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Games Entertainment

Get a Grip on LAN Parties 156

Posted by Hemos from the bringing-the-machine dept.
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.."
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Get a Grip on LAN Parties More

Get a Grip on LAN Parties

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  • Re:Pardon my ignorance (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    I have a CS degree, You have a degree in Counter-Strike.... I bow to you... what college? I want to start my transfer today.

  • Re:[OT] - News? (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    why the hell would we care about health care? if i want to read about that i'll go to a real news site...this is 'news for nerds'

  • you have confused cause and effect, sir (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    In addition, the lack of female gamers leads encourages homosexuality

    Actually, studies have shown that many hackers are latent homosexuals. Just like stars of the stage a generation ago, teenage boys with homosexual leanings, even if they are not aware of such leanings, tend to go towards male dominated fields, such as computers. One only needs observe the constant homosexual jokes and posts on Slashdot to implictly understand this to be true. Their lack of success with women is due to unconscious sabotage, they really don't want women, they want men.

    I suppose that theses geeks will become happier, and better adjusted, once they accept their homosexuality, though it will no doubt perturb such fundementalists such as you.
  • I picked one up at QuakeCon last summer. Quite useful, but I found out it's a lot harder to carry my case with one arm than the two I used to use. Unless you're stronger than I am (pretty likely, actually) the shoulder strap is very handy, if awkward.
  • I don't care! I have karma flowing out my ass.

    They make pads for that now...

    --
    * CmdrTaco is an idiot.

  • Re:[OT] - News? (Score:4)

    by jandrese ( 485 ) <kensama@vt.edu> on Thursday March 22, 2001 @08:30AM (#347705) Homepage Journal
    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've carried computer + kb + monitor + ... successfully before (mind you, 14"). Damn, heavy, yes. Especially considering I carried all of it in my arms. However, with the Gear Grip, while heavy, it would be MUCH easier. Heavy, yes, but not that bad because your arms would be handling only the monitor. What might be better is a backpack style arrangement so BOTH shoulders are supporting the weight of the computer. With good weight distribution, it's amazing what the body can support. Especially on the short haul.

    Bill - aka taniwha
    --

  • I think the problem with laptops is the proprietary interface with the screen. I can't download the drivers from my chipset manufacturer for my Toshiba laptop, which really sucks as the current ones are rather deficient under Win2K and Toshiba are being lazy.

  • Pardon my ignorance (Score:3)

    by RenQuanta ( 3274 ) on Thursday March 22, 2001 @07:48AM (#347708) Homepage
    but what exactly is a "LAN party"?
  • One thing about LAN "parties" that should be noted is the rampant piracy that occurs at them.

    One thing about companies in "third world countries" that should be noted is the rampant piracy that occurs at them.

    In addition, the atmosphere of LAN parties is not conducive to proper behavior. Drinking and smoking are not uncommon at LAN parties.

    Drinking and smoking are not uncommon at any event where teenagers are unsupervised, and this is not a new phenomenon.

    In addition, the lack of female gamers leads encourages homosexuality.

    I'm guessing you don't know any gay people. I am gay, and I must tell you that gay people don't need LAN parties to have their homosexuality "encouraged." If your son is gay and is a teenager, then he's been checking out guys for a long time now and hasn't needed a LAN party to help him do so. Hormones provide all the motivation he needs.

    This sort of behavior may have been tolerable in the Greek armies of long ago, but is simply unacceptable in modern moral society.

    So you admit that morals are relative?

    As such, I forbid my children to attend LAN parties because I do not their school to become the next Columbine.

    What evidence do you have that LAN parties caused the Columbine massacre? My belief is that there are many factors which lead to a tragedy like that, and I think that the number one factor is poor parenting. Parents nowadays are constantly looking for ways to shirk their parental duties. When kids do bad things, they are far too quick to blame "the media," "drugs," and (dumbest of all, so far) "LAN parties" rather than their own crappy parenting abilities.

    (For the record, I am a Libertarian [lp.org].)
  • Well, there is also the APEX Supercase, reviewed at Arstechnica, and available at thechipmerchant.com Comes with casters, at a very affordable price.

  • Re:Pardon my ignorance (Score:3)

    by Jeffrey Baker ( 6191 ) on Thursday March 22, 2001 @08:38AM (#347711)
    Hey get over yourself already. LAN parties are a lot more fun than just sitting in your study alone playing games. Capture the flag games are vastly more interesting when each team is in a room with each other, communicating efficiently, and everyone has a 1ms ping. LAN parties are certainly a big improvement over the stlye of party that seems to engage most 20-30 year-old Americans: getting together to drink and make vapid conversation, then having the least drunk draggin the most drunk back to their homes.
  • Has anyone else noticed that they are slashdotted?
  • If you want portability, you may want to take a look at a PCIII [pciii.de] case.

    --

  • I always found good lanparties had rolling flats to carry your carry your computer equipment to and fro. If not, other people there give you a helping hand since it IS a get-together/party (if done right ;]).

    Often wrong but never in doubt.
    I am Jack9.
    Everyone knows me.
  • Yup, I tie all my kids up and make them watch bill gates speeches on video while I eletrocute them, screaming into a bullhorn "THIS IS THE DEVIL" "BILL GATES IS THE DEVIL".(adding strobe lights and the clashing of garbage cans for effect) Isn't this the standard Open Source way of programming? Oh wait... I learned that at my MCSE training classes.... My bad.

    Actually My son's computer was dual boot from the beginning, He had the free choice to choose what he wants.

    In his own words on a phone call to a friend," Microsoft is good for games, but I use linux for serious stuff." Out of the mouths of babes comes this wisdom and I am proud that he knows how to deal with both winblows and Linux.

    It's funny how the young learn faster than the old... It's probably because they aren't closed minded.

  • A source for affordable LCD monitors and a strap for it on the other side.

    This is so cool that I bought 1 for me and 1 for my 16 year old son. (Dad and son Fragging team :-)

    On a side note, anyone come across any good book sized PC's that offer really good 3D chipsets or an AGP slot on it's side? I'd love to make an ultra-portable gaming box.
  • I never really thought it was that difficult. Yeah, there's the inertia of not wanting to drag your stuff down and have to set it up again later, but it's really not so much work as you might fear.

    All you got is 1) monitor 2) cpu 3) large bag with everything else (keyboard mouse mousepad headphones cat5 power cords cdr blanks) (I normally use those huge bags they give you a Microcenter). You can normally carry that in 2 trips.
  • Really guys, do we need to report on *every* case carrier that comes out.

    Maybe you should have scoop put together freshvegetables.com for crap like this.

    --

  • It's funny how the bar for 'serious gaming' keeps going up, even when the software doesn't. Used to be you had to have a ping below 200ms and 30fps to be a 'serious gamer'. Now you need at least 60fps (though 130 is better, even though your monitor refresh is at 72 Hz), a ping less than 40ms, and the biggest honking graphics card you can get, so you can run the game in 1024x768x24bit instead of 640x480.

    Serious gamers rely on strategy and technique, not the latest in texture rendering technology. Those are serious geeks. Both are respectable, but respect the difference...

    Kevin Fox
    --
  • I don't expect the house to have millions of monitors. I've also never been to a LAN party where anyone's used even one TV, so I only need one for me, not everyone.

    Kevin Fox
    --
  • Get a laptop with a nice big screen (or better yet, S-VHS out), a wireless lan card, and a good USB controller. Total weight? about 6 or 7 lbs. Completely portable.

    The Apple Titaniums are perfect for this, as long as you're playing cross-platform games (Diablo II, Quake Arena, Starcraft, Myth II, etc.)

    Kevin Fox
    --
  • LAN. Local Area Network. A LAN party involves a whole bunch of fools carrying over their vast and expensive computer equipment to a single location. All machines are then networked together to perform the some of the most advanced computations used today. Being that you play a few 'bouts of Quake or something.

    Here's my account [instantcool.com] of LAN party gone bad.
    --
  • You could sling the computer over your sholder and carry your monitor in your arms. That would probably add an extra 100+lbs. to you though.

    Leg crushing power, activated!
    --
  • Clearly defined terms my ass. Go ahead, search my username. I've never come down on /. for product placement before. I understand that this isn't a true journalistic forum. Most of the criticism that /. gets is undeserved.
    However, seeing as this story has no content except for, "Whoa, cool product" I don't think it's unreasonable to question this. I'm a thinkgeek customer. They have lots of cool stuff. But I know who owns them.
    Maybe it's a coincidence. In fact, I'm willing to bet it is. But this particular case looks fishy. The fact that thinkgeek is a good store doesn't change that.
  • Pity that these were reviewed on Geek Grrls sometime mid last year.

    Not that I expect everything on /. to be up to date.

  • Because, when you don't consider homosexual transmission, it is generally believed (and probably now proved via empirical tests) that women have a MUCH greater chance of getting HIV from a man, than a man does from a woman. Also, male promiscuity is considered to be higher than female, so a single male can infect several women over the course of time.

    Therefore, in areas where non-homosexuals are the primary carriers of HIV, it often has a higher infection rate for women than men.

    So, it is not an issue of symmetry. Women have a higher chance of getting AIDS from a man than vice versa.
  • Calm down! Games are always more fun against humans, especially if they're your friends within shouting distance.
  • I'm much more interested in this contraption than in moral and ethical dilemmas facing the health care industry. Maybe that makes you a better person than me...somehow I'll live with the shame. What you fail to realize, however, is that this story isn't responsible for the rejection of your story. This story happened to interest the Slashdot editors, yours did not. It's nothing personal...they aren't pushing an agenda...they've just got this web site where they post stories that interest them. Why would this be any different than if you wrote to the editor of your local newspaper and then didn't see your letter in print?

    Slashdot doesn't have to post what you like. They (the Slashdot editors) don't have to post things with moral and ethical dilemmas. They don't have to post ANYTHING. They post what they are interested in, and they've found enough people that agree that their site has obtained no small notoriety. Bully for them.
  • Hmm.... I wonder if you could strip out all the hardware and replace it with PC compatible parts...
  • I'm glad all my friends basements are handicap accessible, so I can just roll my caster-equipped case down the ramp, rather than have to worry about such things as those pesky stairs. ;)
  • I agree with what everyone here is saying. But "news for nerds" -- all scientists are nerds, not just computer nerds. I mean, we talk about gene splicing and all that crap all the time here. How many times has the ethical quagmire of "cloning" or "designer babies" been discussed to death?

    Anyway. I was just surprised to see this topic again and I went on a little rant. Sorry :)

    (And I'll check out bottomquark)

  • [OT] - News? (Score:5)

    by SnowDog_2112 ( 23900 ) on Thursday March 22, 2001 @07:59AM (#347732) Homepage
    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.
  • I have one of these. It is from www.addtronics.com model 6890A full tower with Luxury Caster option, much more stable than the normal casters. It costs $135 for the case and $15 for the casters. It is great. I put the tower in my living room, and roll it to the wall when I'm done using it. Ah the luxury of computing from the couch.
  • <blatant plug> Check out bottomquark [bottomquark.com]. This is a perfect candidate for a story there. </blatant plug>

    You Like Science?
  • What's the difference between a group of people going to someone's house to play games on their computers and going there to watch a movie or to play cards?

    I spend a lot of time in front of my computer, but I don't see it as just doing one thing. Some of my time is spent doing my job (programming), some surfing and gaming, some participating in newsgroups about non-computer related subjects (ie, cooking, music, literature), some irc...

    The computer is just the vehicle. Don't confuse yourself. It's better than a mindless group of people staring at a TV on a Saturday night.

  • I think that his subject would have been appropriate for the science section (which most people don't look at anyway), where there are usually more interesting topics ranging across mant different disciplines... it seemed like there used to be a better mix of science and tech topics on slashdot, but it is easier to find more science articles at bottomquark and other resources... /. has been taken over by gaming systems and Katzizms...

    --
  • Ah yes, the overload situation... I rewired the bedroom at home that serves as my office (it was only two-prong outlets to start with) and added two 20A circuits... one of them feeds my systems, the other one has but a single lamp on it most of the time, but comes in very handy when you have extra people who need a plug...

    Plus, who doesn't bring at least a small (400-650kVA) UPS with them :-)
    --
  • you can get them over at thinkgeek [thinkgeek.com], maybe we can load balance the /. effect on this one.
    ----------------------
  • hey - even nerds like to f**k ;-}
  • Egads man - get out of your little heterosexual shell every once in a while. Women sleep with women and men sleep with men. and sometimes - there are soo many men and women sleeping together that you can't tell where one starts and another begins ;-} Of course - then you woke up a looked at pics of Natalie Portman and hot grits...
  • Yeah, I own one of the GearGrips. I really don't know why this made Slashdot headlines, but I can take a guess. These are actually useful. Many people want something like this. I did and it took me many hours of looking around the web with heavy searching before I found it. I'm sure there are a lot more people out there that are thrilled by seeing this than those that are bitching about getting a life because LAN parties are for losers, geeks, and the sexually repressed.

    Just to let people know how I use mine, I have a full tower case. I bought the bigger model and it fits just fine with plenty of room if the case was a little bigger (how could that be I'm not sure). I use the Micro$oft Natural keyboard. The skinny end fits perfectly in the big pocket. I can slip the edge of the keyboard under one of the staps to hold it in place. I slip my RadPadz (mouse surface) in the pocket behind the keyboard. The mouse fits in the little pocket. Net work cable, headphones on one of the cable loops. Power cords on the other cable loop. It's impressive. A lot of people have seen my get up and said, "Wow, that's cool." Also, my case has casters on it. The downside is that with these it's too tall to fit in most places. But, I manage. The GearGrip seems to be well made. All this stuff is heavy. The handle on the thing is brilliant. So far it's holding up to the use and abuse. I believe it's rated to 70 pounds. Between the shoulder strap, a back pack (for games, controllers, power strip, and misc. stuff), and a small monitor (for travelling) I've actually carried everything in one trip. Yeah, it weighs a ton, but I'm a big dude.

    I'll say this. For $35 or $37 for the full tower size, these things are a heck of a deal. I ordered mine from CaseAce.com [caseace.com] directly. They processed my order quite nicely. BTW, they sell nice thumb-screws to replace the standard screws on a case if you need those. So, call me a loser or whatever, but I'm sure that many will find great benefit in using this item.

    Shawn Pack

  • wow (Score:2)

    by Illserve ( 56215 )
    Now all we need is a matter-reduction ray to shrink down the monitor and we're all set. Sigh.

  • Because poor people stink and are rude and have pretty much no interest in learning anything that doesn't involve them getting fed immediately. Also I have no desire to devote my life to making someone elses life better, I prefer to make my own life better. If they can't improve themselves well then that's not really my problem. All kinds of people grow up with less than I have and do just fine, equal numbers grow up with as much or more and also do fine. The amount of material posessions you have does not determine your ability to succede. So Everyone needs to stop bitching at people to 'help the poor', what we really should do is sterilize everyone that comes into a soup kitchen or homeless shelter, that would thin the ranks of the poor and homeless pretty quick. And while we're at it sterilize everyone on welfare who already has a child. If they only have 1 maybe they will devote enough time to the kid so that he or she will have some kind of drive to do well. And while we're at it, we need some public school reform. Take money out of various welfare programs and use it to repair the inner city schools that are falling apart and to buy books for the classes.
    But me NOT going to a LAN party isn't going to accomplish any of these things. It's a matter of government redistribution and how crappy it is, which doesn't seem to be changing any time soon. So instead of bugging me about it, why don't you go write a letter to your senator, your congressman, and the president. If you aren't USian then write to your equivelant representatives.

    Kintanon
  • Ok, I'll admit that. I just put that line in to be marked as flamebait or a troll. If I had left it out I'd probably be moderated up as insightful.

    Kintanon

  • Re:Swaweet (Score:3)

    by Kintanon ( 65528 ) on Thursday March 22, 2001 @11:36AM (#347745) Homepage Journal
    So what's your idea of a "party" snagging a Keg and drinking until you can't stand up? You act like any other group of people has a better way to socially interact. Human contact is human contact, and whether it comes in the form of me screaming 'Eat Rockets Bitchboy!!' at my little brother while I blast him off of 'the longest yard' or in the form of 4 or 5 buddies getting drunk with their girlfriends at someones house you can't tell me that either of those is a totally invalid form of contact. People do the things they enjoy, there is nothing wrong with that. So yank your head out of your ass and look around, not everyone likes what you like.

    Kintanon
    BTW, I'm posting all of this stuff because I don't give a fuck about moderation, I stopped posting when I stopped being able to gain Karma because it was already hard enough to add to what little conversation their was and with the incentive to post intelligent thought gone I started lurking. The quality of discussion didn't really change after moderation stopped except that a few of the most prolific people stopped posting as much. So Moderate me 6 ways from sunday, I don't care! I have karma flowing out my ass.

  • I've been going to a LAN party once a month for the past 4 months.

    We have 6 girls, and 2 girls usually, with everyone is 30 and older. So whoever said "LAN parties are for geeks that can't get chicks" is an idiot.

    We play Unreal Tournament for 3 hours straight, Quake 3 for another 2 hours nonstop, then break for supper (usually pizza). Then we restart, playing Rogue Spear for another 3 hours straight, and Revolt for another hour.

    LAN Parties aren't just for geeks - they are a way for hard-core gamers to get together, and meet new people "local" in the area, while letting off some of the steam from the daily pressures of the week. (I hosted a Quake party a few years back, and met some cool friends. Had a lot of fun playing online every weekend for the next year with them, and we still keep in touch.)

    LAN parties are not for everyone, (dragging a 20" monitor and computer home at 2am sucks,) but they can be an absolute blast. Being in the same room and able to spew curse at each other when your friend frags your ass, and then you doing the same thing to him, hehe, is a good harmless way to let loose with the testrone.

    If you're in west side of Mass., send me some email, and I can email forward you the list to who to contact.
  • The thing about slashdot is that it really isn't a news site. This is true despite its tagline "News for Nerds. Stuff the Matters." Slashdot is first and foremost a discussion site, it's a place where people who like computers and Linux and stuff like that get together and talk.

    As with most places where there is discussion there are certian topics that reappear from time to time. This is OK. Think about how many times you've had a discussion about the current lack/excess of precipitation in the last week. At the very least, Slashdot is more interesting and less repetitive than the typical discussions that happen around the office.
    _____________

  • I mean, <drool drool> this is a nifty little device, but how do I carry my speakers? So I have the 17" monitor in my arms, and I hope my Addtronics mid-server case fits in the straps, but these AIWA speakers are huge! It's back to two trips even if I buy this.

  • If two people have a copy of a game that they want to play, what do you think happens? Yes, everyone is given a copy of the game.

    And in my experience quite a few people then go out and purchase the game too - but we're all a bunch of honest folk, I can't speak for other groups.

    In addition, the atmosphere of LAN parties is not conducive to proper behavior. Drinking and smoking are not uncommon at LAN parties.

    Drinking is common in Boston... Heck we've got Ted Kennedy. Jon Stuart calls Boston the Drinkin'est town in the US, and asks if we ever wake up as a city and ask "What did we do last night?" Smokers go and do it on the porch. I'd rather have people drinking and staying put, than drinking and driving when the party gets lame though.

    In addition, the lack of female gamers leads encourages homosexuality.

    Well, now I know you're a troll, but hey whatever... Commonly we have gay gamers... commonly we have gay female gamers... commonly we have lots of attractive women there... You hang with the wrong crowd if this isn't the case.

    This sort of behavior may have been tolerable in the Greek armies of long ago, but is simply unacceptable in modern moral society.

    As such, I forbid my children to attend LAN parties because I do not their school to become the next Columbine.

    Modern moral society? Columbine?... now I know for sure your a troll. Well, as a parrent, you have that right. I am glad to see that you are actively taking an effort to protect your children. Why not go the step further though, and become an active participant in what your child is doing and is interested in doing. If your kid wants to go to a LAN party, and you are afraid of the danger the games can do, why not play the game with your child, and discuss the violent images within it, the violence it reflects in society, and the unacceptability of further violence in our society. I bet you'd find your child to be more aware than you think. In addition a good discusion on Sex, Drugs, Smoking and Alcohol should be something you might want to think about having with your child.

  • Re:Pardon my ignorance (Score:5)

    by walnut ( 78312 ) on Thursday March 22, 2001 @08:16AM (#347750)
    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 [guinness.com] 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.
    --
  • Riiiigght. Somehow, I doubt it's a bigger problem for women than for men, I just don't see how that's possible. I mean, every woman with aids got it from a man with aids, and every man with aids got it from a woman. And it's no worse for either gender, it's almost always fatal.

    Please explain how this is being turned into a woman's health issue, and not just a gender neutral health issue.

  • The number of homosexuals is so completely dwarfed by the number of heterosexuals that it's hardly worth considering with the subject at hand.

    I want to know how aids in Africa is supposedly largely a women's health issue and not just a gender neutral health issue. How the hell is it more a women's health issue?

    Whatever...

  • For answering my question. I was not aware that it was easier for a female to contract HIV from a man than vice versa.

  • Whenever I have to move my computer, I just use a laundry basket. One with solid handles and the plastic that doesn't build up static. I hold any kind of keyboard, any kind of mice, has plenty of room, and it's cheap.
  • [if you want to mod people down for off-topic, do the one this is a reply to]

    The live aids vaccine issue is easy -- let people decide for themselves. Yes, it's an amazingly difficult question for someone to say, "should we give this vaccine to everyone in sub-saharan africa", but it is no one's place to make that decision. The question should be, should we make this available to those who are aware of the risk and conclude that they would like to have it. The answer is clearly yes.

    I would not consider it worth the risk -- I'm not an IV drug user, I'm straight, and I'm not promiscuous (admittedly, the last one isn't really by choice). If I were a heroin addict who frequented sex clubs in San Francisco, it might be worth the risk to me.

    Unlike with the polio vaccine, you don't even need parents to make the decision for their children -- anyone old enough to need to worry about getting AIDS is old enough to evaluate their options.

    You may not approve of which option they choose, many people may be poorly informed, but it is the epitome of arrogance to believe that some ethics board has the prerogative to decide whether someone should be allowed access to what may save their life.

  • Truly news for nerds. (Score:3)

    by supabeast! ( 84658 ) on Thursday March 22, 2001 @08:36AM (#347756)
    This item really cements that whole "news for nerds" thing. This is why I am getting sick of Slashdot: more and more articles are pointless. It isn't enough that they waste all the space on the Jon Katz stories that so many of us have stopped reading, but crap like this takes the cake.

    I know plenty of people submit better stuff than this. Hell, I can think to two stories I have submitted about online music (One about Prince moving his music sales online [npgmusicclub.com], and one about a group of artists striking out against record companies.) and neither were posted, although they were certainly of more interest than yet another case modded for lan parties.

    Is it just me, or does it seem that /. is just getting too geeky?
  • Stories like this belong on Kuro5hin [kuro5hin.org], not Slashdot.
    --
    Lord Nimon
  • It's a big blue bag that holds my speakers, headphones, keyboard, blank cds, cd wallets, and everything else that I need for a good ole' LAN party. Not to mention a 6 pack of coke or dew, which ever is your choice beverage. With my battle bag, I can get my computer into a room with 2 trips. If my monitor wasn't so old and heavy, I could do it in, one by stacking my monitor on the computer when I carry it in.

  • That's the first game. It's call playing troubleshooter. It's not very exciting, but it gets ya warmed up for the other games. Of all the LAN parties that I've been at the first hour or so is troubleshooting.
  • and while they're at it perhaps they could clue you in that you should go outside and get the hell away from you computer!

    when i first heard about LAN parties (a few years ago, while going to school at the University of Waterloo) i thought it was a joke. it boggles my mind that people actually do this, but it's downright disturbing that a company makes accessories for these "parties."

    dear lord, what is the world coming to?

    - j

  • try posting it to plastic [plastic.com]. they tend to cover stuff like that, and i'm sure they'd accept that story!

    - j

  • Sure. Would take a bit of work, but I'm pretty damned sure it can be done. But... it just seems so wrong! :)

    ------
  • Like this one [akamai.net].

    :-)

    ------

  • As such, I forbid my children to attend LAN parties because I do not their school to become the next Columbine.

    I feel very sorry for your kids... I happen to run one of the largest LAN Parties in the Mid-West, MPCON.

    Most guests tell me that it's one of the most fun thing's they've ever done... and it is. It's not just about gaming. It's a place where you can go and meet over 100 other people that have the same interests as you. You can meet new people, learn new things.

    Actually, we had a software company come to MPCON looking for recruits. It takes a lot of hard work, dedication, time, and team-work to pull off a LAN Party of our size. There's a lot more to it than just blowing eachother's heads off in a virtual world. If that's all it was, why'd anyone want to go?

    Check out the pictures from our most recent event just this past March.



    Jeff Lundberg
    Coordinator - MPCON

    http://www.mpcon.org/ [slashdot.org]
  • i have the worlds best gear grip: a large timbuk2 bag. it fits everything except my case and monitor, and is unlike the gear grip, is actually useful for other things.
  • In addition, the lack of female gamers leads encourages homosexuality

    I think that the lack of female gamers leads to downloading excessive amounts of pr0n on a 56k line.

  • You can buy these at ThinkGeek [thinkgeek.com]. One of my favorite sites.
  • Thank you. I'm sure the moderator who modded it down won't see it, but I'm glad someone noticed.
  • Quality? On Slashdot? Wait a minute, I'm getting confused...

    --

  • LAN parties sound like too much work to me if you have to bring your own equipment...
  • there are portable radeon and geforce cards now in laptops, so a laptop can be good for gaming. 1.2Ghz Athlon minum huh? funny how the best processor is the minimum, I wonder why more 1.2 Ghz athalons aren't being sold. I am building a computer for my friend that has a 950 Mhz Athalon and a Radeon 32 DDR, I thought that would be enough, shame on me.

  • Re:LAN Party? Why? (Score:3)

    by donglekey ( 124433 ) on Thursday March 22, 2001 @10:23AM (#347772) Homepage
    Go to a bar...there are usually women there. 8^)

    Women are only a a way to escape from the reality. The reality that you don't have any video games play.
  • I reviewed [dansdata.com] this thing in September last year - and I wasn't the first.

    If Slashdot has to send tons of traffic to reviews of non-new products, why can't they send it to my reviews of non-new products :-)?

  • ever heard of a laptop?
    --
  • ...but what we haven't heard of are laptops with GeForce2 Ultras and 1.2GHz Athlons in them. :)

    Oh, and for all the people against this topic:
    If you think LAN parties are too geeky, and people need to 'get a life' then go stand over in the Trek forums and take the piss at conference goers, or laugh at how dumb walkers are for freezing their asses off on a hillside when they could be drunk in a pub or something.
  • Try one of the many links to ThinkGeek [thinkgeek.com] who seem much better at holding up to a /. assault, and have them for sale.
  • Sure, I'll have some broadband, just as long as

    1) I don't have to move house to where its available
    2) neither do my mates
    3) you can reproduce all the other chatting, beer-drinking, pizza-eating and generally spending an evening in with my mates aspects of a LAN party?

    Seriously, this is handy, and while its not the most important story on /. its useful to me.
  • "Go to a bar...there are usually women there"

    err, I rather suspect that my girlfriend would rather I spend my time playing games with my mates than playing 'games' with women in bars...
  • well, there are women there, but they're mates or mates' girlfriends, so thats ok. Its the sort of games you're intending to play thats the important thing ;)
  • That's what I've been doing, except that one time my tower took a spill.
    Behold the power of bungee...

    (IMHO, bungee cords should be standard equipment with any luggage cart. Particuarly handy when you have to haul ass through the airport in order to catch your flight)

  • Erm...there's nothing I like better than lugging all of my computer equipment into someone's basement so that I can actually sit next to all of those fuckers that I kill in CS and Tribes. Woohooo!

    Broadband anyone?


    --

  • you can reproduce all the other chatting, beer-drinking, pizza-eating and generally spending an evening in with my mates aspects of a LAN party?

    Go to a bar...there are usually women there. 8^)




    --
  • Why would you put a system with casters on top of your desk, out of curiosity? I keep my tower under the desk.

    Well, mainly because what I wrote wouldn't have been nearly as silly otherwise. It was mostly tongue-in-cheek. However, I do think that it'd be easy enough to just load your case on to one of those little wheeled carts people use for luggage, rather than trying to add casters to the case.

  • Re:Of course, there's.... (Score:5)

    by Erasmus Darwin ( 183180 ) on Thursday March 22, 2001 @08:01AM (#347795)
    There's always getting a case with coasters on the bottom.

    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.

  • What really sucks... (Score:3)

    by Sodakar ( 205398 ) on Thursday March 22, 2001 @08:44AM (#347799)
    is when you get 10 different people with:
    10 different network settings
    9 different speed PC's
    8 different versions of the game patch
    7 game CD's missing
    6 machines that need to be fixed after transport
    5 machines with NIC's that don't work 4 different versions of OS
    3 machines with viruses
    2 people who have to go home, now that's it's getting late (and haven't even started) 1 long night wasted with no gaming

    ...very typical...

    sure, it gets better after the first few times of this junk, but... with broadband, it's hardly even worth it...
  • Excellent synopsis. Did someone mention 70 people at a LAN party? Ever heard of QuakeCon [quakecon.org]? last year, there were almost 1000 computers networked. Sponsors like linksys and amd provide the equipment. You can also check out LanParty.com [lanparty.com] for local parties in your area.

    I'm married now (just recently), and as I noticed no mention of "wives" watching Wallace and Crommit, it can safely be assumed that spouses aren't too fond of the environment...oh the good ole days...
  • in universtity but it was used for getting to gether and writing assignments/projects and programs for classes. Then we could all go out and get pissed. I miss those days. Now they LAN party is the office and we all go home afterwards. *sigh*

  • This looks like it could be useful, but it doesn't help with 70% of the problem, the monitor. My 19" monitor is much heavier and harder to grip than the box itself (the massive 22" monitor I almost got would have been even worse).

    Er... Well, y'know. You can't make an omelette without um... destroying a forest. Or something.

  • One thing about LAN "parties" that should be noted is the rampant piracy that occurs at them. If two people have a copy of a game that they want to play, what do you think happens? Yes, everyone is given a copy of the game. And this behavior propagates throughout multiple lan parties. In this way one legitimate copy of a game can turn into 10,000. This is why Tribes is the number one most pirated game in the world.

    In addition, the atmosphere of LAN parties is not conducive to proper behavior. Drinking and smoking are not uncommon at LAN parties. In addition, the lack of female gamers leads encourages homosexuality. This sort of behavior may have been tolerable in the Greek armies of long ago, but is simply unacceptable in modern moral society.

    As such, I forbid my children to attend LAN parties because I do not their school to become the next Columbine.
    ---

  • There's always getting a case with coasters on the bottom. I've wanted one of those for years. No lifting, and you can just put the monitor and stuff on top of it.. ;)
  • Yes, I did mean casters.

    Why would you put a system with casters on top of your desk, out of curiosity? I keep my tower under the desk.

    Besides, most good casters have a brake. The bad casters, of course, just break. ;)

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    March 22, 2001 11:15 AM

    Home Reviews Features Guides Forums Files Game Servers Links

    Invalid Review

    BoomGames Content

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    MySQL & PHP. What did they expect?



    --

  • 11 comments and /.ed (Score:4)

    by Anoriymous Coward ( 257749 ) on Thursday March 22, 2001 @07:51AM (#347831) Journal
    Obviously they take their LAN games seriously, and don't waste bandwidth on stupid stuff like serving up web pages.

    --

  • You forgot a part (Score:3)

    by typical geek ( 261980 ) on Thursday March 22, 2001 @07:56AM (#347833) Homepage
    its where guys who can't get chicks hang out on the weekends , playing computer games versus each other.

    They also post to Slashdot, whining about how geeks can't get girls.

  • Whats the point of this thing? I always found that a nice gym bag works great. I can put my keyboard, mouse, and all my cables in it, sling it over my shoulder and carry the computer at the same time. Then go back up for the monitor. Nothing dropped, nothing lost. Its just that for $35 you can get a pretty nice bag that can have more uses that just strapping stuff to your computer case.

  • Re:Pardon my ignorance (Score:3)

    by cavemanf16 ( 303184 ) on Thursday March 22, 2001 @08:44AM (#347837) Homepage Journal
    Haha! Read your story and I have to admit that I've seen the same sort of thing happen all the time when my 'bro hosts a LAN party. Although he has made it a LOT smoother than the first LAN party he had.

    For one, he runs a local Linux server which auto-assigns IP's to all the machines as they connect. He also made sure to call his workgroup 'workgroup', since that's the default Windows setting and most people don't know how to change it. He also sends out an email about 2 weeks prior, with all the 'rules' for the party. That way, everyone knows which games will be played, what time to come, *exactly* what hardware to bring, etc. Our biggest party so far involved 10 people (all playing!). Five in the dining room of the house, 5 in the basement.

    By the way, if you're thinking of doing this, make sure you have lots of fans and windows available. 10 machines + 1 server in a house make for an awfully warm house. :)

    As for this GearGrip, I don't really see the need for it, as it's a short hike to lug my CPU into my car, then back out of it and into the house. What I need is a cheap, large (19"), high res flat screen monitor. That's the back breaker when it comes to LAN parties.

  • Swaweet (Score:3)

    by oooga ( 307220 ) <oooga&usa,net> on Thursday March 22, 2001 @07:45AM (#347839)
    Now, if they could figure out some way to quickly solve the "what the hell, you're at a lan party and you don't have a nic?!?!" and the "No, we cannot play multiplayer solitaire, get some real games!" issues, LAN parties could actually be fun!
  • They are also the sort who will soon comment on the recursive nature of this thread... What? Damn.

  • here's always getting a case with coasters on the bottom.

    Coasters?! Isn't that the thing that slides out when you push the button?

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