Horo the Wise Wolf

Bringing me into this is laughable. I would at least have the good grace to let my land go white were I do disappear for a few months, and trying to attack people's motives in a situation that has not and will not happen is an absolute cop out, and weak at best.

"I think I can see the need for that.", nodded Wilhelm. "We're already seeing political ultimatums being delivered, a la Cisalpina and former Snow Haven. That, and Iceland with their posturing towards Sverige. It'd be good to both protect our own and our friends' interests."

Oblivious to the perhaps brashness of his earlier statement, Lucas responded. "We understand, and do not hold that against you. Our beliefs and thoughts have been with Cisalpina, and we will back whatever reasonable resolution that they attempt to pursue. I trust the situation will be settled with zero bloodshed, but one must always be prepared for the worst, in these days."

Wilhelm could smell manure and incest on the wind as he arrived in Pelisor. He had no doubt that such air would be incredibly distracting to anyone new to the diplomacy business, and Schëre had probably fallen right into that trap. She'd need some more training and grooming before she ascended to the throne, as such backwater countries would almost certainly be her downfall. Still, the fact that she had not quickly gone crazy and tried to murder anyone was a start, especially given how tempting it would be to offer Maria the Fragrant R.R. a tasty fist to the face. Wilhelm gave tasty fists. Observing the castle proper, Wilhelm was not impressed. It was quite clear that this was a tourist destination that had been poorly and hastily refurbished for the meeting, as evidenced by the railings, no smoking sign, and bin. Admittedly, he had not expected much better from such a nation. The fact that it was even vaguely a palace was a start, as opposed to the farmhouse he had been expecting. Maybe he'd be able to hear chickens clucking if he listened hard enough, and perhaps the occasional moo of a starving cow, malnourished by its stingy Romanian overlords.

Wilhelm sighed when he received the note. It was always the bloody Romanians. Not only had their "royal" emissary turned out to be some dog-faced pikey, but their leader had the mental stability of a teapot and a fanaticism shared largely with suicide bombers. Alas, that was how it was, and no amount of irritation would change that. Instead, he would have to put up a happy face and hope that his daughter's time in Romania hadn't been too scarring for her. Sending her in alone had definitely been a mistake, and one that would not be repeated. They'd probably prefer Friedrich in the future anyway - perhaps sending a soldier would straighten up those godawful backs down there. Until then, however, work would be work, and now his presence was demanded by Queen Maria of Mental Stability R.R. in Gypsyland. Some place where the S had a beard or something. Where had the days where such peons grovelled beneath the superior boot of Prussia gone? The golden days were just that - golden, and now relics of a happier past. With positive thoughts like the Romanian Palace burning running through his head as he wrote the response, Wilhelm set about looking diplomatic.

The Minister of Economics, Paul von Hindenburg, would be beamed into Debrecen for the meeting.

Change of curriculum With the ever-growing need for skilled labour and increased job competition worldwide, educational reforms are being put in place to change the secondary school curriculum to, at minimum, cover the following subjects:Biology Chemistry Chinese (Language) Computing Economics English History Map Painting & Political Science Maths P.E. Physics The Minister of Education, Ru Jian, has stated that he feels that "the changes will give our youth a much-needed flexibility when seeking future education and employment", and that the curriculum would "teach them core and critical skills from a young age that will be beneficial for years to come.". Whilst some private schools have shown dissatisfaction with the forced subjects, it is also important to note that students are free to choose other subjects on top of these. These changes come alongside changes to ZZGs (中资格), though no further changes to any qualifications are expected.

You interrupted his third post! He was going to forget Kuwait too >:|

That, and I also need Kuyavia-Pomerania, Opole, and Silesia. Thanks. http://forums.cybernations.net/index.php?/topic/122974-der-stechschritt/#entry3294845 http://forums.cybernations.net/index.php?/topic/122974-der-stechschritt/#entry3295845 http://forums.cybernations.net/index.php?/topic/122974-der-stechschritt/#entry3296781 http://forums.cybernations.net/index.php?/topic/122974-der-stechschritt/#entry3297779 http://forums.cybernations.net/index.php?/topic/122974-der-stechschritt/#entry3298090 http://forums.cybernations.net/index.php?/topic/122974-der-stechschritt/#entry3298651 http://forums.cybernations.net/index.php?/topic/122974-der-stechschritt/#entry3299398

King Wilhelm smiled as he accepted Urquhart, before showing him into the palace to be seated. "It is an honour to have you here. Please, come. I'm sure that there is some kind of agreement that we can come to."

Taking the seat, Lucas nodded. "Understandable. The best way to avoid the chaos is to keep your head down, though sometimes that is not enough, as we were shown with Brandenburg... Stability is returning, but perhaps slower than we'd like. Too many petty conflicts to rule an unwilling populace... Such is the natural way of things. Sharing friends is always a good start, and we could see a relationship developed with you yet."

http://forums.cybernations.net/index.php?/topic/122974-der-stechschritt/#entry3294845 http://forums.cybernations.net/index.php?/topic/122974-der-stechschritt/#entry3295845 http://forums.cybernations.net/index.php?/topic/122974-der-stechschritt/#entry3296781 http://forums.cybernations.net/index.php?/topic/122974-der-stechschritt/#entry3297779 http://forums.cybernations.net/index.php?/topic/122974-der-stechschritt/#entry3298090 http://forums.cybernations.net/index.php?/topic/122974-der-stechschritt/#entry3298651 http://forums.cybernations.net/index.php?/topic/122974-der-stechschritt/#entry3299398

Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (the white bit West of Prussia and North of Saxony) should be part of Prussia. Thanks.

"We do welcome this Polish conglomerate, and hope for their success domestically, and as a member of Europe."

Not very. What kind of networks do your military systems have? How is a Japanese intruder into your networks going to actually find the source material for your radar systems themselves? It is unlikely that there is a big red sign pointing straight towards it, especially considering that it's sensitive data. I'd place bets on that kind of thing being encrypted too, which means that they won't be able to use the data that they steal. Hacking is not as easy as Mogar's post implies it to be. Similarly, it is also difficult to actually ascertain that you are being hacked. There aren't any specific warnings that come up - it'd just be another user using the network, who happens to be in the former Russian Empire. That does raise the point, however. Japan will not be able to receive any data from your networks, because your systems would be sending it all to some random place in the former Russian Empire, as directed to do so by the IP.

To figure out the specs of his system, you'd need some kind of tangible access to that system. Doing it through a network (be it the military one its on or otherwise) wouldn't get you that much information because you have no idea how to network with the system, and it'd be pretty difficult to try and abstract how it works and go from there. I'd say the same for the radar systems to be destroyed as well, because viruses don't just enter networks and start wrecking things straight off. They have to have a way of spreading and infecting other machines (which would require getting said machines to accept the virus from another system in the first place, be it obfuscated with other data or not) which really isn't that simple, especially when you don't actually have a 100% idea what you're working with. Malware nowadays tend to spread through exploits and vulnerabilities found in widely used software (Windows, Java, etc.) rather than the custom set-up a military would use. Anyway. To get the actual details of the software on these systems, you'd need physical access to the machine, and then some way of copying all of the data on that machine (basically, get the OS), and getting it out of there. However, it would take a huge team of highly dedicated workers a pretty long time to ever find any vulnerabilities in the system, because they're just not easy to find. Heartbleed, for example, was made possible by an extension to OpenSSL made in 2011. However, it took three years for people to actually notice what was, relatively-speaking, a fairly simple bug and exploit. This is also bearing in mind that OpenSSL is open source, as opposed to whatever the military system runs on radar systems, which would not have its source code readily available.

Basic computer security. Non-issue for military installations. It works on one type of chip, and was entirely dependent on a Windows bug so it could even do anything. I have yet to see a single BIOS attack that could realistically damage a military installation. In fact, most viruses today work by using exploits in their environment to actually get them to do what the creator intended, and for a virus to suddenly magically work on someone else's military system... Sounds like powergaming. Umm... Obviously??? 1.5) Spend several months actually making it; 2) Get into the network somehow and then infect something, plus have a manner of infecting other computers.

Stuxnet was also written for the exact specifications of the equipment it was targetting. Do you have access to copies of Tongzhi radar systems, let alone have knowledge of their environment, to make the virus in the first place? You're not going to override the temperature shut down. That is BIOS territory, and something your virus cannot touch.

You going to RP placing the virus there if the spy roll passes? They don't just magically lock on to radar systems, no matter how well you make them. I don't think they're connected to the internet either. Speaking of which, making such a worm would take a decent amount of time to create. Any prior RP? Furthermore, you can't just magically increase the temperature of a system - you need some way of doing it. Also, computers don't destroy themselves when they get a bit too hot. They turn off. On an unrelated note, what program isn't entirely code?

Something something, nukes protect the little guy.

The spyroll should be to intercept the message, rather than decrypt it. Trying to decrypt it would be useless anyway, because the information would be far too old to be of any use by the time you managed to break the encryption. Furthermore, you wouldn't even know that it was from Triyun's military. Many communications these days are encrypted (I don't know how Triyun is sending his message, but the point stands), and there isn't really a meaningful way to ascertain what an individual batch of data is about. When you send data, it is broken up into smaller pieces (packets), each of which takes a different route to get to its destination. Server farms (assuming that they are latched onto public routers) would not be enough to identify useful data as it passed through (even if the data came through as one big chunk [which it wouldn't anyway]), and, as stated, there is little chance it'd be decrypted in time to still be meaningful. This is assuming it's internet based rather than radio or something, but the point on decryption still stands.

It's never going to constitute "sufficient deterrence". This is RP, not RL. There are no lives lost when people get nuked. There is little realistic state behaviour. It's a pretty empty threat, and it's being treated as such already. Further, forcing people to RP damages isn't going to hurt them. It'd just be some stuff on top of what they were already going to RP, or just a delay to it. Some people even like RPing too, apparently.

Not that I'm looking to void my vote, but the vote needs to be public :P

With the Huá hǎijūn finally fully stocked, troops trained, and combat ready, the time had come for the traditional naming ceremony of the ships. Each ship would have a bottle of champagne broken on it by Princess Lanying, would would then bless the ship and send it on its way. The names of the ships are as follows: Formidable-class: NWD (Nǚwáng de, 女王的) Yuánjī (元姬) NWD Língqǐ (玲綺) Visby-class: NWD Méiguī (玫瑰) NWD Bǎihé (百合) NWD Xiāngxuě (香雪) NWD Línglán (鈴蘭) NWD Zhī (栀) NWD Mòlì (茉莉) NWD Shuǐxiān (水仙) NWD Xiùqiú (繡球) NWD Sháoyào (芍药) NWD Zǐluó (紫羅) NWD Júshǔ (菊屬) NWD Lánkē (蘭科) NWD Shuǐyù (水芋) NWD Cùjiāng (酢漿) NWD Lián (莲) NWD Làjú (蜡菊) Sōryū-class NWD Shělēi (舍勒) NWD Chìtóng (赤瞳) NWD Qièqiàn (切茜) NWD Bùlán (布蘭) Endurance-class: NWD Qīnghuā (清花)

"We do hereby welcome Tongzhi into the world once more, and cheer for their continued and future success."