Here I am, late again
Wednesday, someone pointed me at Cory Doctorow's new book, Little Brother. Which, like (AFAIK) all of his books, is available online as a free download, complete with a cluster of formatted versions sent in by readers. I promptly downloaded the eReader version, and started reading it on my lunch break. (And now I'm all twitchy 'cos my computer at home is trying to download something large that's screwing up my bandwidth; I hope it's some program update I forgot to disable.)
Anyway. So, as a result of reading Mr. Doctorow's excellent book about terrorism & security & the lack thereof caused by increasing restrictions on human behavior, two things have occurred:
I have been thinking a lot about computers, technology, security systems in general, and
I am falling-over exhausted, 'cos Wednesday night, we have a meeting I couldn't read through, and I stayed up afterwards until 3 am to finish the book. (I wake up at 6:20. Every day.)
So this weeks prompts are (1) Late, (2) A bit on the whimsical side, 'cos I'm a bit loopy from lack of sleep, and (3) Security-related.
Canon Prompts: How do the characters in your canon-of-choice identify each other? How do they keep secrets from The Bad People (or The Good People, if your canon runs that way)? If your canon is high-tech or futuristic, what security measures have become commonplace, and which modern measures would be considered woefully inadequate? If a prophet of Divinity Of Your Choice appeared to the characters, would they ignore it because it wasn't carrying the right ID cards? In a fantastic or magical setting, how do the powerful characters keep dangerous info or knowledge away from people who can't be trusted to use it safely? What measures are reasonable to protect the public from dangerous facts, including the knowledge of how to make dangerous devices?
Fandom Prompts: How's the security at your favorite convention? Does it keep unwanted (which usually means "unpaying") people out, and not hinder members unduly from enjoying the con? Ever been caught by "badge check for this floor--you'll have to go back to your room to get it?" Is it reasonable for the gate guards to wave their friends in, since they know the person has a legit badge? Should security at conventions be nominal, allowing a few "stowaways" or "freeloaders," who may be adding to other people's enjoyment, in order to avoid instituting draconion ID-check measures? Or are the freeloaders part of what drives up the cost of the conventions, and a few extra badge checkpoints wouldn't interfere with the con? Tying in with last week's topic: how much more does security interfere with disabilities? And, since it shouldn't all be about in-person fandom: have you read any good fanfic dealing with security issues? Sam and Dean have to break into a government building; does polyjuice potion affect DNA testing--or can a magic spell blank all the credit cards in a three-mile radius; what kind of guy guards access to the Stargate but never goes through himself; can a Trek-style replicator copy Dr. Who's psychic ID card?
Meta Prompts: How about our granular control over readers, in the CloneJournalsphere--if you f'lock your entries, that's a measure of security. So's screening anon or nonfriend comments. How much does this security interfere with conversations? Are those who f'lock everything prone to being less aware of conflicting ideas, more prone to believing "most people" agree with them, because the ones who disagree most are not likely to ever see their entries? What do you think of anti-trolling methods like disemvowelling? (And don't you wish the LJ code supported it?) Have you ever posted a comment & deleted it, as a way of sending a "secret" message to someone? Do you feel uncomfortable if you've commented on a locked entry, and it later was made public? How comfortable are you with your fannish identity being known... and how secure are you in your privacy? How much privacy should we be able to expect, and what coding features would you like to see to support that? Does it make a difference to you if your ISP can and does track every movement you make (after all, it's all on their servers), vs an advertising cookie, vs some hacker that put a keylogger on your computer? (Okay, umm, maybe that's not very fannish. I plead lack of sleep.)