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Thread: Sensitive information section

  1. #1
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    Default Sensitive information section

    With all the hoo har going on about Laserscopes at the moment and the (understandable) unwillingness for the gurus of this forum (namely Steve and Pat) to broadcast sensitive info; how about a trusted member section?

    In other words; a section that one can only access after proving they are not a safety liability.

    I know I don't own a scope and probably never will and if I did; I could no doubt PM said gurus for info. However I am an info sponge (the nature of the geek); always have been, and I enjoy reading about all sorts of things that I'm not actually involved in, including space travel, deep sea investigation, radical surgery etc etc, but more to the point; the very reason I am a member of this forum; I like to read about lasers!

    Several times now I have been following a thread that comes to an abrupt end with "can't say here, I'll PM you"

    AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHGG!!

    Not a major thing but it does kind of defeat the object; a forum is somwhere that members can use as a reference for sharing info about the hobby that they love and partake in??

    Ian
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    Recklessly interfering with Darwin’s natural selection process, thereby extending the life cycle of dim-witted ignorami; thus perpetuating and magnifying the danger to us all, by enabling them to breed and walk amongst us, our children and loved ones.





  2. #2
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    Well... as much as I would love to have this info, and really no one knows just how much info Steve & Pat have offered to people in PMs, the problem happens when an idiot decides to take this so called "sensitive information" and post a guide on YouTube.

    It would be really cool to have something like that around here though, especially given the knowledge some members here have, that would very well help others who know what they're doing. Documenting it is probably the only way of preserving it, and perhaps giving these members some time to work on bigger/better things than guiding us newbies through all the little things we ask them about

    --DDL
    I suffer from the Dunning–Kruger effect... daily.

  3. #3
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    I'm not suggesting that we have a "how to" guide section, I'm suggesting that any queries about laserscopes etc could only be asked and answered in said section.

    http://img62.imageshack.us/img62/3985/laser.gif

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    The Health and Safety Act 1971

    Recklessly interfering with Darwin’s natural selection process, thereby extending the life cycle of dim-witted ignorami; thus perpetuating and magnifying the danger to us all, by enabling them to breed and walk amongst us, our children and loved ones.





  4. #4
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    And who gets to decide who is worthy of access to this section and administrate it?

    As a forum admin myself, these things oft get overlooked - someone will have to take on a significant amount of work to manage the ever changing user permissions. Post count wouldn't work because lots of posts don't imply knowledge, nor does length of time of forum.

  5. #5
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    Quote Originally Posted by Doc View Post


    I know I don't own a scope and probably never will and if I did; I could no doubt PM said gurus for info. However I am an info sponge (the nature of the geek); always have been, and I enjoy reading about all sorts of things that I'm not actually involved in, including space travel, deep sea investigation, radical surgery etc etc, but more to the point; the very reason I am a member of this forum; I like to read about lasers!

    Several times now I have been following a thread that comes to an abrupt end with "can't say here, I'll PM you"
    I agree fully Ian. I hate missing the information--eventhough I will most likely never have use for it.

    Problem is: Who determines who is worthy? It tends to set an elitist attitude for the whole forum. Infact, one of the forums I used to admin had a secret/trusted subforum. It created a huge divide in the general membership so far that the trusted were refered to as "Negative Elitist Bastids".

  6. #6
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    First of All, Thank you for your concern.

    capabilities exist in for another mode of dealing with .... But that is between me and Spec. Programmers are devious bastards who should be watched carefully at all times and kept in dark rooms with no televisions or computers and fed horse doodoo like mushrooms.

    I cant talk about it here, but if you PM me......

    I already hold back much more then I want to. But it has to be done. People get that data most of the time in PMs, if I can remember to PM them. And OFTEN I FORGET. While the idea of PL Top Secret is intriguging, on line communities have proven to be fragile and fragmentation is not healthy for them . Pats sick of the issue, and I'm growing increasingly intolerent. But, the system works, about NN people have called various branches of CDRH that I know of, and CDRH is appreciative. At least the industry and the hobby side can say "we warned you". better to locate some of the bad apples in this world and keep a eye on them to then to allow them to blunder off and blow up the world. There are quite a few illegal laserists who have came in from the dark side, and I and others have helped them get variances. (mental note, renew my expired personal vari, someone please remind me, I can run on corporate vari "B" if I needed to) Many of them say "once you get varied, you never want to go back".

    Control of knowledge proliferation is something the US and UK is gonna have to wake up to, right now we are giving away the farm in long term finance and technology , and have given away the farm, in more ways then one. The origional intent was to level the field and keep most players a bit behind but happy, and with the end of the cold war, the capabilities for doing that have went away in the name of "Global competitiveness", ie the big wigs gaining short term power selling off the the work of the rest of us.

    enough politics...

    So right now, my vote is nyet on PL sekret squirrel, there has to be another way.

    As for scope owners, subgroups can already exist in PL. Admission is a laserscope serial number plus a phone call to Pat or I or Buffo, might be one way.

    But we all know how well the attempt of and the politics at the "Sound Card Dacing" subgroup worked, and it was a pain to deviate off the main threads to a subgroup. Since we now treat SCDers as equals, and help them as much as we can, in the long term the system worked. Please note the new "condensed" SCD post. And we lost a hell of a lot of good technical people when that happened, as well as many of our skilled hackers. We lost them to what the socialist bastards have a neat term for, a "Cult of Personality". I for one do not want to see that happen again.

    I cant speak for Pat, but I still enjoy helping others and will find a way to continue to do so.

    Right now, I'm aware of a ton of new ways of generating red and yellow, but if I post them a "Most unfavored nation" will make use of them and and the people that funded the R&D see didly squat for their efforts.

    Get a better solution then codeworded lotus eater MK ultra magick enigma bullcrap... Yes, secrets need to be kept sometimes, and you need to walk softly and carry a big stick, but this is PL and its supposed to be educational , improve industry relations, and fun.

    Steve

    "The Information contained in this Post is for educational purposes only and is Copyright 2009 By O.S. Roberts. No warranty for its fitness is expressed or implied, use at your own risk. This information cannot be reproduced or translated outside of the Photon Lexicon web environment without the express non electronic written permission of Mr Roberts, This information is NOT subject to educational use copyright and All Rights Reserved"

    PS Dammit, I'm gonna hate copying and pasting that each time. I like my freedom of expression.
    Last edited by mixedgas; 11-24-2009 at 05:43.
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    When I still could have...

  7. #7
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    Well I have a secret section in my own forum and one of the forums that I moderate has such a section. It doesn't cause any upset though as they are invisible to anybody that hasn't been "enrolled" (think Freemasons initiations, funny handshakes etc).

    I'm guessing that there already is one
    http://img62.imageshack.us/img62/3985/laser.gif

    Doc's website

    The Health and Safety Act 1971

    Recklessly interfering with Darwin’s natural selection process, thereby extending the life cycle of dim-witted ignorami; thus perpetuating and magnifying the danger to us all, by enabling them to breed and walk amongst us, our children and loved ones.





  8. #8
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    Cool

    There is a private forum for people who have signed up for subscriptions on PL, but that isn't the place to post sensitive information, as anyone with $10 can sign up and read it. (Plus nothing of any substance gets posted there anyway - there are exactly 2 threads in the "benefactor lounge" area right now, one talking about banner ads that don't work, and the other consisting of a bunch of "hi there, I joined" messages.)

    General information about how a Laserscope operates, the theory behind the Z-fold cavity, and precautions about first-pulse suppression have already been posted here, and this has lead to interesting discussions about these powerful (but dangerous) lasers. I don't see a problem with more posts along these lines.

    On the other hand, information about bypassing interlocks, disabling the medical computer, or otherwise converting one of these units for light show use is definitely in the class of "things we probably shouldn't be talking about in public." For one, very few of us will ever own one, so there is limited utility to such a discussion.

    Second, they *are* dangerous, even in the hands of an expert. (Remember Steve's story about one ramping to full power unexpectedly after idling for 20 minutes in "maintenance mode"?) In the hands of a beginner they are *very* dangerous, both to the laserist and to anyone near by. And words of encouragement posted on PL might be just enough to convince someone to start playing with one of these things, with potentially serious consequences. (Let's face it: If you don't fear these machines at least a little bit, you're not thinking clearly.)

    Third, you are on shaky ground whenever you convert a medical unit to light show use, at least here in the US. Yes, it can be done legally, but I promise you the CDRH *hates* the fact that so many of these systems are out there. (They might hate it even more than you do, Pat! ) I'm not saying that they'd go after the guy that posted the details on how to do it, but they'd probably love to go after the guy who's actually modifying one... Do we really want to be seen as a group that aids that process?

    No, I think we're better off avoiding these topics.

    Oh, and finally - forget trying to copyright your posts. If you post it in a public forum, it's fair game and it *will* be quoted, parroted, and plagiarized. Better to send the information via PM to those few people who can truly (and safely) use it.

    Adam

  9. #9
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    Third, you are on shaky ground whenever you convert a medical unit to light show use, at least here in the US. Yes, it can be done legally, but I promise you the CDRH *hates* the fact that so many of these systems are out there. (They might hate it even more than you do, Pat! )

    POT, KETTLE, BLACK.

    Inside joke, I know what Buffo's converting this week, but its not a Lscope...

    Steve
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  10. #10
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    [QUOTE=mixedgas;124936]Third, you are on shaky ground whenever you convert a medical unit to light show use, at least here in the US. Yes, it can be done legally, but I promise you the CDRH *hates* the fact that so many of these systems are out there. (They might hate it even more than you do, Pat! )

    End Quote.

    POT, KETTLE, BLACK.

    Inside joke, I know what Buffo's converting this week, but its not a Lscope...

    Steve
    Qui habet Christos, habet Vitam!
    I should have rented the space under my name for advertising.
    When I still could have...

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