Beep Beeeep

The DigiTerm Finn was working on beeped, and so did all the others. That new notification system that EDS was testing was kind of annoying, and practically no one seemed to get used to it. Sarah, the line supervisor, stood up in her glass cubicle, looked around and took note of how many of her team members seemed startled or surprised at the sound in her paper notebook. She would have transcribed it into her digital daily report for her supervisors later that day.

That notification was probably not very significant for that report, having been sent simultaneously to all employees in the building: everyone had to gather in the main demo room on the 28th floor for a big corporate announcement. Probably yet another marketing stunt for an upcoming launch, thought Finn. Probably something to do with those adverts with the countdown that had been appearing everywhere in the city, actually.

At around 08:20, most people started getting up from their posts and slowly moved towards the lifts, hoping they would be able to get to the 28th floor in time for the announcement, and get decent seating. Literally the whole company was going to be there, but the room had space for only a third of the people. The remaining two-thirds would have had to go back to meeting rooms and watch the projector with the near-real time video feed of the event. Finn thought about going straight to one of the meeting rooms on his floor, but then decided that he was going to try and make it to the top, and see if he could get in: he was very interested to see the reactions of people at things like that, and this event surely was going to surprise a few, while others would have remained indifferent… it was a true sociological opportunity to analyze the different reactions of a crowd.

The main demo room was a very large room on the top floor of the building, that had been commissioned specifically to host demonstrations of new product launches. Often used for large press conferences, it was also by far the biggest room in the whole building, able to host about five-hundred people. It was, effectively, the size of a small theater, with its semicircular shape and seats arranged in twelve rows at different heights.

Finn secured a fairly central seat on the fourth row. As he sat down, literally hundreds of people continued pouring into the room, orderly taking place from the bottom to the top of the room, until reaching capacity. He saw Jarrod walking up to the seventh row followed by a big fellow with long red hair in a pintail who kept looked at him and winked discreetly as soon as his eyes met: it was Eric, and judging the smirk on his face, he probably already knew everything they were going to announce that day.

As the room was finally filled with faces eager to hear the big news, Mr McGregor, the SVP for Networking, rose up from his seat on the front row, turned backwards looking briefly in all directions as for checking that the room was indeed full, and took the stage. The lights dimmed until finally turning off, curtains were meticulously arranged to cover all the windows on the sides of the room effectively making it dark. The central projector was then turned on, and one of those now well-known adverts was displayed on the stage, just as Mr McGregor commenced his well-rehearsed speech:

“You probably have seen some of these around the city. The objective was, as Ms Quinn put it, to ‘build up to reveal one of the biggest, most empowering consumer innovations since the DigiBox’”

That was a bold claim: literally everyone in the country owned a DigiBox. It became the equivalent of the television of the neo-digital age, that one device that brought massive networked computing in the homes of millions of people, that literally built DigiNet and democratized computing, once again. What could possibly be bigger than that?

“Let’s fast-forward a few days. I am sorry to spoil the surprise, but at least you will get to see two more of these masterpieces that Ms Quinn’s team put together in such a short time” continue McGegor, referring to the adverts. He then signaled the projector operator to move to the next slide.

Digital payments. That was the big announcement. Finn was somewhat underwhelmed by all that: perhaps because he heard it before, as Pat inadvertently mentioned it a couple of days prior, perhaps because he had become increasingly skeptical on how EDS operated: there had to be a catch.

And indeed there was. And Mr McGregor was about to spell it out.

“…it’s more than a digital currency, it is the digital currency, usable all over Ireland, France, and soon Europe. And who know, maybe the whole world, someday! DigiCoin is built on top of our DigiCard-based authentication system: if you can authenticate with your DigiCard, you can spend or earn DigiCoin, it’s as simple as that! And rest assured: everything is fully centralized, under our complete control: we had to build a whole new data center in Shannon just to be able to process DigiCoin transactions. That was not cheap, I tell you, but DigiCoin has been designed on a highly scalable, simple, and sustainable business model: every time anybody does a transaction, whether they send or receive funds, they will be charged 0.03p and a 3% commission, which is, I tell you, nothing compared to the convenience of being able to perform a digital money transaction! And of course there will be different tiers of subscriptions, depending on the number of transactions you are planning to do per month. With a Basic subscription, you can do 10 transactions per month at just 2£, a Standard gives you 25 transactions per month at 3£, and Ultimate gives you 50 at 5 per month, simple!”

Finn could not believe that they were going to charge a relatively expensive subscription for the privilege, and a transaction commission for both sender and receiver! But that wasn’t the worst.

“But there’s more! Of course we want DigiCoin to be everywhere. And for that, every shop, every restaurant, everyone that is selling anything has to be able to accept DigiCoin! Of course you can just pay from your DigiBox or DigiBook, but if you don’t have a device with you, you can just insert a DigiCard into this (shows a small handheld device with a display, a numeric keypad, and a slot for a DigiCard). This is a DigiPay: the fastest way to process a physical DigiCard for DigiCoin payments…”

At this point Finn stopped listening. He was distracted by all the clapping and cheers of approval from the audience, and his mind started wondering how his colleagues, his friends could not see what was happening… how was it possible that they were so blind?

“…so with an extra 4£ per month, merchants will be able to lease a DigiPay, which is also likely to become a practical requirement soon. In an effort to improve money traceability, a new bill is being prepared to be voted by the parliament to ensure that all money transactions of 10£ and higher are traceable. And of course DigiCoin provides the ultimate traceability, as every transaction is logged centrally and accessible in case of an inspection by the authorities…”

Finn was appalled! How could they get away with such a thing? Then he remembered what Pat and Morgan discussed… EDS was essentially owned by the government, so they effectively had a legit monopoly over things like this.

“But wait! I am sure that by now you already understood the importance of DigiCoin, how it will shape the future of our economy. The executive team and I are truly grateful to every single one of you to have made this a reality, with your hard work and dedication, so… starting immediately, we decided to convert 10% of your salary to DigiCoin, at a discounted commission of only 2%! And furthermore you can opt-in and have up to 25% of your salary in DigiCoin, if you wish!”

At that point, every single person in the room, over five hundred people stood up from their seats and started clapping vigorously, cheering at McGregor, at DigiCoin, and at EDS. Everyone felt proud of being part of a company that was writing history!

Well, not everyone.

Fae needed a break. She had been preparing yet another filler because Pete needed something, anything to stick on page 6, and fast. And of course when he needed fast, Fae was the gal! That’s what he said anyway. After rushing tidying up a piece on the excitingO'Connor - Doyle wedding in seventeen minutes flat, she was desperate for a change of scenery, anything, or she was gonna throw up at the thought of bridesmaids eating ‘[…] elaborate our d'oeuvres meticulously prepared by Chef Bernard Dubois from Concarneau, who was a master at combining the strongest cheeses of Bretagne with the most delicate huîtres of the Atlantic.’

She grabbed her DigiBook and went to the small lounge on the the third floor, and sat in the corner near the windows, away from prying eyes, determined to get the most out of her well-deserved fifteen minutes of peace.

CTRL+XYW

The DigiBook complied, loading the hidden operating system. She giggled quietly, but tried to remain composed: she enjoyed the thrill of doing something illegal right in front of people, but if anyone noticed, that would have been a problem.

*** Welcome to xywOS v3.7.23 ***
* Checking devices...
* System...   OK
* Clock...    OK
* Terminal... OK
* File...     OK
* Beeper...   OK  
* Network...  OK
* Crypto...   OK
*** System Ready ***
$> echo
! echo: command not found
$> start echo
! start: command not found
$> run echo
*** Echo Global Messaging v3.5.8 ***
* Connected to node @ieork via HubLink 14.
> 

Finally! She thought. Now what? What did they type…

> fetch
* fetching 0 messages...
>

Well, fair enough. It is not that she knew many people on there.

> help
*** Echo Global Messaging v3.5.8 ***
Echo is a messaging system able to send and receive messages from users anywhere on the Mesh. Messages can be private between one or more users or shared within a node or group available across multiple nodes.

- help nodes: more info on nodes
- help groups: more info on groups
- help users: more info on users
- help commands: more info on commands
- help messages: more info on messages

‘OK, I can get used to this’ thought Fae, as she continued exploring echo.

> help nodes
*** echo - nodes ***
Nodes are prefixed by @, and they typically identify a city with a three-letter code following the UN/LOCODE standard, with the first two letters being reserved for the country, and the second three letter for the city or area within that country (examples: @gblon for London, UK, and @frpar for Paris, France). User accounts are also tied to a specific node.

When sending messages to specific nodes or a user within a node, messages will only be stored in HubLinks in the specified nodes, and will not be propagated elsewhere, while when sharing to a group, they will be synchronized across all nodes that subscribe to that particular group.

Tip: Use the nodes command in conjunction with the --limit option (set to 5 by default) to display the nodes nearest to the HubLink you are connected to, or specify a two-letter country code with the --country option list all nodes for that country. 

Tip: Use list --node <node> command to list the first 5 messages ordered by popularity for a given node.

‘OK, that’s cities essentially, maybe groups are more interesting…’

> help groups
*** echo - groups ***
Groups are shared channels prefixed by # (examples: #digihacks, #freetech~culture). Unlike nodes, groups are not tied to a specific city: any node can subscribe to a group and participate in it.

When you post a message to a group, it is synchronized across all nodes that subscribe to that group. Messages are stored locally in each subscribed node's HubLinks and then propagated to the rest of the subscribed nodes. Nodes that do not subscribe to a group do not receive its messages.

Tip: Use the groups command to list the groups available on your current node.

Tip: Use list --group <group> command to list the first 5 messages ordered by popularity for a given group available on the current node.
>

Fae was intrigued at the concept. She looked at her watch, and she noticed she only had another five minutes before she had to get back to work, but she wanted to take a peek anyway, real quick.

> groups
* Listing groups 1-5 of 129 on @ieork, ordered  by activity. 
* Specify --page <n> to view a different page.
  #freetech~culture
  #digihacks
  #cork~news
  #digitech~watch
  #cork~events
> list --group #freetech~culture
* Listing 1-5 of 1742 messages in group #freetech~culture.
* Specify --page <n> to view a different page.
  1 - The DigiPunk Revolution - kathl33n@ieork
  2 - Free the chips! - jack~sparr0w@gblon
  3 - The Way of Rashid - s1l1k0n@nlrtm
  4 - Educating the masses - phara0h@gbcdf
  5 - The importance of soldering - wise~fire~king@frbod

‘What is that?’ thought Fae as she noticed a familiar title right at the very top.

> read 1
* Fetching 1 message...
* ID:
  10B11811B68BA6659FD682E1DAEB16EA
  F441FE16A2AEE2EB083EF1067822738C
* From: kathl33n@ieork
* To: #freetech-culture
* IZT: 805101489 (Sun 2050-11-29 15:47:21)
* Favorites: 168
* Replies: 58
* Subject: The DigiPunk Revolution

  This just came out today on the Irish Examiner. I was the one interviwed, I hope I did the right thing...
  ---
  "That's a nice piece of kit you have there!" said Kathleen as she approached me, looking at my brand new DigiBook "should be a Z80w running at 4MHz right?"
  I looked at her, desperately trying to understand what she meant. She looked back at me, waiting for me to confirm her analysis, then smiled a little, trying to do her best not to look too condescending.

“Ah so you are using your fancy toy now instead of skanking our DigiNet? About time” said Pete from the distance, coming towards Fae, who instinctively pressed the OFF button on the DigiBook.

“Yeah! At least while I can use this free subscription for a year… I thought I’d do the sensible thing”

Pete smiled and came over for a quick chat. He was definitely in a much better mood since that DigiPunk article, which generated a lot of reader mails to the paper, who she had been trying to keep on top of. And by the looks of it, she had fans in the underground as well: she only had a quick glance at what looked exactly like her article being posted on the most popular group on the Cork node. Which was probably synchronized to and from other nodes, she thought, judging by the usernames of some of the authors of the other messages, from what she could make out.

It couldn’t be. An article that appeared on an Irish newspaper being shared across… Europe? Was that what had happened? If only Pete would have known… he wouldn’t have believed it if she had told him that. No one in their right mind would have, to be honest. That was a pre-Pulse kind of thing: sharing things over InterNets, hundreds of people reading them and reacting… she hadn’t seen anything like that, not in 25 years at least. She had a flashback from her childhood. She was watching one of those magic tablets at breakfast, and both her parents were repeating “Mangia!” Every few minutes. That was annoying when she was trying to watch her favorite cartoons. Cereals, she loved them. Her mother was eating her breakfast an she looked at her phone, moving her thumb on it from time to time, and her father too, and that time he said that he was reading something from someone in India. She only now understood what India was, thinking back.

The thought that the DigiPunk community was international, and that people were exchanging message across seas and maybe even oceans was mind-blowing to her, especially now! And they were all talking in English. Just as Kathleen said. What she didn’t say was that she was going to post her article for hundreds to see, but she felt really excited about that.

She went back to her desk, and wrapped up her work as quickly as she could, and thought about checking her normal email for a second, before going home. DigiMail downloads were limited, unlike echo fetches. Another mind-blowing concept for her to digest: free network access…

** You have 2 new messages.
   1 - @_rox@cork.eire - Dinner before you go
   2 - fincon25@cork.eire - French bookings
>> read 1
** Date: 2050-12-05 @ 09:37:34
** From: @-rox <@_rox@cork.eire>
** Subject: Dinner before you go

   Hey you two!
   You think you are going to be able to visit sometime? I know you are busy preparing your trip and going out to pubs, but you should come home at least one more time before you are off!
   
   Thursday evening maybe? You can commute from Fermoy to Cork, you know? People still do it to this day, you should give it a try.
   
   It's probably gonna be lasagne anyway, just saying.
   
   xxx mom

She was right. They didn’t manage to go over last weekend, because of everything that happened, and they should try to meet them once more before the trip. Assuming that Finn was going to able to book the train tickets and accommodation in France: he was definitely leaving it a bit close.

She thought about that after quickly checking the mail from her brother, who wrote that he hadn’t had a chance yet but he would have done it the next day.