An offer we can't refuse.

Obtusitivity · Joined: 05 Jun 2007 Posts: 585 Location: Santa Rosa, CA

I know this seems to be a bandwagon that i'm always on, but i think we should seriously consider this. The hard drive is of limited use to us now, since we've already scraped every bit of info we could find out of it -- at the same time, having some insight into what bryce was working on might open new avenues of investigation -- something i think we can all agree we desperately need.

So cast my lot w/ the Forsythe "Little Brother" program for now -- The worst that can happen is we lose the HD , which we've already backed up.

What do the rest of you think?

Obs

Varin · Joined: 20 Apr 2007 Posts: 40

I'm with you Obs. We lose nothing by giving away the physical drive.

Dante · Joined: 20 Apr 2007 Posts: 578 Location: Chicago, IL

This is a negotiation, remember?

I'd like to know a little bit more about why Mr. Severn wants the trussed swan.

I think that our counter-offer should be to give him online access to the contents of the drive, as already posted on the wiki, rather than the physical harddrive itself.

a) if he balks, this may be because for some reason having the real thing is important to him. If so, it seems important to know why? Ritualistic purposes?

b) or he may complain that he has no way of knowing if we've uploaded everything, but then we can just point out that he has to trust us as much as we have to trust him in this transaction.

c) or he may be content with just having the directory contents like that, in which case we haven't lost anything.

Obtusitivity · Joined: 05 Jun 2007 Posts: 585 Location: Santa Rosa, CA

That sounds perfectly reasonable actually -- i was expecting to have to bitch alot more.

But i think the wiki's a bad idea -- let's choose some 3rd party neutral location to upload the contents of the drive to, tell him the location, and then see how he reacts.

If he takes it, the deal's a "go", and it looks like he was interested in the content

If he demands the physical drive, then the drive itself is somehow important..., and we look for a next move.

Is that what you're saying Dante?

Jjason · Joined: 21 Apr 2007 Posts: 424 Location: Portland, OR

I like Dante's idea. If Peter wants to the physical disk instead of the data, that's certainly a clue to his intents.

Something else that's been bothering me - If Foresythe wants the disk, why didn't Art just take it? Art got there before us - he could've taken it no problem.
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Varin · Joined: 20 Apr 2007 Posts: 40

We could just ask him if he needs the physical drive or if we can just send him the files. Let him tell us exactly what he needs. No need to challenge him and blow away our chance off the bat.
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Unknown Quantity · Joined: 26 Apr 2007 Posts: 287 Location: NOT HERE

See if you can get 'ole Uncle Peter to throw in a few pizzas. ^.^

Seriously, though, I say give it to him. We've already milked that thing dry, as far what we can get out of it. We know it's full of some strong juju... But none of us here has the mystical wherewithal, or the technical gadgetry, to get much more than we already have (and if we did, would we really want to mess with it?). Maybe they can do their CSI thing on it and see something we can’t. NOTE: For that they’d need the physical drive; I doubt Pete will go for a copy of the drive’s contents. At any rate, it’s always useful to have the perspective provided by a second set of eyes (especially when those eyes can double as a nice long pointy stick). The only thing we really have to loose by giving it to him is if he's one of the Bad Guys (TM), and I think we've already established that Forsythe != Choraz. Besides, if we dick around with him too much there's always a chance that he'll take his ball and go home. Or come take the drive by force. Either way, we definitely loose.

Besides, I'm bored... I could use something new to digest.
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James Stone · Posted: Mon Jan 21, 2008 8:19 pm Post subject:

Yey, just finished work to find that lovely email from Peter. I would agree to the exchange. As it is the first step of a trust exercise the gains by either party are marginal, so not a great deal can be gained by pushing the negotiation, but it is worth a mild poke.
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Jjason · Joined: 21 Apr 2007 Posts: 424 Location: Portland, OR

It's been suggested that we give him the files first and only give him the physical hard drive if he asks for it, an idea which I support. That way we can get more information about what exactly he wants plus we can go ahead with that plan immediately - James or Biff just needs to e-mail him the archive file version of the directory.

I severely doubt that he's going to pack up and go home if we push a little - he's stated that he's willing to negotiate and he obviously needs something from us - otherwise he'd just go on ignoring us and our questions like he was doing so far. I'm totally on board with going ahead with this but I think we should be careful and get anything on Peter that we can get. Just because Foresythe ain't Chorazos doesn't mean they have our interests in mind.
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WHO IS SAINT FENLINE?

"We remain convinced that this is the best defensive posture to adopt in order to minimize casualties when the Great Old Ones return from beyond the stars to eat our brains." - from The Concrete Jungle by Charles Stross

Konamouse · Joined: 20 Apr 2007 Posts: 142 Location: Las Vegas

But what can he offer us in exchange that makes it worthwhile and gives us some idea of potential trust?
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Unknown Quantity · Joined: 26 Apr 2007 Posts: 287 Location: NOT HERE

WolfHawk · Posted: Mon Jan 21, 2008 10:07 pm Post subject:

Biff · Joined: 22 Apr 2007 Posts: 439

I suspect that since the files are already available, he wants the drive itself. I don't think Sapagoo did any deep dive analysis of the drive, nor did he extract a DD/Ghost/Drive-image of the thing either. A faithful drive image is admissible as evidence in a court of law, though deep surface analysis for magnetic traces is not possible without the drive.

Dante · Joined: 20 Apr 2007 Posts: 578 Location: Chicago, IL

I don't think that Peter can access the files we've posted to the wiki, or even this very post, due to the Edict.

I don't see why people are so ready to roll over and capitulate to this individual, who we barely know but so far has not acted very honorably towards us or anyone else as far as I can tell. Yes, eventually we will give him the trussed swan like he wants, but I see no reason not to take the opportunity to try to learn a little bit more about what we're dealing with. I don't foresee any risk that he is going to run and call everything off. What other choice does he have if he really wants it?