text: CHEESEBURGER BROWN: Story Wallah: Plight of the Transformer - Part Three
  Plight of the Transformer - Part Three
  Plight of the Transformer is a story told in eight episodes, posted serially by me, your transnational host, Cheeseburger Brown. Chapters: 1|2|3|4|5|6|7|8
  "Piece by piece, a virtual Doppelganger is woven: my toy, my puppet, my pet -- and then, eventually, my self."
  This is the new century, and the roads and waystations have eyes. Thus it was that I made the flight to the Veneto under an assumed face, one of a dozen generic personas I employ for general movement among the public while on assignment. Though disguised it was my habit to play coy with any closed circuit camera. One never knows to where its vision may be networked.
  Twilight came. I stabbed out the last cigarette and cleaned my throat with wine. Soon, this peace would end and exhiliration would come. Soon, I would transform and deploy.
  In spite of the almost completely expository nature of that chapter, it was absolutely worth the wait.
  One can imagine that you write so well about Mr. Smith because you are your own sort of Transformer, though your subjects are themselves of your own creation.
  The details are exquisite. I'm just sorry we'll have to wait until Thursday -- or later, most likely -- for the next step. Dang, I hope you get famous and well-supported enough to do this for a living.
  Mr. Smith is becoming one of my favorite CBB characters (if it's possible to make a short list).
  01 May, 2007 15:26
  01 May, 2007 18:22
  Marvellous stuff as ever, nice to find out that Mr. Smith is merely a mundane master of disguise and not some kind of alien thingy like the face dancers from Dune. Means he must be really good at what he does.
  I fixed a couple of things over at the wiki, I see someone's been adding to it already YAY!
  Why is the previous comment nothing more than the DVD DRM process key? (Thanks, Google!) Insanity.
  I definitely haven't felt this intrigued by a CBB story since I got so caught up in the Long Man. It's definitely all about the character. Especially when confined to short stories where we as readers have so little time to become invested with the characters. When the focus is nearly entirely on one main character, that process is faster and feels like it goes deeper.
  I am very much getting drawn into Tenny.
  I suspect it's because the AACS is issuing take-down notices to sites publishing the key and/or the link to the 'DVD conversion' discussion forum, and somebody is thumbing their nose at them by demonstrating the irreversibility of the key's compromise.
  I really should get around to deleting that comment, shouldn't I?
  mandrill: you're welcome :) Seriously, though, thanks for the outlet. I haven't done anything fan-related for quite a while, and it's a nice break.
  02 May, 2007 01:37
  I suppose your deletion of the comment depends on your support of Piracy. Of course, you have crossed over to the other side of the wire now, making copyrighted materiel.
  Wonderful story! I was a little bit disappointed at the lack of superpower changing ability, but that kind of makes him just that much creepier.
  He's going up against Prester John, who was Lallo's adversary, but then again Lallo wasn't that great a guy either. So, I think what we have here...is an entire character set of bad guys. Thinly bad, barely bad, just a fine shade of bad, but bad guys nonetheless. COOL!
  1) The dispersion of the HD-DVD process key isn't about piracy -- it's about demonstrating how you cannot put the djinni back into the bottle once released. Posting the forbidden data at this point helps to illustrate the ineffectual, wasteful and nonsensical reaction of the AACS in sending legal threats to thousands of people over the past few days in a bizarre attempt to unspill spilled milk.
  2) As a content creator, I abhor the current state of intellectual property law and am the impassioned forefront of those who would see it changed. Copyright as it stands is sick, and must end. I don't advocate no copyright -- I advocate sane copyright.
  mandrill: um, wiki? where?
  cbb: the protagonist is interesting, but it's the typewriter i love! i'm curious to see what kind of world has a typewriter like that.
  03 May, 2007 04:01
  http://cheeseburgerbrown.pbwiki.com
  Edit password = the burden the Zorannics carry on behalf of humankind (no spaces).
  Will it be Friday then?
  03 May, 2007 13:17
  I've just set up a two hour render here at work which has brought my workstation to a grinding halt -- so, I think I have two hours to push ahead on the story assuming I don't get called into a time-wasting meeting or drawn into a time-wasting conference call.
  Since you claim to be rendering stuff at "work", I assume your impromptu strike was, if not entirely successful, at least demonstrative of your relative worth.
  04 May, 2007 01:31
  outstanding, gripping, teasing....I cant wait for more. Or at least the time to catch up with more. I have 2 chapters waitng for me in my inbox....