in the real world.
Checkpoint, PIX, Netscreen, and SonicWall firewall systems all have such GUIs.
Of course, none of them feature a giant spider... Posts: 14554 | Registered: Dec 1999
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