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3 months ago
PCWorld: DHS Clarifies Laptop Border Crossing Rules
Earlier this week, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security made it clear that border crossing officials could continue to search any device that can store electronic media without any suspicion of wrongdoing.
Although the revised policy ensures searches will be completed in a “timely manner” (up to 30 days) and that travelers will stay informed about the search’s progress, travelers crossing the border might want to consider a few things.Officials can still seize any device (including MP3 players or flash drives) and look at any file on it (including Internet browsing history) without giving any reason.
The Association of Corporate Travel Executives (ACTE) believes agents take laptops, make an image of the hard drive and then return the laptop to its owner in the mail. Any copied files could be stored “indefinitely.” (Imagine what the Border Patrol’s iTunes Library will look like after “indefinitely” storing DRM-free music from several dozen searches.) The ACLU is also taking a dim view of the DHS policy, and is challenging it in court.
For the moment, though, it’s smart to be prepared. Although the DHS’s exact procedures are unspecified, the department’s new policy states when travelers are subject to a search, agents will provide them “with clear and concise material informing them of the reasons for the search, how their data may be used and detailed information about their constitutional and statutory rights.”
If you’re traveling for business and have important files you’ll need on your trip, it wouldn’t hurt to save them to multiple locations so you aren’t left without them. Better yet, use Google Docs or another Internet-based storage system to ensure your private information stays private.In the case of a search, ACTE recommends you inform the agent that you have sensitive information on your computer. Try to get your concern noted in writing; at least, be sure to express it verbally. ACTE says this will help you retain more legal rights for registering your concern.
Although these searches don’t occur very often (the Border Patrol looked at around 1000 laptops and searched 46 laptops in-depth in the past ten months) the best bet for travelers concerned about privacy is to leave unneeded electronic storage behind.
And if you wanted to protect your data with strong encryption, I’d say forget it. It will either make things worse (what do you have to hide) and/or you’ll just have to cough up the password regardless. I wouldn’t bet that tech trickery will work either. Don’t you think DHS techs would know how to find anything they want?
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3 months ago
Via Download Squad: Alternate marketing slogans for Windows 7
Alternate marketing slogans for Windows 7
by Grant Robertson (RSS feed) Aug 29th 2009 at 4:30PM
Normally, I wouldn’t do this. A source deep within Microsoft — who just happened to owe me a favor — passed along a list of new Windows marketing slogans which, for one reason or another, just didn’t make the cut. After careful consideration and soul searching, I’ve decided to release them to the public.Frankly, I think a few of them deserved more contemplation.
- Really, it’s better this time. We swear.
- Because owning a Mac is just one step away from drinking lattes at a Green Party tweetup.
- Come on! It’s not that complicated.
- We shower, and we don’t wear Birkenstocks.
- We’re still on liver number one.
- 7 is a lucky number, right?
- Still the choice among pimply teenaged gamers.
- More stable and easier to use than your last girlfriend.
- WIndows 7: because the Mayans say none of us will live to see the next version anyway.
- Never gonna give you up. Never gonna let you down.
via pheedcontent.comOh Grant…
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3 months ago
Change Snow Leopard Finder prefs for faster searches
via tuaw.comUnfortunately the default out-of-the-box action is still set to look everywhere on your Mac. But don’t worry, it’s easy to change. 1. Make sure Finder is your active app (either click on the Finder icon in the dock, click the desktop or a visible Finder window, or cmd-Tab to switch to the Finder). 2. Choose Preferences in the Finder menu. Or you can just use the Command-comma key combo to invoke Preferences. 3. In Finder Preferences, click on the Advanced tab. 4. Choose your desired search scope from the drop-down menu under the heading “When performing a search.” 5. Close the Preferences and enjoy a search or two. That’s it. Just one example of the many little changes in Snow Leopard that make life with the OS easier and more efficient. I hope you find what you’re looking for!
One of the most annoying things about Leopard was that when I search within a folder the default was actually “This Mac”…not helpful. Now you can force it to be the Current Folder, but it isn’t the default setting…
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3 months ago
LazyFeed info salvation, salivation, or overload?
Since I am an info glutton my ears perked up when I saw that the invite-only beta status had been taken off of LazyFeed. Come on, if Louis Gray likes it …
louisgray.com: No More Beta Codes: Lazyfeed Is Open for Everyone The product’s uniqueness is one of the more innovative services I have seen in 2009, which was a big part of why I practically have had a part-time job as a beta code broker, trying to gain people access to the site. As of today, that unpaid gig is done, for Lazyfeed has removed the beta wall, and opened the site to all who want to enter. If you didn’t get access to the site, I strongly recommend you go and try it, as you will find the wave of interesting news and blog posts from around the Web addicting.
Yeah, it’s impressive. Very impressive.I nearly instantly starting getting news and stories after connecting my Twitter, blog, and Posterous feeds. But here’s the thing I’m now faced with: I don’t want to stop looking at it. New news is coming all the freakin time and I’m not sure this is a good thing. I made a SSB for it using Fluid so I could just watch it for a while. It’s, wow, just magnetic. I see new things coming in constantly. I want to just keep clicking, I want to keep reading.And I think this isn’t a good thing. I know I’ll be using LazyFeed a lot, but I think I’m going to have to be judicious about it. I’m going to have to block out time to catch up, then leave it. Otherwise I’m just going to be stuck here reading…forever.
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3 months ago
Mac.AppStorm's toolkit for bloggers--what would you add?
Whilst many blogging platforms come with excellent web-based administration interfaces, a variety of desktop tools can make the experience far more enjoyable. With a useful set of applications installed, managing a blog is a far simpler and more natural experience.
Today we’ll be looking at 60 applications for desktop blogging and tweeting, formatting images for your posts, recording screencasts, utilizing social media, communicating with other bloggers, and keeping track of statistics.
via mac.appstorm.netLots of good apps here. I use several of the tools. For the editor set: ecto and Blogo get my vote. Screenshots: Skitch. News reader: NNW (which is getting a lot of dev attention now).
Maybe blogging is simple enough that we don’t need many tools now?
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3 months ago
Chris Heuer's take on Chris Brogan, Panasonic, & Sony
As for whether Chris Brogan is less trustworthy as a result of his working with Sony, bollocks. Trust is about honesty and character demonstrated over time, and there is nothing here or anywhere to indicate that Chris was dishonest…. nor was he disloyal in that he owes no loyalty to Panasonic except respect and perhaps the friendships he might have with various people involved there.
There are plenty of people out there who are not trustworthy and who are disloyal, it would really be great to see more people telling those stories.
Is This Trust as a post title certainly works at getting attention, but it also serves to potentially harm Chris’ credibility.
via chrisheuer.comI know both Chris-es here so consider me biased…
You know the bottom line is that you can’t pay for milk or bread with blog comments. We all have to work hard to keep things together. I’ve been sponsored by companies to attend conferences and later accepted contracts from competitors. Why? Because sending me to a conference was a gig of it’s own. Like: send me to Web 2.0 Expo and I’ll live blog sessions, mention your sponsorship in the posts, and review your latest thing.
If a competitor likes what I did at the conference, well they can hire me too. Unethical is working for both at the same time and sharing secrets back and forth. Unethical is saying that you won’t work for a competitor and then doing it.
Chris (Brogan) isn’t being ethical, he’s being a consultant.
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3 months ago
Ensight – Jeremy Wright » Best Out of Office Replies Evar
2. You are receiving this automatic notification because I am out of the office. If I was in, chances are you wouldn’t have received anything at all.
via ensight.orgOh that never happens! ;-)
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3 months ago
5 Things Not to Let the Kids Bring in the Car | GeekDad
via wired.comI have to add to this list:
Cheap crayons. I had a pack of them literally melt into the seats of a car. Crayola’s might cost more, but they don’t turn into goo in the sun (as fast)
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3 months ago
xkcd - A Webcomic - Tech Support Cheat Sheet
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3 months ago
What's your online persona?
