The iAtropos Ono-Sendai Cyberdeck Console

(Plain text webpage for now; cope, or volunteer to make it prettier. I have higher priorities.)

Installing the Console in your browser

The iAtropos decking interface is implemented inside your own browser. To set your browser up to act as a cyberdeck, take the following steps:

• Right-click, or touch-and-hold, the following link: Launch Cyberdeck.
• If your browser gives you the option to "bookmark this link," do so. You can skip to the last two steps of these instructions.
• If not, copy the destination URL to your clipboard. (Just copy the URL, don't follow the link; doing so will, depending on your browser, either do nothing at all, or will call up the cyberdeck around this page.)
• If your browser gives you neither option (iOS currently detects it to be Javascript and the only option it offers is "open" i.e. execute immediately), then copy-and-paste the following text manually:
javascript:(function(){var SR_UI_script = document.body.appendChild(document.createElement('script')); SR_UI_script.attr['data-main']='http://hellequin.net/js/onosendai.js'; SR_UI.src='https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/require.js/2.2.0/require.min.js';})();
• Create a new bookmark (easiest is by bookmarking this page).
• Edit the bookmark you just created. In some browsers you'll get to do so immediately, in others you'll have to go to your bookmarks and edit it there.
• In place of the link location, paste the text you copied up in the first step of these instructions. Give the bookmark a useful title (we suggest "Launch Cyberdeck").
• Some browsers will 'helpfully' strip off the prefix in the process; if it does not begin with javascript:(function then you'll need to manually fix that.
• Save and close the bookmark. Your browser is now ready for use.

Using the Console

To use the cyberdeck, first navigate to a target website. Many, but not all, non-https websites will work. Presumably, this will include the sites for which your GM has set up special decking results, but you're free to use it wherever you like. Then click the bookmark you set up above. Instead of navigating away from the page, it will instead launch the cyberdeck interface in situ.

• On Chrome for Android, opening the Bookmarks menu 'disassociates' you from the currently-open page, so you cannot launch the console from there. However, if you tap the search / location bar and begin typing the name you gave to the console bookmark (such as "Launch Console"), the bookmark will appear in your auto-completion suggestions; clicking it there will launch it properly.

Further instructions will follow here when they're written. For now, the power button will deactivate the cyberdeck; so will navigating away from the page or reloading it in your browser. Drag the 'scanner' item from the bottom of the interface across the page, or drag the page itself left, right, or downward to see a "decker's eye view" of it and access your tools.

WTF? How does that even work? Is it secure?

The decking overlay is implemented as a "bookmarklet" - a technique which hasn't seen widespread use in years outside of a few niches, but turns out to be remarkably effective. It's a lot like a Greasemonkey (Firefox) / Tampermonkey (Chrome) userscript, if you're familiar with those, but works for anybody. When you click the link, you tell your browser to serve up the page with an additional javascript file included, which in turn loads the deck overlay and controls its functionality.

(There is in fact a funny story about my original attempt at implementing this, using an iFrame to show the external website within my own page. Turns out it is, not easy, not difficult, not even impossible, but forbidden, to find out even the simplest things about that external website using Javascript. Stuff that's being shown to you right there in your browser! There are even well-documented workarounds to find out how big the iFrame'd content is, so that you can adjust the iFrame size to fit. Turns out the functionality I needed is the same thing that leads to XSS (cross-site scripting) attacks, so all modern browsers render Javascript "blind" to plainly user-visible content, from outside their own domain. Huh.)

Please feel free to take a look at the script source code, if you're concerned. It neither modifies the website in question (other than layout) nor accesses anything about your own computer (other than the clicks and touches you apply after firing it up); in fact, as a precaution it prevents the site itself from receiving clicks/touches while the console is active. It should be just as safe as most Javascript functionality you ignore on webpages you visit, if not more so. I'm no security expert, so I can't entirely reassure you that it's safe; if you're feeling paranoid, you don't have to use it. But if so, we suggest not playing a decker, since there's no other way to access the interface.

Happy decking!