The Cyberpunk Fakebook

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.

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