Four quick and dirty methods, depending on your paranoia level, how many tools and how much time you have. Its a simple case of determining acceptable loss versus the economy and efficacy of destruction (in other words, unless you have something the FBI or NSA wants, go for the easier solutions):
Trivial: Destroy the IDE connector. If you're just hiding your porn, few people will bother to rebuild an IDE connector.
Simple: Push a small screwdriver through the plastic filter port on the side of the drive, and scratch it over the surfaces of the platter. Scratched drives can't be read.
Easy: Undo the 7 or so Torx screws holding the cover, expose the platters, and give them a good hard *whack* with the ball end of a ball-peen hammer. Dented drives can't be read, either.
Easy, time consuming: Disassemble the drives, and rub each platter over some nice diamond sandpaper.
Read Foiling the Cracker; A Survey of, and Improvements to Unix Password Security - I published it nearly 20 years ago, and people are still arguing over password security? My personal password is 15 characters long. My root password is 20 characters long. Both are trivial for me to remember, and effectively impossible to crack (they're passphrases containing upper ad lower case, numbers, punctuation and obfuscation of multiple words not found in any permutation dictionary. Users on my system are REQUIRED to have strong passwords of their own devising (so that they can remember them). What's so hard for people to understand about that?
You can't have good security and be lazy.
Take a look at http://www.klein.com/thermd/ - I have spent a lot of time researching hardware and implementing (free/open) software to monitor, log, and report on environmental conditions (temperature, humidity, switches, and soon electrical consumption). My software will certainly do what you ask, and some hardware vendors have the alarms built-in to their data collection devices.
Add a SLIMP3 and you have the networked player. My upstairs Mac has the library and the good Mac speakers, my stereo downstairs has the SLIMP3 and the networked playing (plus an IR remote), and my laptop can control everything wirelessly if I want!
That's a lot cheaper, easier, and more upgradeable than a $2800 music-only system.
Sendmail - Claus ABman has some suggested rules for eliminating bogus AOL addresses, bad message IDs, etc. I just use those, plus some of my own "Subject:" filters
DCC rejects spam based on how often myself and others have seen it, with a distributed database of hard and fuzzy checksums. It is part of Spam Assassin, and I plan to include that soon, too.
Procmail is my third level of filtering.
For the crap that gets through, I mark it as spam to levels 2 (automatically) and 3 (manually), so I don't see that again.
Yet another Windows virus. The newsies are missing the point. It is not
that the virus writers are so bad (they are...), but that Windows is so bad!
You can destroy your computer by reading an email message. By opening a
spreadsheet or word file. By inserting a disk. No decent operating system,
no decent application program should allow such things to happen - and yet
there is Microsoft, vulnerable to every attack. Boxes, bottles, and jars in
the store all have safety caps - where is the safety in Windows? Microssoft
keeps producing systems with new features, but with no appreciable new safety.
I'd rather see the headline read:
"Windows is still broken"
If my car stopped dead in it's path or swerved off the road because someone
flashed their lights at me, if the rental tape I just inserted in my VCR could
cause it to turn on my microwave on "high", if my neighbor could turn off my
furnace from their house, if talking to a certain someone on my cellphone could
induce that same cellphone to automatically start making crank calls - well,
we'd be suing manufacturers, seeing global recalls, and raising a hue and cry
for better product safety.
But with Windows, we blame the virus writers.
Enough! Yes, they are at fault, but the real fault is back door - no, the
back wall - has been left open for too long. Blame Microsoft.
My millions-of-hits-per-day Unix web server has been running for 317 days
without a reboot. My Macintosh desktop has been running for 67 days without
a reboot. Neither system has ever seen a virus, worm, or trojan. I want
Microsoft to be as bulletproof, and I do not want to see terrorists getting
into this country because some "Virus Knocks Out U.S. Visa Approval System".
Although it sounds like it, I don't hate Microsoft. I
hate Microsoft's bugs and their lackadaisical attitude towards basic
security. And the State Department shares the blame.
Slashdot Mirror
-Dan
Read Foiling the Cracker; A Survey of, and Improvements to Unix Password Security - I published it nearly 20 years ago, and people are still arguing over password security? My personal password is 15 characters long. My root password is 20 characters long. Both are trivial for me to remember, and effectively impossible to crack (they're passphrases containing upper ad lower case, numbers, punctuation and obfuscation of multiple words not found in any permutation dictionary. Users on my system are REQUIRED to have strong passwords of their own devising (so that they can remember them). What's so hard for people to understand about that? You can't have good security and be lazy.
How about Lunar Lander on a PDP-8/E - just 2 months after the Eagle landed. It was pure text, but it was fun!
Take a look at http://www.klein.com/thermd/ - I have spent a lot of time researching hardware and implementing (free/open) software to monitor, log, and report on environmental conditions (temperature, humidity, switches, and soon electrical consumption). My software will certainly do what you ask, and some hardware vendors have the alarms built-in to their data collection devices.
That's a lot cheaper, easier, and more upgradeable than a $2800 music-only system.
- Sendmail - Claus ABman has some suggested rules for eliminating bogus AOL addresses, bad message IDs, etc. I just use those, plus some of my own "Subject:" filters
- DCC rejects spam based on how often myself and others have seen it, with a distributed database of hard and fuzzy checksums. It is part of Spam Assassin, and I plan to include that soon, too.
- Procmail is my third level of filtering.
- For the crap that gets through, I mark it as spam to levels 2 (automatically) and 3 (manually), so I don't see that again.
Regardless, I still get too damn much spam!I'd rather see the headline read: "Windows is still broken"
If my car stopped dead in it's path or swerved off the road because someone flashed their lights at me, if the rental tape I just inserted in my VCR could cause it to turn on my microwave on "high", if my neighbor could turn off my furnace from their house, if talking to a certain someone on my cellphone could induce that same cellphone to automatically start making crank calls - well, we'd be suing manufacturers, seeing global recalls, and raising a hue and cry for better product safety.
But with Windows, we blame the virus writers.
Enough! Yes, they are at fault, but the real fault is back door - no, the back wall - has been left open for too long. Blame Microsoft.
My millions-of-hits-per-day Unix web server has been running for 317 days without a reboot. My Macintosh desktop has been running for 67 days without a reboot. Neither system has ever seen a virus, worm, or trojan. I want Microsoft to be as bulletproof, and I do not want to see terrorists getting into this country because some "Virus Knocks Out U.S. Visa Approval System".
Although it sounds like it, I don't hate Microsoft. I hate Microsoft's bugs and their lackadaisical attitude towards basic security. And the State Department shares the blame.