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MineCraft Travel Bug?


HarryKevinCacher

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I play a game called Minecraft (if you haven't heard of it google it) And it has gone viral as of late. I was thinking of creating a travel bug with a flash drive attactched. On the drive would be a minecraft world with flat stone and a bunker with infinite supplies. Every user who grabs the TB would load the world, add their own creation, and send the bug on its way collecting more and more creations. I was wondering how many of you guys actually play minecraft before I do this, as I do not want to waste money on a TB that will just die. Also, do you think this is a good idea? Please do not leave feedback addressing that it could get stolen as I already know there is that risk. Thanks! :)

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The general response is that almost nobody will put a flash drive into their computer (nor should they) it is a very risky and foolish thing to do.
Serious injury or death may occur, of course.

 

Minecraft seems like a terribly boring game to me, I'm not sure why so many people like playing it. I wouldn't be interested in something like this.

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As long as you (a) virus scan it, (B ) disable autoexec for USB under windows or use linux/mac, (c ) never never run any executable on it, and (d) be prepared to meet Goatse if you dare to open an image file, then you should be OK. Since this would only contain non-executable game data you should be OK, but I doubt enough people would know what it is and have the game available for it to be worthwhile doing.

 

Steve

Edited by sshipway
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Okay I am taking into consideration all of this. Since I really am hoping to do this I will do the following: Seal the bug in an airtight plastic bag labelled MINECRAFT. On the drive, i will post a text file called READ ME FIRST which will say the goal of the cache and the following: "1. Do a virus scan before using because who knows what irresponsible geocachers could have done. 2.Any files that are not in the "world" folder are not supposed to be here. Delete them because they could be inappropriate spam. 3. Do not add anything to this drive that is not related to the world. Anybody caught doing this will be reported on the Geocaching website."

Responses saying "DO NOT RELEASE U R STOOPID" or anything along those lines will not be taken into consideration without valid reasoning. If anyone has any suggestions or concerns feel free to post them. Thanks for expressing your concerns.

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Okay I am taking into consideration all of this. Since I really am hoping to do this I will do the following: Seal the bug in an airtight plastic bag labelled MINECRAFT. On the drive, i will post a text file called READ ME FIRST which will say the goal of the cache and the following: "1. Do a virus scan before using because who knows what irresponsible geocachers could have done. 2.Any files that are not in the "world" folder are not supposed to be here. Delete them because they could be inappropriate spam. 3. Do not add anything to this drive that is not related to the world. Anybody caught doing this will be reported on the Geocaching website."

Responses saying "DO NOT RELEASE U R STOOPID" or anything along those lines will not be taken into consideration without valid reasoning. If anyone has any suggestions or concerns feel free to post them. Thanks for expressing your concerns.

 

Reported where!!! What is that going to do and how do you know who added what!!

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Okay I am taking into consideration all of this. Since I really am hoping to do this I will do the following: Seal the bug in an airtight plastic bag labelled MINECRAFT. On the drive, i will post a text file called READ ME FIRST which will say the goal of the cache and the following: "1. Do a virus scan before using because who knows what irresponsible geocachers could have done. 2.Any files that are not in the "world" folder are not supposed to be here. Delete them because they could be inappropriate spam. 3. Do not add anything to this drive that is not related to the world. Anybody caught doing this will be reported on the Geocaching website."

Responses saying "DO NOT RELEASE U R STOOPID" or anything along those lines will not be taken into consideration without valid reasoning. If anyone has any suggestions or concerns feel free to post them. Thanks for expressing your concerns.

 

First of all your biggest concern should be someone helping themselves to a free flash drive. Maybe they'll leave the tag in a cache, maybe they won't.

 

Now I would say that the mission is a bit over-complicated, but I think the thing you'll find is that not that many cachers participate in MINECRAFT, and there's the people who will not stick a strange flash into their PC, even with instructions and a warning.

 

If in fact your drive was causing people problems, gc.com is not likely to fix it by banning one person, and then the next, and the next they'll tell you to pull it out of circulation, or lock it down permanently

 

My advice would be to use your bug to explain MINECRAFT and try to recruit new friends/players. Not play the game via a TB.

 

I don't know the first thing about MINECRAFT, but if I found your bug - there you go.

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? Please do not leave feedback addressing that it could get stolen as I already know there is that risk. Thanks! :)

 

Sorry, just reread the opening post and caught this. I don't mean, "Gosh, you know it could get stolen." I mean stolen, not some vague risk.

 

Snoogans' TB longevity strategy #1. Drill a great big friggin hole in it to eliminate any collectable qualities of your TB.

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How about, instead of a flashdrive, you print and laminate an inforgraphic card attached to a TB dogtag. On the infographic you give a brief summary of MineCraft (1-2 sentences) and put it's stated mission on there. As well, you would place any information needed to access your world, giving the cacher the choice of completing or moving your cache. Simple, allows access to the game and your GC world, and doesn't harm anyone (or I cannot think of how paper could harm someone. If you don't like paper then you might use a block of wood (as trees are important in MineCraft) and drill a big friggin' hole in it, through which you place the TB dogtag.

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Knowing nothing about minecraft, but skimming the thread ...

 

Someone said use a card to explain the game, and someone else said to have it hosted on a special website or something ... could you create one of those QR barcodes or somesuch, that users could scan to get to your game? That would be easy to put on a card, it would look really cool, and presumably it wouldn't be subject to the hazards a flash drive would. I dunno, I just keep seeing those barcode things popping up everywhere and it might get folks' attention who wouldn't just go to a printed website. You could maybe incorporate it into some nifty graphic that relates to the game.

 

(though there will still be folks leery of visiting an unknown website, I suppose)

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A ziplock bag will probably keep the drive safe. They can usually withstand the elements pretty well.

 

As for people who are worried about the drive running a malicious program just from putting it in their computer, all you have to do is disable autorun. Autorun automatically executes (runs, if you want to be technical) the autorun.ini file on disks when they are inserted. This makes it possible for an Install/Play/Help/Whatever menu to come up when you insert a disk, but the autorun.ini file can also contain malicious code.

 

Users of versions of Windows before Vista can prevent the autorun.ini file from being loaded by holding Shift while inserting the drive and keeping it down until the drive appears in My Computer. Yeah that's right, it's that simple. You spent years fearing flash drives and disks when you could have just held down the Shift key.

 

Unfortunately that doesn't work in Windows Vista or 7. Paranoid cachers running Windows Vista or 7 will have to install Windows update 950582, find HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\policies\Explorer\NoDriveTypeAutorun in the Registry (back it up first), and change the value to 0x4 . You must install update 950582 before you edit the Registry, or it won't work.

 

As for the OP, make sure you explain your idea clearly on the the bug page, and have instructions on the READ ME FIRST file you mentioned. Also add a laminated note to the drive explaining Minecraft and to not bother taking the bug if you don't play Minecraft. Also keep in mind that the Geocaching website can't really do anything if someone doesn't follow your instructions.

 

"Do not add anything to this drive that is not related to the world. Anybody caught doing this will be reported on the Geocaching website."
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To Harry/Kevin, what decision did you end up making? Are you launching the bug soon?

 


How about, instead of a flashdrive, you print and laminate an inforgraphic card attached to a TB dogtag. [...] Simple, allows access to the game and your GC world, and doesn't harm anyone (or I cannot think of how paper could harm someone.)

You must not have thought very hard. My friend's dad owns a small mining company and tells me he remembers a number of incidents at his office over the past few years where employees have been injured by paper. I will try to get the PDFs of the incident reports, but notable accidents include:

 

  • an employee who's hand had to be amputated after their paper cut became infected
  • an employee who lost the use of his left eye after it was struck by a ball of crumpled paper his coworker had tried to toss into the recycling bin
  • a receptionist who suffocated after a piece of paper whose security features she was analysizing by holding up to the light slipped out of her hand and covered her face

None of that would be possible with a flash drive, of course. You advised laminating the piece of paper or card, which poses additional hazards:

 

  • The OP could be burnt by using a laminator, which uses heat to activate the laminational adhesive.
  • The OP could use cold laminate which uses pressure to adhere the laminate to the paper and his hand or other body parts could become caught in the rollers. Or his clothing could get caught and he could get strangled.
  • The OP may not be fully aware of how to use the laminator safely. He could start a fire and subsequently injure himself and his family members.

Do you really want these misfortunes to befall what seems to be a fairly young geocacher?

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I have come across a flash drive TB in the past.

 

TB29FG6

 

My computer geek husband just *had* to see what was on it, even though I protested.

 

Thankfully it was safe, and my hubby knew what he was doing so that anything nasty on it wouldn't have done much damage (or so he claims).

 

 

I never heard of the game. And I would not participate in that aspect of it. My husband probably would because he's into games like Everquest and WoW.

 

Just don't be surprised by many finds and no one wanting to play along.

Edited by Little Miss Muffet
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Also i guess, you could make a hidden Server and publish the ip and the port on that TB. So only players can join, which have seen the TB.

 

I like this idea a lot.

 

I bought my kid Minecraft a couple of weeks ago. I find myself anxiously awaiting for him to get off the computer so I can play it (he's made one world that he doesn't mind my dinking around in - I've been forbidden to touch the others). :)

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Ironically, my husband just introduced this game to the kids last night. Still wouldn't want to put a strange drive into our computer, but I can see the appeal with sharing creations. They're all just tinkering with the classic one right now, if I heard him correctly. Not a paid thing yet. So my kids would be amused by a Minecraft TB, whether it was interactive or not. Hope you find a way to make it work out safely!

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...

I thought so.

 

Regardless of any advice you have given about locking a drive, you put a lot of faith into not only the TB owner but those who pick it up along the way. Aside from the obvious rule of TB's (drill a hole in it) which wouldn't work well in this case, someone could just as easily replace the drive and put the tag on that. As well, I'm sure smarter people than you have tried and succeeded in conniving their way around a drive.

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I don't see the point of a locked drive if the OP wants to share the world/creations with other MC players (and yes I have the paid version)

 

I'm sure there are deviously smart people who could find their way through a locked USB drive too; I don't know if I would put a strange USB drive into my PC unless I had a safe PC to use it on that I didn't care about issues with.

 

I like the idea and I'd participate but I would not jeopardize my PC's security however, these days trackables now have a slim chance of surviving the wild

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