Burning time on route to Houston

[Jeff Waegelin]

Originally posted by Matt Krass
How about Speed?

Oh, no! The bus is slowing down... we're gonna go under 55... ahhh!

[Kiwi_queen]

Originally posted by "Big Mike"
well, i was thinking of just using my laptop to watch Air Force One on DVD, but people keep telling me, that hearing AHHH!! there is smoke in the cabin, and gun shots would freak most people out on an airplane,..... i cant figure out why

well, we could always watch Con Air on the flight, Mike.

[evulish]

Originally posted by Jeff Waegelin

Now, about your game selection, Quake? Honestly, Quake? Can't you come up with something better? J/k, Quake was good in its time, and if you're using older machines, it may be the best thing to run. Personally, I'd go with Half-Life or some mod, but to each their own, I guess. Now, to organize my team's in-flight LAN party....

Well...I think we may be running a few P133's...so my suggestion of UT2003 was out

[Neal Turett]

I've been admining LANs (10+ people) for a while. Even a small LAN wouldn't work on the plane.

First, you can't use WiFi. I have no interest in landing in the Gulf.

Two, wires get really messy. You put them in the aisles, the drink cart rips out everyone's network ports at once.

Three, hubs generally require AC power. Without a hub, you're limitted to two people.

Four, you can't have a quiet LAN. The pilot couldn't hear the tower over us.

The list goes on.... this assumes that you get the network running in the first place. I've been doing LAN Party's roughly once a month for a year and a half, and we have had only one LAN party where one computer didnt refuse to talk to the others. That leaves 17 where I've spent the first 1/2 hour or so troubleshooting one or two computers. Also, by the time you get the software installed on all the computers, a decent portion of the flight will be done.

It's not worth the hassle. A laptop and a few DivX's \ DVD's, and a few headphone splitters, no problem, but a full-fledged network of more than 2 computers won't happen.

The only way that this could possibly work is FireWire. I haven't used it for LANs, but I think that you can get hubs powered off batteries / the port itself. You could even bridge computers w/o FireWire into it with crossover cables. Or you could daisy chain firewire -> firewire -> crossover -> crossover -> firewire.... Good luck.

[Da SPAMinatress]

bonding with my teammates for 18 hours on a chartered bus... not among my favorite things to do... you know, small space, some loud members...hopefully we don't get to houston with a few less members...
i plan on sleeping most of the time... so i can be all rested for the lack of sleep i'll be getting while at nationals...
plus movies and food... and if i'm feeling productive, maybe a little hw, but thats highly unlikely

[evulish]

Originally posted by Neal Turett
I've been admining LANs (10+ people) for a while. Even a small LAN wouldn't work on the plane.

First, you can't use WiFi. I have no interest in landing in the Gulf.

Two, wires get really messy. You put them in the aisles, the drink cart rips out everyone's network ports at once.

Three, hubs generally require AC power. Without a hub, you're limitted to two people.

Four, you can't have a quiet LAN. The pilot couldn't hear the tower over us.

The list goes on.... this assumes that you get the network running in the first place. I've been doing LAN Party's roughly once a month for a year and a half, and we have had only one LAN party where one computer didnt refuse to talk to the others. That leaves 17 where I've spent the first 1/2 hour or so troubleshooting one or two computers. Also, by the time you get the software installed on all the computers, a decent portion of the flight will be done.

It's not worth the hassle. A laptop and a few DivX's \ DVD's, and a few headphone splitters, no problem, but a full-fledged network of more than 2 computers won't happen.

The only way that this could possibly work is FireWire. I haven't used it for LANs, but I think that you can get hubs powered off batteries / the port itself. You could even bridge computers w/o FireWire into it with crossover cables. Or you could daisy chain firewire -> firewire -> crossover -> crossover -> firewire.... Good luck.

This would probably be like 3 or 4 people. I have never run into networking problems when I network...and I've put all different things together.

Also, wouldn't it be possible to get 2 NIC's for each computer and just use a cross-over between all of the computers? Anyways, I don't think 4 cables or so going to a central source would be that hard. The cables would only have to be about 2-3' in length. I have a whole mess of short cat5 cables.

And...we can get the needed DC power from batteries. Portable power sources are cool. Also, we would preinstall the software. And anyways, I don't think Quake1 takes hours to install Especially if we get a network...just copy from one to another.

I don't think it would be hard to do...I just don't know if we would be _allowed_ to do it.

[evulish]

Originally posted by Da SPAMinatress
bonding with my teammates for 18 hours on a chartered bus... not among my favorite things to do... you know, small space, some loud members...hopefully we don't get to houston with a few less members...
i plan on sleeping most of the time... so i can be all rested for the lack of sleep i'll be getting while at nationals...
plus movies and food... and if i'm feeling productive, maybe a little hw, but thats highly unlikely

Heh. Charter buses have bathrooms. Charter bus bathrooms can hold in people...probably about 5. The doors to the charter bus bathrooms can be blocked from the outside. Get my drift? And if you play RHPS and MP: Holy Grail repeatedly, people won't get bored.

[Matt Krass]

Another thing to think about. After 9/11 not many people still trust safety on planes. A bunch of teenagers and college kids running wiring to little boxes with blinky lights might scare some of the passengers. Especially the ones who don't know a mouse form a microprocessor. After all how would you feel if you saw a bunch of strangers wiring strange equipment on a plane? I can't imagine the flight crew would jive with making their passengers think they are gonna die.

[SkitzoSmurf]

i say we have apple and orange races down the airplane. See which one makes it to the cabin first, or maybe some TP

[Jeff Waegelin]

Originally posted by SkitzoSmurf
i say we have apple and orange races down the airplane. See which one makes it to the cabin first, or maybe some TP

Ummm...safety? Apples and oranges in the aisles? Oh no!

[John JediMaster]

how about making a couple of video cds with a bunch of Gundam Wing on them for the flight and watch them on a laptop. I was going to do this but my friend with the laptop didn't have a battery that would work.

[Scooter]

In my humble but accurate opnion , you will have no problems. Legally, as long as there are no radio transmissions, you are fine. Technically, you can use a power inverter either going to the in seat power or a gel cell. All computers would need network cards (duh!) and you would either need to supply a router or set each comp to a static ip address. Either way, all could be done before hand so that while on the plane, the system would be 'plug and play.'

Bill B.