AEther141 - Slashdot User

Comment Insurance, doorman, asset tagging (Score 1) 758

by AEther141 on Wednesday August 20, 2008 @07:25PM (#24683133) Attached to: How Do I Prevent Lan Party Theft?

Firstly, you need public liability insurance for the event in case someone electrocutes themselves or trips on a case of bawls or something. Secondly, you need a guy on the door at all times to act as a security guard/receptionist. It doesn't have to be a professional, you can ask for volunteers to do a couple of shifts on the door, but they do need to know what to do in case of emergency and have a working phone. I suggest having two people on the door so it's less lonely and so there can be someone on the door at all times. Thirdly, use a very simple asset tagging system - everyone coming in gets a festival-style wristband marked with a number. Their computer and monitor get marked with a sticker bearing the same number. Anyone carrying hardware out of the venue gets their numbers checked - if any of their credentials are missing, the police get called. Make sure not to publicise the location of the event and only provide details to registered participants.

You Can't Oppose Copyright and Support Open Source 550

Posted by kdawson on Sunday May 06, 2007 @07:13PM from the baby-with-the-bathwater dept.

Reader gbulmash sends us to his essay on the fallacy of those who would abolish copyright. The argument is that without copyright granting an author the right to set licensing terms for his/her work, the GPL could not be enforced. The essay concludes that if you support the GPL or any open source license (other than public domain), your fight should be not about how to abolish copyright, but how to reform copyright.

Submission + - Illinois Bill to Ban Social Networking Sites

Submitted by

AlexDV

on Tuesday February 13, 2007 @06:36PM

AlexDV writes: "Library blogger Michael Stephens is reporting that Illinois Senator Matt Murphy (R-27, Palatine) has filed a senate bill which "Creates the Social Networking Web site Prohibition Act. Provides that each public library must prohibit access to social networking Web sites on all computers made available to the public in the library. Provides that each public school must prohibit access to social networking Web sites on all computers made available to students in the school." The bill's full text can be found here.

What is it with politicians introducing crazy Internet-related legislation lately? Could this bill have something to do with the fact that prominent Democratic presidential hopefuls Barack Obama and John Edward are using social networks as a core component of their campaigns? Hmm..."

RFID To Track Play of DVDs And CDs? 237

Posted by kdawson on Monday September 18, 2006 @07:48AM from the long-arm-of-DRM dept.

jayp00001 writes, "A Taiwan-based maker of DVDs and CDs for major studios is about to begin putting RFID chips in disks. The eventual aim is for DVD and CD players equipped with an RFID reader to prevent copied or out-of-region disks from being played."

Just Let Me Play! 633

Posted by Zonk on Tuesday June 06, 2006 @06:08PM from the it's-not-that-hard dept.

Gamers with Jobs complains today about the thick layers of 'work' many games put between you and the fun nowadays. Instead of having 'secret areas' or 'unlockable modes,' he argues we should just be able to play the game we purchased. From the article: "I play games to escape. To go somewhere else. But our industry has so ingrained this concept of 'earning' our fun that the best is somehow always saved for last. Like modern day Puritans, we've convinced ourselves that we are not worthy of that for which we've already paid. Sinners in the hands of an angry god, we don't deserve our fun until we pay in blood."

Security Flaw Discovered in GPG 151

Posted by CowboyNeal on Thursday March 09, 2006 @10:22PM from the enemy-within dept.

WeLikeRoy writes "A serious problem in the use of GPG to verify digital signatures has been discovered, which also affects the use of gpg in email. It is possible for an attacker to take any signed message and inject extra arbitrary data without affecting the signed status of the message. Depending on how gpg is invoked, it may be possible to output just faked data as several variants of this attack have been discovered. All versions of gnupg prior to 1.4.2.2 are affected, and it is thus recommended to update GnuPG as soon as possible to version 1.4.2.2."

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