[GLLUG] Laurel Park Room

[Charles Ulrich]

Tom Skelton wrote:
> I have **no** gaming PCs of my own (although my son Dan plans to bring 
> his). Any player/combatant will need to provide their own desktop or 
> laptop on which to play.  Think "LAN party", where somebody hosts it, 
> but each player brings their own box.  I will provide networking to lash 
> it all together --  a recent acquisition is not one, but two, Cisco 
> Catalyst 1900 Ethernet switches, so we can provide network connectivity 
> for up to 48 players.  God knows how the hotel will provide sufficient 
> 110VAC power for that many PCs...but I do have a supply of extension 
> cords and power strips (again, think LAN party, where the host usually 
> provides each combatant *one* 110VAC outlet into which to plug his 
> computer).

Do you know approximately how many machines you plan on hosting? The 
hotel has told us that we can have as many 6' and 8' tables as we can 
fit in the room. Check out the tentative room layout on the Penguicon 
Wiki at http://wiki.penguicon.org/ComputerLounge. I had estimated 3 8' 
tables, each of which would seat 3 players comfortably. At least one 
more would fit in easily. More than that and the room could get rather 
cramped.

We'll know more about the power within a week or two, hopefully.

> Yes, we should get together soon.

If you're in Lansing or nearby, perhaps you could drop by one of our 
GLLUG meetings (see www.gllug.org) or a computer lounge subcommittee 
meeting. (The next subcommittee meeting hasn't been schedule yet, though.)

> I am seriously concerned about security.  Last year's site left a great 
> deal to be desired in the way of security.  My equipment has a total 
> list price somewhere north of $20,000.  I am loathe to leave it 
> unattended and unsecured.  Some of it is old junque, but the main 
> hosting server is a serious enterprise-class server worth many kilobucks 
> -- and I've borrowed it from work; it's not my own.  Security can be of 
> several kinds:  physical (when I'm not there, it's locked in a room to 
> which nobody but me has a key) and attended (when I'm not there, some 
> other person accepts responsibility for it, and guarantees it will be 
> there unmolested upon my return) come immediately to mind; you may be 
> able to think of others as well.
> 
> Tom

We plan to have at least one GLLUG member (or at least someone highly 
trusted by the GLLUG) in the room at all times just to keep an eye on 
things. There will only be one entrance to the room, so nothing of 
substantial value, such as a rack full of machines, will be able to walk 
out too easily. The wiki page has detailed info on this. We can try to 
watch over your equipment as we watch ours, but we can obviously make no 
explicit guarantees as to its safety. If security is a big concern, it 
may be best to have someone there that you know you can trust to keep an 
eye on your machines. The most secure place to store the machines will 
be your hotel room. Unfortunately, the hotel won't give us the key to 
the Laurel Park room, so we can't just close it up and take off in the 
wee hours of the morning if there's no visitors.

-- 
Charles Ulrich
Ideal Solution, LLC -- http://www.idealso.com