Jacqueline
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Computers for use as propsI have:
Compaq 486dx75 laptop, fully working (battery is toast) colour 10" display, built in trackball, 340MB hard-disk - no OS
Sun Sparcstation LX desktop, complete and working with (slightly battered) KB/Mouse and 21" (bloody heavy) display, 108MB ram, hard-disk of some size or other.. currently installed with Solaris 7.
Are these of any use as props or anything else?
If i knew how to code, I'd set one up as a dialing computer.
I also have knocking about:
About 20 various cards/boards of various sizes, cables, hard-drives (both living and dead), cdrom drives, HDD caddies, a 10Mbit network hub and a fairly complete pentium 133MMX machine that's doing sterling work holding up a coffee maker. I also have a P3-866 with 512MB Ram that could be loaned as well... any suggestions for uses for these??
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sm0keyb
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I have several DHD/ Dialling computer programs including a customisable one (you can put your own team names in etc.) if it still works. I haven't tried it with XP yet.
Dialling computers are of limited use IC 'cos we currently only need one on the Delta site & I think it's questionable if we'll be going back to Barnswood. I have a low spec pentium which I've rack mounted which we've used in the past as the dialling computer.
There have been several proposals for an IC network, to have the Wiki available IC etc but they've never really come to anything. Dead cards tended to be used for alien widgets but PC bits sprayed gold have become a bit passe now. I've got a box of electronic circuit boards that aren't quite so recognisable as PC bits.
I've got a pile of PCS & laptops mostly working if there's anyone with the expertise & the interest to have another go at the network thing. I'm useless with networks myself.
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Jacqueline
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I am a former network tech, my home network (as JT could tell you) it comprises of large piles of kit, some of the excesses that I'm not using are listed above..
I'm pretty sure, if we wanted an IC network, I could set up my P3 server with the hub, and provide an IC network with wired and semi-secure wifi access. (Semi-secure because that's the easiest way to make it reliably work and that's all that's needed for this) If the Dialing computer software will run on win2000, it should work fine on XP, and I can load up another machine with 2000, and add it to the network as the dialing computer. That is if we have a site planned with mains? (This pile of kit would need a gen of it's own, making it uneconomical to use at a site without mains)
Extra pc's (with linux - I'll have run out of windows licenses) I could set up with browser and open-office as internal computers, but the poor car could probably only carry one or two in addition to my own kit.
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Olivia Chase
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An IC network would be very nice but it has been issues like transport and power that have held it back so far. Also, would you rather be playing a game or watching/fixing a network? It will rely on OC skill to maintain and fix and to me that is too much responsiblity for one person.
Personally my imagination never runs out of batteries, but can occasionally crash (easily fixed with coffee) but I would not expect someone to stop what they were doing to fix it.
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Jacqueline
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30 players and staff aren't a huge burden to support (so long as people support their own personal kit themselves) If we wanted to do it seriously, I could set it all up on my rack mount dual p3 (Compaq proliant DL360 G2 if you're interested) and bring along my N-series wifi access point and 24 port 10/100 switch.
As you may have noticed, I have an addiction to enterprise grade gear.
Getting one server and some basic network hardware setup is only about 20 minutes work, and not a major thing to support onsite either. I can do 99% of the work at home, like getting all the server software installed (I use Linux, it's been stupidly reliable for me - Debian in this case)
The only requirement would have to be a site with mains, which would rule out a visit to candlestone. I'd just need the web-guru's attention to sort out some way to download a complete copy of the wiki and upload any changes afterwards.
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Jacqueline
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Trust me, I have all the necessary kit spare to make it work and cope with the likely usage levels, and enough room to transport server box, network gear and cabling/UPS. and not skimp on my own kit. (Would make giving lifts to more than 1 other person hard tho, but that's ok)
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sm0keyb
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This sounds too ambitious for Candleston. Unless another player besides me is taking a generator we'll only have about 2kW of power overall. That might be enough during the day but at night the lights will swallow half of it. Be good to talk it thro' though & see what we can do. Linux sounds good 'cos it's less immediately recognisable than Win. I even have 2 or three Amigas if we have a way of hooking them in.
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Jacqueline
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Server plus network kit is definitely something we'd need mains for, it'd be jut too much hassle to do it from a generator.
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Jess Parker
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There is no mains at Candleston, just sand. Lots and lots of sand.
So buckets and spades might be in order, along with beach towels and a moblie bar 
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Richard Tyler
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print a nice techy screen on some acetate and glue it to the lappy screen  Roleplay the rest. The problem with a real network is that you are limited by having a real network.
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darren1
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Yep, lots of sand and no mains power is the reason why I'm leaving my eee pc at home and just using my palm pda.
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Jacqueline
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I'll work on getting a machine setup to do notwo ^H^H network server duties at the next event with mains. I was planning on swapping out that box for a quieter one anyway.
Specs: Dual P3 1.4GHz, 1u rackmount, 2GB ram, dual 36gb UWSCSI3 drives currently set to span not raid. Dual gigabit nics, Designed for headless use, and setup with remote access management software.
Plan: Debian set up as server, with apache and wiki modules, windows contemptible file sharing, and small (50-100mb) personal user areas. The hope is to mirror the current wiki onto the machine before the event. Likely able to add 80211.G wifi in access point mode to allow wireless access. Unlikely to be able to get it to do much more on the simple basis that the less there is, the less there is to break and need support.
Limits: This box (while it'll have a UPS with it) will require onsite mains, it'd be simply impractical to use without it.
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Mali
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Hehe, just imagining the players struggling with all this kit on their backs while they tab all over the dunes...
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Fenric
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| Mali wrote: | | Hehe, just imagining the players struggling with all this kit on their backs while they tab all over the dunes... |
"Note to self - make sure Colin is reminded he's not at work when he sees the dunes."
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Jean-Pierre
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| Jacqueline wrote: | I'll work on getting a machine setup to do notwo ^H^H network server duties at the next event with mains. I was planning on swapping out that box for a quieter one anyway.
Specs: Dual P3 1.4GHz, 1u rackmount, 2GB ram, dual 36gb UWSCSI3 drives currently set to span not raid. Dual gigabit nics, Designed for headless use, and setup with remote access management software.
Plan: Debian set up as server, with apache and wiki modules, windows contemptible file sharing, and small (50-100mb) personal user areas. The hope is to mirror the current wiki onto the machine before the event. Likely able to add 80211.G wifi in access point mode to allow wireless access. Unlikely to be able to get it to do much more on the simple basis that the less there is, the less there is to break and need support.
Limits: This box (while it'll have a UPS with it) will require onsite mains, it'd be simply impractical to use without it. |
I built a laptop based server running web, email, DNS for cool domains and routing pls old school BBS services hooked up to a wireless router.
I brought this and ran it at two barnswood events and the usage was almost nil. It was not that folks were not keen on the idea of putting missions reports on it, messaging and so forth. It was more the reality that despite the keen interest once the event got going running around with guns, prodding alien artifacts with pdas and drinking beer was massively more appealing than sitting at a keyboard and screen.
I think a more powerful server is a great idea but just we aware it might just not be cool enough to compete with a chipboard box that in your mind is an alien artifact of unspeakable power and complexity.
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