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The intended recipient of the call must be an individual the caller considers a “loved one.”
Wording seems a bit odd. "of close relation to the caller" or "has a personal relationship to the caller" might create better tone, but I'd ask around for an even better wording. As is, it feels out of place.
As of now, no vote. Not sure if my late-night mental state allows me fair judgement.
An anomaly that convinces people to make traffic accidents by pretending to threaten their loved ones appeals to me, and the rest of this article does a good job of supporting that idea. I like it.
if your reading this your gay
It's the first one in a minute that's actually made me feel a little twingy in the head, the brief buzzing sensation that something in the world has just gone horribly wrong. Very succinct and to the point, giving exactly what needed giving and no more.
A tad different. Stretches my disbelief a little by the fact that some random guy just came up with a virus like this, but I like it overall.
Well, who do you think writes viruses? Usually just some guy/gal with a destructive attitude or a grudge.
But in any case, my interpretation is that this was his ghost. He did commit suicide, after all.
Giving bearhugs to the unsuspecting since 1872.
This is decently well written and a neat concept…
…were it not for the glaring fact that viruses do not work that way. If it moves between cell towers, then it's a "program capable of relocating itself" between such nodes. If it's hosted on a server, as you suggest, then it's a "program capable of taking control" of such towers. Either way, you have not described a computer virus. Downvoting due to bad science until this is fixed.
"SCP-1558 is an anomalous computer virus program which infects GSM standard cellular network base transceiver stations."
GSM standard cell network towers, eh? Made by who? Motorola? Toshiba? Fujitsu? Not to mention GSM is GRPS and EDGE, both of which are rarely used - you would be looking at the 3G networks HSPA and advanced WCDMA - not the 2G GSM, which is only a fallback which near 0 modern phones would use, unless 3/4G was down.
Changing it from 'virus' to 'program' is making it worse - since a virus IS a program, and a malicious program could be deemed a virus.
Okay. If somebody knows more about cell systems than me, and can make the language technically correct, please change it. Because I don't really know what you mean, Syka.
Why not just have it be a program installed on one cell tower? That probably makes it safe class, but removes the bad science.
There is not one kind of "cell tower". There are a myriad of different systems - "GSM" can colloquially refer to HSPA and WCDMA sorts of networks, but it's more correctly used to describe 2G EDGE-style networks. Additionally, there's several manufacturers of equipment of this - and that ranges from dumber kit from the early 00s to the higher tech stuff in the new towers - a virus can't just 'hack' random ones and transfer itself - since not every tower will have the same kit powering it. Unless the virus is made by a team of experts that have kit on hand and have vulnerabilities for each… not going to happen.
Additionally - "Upon the completion of a SCP-1558 intercepted call, a recorded audio file of said call is downloaded to SCP-1558-2’s hard drive, regardless of Internet connection or power status." This here is enough for a downvote. If it can't contact the tower via the internet, it still works. If it's off, it still works. Because somehow this radio tower virus can use the powers of magic to arrange magnetic bits on a powered off hard drive to form the data that makes up an encoded sound file, then via the same MoIP (Magic over IP) connection, update the file allocation table of the HDD so that the file 'exists' to the OS. Note that files aren't stored sequentially - they are quite commonly fragmented (see something I made yonks ago that explains it simply here). So to work around that, you would need to have the contents of the HDD right there to read off and work - which is just impossible, as that's just "it happens because it happens and it's *spooky* oooh, disregarding the fact that this isn't how servers or viruses work.
Well, with sufficient magic, that could work, although I agree that in this case, you want to use as little magic as possible. Seriously, just drop the viral aspect. The scenario itself is plenty horrifying without it.
I've removed the 'magicy' element and made it one anomalous antenna. I think this improves the article a lot, thanks so much for your input, Syka and Anaxagoras!
Computers are magic! (Spoiler: They're not)
The problem with trying to involve modern technology with magical SCP effects normally associated with non-electronics is that electronics are highly precise and well-defined and do not translate well between the mediums of bits and bytes to physical objects.
If it's a special (note: not magical) computer made with future technology that we cannot reliably take apart and analyze because we're afraid of breaking it, fine, I could maybe live with that (MAYBE).
If it's an IBM Model M that reliably “downloads your mental state to a regular hard drive whose data Foundation scientists cannot copy or read” if you engage in stream of consciousness typing, that's where the trout comes out.
If it's a “computer virus” that spreads itself like an independent organism, you're gonna get slapped with said trout for a while unless you did a /really/ good job (e.g. no independent programs a la Megaman.EXE).
We know how computers work because we designed them that way (and other stuff like math and numbers), so if you really insist on making a electronics SCP, either you should do some research on how things actually work down to the nitty-gritty details (up to a reasonable point - e.g. no instantaneous bullshit response) or try to stay away from a relation to the technology like how Portkeys in Harry Potter are just random objects that just happened to teleport you. Otherwise, like 033, you'd end up with a SCP that basically detonates the universe in an instant the moment a troll researcher wonders what will happen if he does ${FOO} and that'll just evoke an angry response as opposed to “zomg creepy”.
I upvoted this thing because I really like the effect, even though I was thinking "Viruses (and programs in general) don't work like that."
What you have here is a supernatural entity that for some reason likes to possess machines, specifically cell towers, instead of people. Work with it that way and you will get all the Comp. Sci. folks off your back over the bullshit science.
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The picture makes it for me. It's neat until I realize how many of those towers I see every day, and the idea that something's in there tickles my fancy.
I like it other than the second picture. That's a network stack, router, a switch, and what looks like a firewall. I see no server blades, so there would be no storage. I see nothing that is a storage device in any way. That's it. That's all the bugs me.
Ps, that bottom thing is power. Maybe a back up power supply.
+1
