Sourav: Blog

The 9th circuit court has ruled that customs agents can search the data on your laptop without cause.

Some practical advice here. Most tech-savvy people who value privacy or have business secrets use file and disk encryption. But as the author of this guide writes, this could be a red flag for meddlesome customs agents, and suggests steganography to plausibly deny truly sensitive data (like with TrueCrypt).

As I wrote about before, a lower federal judge has ruled that one cannot be compelled to divulge a passphrase. However, the UK can, and the federal gov't has other ways of getting what it wants.

However, using a steganographic lockbox is annoying, so even if one is Muslim/brown and traveling to the UK what is the actual risk? In the US, if you are asked to divulge a passphrase and refuse, what's the worst that could happen to you realistically?

I was so busy with liquidating everything in Berkeley I didn't even notice that on November 29, 2007 a federal judge ruled that the 5th amendment protection extends to passphrases. (Coverage and a PDF of the ruling at Volokh.)

The case brings up some interesting issues, both technical and legal:
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http://www.conversationsnetwork.org

It's paradise for me, the quiet geek.

I was introduced when ashaper sent me this excellent podcast about having a growth mindset of experience and learning, rather a fixed mindset of ego and living up to it.

Verse from Tagore:

তোমার কাছে খাটে না মোর কবির গর্ব করা,
মহাকবি তোমার পায়ে দিতে যে চাই ধরা।
জীবন লয়ে যতন করি যদি সরল বাঁশি গড়ি,
আপন সুরে দিবে ভরি সকল ছিদ্র তার।

These headphones are the best I've heard yet for making a bass drum or thumping techno backbeat come alive -- cerebum pulsing glory. A great value at $10.

However, clarity leaves something to desired for classical music -- intricate string lines sound muddled. I corrected this by covering the ports with cellophane tape. This killed all the bass, so I used a needle to open up half the ports. Voila! Bass is almost as good as before, and clarity is significantly improved. The right balanced for mixed listening. If you want less bass, open fewer ports.

I might just have the right ears, but the noise isolation is comparable to the ear plugs you can buy from the drug store, so these headphones might be suitable for listening on a motorcycle or snowmobile. I'll try it out on the Viffer and give an update. Testing in my apartment, they perform better than the earplugs I normally ride with, but getting the helmet on with them fitted is tricky -- you have to really splay the cushions and maybe keep a finger on the driver modules.

1) Go to Google News

2) Enter site:{website of interest} in the search field and hit enter.

3) You should see the familiar Google search results, but with news from that site. On the upper right, hit "Sorted by date".

4) Extract the RSS or Atom feed link from the left panel, and copy it into your favorite newsreader.

For example, to extract Jon Weirtheim's tennis column from Sports Illustrated, I entered the search term site:sportsillustrated.cnn.com Jon Wertheim.

A Libertarian Approach to Showerheads: How to Increase Your Flow

I am pleased with the results.

Judge for yourself. Of course, this story is nicely sandwiched among other incoherent ranting.