Philosophically Secure

Joel on Software recently wrote an interesting piece on the newly-published MS Office file format specifications. It’s a bit off-topic for my blog, but I found the history responsible for the extreme complexity of these files to be fascinating. It goes to show that even with good intentions, software can get out of hand when it sticks around for a decade. As Joel says:

With a little bit of digging, I’ll show you how those file formats got so unbelievably complicated, why it doesn’t reflect bad programming on Microsoft’s part, and what you can do to work around it.

Most people don’t realize how limited their rights are when they are crossing the U.S. border. This is especially true when it comes to portable electronics, such as your laptop. Of course border guards can search your luggage to look for contraband, such as drugs, illegal food items, or even animals. But did you know that they can also search within your personal laptop? They don’t need just cause or any suspicion of illegal activity. It doesn’t matter if it’s your personal laptop, or one owned by your company. Not only can they ask you to turn it on, but they can also request that you login and allow them to examine the contents of your system.

My advice: leave the laptop at home, unless you absolutely need it on your trip. At the very least, don’t bring any sensitive data with you, especially in an obvious and unencrypted state. Ideally, if you travel often, you may want to have a basic laptop without any real data just for this purpose.

Let’s just hope these laws never apply to crossing state borders, as well…