Traveling Terabyte Changing Direction?

[Deviant Ollam]

Re: Traveling Terabyte Changing Direction?

ok, so i see that in 2011 we did all the donation announcements and such through the TTB web site. i've completed all the latest news and posts on the site so we can do the same thing again.

head on over to the Traveling Terabyte page if you'd like to see the details of this latest round of flash drive construction, etc. i hope that we can get all of this ready in time for a production run just after DEFCON this summer.

thanks to all who support, who spread the word, and who thank others for their service!

[WiK]

Re: Traveling Terabyte Changing Direction?

Deviant,

It looks like you have room in the case for a pvc id card. Why not print up a card with info on it, and a serial number for that drive. Then have a feature on the TTB website where people can 'check in' where they are with it, and then you can show a google map of where its been. I've done something similar in the past and it worked out pretty well using the google maps API.

WiK

[Deviant Ollam]

Re: Traveling Terabyte Changing Direction?

It looks like you have room in the case for a pvc id card. Why not print up a card with info on it, and a serial number for that drive. Then have a feature on the TTB website where people can 'check in' where they are with it, and then you can show a google map of where its been.

we've tried some things like that in the past... but it really doesn't go anywhere.

some folk have been really great about adding little entries and communicating where the drives have gone, but far and away most recipients don't check in or give feedback and it just winds up being a point of frustration since we feel so in the dark about where the drives wind up.

hell, we're just happy if someone sends the occasional photo... and even that is pulling teeth

[WiK]

Re: Traveling Terabyte Changing Direction?

Have you looked into gps tracking for the devices?

[Deviant Ollam]

Re: Traveling Terabyte Changing Direction?

Have you looked into gps tracking for the devices?

i'm afraid i can't begin to count the ways that such a plan would be less than ideal. ;-) but, i'll try...

* i wouldn't want to have a map with active troop movements displayed
* i wouldn't want devices in-theater trying to call home, especially with GPS data
* i wouldn't want to write the code that would power this
* i wouldn't want devices trying to get a GPS fix from inside troop areas
* it's not really a big deal for me to not know where, exactly, the cases are ;-)

... that's not to say it wouldn't be a major cool factor to have the map on this page actually blipping with little blinky dots where TTBs are really on the ground.

[blueAlien]

Re: Traveling Terabyte Changing Direction?

Why not have an auto-run application on the drives that asks the user to input a string based location. Each drive can have a small write-protected partition containing an INI (w/ unique id/serial) and the auto-run app. That gives participants the various levels of participation that they can decide upon. (i.e. Soliders can put a country/region instead of a city/base or not put anything at all). Some soldiers may not even know about being able to upload location data to the Internet or why that data is useful. The application can also provide awareness information, other instructions, etc. The auto-run would also not be intrusive because it can be disabled via the OS (or a built-in option to the application).

You also have to consider that not every soldier is going to have access to the Internet at all times. This is generally considered a luxury item and not always provided (thus the need to ship disk drives around) or sometimes just due to "radio silence" parameters. Also, "disaster areas" obviously are without hard line communications. Maybe an option to store input data and then sync with the server later once the user has gained Internet access again.

You definitely do not want to collect GPS data, because that would be too precise for any organization besides the military to have and there may be some legality issues surrounding having that data. Not to mention GPS can be intercepted and it might be a bit obvious to when a ton a GPS devices start all moving in the same direction in meaningful patterns.

Just a few thoughts from someone who's been deployed.