If Gentoo can die off, ReiserFS is doomed (was Re: Reiser FS or ext3?)

[Leo Mauler]

--- On Tue, 9/30/08, Jeffrey Watts <jeffrey.w.watts at gmail.com> wrote:

> On Tue, Sep 30, 2008 at 1:52 PM, David Nicol
> <davidnicol at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> > Absolutely not.  I would be highly suspicious 
> > of using any such drive for my hypothetical 
> > criminal activity, as a drive marketed as 
> > having SD features might /really/ have some 
> > kind of covert channel phone-home-to-Echelon 
> > feature allowing the spooks to 0wn the box
> > remotely.  Perhaps interfacing with the
> > pc-speaker-as-microphone feature.

> There's a flaw with your reasoning.
> 
> You're assuming that Big Brother would put a backdoor
> of some kind into devices like that marked "Secure 
> Deletion".  However, if you're going to be Tin-Foil 
> Hat Man you should be assuming that EVERY device
> has a Big Brother backdoor.
> 
> Thus your only real choice is to live in a cave and 
> bang rocks together.

There's a flaw in your reasoning.

You're assuming that there's *no way* to prevent all of your computer peripherals from wirelessly transmitting data from the devices to a central government server.

However, that kind of assumption takes the mentality of someone who really does live in a cave and bang rocks together.  Surely someone who claims to have computer knowledge has encountered the "metal sheets in the wall prevent home use of 802.11x wireless networking" problem before, right?

There's a very simple way of preventing wireless transmission: a Faraday cage, or just a Big Metal Room.  Any criminal organization which doesn't get shut down repeatedly for stupidity has its most sensitive computers in just such a room, and all sensitive data is sneakernetted in and out of the room.  A wired connection is even easier: unplug the sensitive computer's phone line and/or network connection.

Just build a home using sheet metal under the drywall, a sort-of "tinfoil house-hat".