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High-Tech Gadgets Can Pose Problems At Mexican Border

TechnologyResource writes "Going across the border will be a more 'interesting' experience since Customs and Border Protection will now be checking laptops, digital cameras, cell phones and any other electronics on your person or in your vehicle. It's not a new authority, according to Angelica De Cima, Office of Public Affairs Liaison 'They've always had the right to inspect your person, vehicle, baggage, anything on you. Nothing has changed from before,' De Cima said."

33 of 447 comments (clear)

  1. Encryption! by AK+Dave · · Score: 1, Funny

    Cue the flamewar.

  2. open these disks first mofo by Howserx · · Score: 4, Funny

    I think I've finally found a use for those virus infected disks I kept from years ago.

    --
    I support the troops. I pay f'ing taxes.
    1. Re:open these disks first mofo by otterpopjunkie · · Score: 1, Funny
      "What is the password to this suspicious disc?"

      "autonuke"

  3. Re:I predict... by Cal27 · · Score: 2, Funny

    ... that you accidentally the whole verb.

  4. Pulp Friction by bmo · · Score: 5, Funny

    Captain Koons: The way your dad looked at it, this iPod was your birthright. He'd be damned if any US Border agents gonna put their greasy hands on his boy's birthright, so he hid it, in the one place he knew he could hide something: his ass. Five long years, he wore this iPod up his ass. Then when he died of dysentery, he gave me the iPod. I hid this uncomfortable piece of metal up my ass for two years. Then, after seven years, I was sent home to my family. And now, little man, I give the iPod to you.

    1. Re:Pulp Friction by geekoid · · Score: 3, Funny

      It was the Touch.

      --
      The Kruger Dunning explains most post on /. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
    2. Re:Pulp Friction by SmlFreshwaterBuffalo · · Score: 3, Funny

      Need a prostate exam? There's an app for that.

  5. Re:I predict... by Tanman · · Score: 4, Funny

    I predict that you need a verb!

    I mean, this isn't grammar nazi'ing. I'm genuinely interested -- what exactly were you trying to say?

    will be?
    will question?
    will throw?
    will hump?
    will tazer?
    will shoot?
    will have a tea party?
    will rave with?

    will WHAAAAAT?!?!?!

  6. If you want to get really personal by thewils · · Score: 4, Funny

    Heck checking your laptop is nothing, they can probe up your ass if they really want to!

    --
    Once I was a four stone apology. Now I am two separate gorillas.
  7. Re:...and then a quick call... by YrWrstNtmr · · Score: 5, Funny

    Blue corvette with three gringos heading south

    Those are some very close friends.

  8. Re:Security Theater at its finest by geekoid · · Score: 4, Funny

    Yep, I think security on air craft would be paid for and determined by the airlines.

    That way the market can chose how secure to be.

    Maybe a pass on security if you get on naked, eating a pork sausages and say 'There is no God'.

    That would increase security immeasurably.

    --
    The Kruger Dunning explains most post on /. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
  9. Re:...and then a quick call... by Itninja · · Score: 2, Funny

    Never said is was a car.

    --
    I judt got a nre Kinesis keybiartf so please excusr ant egregiou typos.
  10. Re:I predict... by Jaysyn · · Score: 1, Funny

    Be or push depending if you like freedome or a police state.

    Pretend it's a madlib. :D

    --
    There is a war going on for your mind.
  11. Re:information smuggling? by noundi · · Score: 4, Funny

    "He said anyone coming across could be a terrorist, drug dealer or someone trying to carry or take information out of the country by hiding it in a smaller device."

    Why not just FTP it. Or hide a microSD card inside a cake? It should bake okay, the chip inside gets put under higher temps than the inside of cupcake when they place them on a PCB. The plastic on a uSD might melt a little, but I suspect the information will still be there.

    There seems to be an absence of a certain ornithological piece. A headline regarding mass-awareness of a certain avian variety.

    --
    I am the lawn!
  12. Re:Security Theater at its finest by MaskedSlacker · · Score: 4, Funny

    Bacon-loving nudist atheists fly for free on my airline!

  13. Re:Security Theater at its finest by EdIII · · Score: 4, Funny

    Maybe a pass on security if you get on naked, eating a pork sausages and say 'There is no God'.

    Ahhh, Sunday morning traditions at my house.

  14. THE MAN! by OrangeTide · · Score: 3, Funny

    It's just a way for the man to try and control you.

    --
    “Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
  15. Re:information smuggling? by RDW · · Score: 4, Funny

    No need to frost. Just bake the cake, insert the microSD, and _eat_ the cake. Then if they start searching people thoroughly enough to detect the card, they _really_ deserve to find it.

  16. Re:Security Theater at its finest by ceoyoyo · · Score: 4, Funny

    And not too bacon loving.

  17. Re:information smuggling? by Rogerborg · · Score: 3, Funny

    No, no, no. He commissioned the crime, it was you that conspired on it. They'd get me too, but I've already turned State's evidence, suckers.

    --
    If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
  18. Re:Going or coming? by ceoyoyo · · Score: 2, Funny

    Yeah, you guys kept hassling us about how lax our border security is so we stepped it up a little. You're welcome.

  19. Re:information smuggling? by Rophuine · · Score: 2, Funny

    The solution is simple. The second someone from border control looks at you funny, rip the SD card from your device and swallow it. They'll be SO confused when they finally recover an SD card with a dozen pictures of scenery.

    The up-side is that after a few dozen "recoveries" of memory cards with nothing even remotely bad on them, they'll decide the policy isn't worth all the poop and ditch it!

    Now THAT'S taking one for the team.

  20. Re:information smuggling? by bmo · · Score: 2, Funny

    searching people thoroughly enough to detect the card

    Avi: Tony.
    Bullet Tooth Tony: What?
    Avi: Look in the dog.
    Bullet Tooth Tony: What do you mean "look in the dog?"
    Avi: I mean open him up.
    Bullet Tooth Tony: It's not as if it's a tin of baked beans! What do you mean "open him up"?

    --
    BMO

  21. Re:information smuggling? by bertoelcon · · Score: 2, Funny

    What cake? In case you haven't heard its a lie.

    --
    Anything can be found funny, from a certain point of view.
  22. Re:'Going Across the Border' by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    Your attitude threatens this country. If you're not with us you're against us. The constitution was written by terrorists for terrorists and good law abiding citizens don't need it.

  23. Re:Doesn't even need that... by memnock · · Score: 5, Funny

    i forgot, which is greater: a brazillion or a guatamellion?

  24. Re:...and then a quick call... by Kozz · · Score: 3, Funny

    Blue corvette with three gringos heading south

    Those are some very close friends.

    So, you're saying they're three amigos?

    --
    I only post comments when someone on the internet is wrong.
  25. Great!! by Unknown+Poltroon · · Score: 2, Funny

    Time for my goatcex screen saver, and the tubgirl desktop. If they barf before they finish searching, do i win?

    --
    All Troll + "offtopic" mods are meta moderated as "Unfair", because you abused the system.
  26. Re:Going or coming? by corbettw · · Score: 2, Funny

    Should've told them you were there to avoid being shipped to Iraq. They would've put you up in a four star hotel and given you a debit card with $5000 on it.

    --
    God invented whiskey so the Irish would not rule the world.
  27. Re:information smuggling? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    Would-be Terrorist: They'll never find it, mwahahahaha!
    Border Agent: Aha! The cake is a lie!
    Would-be Terrorist: Curses, foiled again!

  28. Re:information smuggling? by Pig+Hogger · · Score: 3, Funny

    The solution is simple. The second someone from border control looks at you funny, rip the SD card from your device and swallow it. They'll be SO confused when they finally recover an SD card with a dozen pictures of scenery.

    This is just like what a friend who lives in Paris used to do with subway fare inspectors (over there, they can ask for your ticket at any time). Whenever their gang sees a bunch of fare inspectors, one starts to run, and, of course, the inspectors go after him and ignore the rest of the gang. Whenever they catch him, they ask "your ticket, please", and he shows them as a matter of course.

    Meanwhile, the rest of the gang that cheated is far away...

  29. Re:You call that a corvette? by geminidomino · · Score: 4, Funny
  30. Re:YRO??!! by Fred_A · · Score: 2, Funny

    The real difference is going to be when you cross the border driving. There's been waaay too many documented cases of people buying guns (and I mean big guns, like assault rifles) legally in the US with their God-given 2nd ammendment right and smuggling them to the drug cartels here.

    Searching "laptops, digital cameras, cell phones and any other electronics on your person or in your vehicle" will stop the gun runners how?.....

    Apparently compression has made an awful lot of progress lately.

    On the back trip they'll obviously be looking for mexican_family.tar.gz

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