Technology Today

**Technology Today** is a science magazine that chiefly deals with recent advances in technology (as the name suggests). Its articles feature a series of news stories about a nuclear meltdown in another Forum City, as well as an article comparing the two different camera systems in use around PDX Forum City.

## First Edition

Gamers rushed stores on Tuesday night to purchase the Solera processor from Atami Microsolutions. The new processor, deemed "revolutionary", combines value and performance. The 500-gigahertz version is selling for c300, the 600 for c375, and the 750 for c450. The processor card boasts 512 megabytes of integrated ultra-HCA cache. The chip is compatible with systems having a type 1 or 2 Standard Processor Adapter (SPA).
*Despite initial optimism, some negative reports are coming back from consumers. Several reports of "chip burnout" have concerned other consumers, along with rumors that a remote reporting system may be present deep within the data transmission kernel of the processor. Atami stated the chip burnout was expected, and that damaged chips under warranty will be replaced. They also stated that a reporting system in the data transmission kernel would be "an outrageous invasion of privacy" and that "Atami has never, nor will ever, create such an invasive and potentially dangerous subsystem in a chip."*"

## Second Edition

Officials in the PlanetFarCry (PFC) administration officially released a report that a reactor had exploded at the Micronesia nuclear facility in central PFC. Few details have been made available, but initial reports list 25 dead and hundreds injured when a reactor exploded after a fire started in the facility.
Some unconfirmed reports from the region indicate that as many as three reactors went critical and exploded, and that hundreds may already be dead or dying. In PlanetQuake and PlanetHalfLife, scientists have measured unusually high radiation, some claiming that the amount of radiation released may rival the 1983 PlanetUnreal accident and the 2002 Spratly accident.
*An emergency summit has been initiated, where leaders and scientists from the world's leading nuclear industrial giants - Brightstar Energy, Pacifica Electric Global, Ikara Nuclear, and Cutter Nuclear Technology - will meet to find ways to contain the site as soon as possible. The International Nuclear Response Team (INRT) has been scrambled and are en route to the facility.*"

## Third Edition

Previous rumors that three reactors exploded have been confirmed today by International Nuclear Response Team (INRT) specialists. Scientists equipped with the CNT-MK2 mechanized hazard suits entered the rubble and reported that, along with massive structural damage, three reactors have exploded.
Reports also indicate that core material is burning out of control through the lower biological shields and into the basements of the facility. The RDU military has established an initial 20-kilometer radius evacuation zone around the facility where radiation and fallout is dangerously high.
Authorities expanded the evacuation zone to a 30-kilometer radius around the "nuclear city" of Micronesia. Micronesia once was the site of the PFC Chemical Combine, where plutonium was produced. Until the disaster it has been used for research and power generation. Helicopers will begin to dump inert materials on the reactor core within the next 24 hours, according to the RDU Science Minister Xelivo.
*President Kamarov has asked the people of PlanetFarCry to stay strong during this disaster. The region's religious leaders asked for prayers for the men and women who have lost loved ones, and for God's protection of the emergency workers.*"

## Fourth Edition

INRT scientists and emergency response members at the nuclear power plant in Micronesia discovered that the fourth out of six reactors may go critical and explode within the next 24 hours. "The situation is turning into a real nightmare, but we are determined to contain the radiation and stop any further catastrophe." said INRT group leader John Falkner.
Lead-lined video cameras recorded inside the desolated facility. The pictures showed the destroyed buildings and smoldering reactor cores. Several live news feeds accidentally aired the disturbing image of three bodies being removed from a reactor area by workers inside mechanical hazard suits, putting even more fear into people worldwide.
*Cutter Nuclear Technology CEO Dr. William Cutter said that foam containment may stop further radiation leakage. "For several years, we've had a tested foam system that will harden and is radiation-resistant and fireproof. This may be the first time, and hopefully the only time, we'll need to use it." said Dr. Cutter.*"

## Fifth Edition

Several PFC engineers found the reason why the fourth reactor was not able to shut itself down at the Micronesia facility. A faulty computer-control for the reactor's SCRAM system, which is made to shut down the reactor instantly, was blamed to have not been properly functioning.
Volunteers from Brightstar and Pacifica Electric Global blocked ventilation systems and set up a makeshift operations center in the control rooms of reactors five and six, which are farther away from the three burning reactors. "It's still dangerous out there." said PEG worker Tajika Mahimoto. "We're reading 250 rems per hour ambient near reactor 3. That means in two hours a person could die if not wearing containment gear."
*The company most responsible for the containment gear was Cutter Nuclear Technology. The new mechanized suits use a special lead-alloy shielding that is made to stop 100% of Alpha and Beta particles, but it can only stop 50% of the deadly third kind of radiation, Gamma rays. "The hot area in reactors 1, 2, and 3 is 5,000 rems per hour. With a MK2 suit, you'll get 50 rems in less then two minutes. The max there for a worker is three minutes."*"

## Sixth Edition

With a wave of new genetic modification systems sweeping the continent, the Surgeon General John Archer has issued caution about the technology.
"The safety of such radical genetic modification cannot be, in any way, assured. Modification technology has recently gone far beyond simple modifications to changes so radical that those using them can no longer officially be considered human." Stated the General during a forum on future biological modifications.
Doctors around the country have also begun to complain about the systems and changes. "How the [censored] do you operate on a half-human half... well, something else? You can't [operate -ed.] safely!" exclaimed Dr. Amos Carlson at the Meade Medical Center, after loosing an undisclosed accident patient, a biomorphic organism who had extreme genetic modifications.
*Despite the opposition, some doctors are more open. "It's simply a new challenge and opportunity. Despite the outside differences, a lot of the inner morphology is compatible, except for some of the newest, most radical augmentations and genetic re-programming." said Dr. Jason Alabar, also from the Meade Medical Center. Genetic modification clinics now offer skin system changes, skeletal restructuring, muscular reconfiguration, sensory enhancement, and many other procedures.*"

## Seventh Edition

On the annual Surveillance Technology Mess of 2004 near PDX International Airport, WorldCorp Incorporated revealed for the first time their latest product for industrial use: The Automated DX-Brand Security Camera.
We caught project leader Dr. Alan Milton and threw a couple of questions in his general direction. Milton came to work for WorldCorp about 10 months ago when his previous employer, Luminous Research Ltd., was bought by the corporation, along with the project he was working on, codenamed Project Beholder.
**Technology Today:**
Dr. Milton, can you tell our readers what makes the new DX-brand security camera such a ground-breaking invention?
**Alan Milton:**
Versatility. With the old Luminous-brand cameras, you needed to employ several security people just to sit there all day watching the output from the cameras. Not only was that a very expensive solution, it also meant your entire security depended on those few people. Any professional intruder would be able to drop a gas grenade into your security room and take them all out, rendering all those expensive cameras completely useless. Our new cameras are capable of recognizing uncleared intruders and activating an alarm on their own.
**Technology Today:**
That's amazing, but how accurate is that technology? How often will the camera mistake a cleared individual for an intruder, or even worse: The other way around?
**Alan Milton:**
Never! That's the point. The cameras have their own built-in processor which runs a piece of software which could best be described as a cut-down AI specifically engineered to classify people. Our labs have tested the camera's functionality on more than 3000 people in various situations, and not once did it make a mistake. It's that accurate.
***Continued on page 6: The technology behind***"

## Eighth Edition

### Page 1

There are two ways you can access Internet Relay Chat (IRC) from ForumPlanet: One requires a computer, the other makes use of the newfangled upgraded PM system. Here's a short introduction to either method.
**Using a computer**
Using a PC to access IRC is arguably the most obvious choice, in large part because it was the only choice until recently. It's also very straight-forward, but not as straight-forward as you might be used to from mIRC or those crappy Java clients. The first thing you do is log onto your PC and open the Applications menu. If you're lucky, there's an IRC button. If there's not, find another computer.
When you click the IRC button, the client will launch. The client will immediately log onto the standard server and channel it's set up for. You can change servers or channels like you would in mIRC with some of the commands we'll list below. The client window itself is pretty simple: There's a text area where the chat is displayed, a user list to the right that shows all users online (if the list is too long you can use your mouse's scroll wheel to scroll the list), and there's an input console at the bottom that you can write in. Press Enter to send your message to the current channel.
The standard PC IRC client supports the following commands:
/nick - changes your nick name, pretty straight forward.
/server - logs you off the current server and onto another.
/msg - sends a message to a server, a channel, a user, whatever.
/join - leaves the current channel and joins another on the same server.
/me - turns your message into an action (remember to type in third person).
/quit - leaves the current channel.
/multijoin - joins another channel without leaving the current one.
/multiswitch - chooses which channel you're talking in if you've joined more than one.
*/hop - leaves and rejoins the channel, usually so you can see the topic.*"

### Page 2

irc (nick) (optional server) (optional channel) - this command joins the specified server and channel with the specified nick name. If you don't specify a
server and/or a channel, the default will be chosen.
say (message) - this command sends the specified message to the IRC channel.
ircquit - this somewhat self-explanatory command closes the connection, logging you off IRC.
*You'll note this list is significantly shorter. The drawback of passive IRC is that commands such as /nick, /join, or /me do not work when you're using the console. The obvious benefit is that you will never again have to accept boredom as a part of your daily life! Now you may idle in some channel on starchat.net while riding the bus to work. Think of the possibilities.*"

## Ninth Edition

By now, you've probably seen the TV ads for WorldCorp's new line of universal storage media, the "Datascreen". Datascreeens, as the name implies, have one major improvement over the old datacubes: Built-in displays. This is a stark advantage over the previous "bring your own screen or augmented neural interface" datacube model, even if the display is quite small.
You'd be justified in thinking "Datascreen" is basically a fancy name for a PDA, but if you're expecting to pick up a fully featured PDA for 40 credits, you'll be sorely disappointed. The Datascreen has very limited firmware and input options and is really only good for two things: Storing data and viewing or listening to that data.
And it does that admirably. The Datascreen is small, but has a fairly high resolution, good colour depth (though the black colour is often more dark-bluish-gray), and even a pretty solid viewing angle. Its main limitation is that, as with the old datacubes, you need to connect the Datascreen to a computer to transfer text or images to it, which means it still can't be used as a notepad.
*We expect the Datascreen will instead find use as a portable notice device similar to how its predecessor is used at many workplaces - and now that you no longer need to bring a laptop to examine its contents, more people should find it useful. All we need is for the price to drop to 20 credits, and we can officially declare the datacube dead and buried.*"