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You can get privacy filters for any monitor. 3M makes one which is available from any office supply store, like Staples.

This "invention" is silly. I can pick up a pair of polarized sunglasses for $8 at the local drug store.

Great! You rooned it for everybody else! j/k

Staples 110% Price Protection

Sentry makes at least two models of fire-resistant boxes for protecting media: a small ($255) and large ($410).

Personally, I haven't been able to spring for one of those and I keep mine in a cheap ($49) Sentry fire safe with a four-leaf clover and rabbit's foot.

Having worked a lot of fire and flood scenes, here's some advice that can help around the house:

It's pretty rare for a average house to burn to the ground. Apartment buildings seem to burn down easier than a house, but they are still fairly rare. A mobile home is much worse -- don't live in one.

Keep important stuff like that low to the ground, but not so low that it floods. (It seems like everyone that lives in low-lying areas keeps their family pictures in the bottom drawer of the dresser.) I've seen cases where smoke detectors and everything plastic melted in the top 3 feet of a room, but the bottom half is almost untouched (heat-wise).

Keep doors shut. I've seen fires where the core part of the house was decimated (hole in the roof, interior walls burned through) but the kid's room barely smelled of smoke because the door was shut.

As for the top causes of fires: Don't light candles. Don't cook french fries. Don't smoke, especially in bed. Don't use those $20 halogen lamps where they can tip over (or get pushed by the kids). An please, if you have to look under the bed for something, buy a flashlight -- don't use a cigarette lighter.

Sentry makes at least two models of fire-resistant boxes for protecting media: a small ($255) and large ($410).

Personally, I haven't been able to spring for one of those and I keep mine in a cheap ($49) Sentry fire safe with a four-leaf clover and rabbit's foot.

Having worked a lot of fire and flood scenes, here's some advice that can help around the house:

It's pretty rare for a average house to burn to the ground. Apartment buildings seem to burn down easier than a house, but they are still fairly rare. A mobile home is much worse -- don't live in one.

Keep important stuff like that low to the ground, but not so low that it floods. (It seems like everyone that lives in low-lying areas keeps their family pictures in the bottom drawer of the dresser.) I've seen cases where smoke detectors and everything plastic melted in the top 3 feet of a room, but the bottom half is almost untouched (heat-wise).

Keep doors shut. I've seen fires where the core part of the house was decimated (hole in the roof, interior walls burned through) but the kid's room barely smelled of smoke because the door was shut.

As for the top causes of fires: Don't light candles. Don't cook french fries. Don't smoke, especially in bed. Don't use those $20 halogen lamps where they can tip over (or get pushed by the kids). An please, if you have to look under the bed for something, buy a flashlight -- don't use a cigarette lighter.

You're right of course. For the vast majority of us there really isn't anyone who's out to get us. But that doesn't mean that there aren't certian things that we would rather keep private. Furthermore, it makes a big difference when the government starts telling you what you can and cannot write.

Encryption just doesn't matter that much.

Encryption matters a lot. It's not the encryption itself that matters but the fact that I want to have the choice to communicate privately in whatever form I see fit. I reserve the right to write letters in Latin (a language unreadable by many) or in ROT13 or PGP encrypted. The point isn't about the encryption but rather it's about telling me how my personal communications must be conducted. It's true that I rarely hit the encrypt button on my mail client, but I insist on having that choice.

encryption is not like putting a letter in an envelope for mailing, because the envelope doesn't protect the contents of the letter so much as it contains them from the rigors of mailing. If people could save 15c by not using an envelope, they probably would.

It's true that envelopes do offer some benefits that aren't necessary for e-mail. With an e-mail there isn't the need to bind together various documents inside a paper wrapper. On the other hand, it would be fine with the post office if you were to use envelopes made of transparent bond but no one does that. In fact a great many people use security envalopes which have printing on the inside to make it difficult to see what is inside the envalope without opening it. Your argument about people being cheap and unwilling to pay for the security that envalopes provide is baffling to me. People do save 14c by sending a post card rather than an envalope via the US Postal Service. In addition, they save another 2-7c by not buying an envelope in the first place.

living in a safe world _is_ a good thing, for those of you who are about to suggest that no freedom is worth giving up for safety. Anyone who hasn't been mugged or assaulted on the street may sit out of any discussion about the value of a safe world.

Of course living in a save world is a good thing. I doubt that there's anyone here who will argue with that. My question for you is how will restricting people's rights in anyway work to reduce street crime? My contention is that it simply won't. Overall, it would seem that there are more ways in which we will be vulnerable to crime without access to encryption than if it is not avaliable to the law abiding.
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Staple s page for it.

- Robin

But even more damning is the lack of need for the ATL. Couldn't most, if not all, of the ATL's main goals fit withen the charter of the Business Software Alliance or the Software & Information Industry Association? So, why aren't we seeing a survey from the BSA? Or at least a responce from the BSA? If more of us email the BSA about this then maybe we can get an unbias survey conducted.

Claimed: "According to the MSN rebat e form, they may sue you under 18 USC 1341"

No, the above link refers to the mail-in rebate and fraud such as trying to get multiple rebates by making copies of the store receipt, and other things of that nature. For the mail-in rebate, you pay the whole purchase price up front then wait for reimbursement. The instant rebate is more immediate, and the contract for it contains no such language as mentioned above.

The stores which offer the instant option will only fall back on the mail-in option if the special system they use for creating MSN accounts is down, which is rare indeed.

Residents of CA and OR have an ethical choice to make, but the facts are clear. They are not legally obligated to pay MSN if they should choose, for any reason, to cancel the account they created to get the instant rebate being offered with full knowledge of those applicable laws. The lawyers know this and MSN made the choice to bet enough people will like the service to offset the cost of those who merely play the system.

I wonder how long before MSN withdraws the offer in those two states.

Whoever, having devised or intending to devise any scheme or artifice to defraud, or for obtaining money or property by means of false or fraudulent pretenses, representations,... [and uses US Mail to do it]... shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than five years, or both. If the violation affects a financial institution, such person shall be fined not more than $1,000,000 or imprisoned not more than 30 years, or both."

Yes, MS gets around the "no purchase required" by making it a loan. However, because they call it a loan, you may still have to pay it back! It's not that they are giving you free money, just that they are loaning it to you, and your loan is payed back as internet access fees.

True, IANAL, but that's my interpretation of the Staples contract at this link.