Chris
I have a fairly complicated data protection question. I have a DJ company, I want the people who work for me to be able to access and play music on external hard drives but not be able to copy the files. This seems to break down into 2 separate processes I believe I will need help in unless there is a better way?
1 - I need to create a user login on the laptops that have copy, paste, and send to functions disabled. How is that done?
2 - Is there a way to encrypt a hard drive so that it is free to use in one computer but plug it into anything else and it will require a password? Some sort of protection software that leaves some sort of cookie on the computer so it can be used on a single machine without the user knowing the password, but they cannot plug it into another machine to copy the files
Answer
Interesting problem. I'm not aware of any off-the-shelf solution that provides everything you need, but the functionality can be pieced together from readily available components.
1) What you need is for the user account to start a custom shell, rather than the usual Windows shell, which is explorer.exe. This is how kiosks work that are running on top of Windows. Google "kiosk mode" and "replace windows shell" for articles on how to do this
2) You could do something like this with TrueCrypt. Encrypt your external hard drive with TrueCrypt, and then on the systems that are allowed to access it, automatically mount the external hard drive (you could require that it be present at boot time) via the command line, supplying the password on the command line. You could put this in a batch file - but be aware that your security is only strong as your ability to prevent people from reading the batch file. The custom user shell provides some security, but you could always take the hard drive out of the laptop and read the batch file, and therefore the password on another machine. You could always encrypt the hard drive, but then your DJs will have to have the password to decrypt the internal drive. Ultimately, if your employees have the ability to read the data off the external hard drive while it's connected to the laptop, even if it is encrypted, there will be a way to get unencrypted data off the system, unless you have hardware decryption that is physically tied to the laptop and not removable.
If all you need to do is prevent casual theft, then what I described above should be sufficient, albeit a little clunky.
I wonder if something could be done with your player application so it decrypts individual music files when it plays them, and you just encrypt all your individual songs.
Interesting problem. I'm not aware of any off-the-shelf solution that provides everything you need, but the functionality can be pieced together from readily available components.
1) What you need is for the user account to start a custom shell, rather than the usual Windows shell, which is explorer.exe. This is how kiosks work that are running on top of Windows. Google "kiosk mode" and "replace windows shell" for articles on how to do this
2) You could do something like this with TrueCrypt. Encrypt your external hard drive with TrueCrypt, and then on the systems that are allowed to access it, automatically mount the external hard drive (you could require that it be present at boot time) via the command line, supplying the password on the command line. You could put this in a batch file - but be aware that your security is only strong as your ability to prevent people from reading the batch file. The custom user shell provides some security, but you could always take the hard drive out of the laptop and read the batch file, and therefore the password on another machine. You could always encrypt the hard drive, but then your DJs will have to have the password to decrypt the internal drive. Ultimately, if your employees have the ability to read the data off the external hard drive while it's connected to the laptop, even if it is encrypted, there will be a way to get unencrypted data off the system, unless you have hardware decryption that is physically tied to the laptop and not removable.
If all you need to do is prevent casual theft, then what I described above should be sufficient, albeit a little clunky.
I wonder if something could be done with your player application so it decrypts individual music files when it plays them, and you just encrypt all your individual songs.
What is the best DJ Laptop?
Ray
What is the best laptop for a mobile DJ, for playing mp3 mixes or editing? What are good things to have in terms of sound cards or memory etc?
Answer
Apple Macbook Pro is the most popular laptop with professional mobile DJs.
http://www.guitarcenter.com/shop/product/Apple-Macbook-Pro-172.332G-Intel-Core-2-Duo?full_sku=240443
http://www.guitarcenter.com/shop/product/Apple-Macbook-Pro-152.332G-Intel-Core-2-Duo?full_sku=240445
You will want to use an external hard drive because I've heard internal hard drives tend to be slower than external hard drives. (I don't know enough about computers to know if that's true or not.)
Most computer based mobile DJs have their music on two hard drives. That way they have a back up hard drive if there is a problem during the gig with the hard drive they are using.
Since you'll be playing the music through a PA sound system you need to buy MP3s recorded at a higher quality than if you were just using them to listen to on an iPod. I personally prefer buying songs recorded in .wav, but 320 KBs or higher MP3s will also work well.
Beatport is a popular site with DJs for downloading songs.
https://www.beatport.com
Sound Cards
http://pleppy.blogspot.com/2007/03/sound-cards.html
Software & Hardware For DJ Production
http://pleppy.blogspot.com/2007/03/software-hardware-for-dj-production.html
There are a few options for what product you want to use to make your DJ equipment control the songs stored on a laptop computer. I personally think Serato (SSL) is the best.
Rane Serato Scratch Live $540
Digital/Vinyl Interface
"Using regular turntables or CD players, you can scratch and mix files from your Mac or Windows XP computer's CD or hard drive."
http://www.guitarcenter.com/shop/product/buy_rane_serato_scratch_live?full_sku=102588050
You'll want to decide if you want to use with your computer, vinyl turntables, CD turntables, a dual CD player, or both vinyl turntables & CD turntables.
Vinyl turntables are usually prefered by DJs who do a lot of scratching & beat juggling. CD turntables & a dual CD players have the advantage of being able to play a CD a customer may want you to play.
DJ Equipment For Vinyl DJing
http://pleppy.blogspot.com/2007/03/dj-equipment-for-vinyl-djing.html
DJ Equipment For CD DJing
http://pleppy.blogspot.com/2007/03/cd-players.html
Quality Budget Sound System
http://pleppy.blogspot.com/2007/03/quality-budget-sound-system.html
This last link is a page I haven't completed yet, but it does have all the information on it that I wanted to say & one sound sound system (JBL SRX). I just want to add a few more speaker options to the page. JBL, EAW, Yamaha, Turbosound, Peavey & Electro-Voice are all good speaker brands.
PA Systems
http://pleppy.blogspot.com/2007/04/pa-systems.html
Apple Macbook Pro is the most popular laptop with professional mobile DJs.
http://www.guitarcenter.com/shop/product/Apple-Macbook-Pro-172.332G-Intel-Core-2-Duo?full_sku=240443
http://www.guitarcenter.com/shop/product/Apple-Macbook-Pro-152.332G-Intel-Core-2-Duo?full_sku=240445
You will want to use an external hard drive because I've heard internal hard drives tend to be slower than external hard drives. (I don't know enough about computers to know if that's true or not.)
Most computer based mobile DJs have their music on two hard drives. That way they have a back up hard drive if there is a problem during the gig with the hard drive they are using.
Since you'll be playing the music through a PA sound system you need to buy MP3s recorded at a higher quality than if you were just using them to listen to on an iPod. I personally prefer buying songs recorded in .wav, but 320 KBs or higher MP3s will also work well.
Beatport is a popular site with DJs for downloading songs.
https://www.beatport.com
Sound Cards
http://pleppy.blogspot.com/2007/03/sound-cards.html
Software & Hardware For DJ Production
http://pleppy.blogspot.com/2007/03/software-hardware-for-dj-production.html
There are a few options for what product you want to use to make your DJ equipment control the songs stored on a laptop computer. I personally think Serato (SSL) is the best.
Rane Serato Scratch Live $540
Digital/Vinyl Interface
"Using regular turntables or CD players, you can scratch and mix files from your Mac or Windows XP computer's CD or hard drive."
http://www.guitarcenter.com/shop/product/buy_rane_serato_scratch_live?full_sku=102588050
You'll want to decide if you want to use with your computer, vinyl turntables, CD turntables, a dual CD player, or both vinyl turntables & CD turntables.
Vinyl turntables are usually prefered by DJs who do a lot of scratching & beat juggling. CD turntables & a dual CD players have the advantage of being able to play a CD a customer may want you to play.
DJ Equipment For Vinyl DJing
http://pleppy.blogspot.com/2007/03/dj-equipment-for-vinyl-djing.html
DJ Equipment For CD DJing
http://pleppy.blogspot.com/2007/03/cd-players.html
Quality Budget Sound System
http://pleppy.blogspot.com/2007/03/quality-budget-sound-system.html
This last link is a page I haven't completed yet, but it does have all the information on it that I wanted to say & one sound sound system (JBL SRX). I just want to add a few more speaker options to the page. JBL, EAW, Yamaha, Turbosound, Peavey & Electro-Voice are all good speaker brands.
PA Systems
http://pleppy.blogspot.com/2007/04/pa-systems.html
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