This is not exactly new news but for the first time, the Department of Homeland Security is admitting that their border enforcement policies include confiscating electronic equipment such as laptops, cellphones, external hard disks, iPods, etc. This can be done without any reasonable cause of suspicion. According to The Washington Post:
The policies state that officers may “detain” laptops “for a reasonable period of time” to “review and analyze information.” This may take place “absent individualized suspicion.”
I first heard of this egregious policy a couple of months ago when computer security maven Bruce Schneier blogged about the ruling by a US court that border agents can do this with no restrictions. I have been traveling a lot internationally and often have my laptop (plus PDA, cellphone, flash drives, etc.) with me and so far the only untoward border incident has been me stupidly forgetting the laptop at the security conveyor belt at Washington, DC. (Luckily for me, it ended up in the TSA lost and found and I was able to have a friend pick it up and mail it to me.) But the odds of me being a victim of “profiling” are rather high and I am taking no chances in the future.
The obvious solution to avoid the scenario of not having your laptop for weeks (or in one case, months) is to not take one. Or for that matter, don’t take anything that you don’t want usurped at the border. Schneier has some other recommendations at his site.
Another option is to carry a content-free laptop with you. Recently, I purchased for my organization a laptop meant for just this purpose. The idea is to re-install the laptop with a new operating system (Opensolaris in our case) every time we cross the US border. We plan to do this both to and fro from our travels so that there is no trace left of our usage and more importantly no company confidential information. I also keep a cheap unlocked Motorola Razr phone for international roaming or local sim card use. And my ancient iPod still gets toted around. I don’t care if they usurp any of these from me. Though now I am seriously debating whether I should even carry my fancier dSLR abroad or just take my point and shoot.
If the goal of the terrorists was to make America more like some of the countries they come from, they have won the war already. I long for the day when we can transport ourselves by hologram.
You can read the full customs policy here.
It seems like things are getting real bad out there in the good old US of A. Because the OPEC gods haven’t been smiling on America of late, some upstanding citizens are turning to the real deal for lower gasoline prices.
A few people gathered in a gas station in St. Louis recently to pray to God for lower gas prices. Are cartoons allowed?
Saw this on CNN today:
http://money.cnn.com/magazines/moneymag/bplive/2008/top25s/qualitylife/skinniest.html
Almost all the Bay Area counties are featured: Marin, San Francisco, San Mateo and Santa Clara. Yet the one place in California most known for its body-image consciousness - Los Angeles - is prominently absent. What gives?
Followed this link to an article by Richard Muller on Popular Mechanics.
Read about this in the WSJ today… in an op-ed expressing the need to educate the general public (i.e., us) about how safe nuclear reactors (the power generating ones) are. The video is pretty awesome:
Maureen Dowd writes in an Op-Ed in the New York Times that Obama and his messianic followers need to lighten up and have a sense of humor about things. The recent furor, as I am sure you have heard, is about the cover cartoon of the latest issue of New Yorker magazine that depicts our man as an Osama look alike and Michelle Obama as an AK-47 wielding terrorist. Even John McCain was forced to decry the cartoon in the name of political civility.
I really hope that we don’t end up having an unfunny president as Dowd fears. We need to keep feeding the genius of the likes of Letterman, Leno, and Stewart and who better to feed them than our leaders? We can only take so much of the Brits and the Lindseys. The nation is depressed as it is. We need more humor to survive through these tough times in the economy and not complain over mere cartoons. What are we, turning into The Netherlands or something? (No offense, reneejo.)
Among all the tributes being posted for George Carlin everywhere, I picked out the following, on a topic many of us love - the use and abuse of language. Here he is then; cerebral, irreverent, profane, and very funny. Thanks for the laughs, George!
Saw this story related to one of our own today. Some bloggers were surprised to see their content ripped off and posted on another site without their permission. When confronted about it, the site - which claims to be THE premier destination for Kerala tourism online - responded in true Mal (now there’s an appropriate bi-lingual pun) fashion with a torrent of misogynistic abuse. Read on and weep.
http://myinjimanga.blogspot.com/2008/06/stealing-threat-cyber-stalking-abuse.html
The funniest thing is that these same buffoons run a matrimonial site. With such a criminal mindset among its highest executives (the Shiva guy quoted extensively in the link above is their director of operations), who can bet against matrimonial pictures being used on their porn sites? I’m sure these guys have some director of Photoshop operations as well. Methinks this is a promotion just waiting for some sharp cyber-crime sleuth. Tourism, misogyny, matrimony, and porn - all in a day’s work for the fine people at Kerals.com. Buyer beware.
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