"Нейл Стефенсон. Snow Crash (Снежная лавина, англ.)" - читать интересную книгу автора

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Five-O that was ever filmed, or the complete recordings of Jimi
Hendrix, or the 1950 Census.
Or-rnore likely-a wide variety of nasty computer viruses. If Hiro
reaches .out and takes the hypercard, then the data it represents will be
transferred from this guy's system into Hiro's computer. Hiro, naturally,
wouldn't touch it under any circum~ stances, any more than you would take a
free syringe from a stranger in Times Square and jab it into your neck.
And it doesn't make sense anyway. "That's a hypercard. I thought you
said Snow Crash was a drug," Hiro says, now totally nonplussed.
"It is," the guy says. "Try it."
"Does it fuck up your brain?" Hiro says. "Or your computer?"
"Both. Neither. What's the difference?"
Hiro finally realizes that he has just wasted sixty seconds of his life
having a meaningless conversation with a paranoid schizophrenic. He turns
around and goes into The Black Sun.




At the exit of White Columns sits a black car, curled up like a
panther, a burnished steel lens reflecting the loglo of Oahu Road. It is a
Unit. It is a Mobile Unit of MetaCops Unlimited. A silvery badge is embossed
on its door, a chrome-plated cop badge the size of a dinner plate, bearing
the name of said private peace organization and emblazoned

DIAL 1-800-THE COPS
All Major Credit Cards

MetaCops Unlimited is the official peacekeeping force of White Columns,
and also of The Mews at Windsor Heights, The Heights at Bear Run, Cinnamon
Grove, and The Farms of Cloverdelle. They also enforce traffic regulations
on all highways and byways operated by Fairlanes, Inc. A few different
FOQNEs also use them: Caymans Plus and The Alps, for example. But franchise
nations prefer to have their own security force. You can bet that Metazania
and New South Africa handle their own security; that's the only reason
people become citizens, so they
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SNOW CRASH
can get drafted. Obviously, Nova Siciia has its own security, too.
Narcolombia doesn't need security because people are scared just to drive
past the franchise at less than a hundred miles an hour (Y.T. always snags a
nifty power boost in neighborhoods thick with Narcolombia consulates), and
Mr. Lee's Greater Hong Kong, the grandaddy of all FOQNEs, handles it in a
typically Hong Kong way, with robots.
MetaCops' main competitor, WorldBeat Security, handles all roads
belonging to Cruiseways, plus has worldwide contracts with Dixie
Traditionals, Pickett's Plantation, Rainbow Heights (check it out-two
apartheid Burbclaves and one for black suits), Meadowvale on the [insert
name of river] and Brickyard Station. WorldBeat is smaller than MetaCops,