KJ Computers

"Hey, kid," says Jim, the guy behind the counter. "What's up?"

"Not much," Damien says, looking around. He'll spend a few minutes on a usual sort of small talk about computers and such, because he's a little nervous about broaching the subject of Cozbi's server. He's afraid that if he just asked about it straight out, he would look too interested.

(Small talk can be things like, "Hey, pretty cool that Yahoo made it big in the last couple of days, eh?" followed by opinions about the usefulness of different internet search engines. If it's OK, can we assume that that goes on for a couple of minutes without listing it all? At the end:)

Jim says, "Well, kid, I don't spend the time that you do online. Usually if I'm going somewhere, I know where I'm going, so I don't know the search engines very well. I'll take your word for it that Yahoo's a good one."

Damien, changing the subject, says, "Say, do you guys know anything about this server? Have you ever done any business with them?" Damien pulls out a scrap of paper with the IP address of Cozbi's server on it, and shows it to Jim.

Jim looks over the scrap of paper, "Hmmm... nope. Wait, yeah, yeah... Hey, Mike, isn't [insert IP number here] that new software consultant company we got a call from? Sounds familiar."

From the back of the shop is heard the sound of a large static shock followed by Mike's voice, "Damn! What, Jim?"

He comes out from the back, rubbing the side of his hand to numb the pain.

"Isn't this the IP address of that new guy?"

Mike studies the number then looks at Damien, then Jim. "Yeah, why?"

Jim gestures to Damien, "The kid brought it in, asked about it."

Damien says, "Who's the new guy? Which consulting company is it?"

v Damien realizes the he sounds a little bit too eager to know, and tries (unsuccesfully) to look nonchalant. Not wanting to go into the truth with these guys right now, he settles on a plausible lie. "I got some spam with a header from that IP address. I didn't recognize the company, and I was wondering what they were all about."

"Smith and Smith's Consulting, I believe the name is. They're a new addition to the Granville Mall. From what I've heard, they really know what they're talking about. We got some of that new software through them," he says gesturing over to the anti-virus display. "It's really good stuff. They don't seem to be the type to start spamming." He looks over at Jim, who just shrugs with a look of "I don't know" on his face.

"Do you want me to give them a call for you?" Mike asks Damien. "I met Dave Smith last week, he seemed nice enough."

"Naah," Damien says. "I'll just forward the spam to their postmaster. Some spammer probably just used their server. I got spam once from Chevron too."

As the conversation winds down, Damien wanders over to view the anti-virus software from Smith & Smith. He'll check out the box carefully. How much does it cost? If he can afford it, Damien will pick up a copy.

When he gets home, he _won't_ install it on his main computer. Rather, he'll go to one of his older, outdated systems, and set it up. He will not have any cables (serial, ethernet, parallel, phone, anything) connecting this obselete system with his current main system. He'll install the anti-virus software there. After that, he'll start whipping out his developer tools and trying to look through the code.

Getting inside Cozbi's mind is Damien's ultimate goal here. His shorter term goal is to see if this anti-virus software seems to be put out by the same Demon people he ran into on the net.

The price on the box is $19.95, the company is Microsoft. The product is advertised as the most recent anti-virus software, not available in shareware form. The software requires a 32-bit Windows system, like Windows 95 or Windows NT. Looks to be an official Microsoft product.

Something that catches Damien's eye is the product's advertising that it "has a capability to find and clean the new Net.666 Win32 Virus, a new arrival to the wilds of the internet. This new virus interferes with basic Windows functions, access to essential files, hard drive access and is suspected to send personal files across the internet to an unknown data source. This product will detect and clean the Net.666 Win32 Virus with little hassle and also has a capability to protect your computer against infections against Net.666 as well as the following viruses: {list of viruses, some of which Damien recognizes, many which he does not} Also there are some other products from other well known anti-virus producers. Nothing Damien hasn't already seen.

OOGM: Does Damien purchase the product? Is it within his price range?

Also there are some other products from other well known anti-virus producers. Nothing Damien hasn't already seen other than the new Microsoft product.

Mike says, "We got ahold of some of the newer stuff through Smith and Smith. I think they've got some good connections. A few of those just came out this month."

Damien picks up the box of the Microsoft product and says to Mike, "Is this the one you got through Smith & Smith?"

"It's one of them. Some of the most recent McAfee also came through them, too."

Damien will shells out the $20 (painfully... $20, Canadian or US, is probably not an insignificant sum for a 12-year old, even if he does have all kinds of expensive computer equipment). He'll take this package home, and do the installation on the independent, separated computer, and then dissassemble and probe it as indicated in the previous message.

[OOC: Damien might not know this, but I do. If Microsoft is involved, it's _clearly_ a demonic plot :) Indeed, sometimes I suspect that Bill Gates is just Lucifer's Role....]

[OOGM: "Damn, my players see right through my hideous GM plans...." He he he... But have to you heard the joke about Bill Gates' descent into Hell?]

[OOC -- haven't heard that one.]

[OOGM: 6, 6, CD4 against Computer Hacking - 3 Now, I don't use 12 = autofailure rules or any of that bull, but it's still not too happy a roll. Fortunately, as this is an action which pretty much only requires time, I'm saying OOGM that it means that it probably only takes Damien a good deal longer to figure this stuff out than he expected.]

[OOC: Yipes... I guess I should count my lucky stars that the CD was a 4.]

The probing is rough at first until Damien figures out that some of the previous settings on his probing programs needed to be reset. Once back on track, Damien picks through the software bit by bit, looking through file after file. It's a prime example of good Microsoft software, meaning that all the normal bugs that to be expected are found, nothing new.

This software seems to do exactly what it purports, and only as well as Microsoft can... This code doesn't look tampered with; looks to be the original.

Damien heaves a heavy sigh. He yawns, stretches his arms, and rubs his sore eyes. "Damn," he mutters softly. He was hoping to get some great insight out of this, but instead he's just burnt his brain out poring through a bunch of Microsoft spaghetti code.

"Well, hell," he says. "I bought the thing, may as well use it." He installs the software on his main computer system.

[OOC: I don't know if the hacking into the virus software took one or several days, but in any event I figure he was up late into the night the last day he was working on it.]

Damien turns off his light and climbs his loft to go to bed. It's going to be a long day tomorrow, after staying up so late hacking. Every time he does this, he knows it's a bad idea, and he knows he'll regret it the next day when he's sleepy, but he figures, well, just one more little half-hour.... In any event, he'll get what sleep he can.