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Online assets register

PostPosted: Sun Nov 07, 2004 8:42 am
by gstark
Unless someone can come with a better description ... :)

The goal is to provide a central repository for our cameras', lenses' and other equipments' serial numbers, together with the current status (stole) of those items.

From a security perspective, y'all already have an account here, and it seems to me to be logical to hook into that account; hence my first port of call is to investigate ways to add into the existing functionality and extend upon it.

Any disagreement with or discussion of that point of view?

It seems to me as if many of us will have a common baseline set of equipment - D70 Body, kit lens, SB800, tripod - and from there we'll each be adding who knows what.

Some of us have more than one body, and some have older film bodies and lenses that they may wish to have included.

I've had a quick browse through phpbb.com and phpbbhacks.com to see if there's anything there that might be able to handle this task for us.

The closest I've seen are mods that relate to car ownership, whereby you can add details of your car to either your existing profile, or in a separate profile. Of these, two seem to be semi-suitable, but not without further modifications on my part, although I've not yet looked at any of the underlying workings of these mods.

The car List simply provides access to a listing of members' cars.

http://www.v63400.com/carlist.php

I would presume that the number of fields can be extended, thus also the data displayed. Changing text such as "cars" to "cameras" and so on is a no brainer.

Separate Car Profile provides more information, and is somewhat closer to what I'm envisiaging, although it still seems to me to only permit just the one vehicle - or in our terminaology, one body.

http://www.v63400.com/profile.php?mode=viewprofile&u=2

Again, modifying the displayed text, and the various fieldnames used isn't likely to be a major issue.

Similarly, I could probably provide fields for Body1, Body2, etc, maybe allowing for up to 5(?) bodies, 10 lenses, 5 flash units, etc per member.

Again, bear in mind that I've not yet opened up the code for these packages,; I'm simply speaking from the basis of what I'm expecting to see once I do.

My one reservation with both of these add-ons is that they display the details to all and sundry. I have no issues with one person seeing their own data, but I have an issue with letting, for instance, everyone see your camera's serial number, unless there's a good reason to do so, like the camera's been stolen.

Otherwise, making it public might be asking for trouble - anyone else can use your number for anything that they wish to, which is probably not a good idea.

My thoughts are that it's probably quite simple to remove the link (as used in the demo) from the profile, thus hopefully then making the only access to this data via the user's profile.

I'm open to all thoughts and suggestions, so please, feel free to throw your ideas around in this thread. Let's see what we can come up with!

PostPosted: Sun Nov 07, 2004 10:20 am
by Onyx
Sounds good Gary.

Instead of just having each person and their individual item's serial numbers listed as part of their personal profile, how about also compiling lists by parts? eg. SB800 in a list, D70 bodies in another, all in a big anonymous list, so one could identify those that are stolen/missing (which hopefully would be few), for eg. when I go out 2nd hand camera shopping, I could print out the list of stolen/missing bodies and try to see if the serials matches the one I'm looking to buy.

These compiled lists would just be a set of numbers so could be publicly accessible without fear of identifing individuals.

PostPosted: Sun Nov 07, 2004 10:35 am
by gstark
Onyx,

That would be very easy to achieve within the framework already provided - it would simply be a SQL query against the user database ... "select user_camera1_serno where stolen=TRUE" type of thing.

PostPosted: Sun Nov 07, 2004 11:21 am
by xerubus
Gary...

have a look at this... would be very easy to hack around with the table entries... written for postnuke... but php is php...

here

PostPosted: Sun Nov 07, 2004 11:38 am
by phillipb
My question is, what is there to be achieved by having all these serial numbers in one place. As Gary said, it is probably a security risk more than enything else. If you are going to gather all your serial numbers for insurance purposes then you may as well store them in your own private place in case you need them.
I do see some merit in having a database of stolen equipment though, somewhere you can check before you buy used equipment. In these days of internet and Ebay etc, It would make sense for it to be a centralised worldwide base.
In any case if you go ahead with this, it may be an idea to allow people to search for a particular serial no. and then only display the results, without being able to brouse through the list.

Cheers
Phillip

PostPosted: Sun Nov 07, 2004 11:40 am
by xerubus
Philip,

I agree completely... I would not be listing my gear on a any site in fear of some coward knocking it off...

Listing of stolen goods however is a wonderful idea and gets the community involved in helping to recover prized pocessions...

PostPosted: Sun Nov 07, 2004 8:58 pm
by Dargan
The very point being made initially.

PostPosted: Mon Nov 08, 2004 3:59 pm
by gstark
So, having digested all of this input thus far, what we really want is not so much a register of assets - cameras, lenes, etc - that we each own, but more of a stolen equipment register, containing details of items that we know to be stolen.

Would that be a reasonable summation thus far?

Would we restrict the addition of entries to only registered members? My feeling is that we should, to maintain some element of integrity and responsibility for the data being collected.

I feel that viewing the data - at least the serial numbers and descriptions -is probably ok in terms of allowing members of the general public to query and view the listing.

Thoughts, y'all?

PostPosted: Mon Nov 08, 2004 4:01 pm
by xerubus
I agree with all you have said...

members only posting of stolen goods.
general public viewing of stolen goods register.

cheers

PostPosted: Mon Nov 08, 2004 4:16 pm
by phillipb
Definetly members only, you don't want people with a grudge posting someone elses s/n.
We can also place links to any other such databases around the world. I may try a google to see if there is any.

PostPosted: Mon Nov 08, 2004 4:24 pm
by MHD
Furthermore you may want the asset to only be viewed by members who have more than a certian number of posts... Make a "trusted users" group

PostPosted: Mon Nov 08, 2004 4:35 pm
by phillipb