Imperiallines' Calibration Points

[FlightCommanderSolitude]

Originally posted by Bill Cameron:
Jump tapes thus have a 'best used by' date ...

What a wonderful idea. I picture a crewmember stopping into the Far Future equivalent of Circle K to pick up a few packs for smokes, a Slushee and a jump tape for the trip from Enope to Wochiers. Only after they make the jump does the crew realize the tape is "off"...

 

[FlightCommanderSolitude]

Originally posted by Bill Cameron:
Jump tapes thus have a 'best used by' date ...

What a wonderful idea. I picture a crewmember stopping into the Far Future equivalent of Circle K to pick up a few packs for smokes, a Slushee and a jump tape for the trip from Enope to Wochiers. Only after they make the jump does the crew realize the tape is "off"...

 

[mike wightman]

[trivia aside] When did the CT jump cassette first start to be refered to as a jump tape?[/trivia aside]
i don't know the answer, but it is something that bugs me.

 

[mike wightman]

[trivia aside] When did the CT jump cassette first start to be refered to as a jump tape?[/trivia aside]
i don't know the answer, but it is something that bugs me.

 

[boomslang]

Originally posted by Sigg Oddra:
[trivia aside] When did the CT jump cassette first start to be refered to as a jump tape?[/trivia aside]

It's hard to say; under CT, I think they've always been "cassettes", of the "self-erasing" variety. (Being tech from the 70's [cf. the Sony Walkman], I presume they're Mission: Impossible inspired: "This tape will self-destruct in 5 seconds. Good luck, Jim." only without the messy smoke puff...)

In the modern vernacular, I'd expect them to be more like USB thumb drives: something that's plugged in to provide data and has a driver on it that wipes it clean after the transfer.

I figure the "one-use" "self-erasing" "cassettes" are actually fairly common as an anti-hijacking and risk-management technique. Corsair-attractive ships, particualrly subsidized merchants, might not have the Generate program installed (and Anti-Hijack would be configured to disallow software installation in flight), and would instead rely upon an authenticated Jump plot to be externally loaded. (The authentication, again probably via Anti-Hijack, prevents hijackers from smuggling their own "cassette" aboard.) It's much harder to commandeer a starship whose Navigate program won't work with just any old data.

Furthermore, with all the above discussion about navigators and plotting accuracy, I can see the case for a big company like Naasirka subcontracting to provide "quality-assured" pre-calculated Jump plots to large corporate users. This underwriting might then in turn reduce insurance premiums for ships using "guaranteed" calculations. (Insert sabotaging-this-process-for-excitement-and-profit adventure hook here.)

What then of the required navigators? Probably a combination of back-up safety (in addition to basic sanity-checking of the pre-generated plot, maybe the Generate program is installed but is encrypted and requires a key for emergency use, and the Navigate program of course routinely logs where it got its Jump plot from for later forensic purposes) and strong unions.

Plus, the "naivgator", being a command position with few practical duties, is a good candidate for being a megacorporation's on-board minder...

 

[boomslang]

Originally posted by Sigg Oddra:
[trivia aside] When did the CT jump cassette first start to be refered to as a jump tape?[/trivia aside]

It's hard to say; under CT, I think they've always been "cassettes", of the "self-erasing" variety. (Being tech from the 70's [cf. the Sony Walkman], I presume they're Mission: Impossible inspired: "This tape will self-destruct in 5 seconds. Good luck, Jim." only without the messy smoke puff...)

In the modern vernacular, I'd expect them to be more like USB thumb drives: something that's plugged in to provide data and has a driver on it that wipes it clean after the transfer.

I figure the "one-use" "self-erasing" "cassettes" are actually fairly common as an anti-hijacking and risk-management technique. Corsair-attractive ships, particualrly subsidized merchants, might not have the Generate program installed (and Anti-Hijack would be configured to disallow software installation in flight), and would instead rely upon an authenticated Jump plot to be externally loaded. (The authentication, again probably via Anti-Hijack, prevents hijackers from smuggling their own "cassette" aboard.) It's much harder to commandeer a starship whose Navigate program won't work with just any old data.

Furthermore, with all the above discussion about navigators and plotting accuracy, I can see the case for a big company like Naasirka subcontracting to provide "quality-assured" pre-calculated Jump plots to large corporate users. This underwriting might then in turn reduce insurance premiums for ships using "guaranteed" calculations. (Insert sabotaging-this-process-for-excitement-and-profit adventure hook here.)

What then of the required navigators? Probably a combination of back-up safety (in addition to basic sanity-checking of the pre-generated plot, maybe the Generate program is installed but is encrypted and requires a key for emergency use, and the Navigate program of course routinely logs where it got its Jump plot from for later forensic purposes) and strong unions.

Plus, the "naivgator", being a command position with few practical duties, is a good candidate for being a megacorporation's on-board minder...

 

[Whipsnade]

Originally posted by Sigg Oddra:
[trivia aside] When did the CT jump cassette first start to be refered to as a jump tape?[/trivia aside]

Sigg,

Maybe ever since I mistakenly typed tape instead of cassette?


Have fun,
Bill

 

[Whipsnade]

Originally posted by Sigg Oddra:
[trivia aside] When did the CT jump cassette first start to be refered to as a jump tape?[/trivia aside]

Sigg,

Maybe ever since I mistakenly typed tape instead of cassette?


Have fun,
Bill

 

[mike wightman]

Hi Bill,

I've seen the expression jump tape appear in discussions for years now.

I just wondered if there is a source for it. I noticed that GT:ISW now refers to them as jump tapes

 

[mike wightman]

Hi Bill,

I've seen the expression jump tape appear in discussions for years now.

I just wondered if there is a source for it. I noticed that GT:ISW now refers to them as jump tapes

 

[Pickles]

I always assumed they were self-erasing for profit reasons. No doubt plenty of pirates (of the software variety) have numerous ways of getting around whatever copy-protection the megacorps come up with, though ...

 

[Pickles]

I always assumed they were self-erasing for profit reasons. No doubt plenty of pirates (of the software variety) have numerous ways of getting around whatever copy-protection the megacorps come up with, though ...

 

[Fritz_Brown]

Originally posted by boomslang:
Which claim itself is sadly entirely bogus, given that in the 33 hour and 36 minute temporal margin of error MWM cites in that article ("168 hours ± 10%"), a life-zone planet (such as Terra) can move on the order of a million kilometers with respect to its main-sequence primary (Sol) and the rest of the galaxy (the star is moving too, remember)

boomslang, can you point to anything in particular that implies the time:distance ratio is linear? I have usually assumed a non-linear relationship because it's non-N-space physics.
(Yeah, I see you mean how far the planet moves in that time v. where you expected it to be. But, my question still stands.)

 

[Fritz_Brown]

Originally posted by boomslang:
Which claim itself is sadly entirely bogus, given that in the 33 hour and 36 minute temporal margin of error MWM cites in that article ("168 hours ± 10%"), a life-zone planet (such as Terra) can move on the order of a million kilometers with respect to its main-sequence primary (Sol) and the rest of the galaxy (the star is moving too, remember)

boomslang, can you point to anything in particular that implies the time:distance ratio is linear? I have usually assumed a non-linear relationship because it's non-N-space physics.
(Yeah, I see you mean how far the planet moves in that time v. where you expected it to be. But, my question still stands.)

 

[robject]

Yeah! Hey, that's odd, Boomslang doesn't usually resort to Real Life physics. I thought...

 

[robject]

Yeah! Hey, that's odd, Boomslang doesn't usually resort to Real Life physics. I thought...

 

[rancke]

Originally posted by Bill Cameron:
Yes, it contradicted other canonical data much like other canonical data contradicts the idea of jump lines. Jump lines, like the fuel rule in FFW, are an artifact to aid play and not canonical descriptions.

I agree completely. What is a part of canon (at least I think it is) is that Sirius was a choke point and that 3-parsec gaps were a problem. Which doesn't make sense if jumps into deep space are not a huge problem. That is the 'fact' that Jon tried to come up with an explanation for, not the jump lines.

The economic consequences of a 'Thin On The Ground' Ziru Sirka - an explanation you helped create in order to explain the Confederation's victory - are well known.

They are? If so, it can only be from what IW says, since as far as I was aware,the TOTG Ziru Sirka was only a theory. There you have me at a disadvantage, because I haven't received my playtest comp yet.

The Ziru Sirka deliberately fostered economic and industrial helplessness among its subject worlds even going to the length of limiting their populations. Aside from a very few exceptions, the worlds of the Ziru Sirka relied utterly on interstellar trade to maintain many parts of their planetary infrastructure. The disruption of this trade, and the disruption of the caste system which handled what domestic production a world did enjoy, by the Terran victory led directly to the Long Night.

The Vilani restricted planetary technology and population in return for interstellar order. They made sure each world didn't have all the pieces to the puzzle and used the trade in those needed pieces to control an empire. You now want me to believe that they also accepted longer trade routes for those pieces, trade routes along which more breakdowns could occur, trade routes that could fail more easily, trade routes whose nature would work against the system of control the Vilani had put in place?

Why not? I can think of various ways to make that work, such as storehouses with replacements on one heavily-guarded world in each cluster. If you don't have serious competition, economic solutions don't have to be the most efficient possible, they just have to work after a fashion. I don't accept your last sentence above. You haven't proven that it would work against Vilani control.

As you've suggested many times; Canon also has to make sense.

Hans

 

[rancke]

Originally posted by Bill Cameron:
Yes, it contradicted other canonical data much like other canonical data contradicts the idea of jump lines. Jump lines, like the fuel rule in FFW, are an artifact to aid play and not canonical descriptions.

I agree completely. What is a part of canon (at least I think it is) is that Sirius was a choke point and that 3-parsec gaps were a problem. Which doesn't make sense if jumps into deep space are not a huge problem. That is the 'fact' that Jon tried to come up with an explanation for, not the jump lines.

The economic consequences of a 'Thin On The Ground' Ziru Sirka - an explanation you helped create in order to explain the Confederation's victory - are well known.

They are? If so, it can only be from what IW says, since as far as I was aware,the TOTG Ziru Sirka was only a theory. There you have me at a disadvantage, because I haven't received my playtest comp yet.

The Ziru Sirka deliberately fostered economic and industrial helplessness among its subject worlds even going to the length of limiting their populations. Aside from a very few exceptions, the worlds of the Ziru Sirka relied utterly on interstellar trade to maintain many parts of their planetary infrastructure. The disruption of this trade, and the disruption of the caste system which handled what domestic production a world did enjoy, by the Terran victory led directly to the Long Night.

The Vilani restricted planetary technology and population in return for interstellar order. They made sure each world didn't have all the pieces to the puzzle and used the trade in those needed pieces to control an empire. You now want me to believe that they also accepted longer trade routes for those pieces, trade routes along which more breakdowns could occur, trade routes that could fail more easily, trade routes whose nature would work against the system of control the Vilani had put in place?

Why not? I can think of various ways to make that work, such as storehouses with replacements on one heavily-guarded world in each cluster. If you don't have serious competition, economic solutions don't have to be the most efficient possible, they just have to work after a fashion. I don't accept your last sentence above. You haven't proven that it would work against Vilani control.

As you've suggested many times; Canon also has to make sense.

Hans

 

[robject]

Well, Cleon did come in millenia later with shiploads of fancy fusion units as a goad to joining the Imperium. Could he have taken a page from the Vilani?

 

[robject]

Well, Cleon did come in millenia later with shiploads of fancy fusion units as a goad to joining the Imperium. Could he have taken a page from the Vilani?