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Google Engineer Builds Ultimate LAN Party House
Zothecula writes "Anyone who has a attended a LAN party — where people connect their computers on one network in one location to play multiplayer games together — can tell you that they can be both very fun but also kind of a hassle. Playing games with your friends all in the same room: fun. Having to organize all your friends to each haul their usually-oversized gaming rigs to one person's house, ensuring they all have the same software, and inevitably dealing with one or more people having trouble connecting: not fun. With that in mind, it makes sense that one Google employee decided to bypass all that inconvenience and just build a house specifically for LAN parties, complete with multiple networked computers and TVs connected to game consoles."
I hope that at the beginning of each party he explains to the guests that they are about to use proprietary hardware and software and that none of the games involved are Free Software. I would let them all play the xbox and PCs for about an hour, then I'd push a button that takes the computers away and replaces them all with Lemote Yeeloong laptops with Gnewsense installed and nothing but copies of Frozen Bubble. Then I'd explain to them that the game they're about to enjoy is completely open to tinkering, as are the computers they are using.
They will learn what freedom means that evening.