4 ms·

There's no legitimate purpose in bringing crayons and a coloring book, or a box of paperclips, either. We should probably see to it that nobody brings any of t

• kube-system 10mo ago
  This isn't an exercise in cataloging all worldly items. The criteria for the list is very obviously: [no legitimate purpose] + [identified as a potential threat or disturbance vector] + [described in a way useful for laypeople who will be consuming said list]
  • whatshisface 10mo ago
    The fact that these items were thought to satisfy your item number two, while more dangerous items did not, indicates that someone's feeding bad information to security, or alternatively, that was not the criteria. There is also some indication of Mr. Robot style fantasies about the power of individual computers.
    • kube-system 10mo ago
      What do you think is missing?
      • whatshisface 10mo ago
        If there was a legitimate purpose for banning SBCs (there is not), then all computers with wifi would have to be banned. The external fact is that raspis are not a security risk. The internal contradiction is that raspis are computers. It's their whole selling point - they're ordinary PCs.
        • kube-system 10mo ago
          I don't think you understand the threat profile of a large public event. The typical threat to events like this are idiots who mimic crap they see on YouTube. Public safety isn't an exercise in evaluating every theoretical threat, because that list is too long to address with limited resources. It is an exercise in evaluating which threats are most commonly to be exploited, and the easiest to protect against. This is how you most effectively protect an event with limited resources. It is different than the theoretical threat evaluation that someone doing computer science might think about.
          • whatshisface 10mo ago
            Raspberry pis are not a "likely threat," because they are not a threat. It's hard to get away from that fact when evaluating the absurdity of the ban.
            • kube-system 10mo ago
              Idiots running script-kiddy exploits on any device is a threat. The list says "Raspberry Pi" because of the utility in communication to the parties reading the list, not because it is technically accurate. Cops are going to turn you away from this event if you carry in something that looks like circuit boards and wires.
              • whatshisface 10mo ago
                A raspberry pi is a computer. It had HDMI ports on the back. You can put one in a box. Come on, man.
                • kube-system 10mo ago
                  And? There’s a lot of things that people could theoretically do. The few seconds that someone is going through event security isn’t going to stop a competent attacker, nor is it reasonable to expect them to be able to do that. The point is to stop the most common attackers who are sloppy idiots.
        • robocat 10mo ago
          Also need to ban any Android phone models which can unlock the bootloader.
• waste_monk 10mo ago
  >There's no legitimate purpose in bringing crayons and a coloring book Presumably there might be children (or very bored adults) at the event?
  • ssl-3 10mo ago
    Perhaps so. But that's not a legitimate use. And the crayons' delicious nature can be used to distract and bribe the constabulary.
• alsetmusic 10mo ago
  > There's no legitimate purpose in bringing crayons and a coloring book, or a box of paperclips, either. Do you genuinely think that a parent with a small child does not have a legitimate reason to bring crayons and a coloring book to an event for adults or are you being hyperbolic? Cause this suggests either bad-faith or a profound lack of clarity about the issue and neither is good for your argument.
  • ssl-3 10mo ago
    Good point. There's probably no legitimate reason for non-voting children to be present at such a political event, either. And by way of the process of excluding these children, the motivation for bringing other items without legitimate use like crayons, coloring books, and paperclips will be greatly diminished. It's win-win. Thank you for the excellent insight!
    • alsetmusic 10mo ago
      [flagged]
    • amwet 10mo ago
      Voting adults can’t necessarily afford or arrange childcare which is a legitimate reason to bring their non-voting children. Effectively all non-voting children will one day be voting adults. Exposure to politics before participating in politics is valuable not only for them, but for everyone who will be eventually governed partially by their vote. Legitimate reason #2. Regardless of the lack of vote, non-voting children are still governed by elected officials, giving them legitimate reason #3 to interact with politics, even if they can’t do so in the form of a vote yet. You’ve picked a poorly thought out hill to die on.
      • ssl-3 10mo ago
        That's a very well-reasoned argument. It is perhaps a shame that it's been placed against the most absurdly sarcastic train of thought I could come up with ("Coloring books have no legitimate purpose at such an event, and therefore nor do children"), but your take remains well-reasoned nonetheless. --- I won't be in NYC tomorrow. But if I were planning to go then there'd be a good chance I'd pack my usual way for a short-duration trip: A backpack with a laptop, a change of clothes rolled up tight, and a Raspberry Pi. Some people bring things like cards or a [coloring] book, but those are not my preferred styles of distraction. SBCs like that don't take up much space. They pack fairly well and give me something out-of-band to goof around with when I'm traveling and bored, where my usual household distractions don't exist. I get some pretty creative systems stuff done on them sometimes by creating some whimsical problem, working out the steps for a solution, and then implementing it and seeing how it plays out -- in the field, away from my usual pile of resources. It's fun for me. There's almost certainly some manner of Pi already in my bag right now, left over from my last trip -- probably housed in one of those cheeky red-and-white plastic cases that the Pi Foundation offers. It would not be a huge loss if I had to dumpster it like a forgotten nail clipper at the airport after 9/11, but it sure would be surprising. It's not a particularly devilish device and has never attracted any sort of attention, and I would never have reasonably expected it to do so.
• greggoB 10mo ago
  And the winner of the "could you be more obtuse award", ladies and gentlemen
• croes 10mo ago
  But there isn’t a risk either if you bring them. It’s about potential damage.