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Get a Grip on LAN Parties
Eclipse127 writes "If you're a LAN party go'er, you know how much it sucks to drag all your equipment in and out of a LAN party. Bulky cases, tripping over keyboard cords, dropping things on the floor.. sound familiar?
Well, Boomgames has the goods on the Gear Grip Pro. Looks pretty sweet, and unlike most of my toys, actually useful.."
You might try submitting this to a dedicated health news discussion board. Slashdot isn't really focused on this sort of thing. Slashdot is more focused towards new Computer (Linux) toys, patent/copyright on technology news, and some various geeky news bites. You topic was really a little too broad and off-topic for Slashdot IMHO.
Unfortunatly, this is just my opinion. Everybody seems to have a different idea of what Slashdot is, and a lot of them get rather annoyed when the Slashdot editors don't do exactly what they expect.
Down that path lies madness. On the other hand, the road to hell is paved with melting snowballs.
I read the internet for the articles.
I'm sure this will be quickly modded down, but ... is this worthy of Slashdot? This is not the first time I've seen this case (if not this one, one _exactly_ like it by the same company).
A few weeks ago, I submitted a story which to me would do us all good to look at. It was a link to an article discussing the ethical dillema facing the health care industry in trying to decide whether to use a live-HIV-virus AIDS vaccine. The issue being, of course, that some people would get AIDS from it. However, statistically, in countries with a high enough infection rate, it would prevent many more deaths than it caused. But in countries like the US with relatively lower rates, it would be a disaster.
The story really hit me, in terms of being something educated scientist-type folks would love to discuss.
It was rejected.
Instead, we get a fancy backpack.
This is my first "This isn't news, this doesn't matter" post. I'll try to refrain in the future. But....wow. I'm stunned.
Not representing or approved by my company or anybody else.
In my experience, a LAN party is where a bunch of 20- and 30-suffereings raid their friends house (which is overly wired because his company was bought out and his stocks went through the roof), bringing all manner of electronic contraption, but most importantly their computers.
There is a brief frenzy of activity where people erect card tables, run to office max for additional hubs and NICs, set up their machines, plug in their monitors and so forth... As people come in, the game of "monitor envy" begins, where those with 17"s see the 19"s and the 19"s get dwarfed by the 21"s, and the 21"s are envious of the flat 17"s (because they lugged a 75lb monitor from 1/10 of a mile down the street due to parking). People show off their palm pilots, their internet phones, their TiVo, and much geek envy begins.
Finally, someone who either doesn't have all the toys, is a Mechanical Engineer (and hence not quite as tech envious), or has seen them all becomes bored and says "Beer?"
Ah, now here the kegs of Guinness come forth from the kitchen, and the Mechanical Engineers begin to explain the intracacies of the guinness keggerator, the use of the second cooler, and the beer begins to flow.
So then the games begin, as patches are downloaded, game terms are agreed upon, and teams are set. Girlfriends and fiancees look on with disgust, then proceed to watch Wallace and Grommit. We watch as neophyte quake players take on the guy who knows exactly where the railgun spawns. A penalty is assessed to the "God player" and he is forced to drink more beer. The game changes to Starcraft, then to Tribes, then to Halflife, then to something else. The game constantly changes and evolves. Breaks are taken for Guinness, to watch portions of Wallace and Grommit and internet shorts like Troops.
No victor is declared, no tears are shed when the game is over, and everybody leaves happy. Even fiancees have a good time.
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You say you want a revolution?
Assuming s/coasters/casters/, it sounds like a great idea until you manage to push your computer off of your desk while trying to eject a floppy.
Obviously they take their LAN games seriously, and don't waste bandwidth on stupid stuff like serving up web pages.
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