I hope this brief intro clears up any confusion. If you have any trouble at all with this book, take full advantage of your online d00dship and send email. Don't be afraid to ask "stupid" questions-- that's what the Internet is for! Ask nice, big, broad, open-ended questions. Stuff like "I'm doing a term paper so please tell me everything you know about cyberspace" or "I'm cyberpunk fan from Bulgaria and Enlgish not too good, but please say more what is about Virtual Reality?" Just don't send the email to me, of course. Send email to them. After this book, they deserve it! I feel sure that you'll get prompt answers that will surprise you. ............................................................. ............................................................. ======================================================== | | | The | | Authors | | Explain: | | | | A Technical Guide To This Technical Guide | | | ======================================================== WORDS IN BOLDFACE (enclosed in double <<angle braces>> for the ASCII version) These are terms that are defined in *Building Your Cyber Word Power*. Check there for anything that baffles you. Sometimes there's a double-anglebrace-enclosed term in the text that refers to a chapter subheading, and then you must practice your <<haqr smarts>> in order to find it. If all else fails, you could ask Bruce Sterling at his secret email address-- bruces@well.com. He will know. THE SHURIKEN AWARDS We may sometimes succumb to the temptation to rate things the way snotty critics do, by awarding stars. However, we will award them as *shuriken*, a cyber kinda star: ^ ^ ^ < X > < X > < X > v v v A shuriken is a throwing star-- a shiny-steel, sharp-edged, sharp-pointed weapon from Japan (which is cyberpunk's original home in certain misty urban legends). The shuriken itself as an assault weapon would rate one-half shuriken on a scale of four. A hydrogen bomb would rate five shuriken. You get the idea. Occasionally we may add Propeller Beanies to the Shuriken: <<<o>>> <<<o>>> <<<o>>> __|__ __|__ __|__ /_____\ /_____\ /_____\ This indicates nerdly interest over and above a cyberpunk rating. Propeller head is an ancient term for <<nerd>>. The real name for that key on the Macintosh is not COMMAND, but PROPELLER, and this is why.