My goldfish is smarter than my president. Dang funny comment, but, how did you not know that?
My pet rock is a MENSA candidate compared to our current president.
Though the horror will become less all encompassing soon... I hope...
Pet Rock For President!
...technology simple enough that it rivals a toaster in complexity...
You are obviously overestimating the general publics' ability to utilize something as "complex" as an electric toaster or else burnt toast would never happen... nor electrocutions via inserted butter knife/fork... or burnt fingers on the solitary micron of exposed metal that gets hot while in use...
Frankly, I wouldn't trust the incompetent masses with anything more complex than a cudgel that was given to them in the hopes that they manage to injure themselves, preferably fatally.
Minolta is actually using the same engine as the low end Xerox series color laser... or the other way around... hard to tell many times.
Good advice for the cartridges, refilling the yellow with black is most viable.
Small kink in your plan, all laser printers have some kind of protection against putting the wrong toner cartridge in the wrong slot, ranging from a small circuit to physical differences of the cartridges...
It's probably be far easier to take an empty yellow cartridge and refill it with black toner** assuming your cartridges are not UID tagged by the company that sells them and once they are flagged as "empty" you can not reuse them come heck or high water...
**HUGE MESS WARNING!
Ruddy brilliant idea! Introducing "noise" is a great idea, but there is a catch....
The dot codes are a small "matrix" squares ranging from 1"x1" to 2"x2" depending on make and manufacture, sort of like those new style "barcodes" that look like a jumble of black squares... only more spaced out, the actual dot density is very low in the matrix (most laser printers you can fit 600-1200 dots in an inch) and generally there is only around a few dozen dots in the entire matrix.
That in and of itself is not bad... but that matrices are in a repeating tiled pattern.... across the entire page.
If I'm understanding the concept well enough (I'm a hardware guy, and SO not a programmer lol) due to the large number of repeating samples, to truely mask the code well enough you'd either need to introduce a TON of noise across the entire page and still stand the risk that there are enough partial codes left to build back from, as well as turning the entire page slightly yellow ^_^
Or, overlay a noise "pattern" directly on top of the dot codes, which would require needing to know the size of the matrix patterns...
IMHO, adding noise to interfere with the dot codes sounds pretty difficult and at worst, wasteful of yellow toner...
Still a really great idea! I'd love to see your work if you do dive into this!
c) The license plate identifies one particular car, not [necessarily] the factory that made it. The printer code identifies the printer, not the paper it is on.
The printer code (usually) most certainly DOES identify the paper it is on, it contains the unique page count of that page, and sometimes even the DATE AND TIME of the printout.
For example, a typical dot code will allow you, if deciphered, to say that "This was document 379,125 and was printed from a Lexmark C912 with the serial number '3fg4f2gh31111111oneone'"
Strange... that's a LOT like a car... I.E. "That guy was driving a 1997 Ford Feista with the plate number '8myrust'"
No, it's definetly a hardware level process, you get them even with internal printer status/info pages (assuming they are color).
On the bright side, most color lasers do not insert the yellow dots on black and white pages, though a few models from various manufactures DO tag every single page.
I am a printer technician for Canon, Xerox, HP, Lexmark, etc... I deal with thousands of printers, both color and black and white.
1. Every color laser printer made in the last 10 years from every manufacturer that I have ever encountered uses the "yellow dots" tagging.
2. You have 300-12k hanging around in cash? Go for it.
3. You're not going to take advantage of the "get out of jail free" card the absolves you from a 300-1000 dollar repair for one year. Other than that, this may prevent your identiy from being tied to your shiney new printer.
4. Goooooood luck. When it breaks, you need someone to fix it or you will be dumping a ton of cash out fairly often for new machines.
I'd like to know why this is such a big deal to individual people first off. This system has been in place for more than a decade in most machines and no one has ever said anything before, nor, I believe, has it ever been used to screw someone over OR catch a criminal...
Am I saying I agree with the practice of tagging every page? Heck NO! I've never liked the idea since they introduced it originally, I believe, to prevent people from using high end laser printers to counterfiet money and if they did, to trace it back to the one(s) responsible.
To my knowledge, it's never been used as such. I implore someone to prove me wrong if I am.
The only ones that should be even overly concerned (aside from wasted toner and unneeded wear and tear on printing components) is large companies or government institutions.
This whole issue is not a major one. It's more of an annoyance that would be nice if it was removed.
P.S. - If you can get some, print a color page on black paper (preferably semi-gloss), the dots stand out really well... failing that if you have a large high volume printer available with a transfer belt easily veiwable, start a 4 page print job and pop the cover halfway through to force it to jam, the dots are sometimes (depends on the model and stage of the imaging process) very visible on the belt.
Obviously your information is WAY out of date, with the Bush "Administration" and it's take on eviromental "policy" it's been gone for the last 7 years.
Marketing is a profound waste of the consumer's time
And it works really, REALLY well or they wouldn't DO it! I worked in marketing for 3 years and the thousands of tiny little nearly inperceptible tricks that are used might just blow your mind if you tried to understand them all at once. End caps hock products that are profitable or moving slowly, adding a colored sign in front of a product, bold print, the HIEGHT of product placement, the music played over the PA, the lighting, arrangements, shiney paper flyers and more and you're only 3 feet in the door.
They WORK. No, not in any big way, but those dozens/hundred of tiny psychological pushes add up in the minds(?) of consumers. Even I am not totally immune and I know exactly how 95-99% of the normal (and not-so-normal) "tricks" work!!
You fools! You are letting them charge us for showing us stuff they want us to buy.
Yes and most of them are doing it with a smile on their face too.
To the untrained eye, it seems as if you just downplayed backups at first, however, I get your drift.
Information will always be kept and usually kept long, LONG after it SHOULD have been destroyed. This is an inevitable fact, and as I said initially, leaving it open to any set of prying eyes is BAD.
About half the problems highlighted in the article are not as much of a problem if you keep regular and up-to-date backups (You DO right?)
Some full disk encryption schemes even support a "user" key and a "admin" key (kept by a select one or 2 people). This gives you, at the very least, a second chance to not have your data forever locked away.
Any way you slice this cake, encryption can help prevent the very leaks you are talking about by making that data SIGNIFICANTLY harder to access through anything that approaches normal means. Of course, it's not going to stop any and all leaks 100% obviously, for that is impossible. However it should help in reducing the amount of damage done when your next security breech DOES occur.
I don't really see the problem here. Any form of NOT leaving important/sensitive/etc... data wide open and freely readable is better than none at all.
It's sort of backward logic to say it's bad because CAN be forced.
Revoked keys do not (normally) your data hold hostage.
Though in my experiance, the password cracking is more of a problem.
Users really do need education on stronger passwords that are still usable, which they will promptly forget or write on the bottom of their keyboards therefore pulling the PS/2 or USB connector out of the back of the computer and then call the helpdesk because their keyboard doesn't work.
I'm really, REEEEEALLY tired of everyone talking badly about DSL.
DSL is no longer "slow" OR "shitty".
I am happily buzzing along on a consistant, dedicated connection at 3mbps/786Kbps connection (Actual connected speed is 3398 down/896 up via DSL modem status).
I have no complaints at all, in fact I easily outpace my freinds 5m/768k cable connection on upload (I pull 100KB/S+, he barely manages 40KB/S on a good day) which is far more important to me than downlink and am often on par on download speed because of the delightful shared natured of cable forcing him to catch all the network bandwidth fluctuations.
And I pay 20 bucks per month LESS.
Yes, 768/356 DSL conections still exist as a "budget" option, but are only marginally less expensive than a "real" 3mbps DSL connection and therefore don't make much sense.
So to the next person who spouts off about DSL being a "crappy" choice for broadband internet access is going to be forced to use dial-up until they smarten up...
Don't like people being murdered? Don't murder anyone!
You have ironically made a near perfect statement. In this case, if you aren't murding anyone, then you are automatically reducing the number of murders committed by at least one.
Sounds like it works well to me!
This "simplistic stance" is actually a good thing and is effective if only in a small way.
"Be the change you wish to see in the world." - Mahatma Gandhi
You have a few points that need to be corrected, I shall volunteer...
#1 - The Time Capsule. Haven't we had wireless NAS's since 802.11 became a standard? I've got a USB-2 external drive that does my backups now. This announcement does absolutely nothing for me.
Yes, the hardware is nothing new, but the excellent software and the sheer ease of use is going to be the key selling points with Time Capsule. So instead of farting around trying to get your back up software to work with your NAS, John Generic opens the box plugs it in and he/she is done. That's exciting for most people.
#2 - The iPhone/iPod touch updates.
I'll give you this one. Well done!
#3 - The AppleTV/Movie Rental Service. Exciting, if the XBox360 hasn't been serving this capacity for over TWO YEARS. Wow, all the major labels, eh? Are they suddenly going to cut ties with all their other distribution partners? I didn't think so. And the price cut on the AppleTV was okay, but they *really* couldn't go just a bit further to put it below the $200 mark? Really, they must want this device to fail.
Two problems. One, the XBox 360 costs more than the AppleTV and doesn't have the best (read: sad) compatibility with streaming video and other media in from Macs. Yeah you can play games with it also justifying the cost, blah blah blah, we're not talking games.
Two, there WAS a price cut, so hush. Apple would have been justified in leaving the price point the same just as it tends to do with all it's systems, upgrade the hardware, leave the price point the same. Yes, loosing that last $30 to bring the price under 200 would have been nice, but not doing so is NOT, by any stretch of the imagination, wanting the device to fail.
#4 - The MacBook Air. It's really just a masturbation toy for the rich gadget hound -- it does nothing new besides be smaller, and it does it slower and more expensively to boot.
You're not the target audience. Stop talking.
It's a laptop for people who want something more portable, lighter and smaller than the MacBook, of which there are plenty. For most people you can't make a laptop small or light enough and as a bonus it does make an excellent status symbol. Guess what? ALL of Apples products are considered status symbols. Outstanding style, design and functionality at a premium price, thats what a large part of Apple's market demands, so Apple delivers. It doen't HAVE to be the end-all be-all of portable computing, there are two other perfectly capable models in the line up to do that.
Regarding the price, small cost money to MAKE so small costs money to BUY because people WANT small!!
As for the wireless CD sharing, I've been doing the same thing via Apples file sharing since '92, it's nothing new, they're just gonna make doing it easier and slicker so that John and Jane Generic can do it in their sleep.
What WOULD have been impressive: - A new headless Mac Desktop that fits between the Mac Mini and the Mac Pro. No arguements here, been practically begging Apple for this for years.
- An iPhone Nano, about the size of the old iPod Nano with 1-2gb of memory for $99-$149. You want a blow job from Steve with that too? Not happening. The iPhone is extremly sucessful at it's current size and price point. In 5 years maybe we'll see a Nano iPhone for around $200, until then go buy a Centro
- A Mac tablet running full Leopard with multitouch. Bonus points if it's under $1500. The market is not demanding a tablet Mac, only frothing geeks that want a "masturbation toy" I believe you said.
- An iMac with a curved monitor like what's been shown at CES. Shut up.
- Price drops on the iPhone, iPod Touch, or Mac Mini. It took 4 or 5 years of CONSTANT UNRIVALED SUCESS for Apple to drop the price on the iPod... Ask again in a few years for
It's a reply like this that make me wish for a "6" rating for informative... or at least to be able to use karma to email you oral sex for such an excellent response!
I stopped reading comments when I hit this reply because it made me happy!
I know there are an ever increasing number of LED's and other lights popping up on an ever increasing number of products *cough*HP LAPTOPS*cough* but there are also an EQUAL number of products out there with very few or even NO lights of any kind, such as many Apple products. Of course, there are also every combination of lighting options in between.
I, however, do not think "We the people" care much either way. Though on some subconscious level, led encrusted products that can be seen from space seem to induce an automatic "wooooow.." and all the subsequent drooling and twitching of fingers toward the wallet that causes fad products to sell well before word gets out how bad they suck.
PERSONALLY, the more status information in the form of bright blinky things you can throw at me the better. I like bright things people! If you get that option taken away from me, I'm gonna find you and light you up with 3-phase.
Nothing brings me closer to nirvana than when I walk into a server room and there are hundreds of thousands of brightly glowing and blinking LEDs of all colors. Now THAT'S some good shiny!!
If you keep offsite backups, just keep 2 hard drives on an easy to yank tray with a "standard disk" that's just never used and one with your actual mp3's and mpg's. When the RIAA comes knock-knocking, just yank the hard drive with the "perfectly legitimate" content and toss it into the wood chipper you happen to have sitting in your living room next to your desk for shredding your..... sensitive documents! 15 noisy seconds and one quick switch later, they can't prove nuthin'.
Slashdot Mirror
...technology simple enough that it rivals a toaster in complexity...
You are obviously overestimating the general publics' ability to utilize something as "complex" as an electric toaster or else burnt toast would never happen... nor electrocutions via inserted butter knife/fork... or burnt fingers on the solitary micron of exposed metal that gets hot while in use...
Frankly, I wouldn't trust the incompetent masses with anything more complex than a cudgel that was given to them in the hopes that they manage to injure themselves, preferably fatally.
Minolta is actually using the same engine as the low end Xerox series color laser... or the other way around... hard to tell many times. Good advice for the cartridges, refilling the yellow with black is most viable.
Small kink in your plan, all laser printers have some kind of protection against putting the wrong toner cartridge in the wrong slot, ranging from a small circuit to physical differences of the cartridges... It's probably be far easier to take an empty yellow cartridge and refill it with black toner** assuming your cartridges are not UID tagged by the company that sells them and once they are flagged as "empty" you can not reuse them come heck or high water... **HUGE MESS WARNING!
Ruddy brilliant idea! Introducing "noise" is a great idea, but there is a catch....
The dot codes are a small "matrix" squares ranging from 1"x1" to 2"x2" depending on make and manufacture, sort of like those new style "barcodes" that look like a jumble of black squares... only more spaced out, the actual dot density is very low in the matrix (most laser printers you can fit 600-1200 dots in an inch) and generally there is only around a few dozen dots in the entire matrix.
That in and of itself is not bad... but that matrices are in a repeating tiled pattern.... across the entire page.
If I'm understanding the concept well enough (I'm a hardware guy, and SO not a programmer lol) due to the large number of repeating samples, to truely mask the code well enough you'd either need to introduce a TON of noise across the entire page and still stand the risk that there are enough partial codes left to build back from, as well as turning the entire page slightly yellow ^_^
Or, overlay a noise "pattern" directly on top of the dot codes, which would require needing to know the size of the matrix patterns...
IMHO, adding noise to interfere with the dot codes sounds pretty difficult and at worst, wasteful of yellow toner...
Still a really great idea! I'd love to see your work if you do dive into this!
c) The license plate identifies one particular car, not [necessarily] the factory that made it. The printer code identifies the printer, not the paper it is on.
The printer code (usually) most certainly DOES identify the paper it is on, it contains the unique page count of that page, and sometimes even the DATE AND TIME of the printout.
For example, a typical dot code will allow you, if deciphered, to say that "This was document 379,125 and was printed from a Lexmark C912 with the serial number '3fg4f2gh31111111oneone'"
Strange... that's a LOT like a car... I.E. "That guy was driving a 1997 Ford Feista with the plate number '8myrust'"
No, it's definetly a hardware level process, you get them even with internal printer status/info pages (assuming they are color).
On the bright side, most color lasers do not insert the yellow dots on black and white pages, though a few models from various manufactures DO tag every single page.
I am a printer technician for Canon, Xerox, HP, Lexmark, etc... I deal with thousands of printers, both color and black and white.
1. Every color laser printer made in the last 10 years from every manufacturer that I have ever encountered uses the "yellow dots" tagging.
2. You have 300-12k hanging around in cash? Go for it.
3. You're not going to take advantage of the "get out of jail free" card the absolves you from a 300-1000 dollar repair for one year. Other than that, this may prevent your identiy from being tied to your shiney new printer.
4. Goooooood luck. When it breaks, you need someone to fix it or you will be dumping a ton of cash out fairly often for new machines.
I'd like to know why this is such a big deal to individual people first off. This system has been in place for more than a decade in most machines and no one has ever said anything before, nor, I believe, has it ever been used to screw someone over OR catch a criminal...
Am I saying I agree with the practice of tagging every page? Heck NO! I've never liked the idea since they introduced it originally, I believe, to prevent people from using high end laser printers to counterfiet money and if they did, to trace it back to the one(s) responsible.
To my knowledge, it's never been used as such. I implore someone to prove me wrong if I am.
The only ones that should be even overly concerned (aside from wasted toner and unneeded wear and tear on printing components) is large companies or government institutions.
This whole issue is not a major one. It's more of an annoyance that would be nice if it was removed.
P.S. - If you can get some, print a color page on black paper (preferably semi-gloss), the dots stand out really well... failing that if you have a large high volume printer available with a transfer belt easily veiwable, start a 4 page print job and pop the cover halfway through to force it to jam, the dots are sometimes (depends on the model and stage of the imaging process) very visible on the belt.
Obviously your information is WAY out of date, with the Bush "Administration" and it's take on eviromental "policy" it's been gone for the last 7 years.
It's the first time I made half the office jump by very literally "laughing out loud"... Back to looking busy before I get fired!
Marketing is a profound waste of the consumer's time
And it works really, REALLY well or they wouldn't DO it! I worked in marketing for 3 years and the thousands of tiny little nearly inperceptible tricks that are used might just blow your mind if you tried to understand them all at once. End caps hock products that are profitable or moving slowly, adding a colored sign in front of a product, bold print, the HIEGHT of product placement, the music played over the PA, the lighting, arrangements, shiney paper flyers and more and you're only 3 feet in the door.
They WORK. No, not in any big way, but those dozens/hundred of tiny psychological pushes add up in the minds(?) of consumers. Even I am not totally immune and I know exactly how 95-99% of the normal (and not-so-normal) "tricks" work!!
You fools! You are letting them charge us for showing us stuff they want us to buy.
Yes and most of them are doing it with a smile on their face too.
To the untrained eye, it seems as if you just downplayed backups at first, however, I get your drift. Information will always be kept and usually kept long, LONG after it SHOULD have been destroyed. This is an inevitable fact, and as I said initially, leaving it open to any set of prying eyes is BAD. About half the problems highlighted in the article are not as much of a problem if you keep regular and up-to-date backups (You DO right?) Some full disk encryption schemes even support a "user" key and a "admin" key (kept by a select one or 2 people). This gives you, at the very least, a second chance to not have your data forever locked away. Any way you slice this cake, encryption can help prevent the very leaks you are talking about by making that data SIGNIFICANTLY harder to access through anything that approaches normal means. Of course, it's not going to stop any and all leaks 100% obviously, for that is impossible. However it should help in reducing the amount of damage done when your next security breech DOES occur.
I don't really see the problem here. Any form of NOT leaving important/sensitive/etc... data wide open and freely readable is better than none at all.
It's sort of backward logic to say it's bad because CAN be forced.
Revoked keys do not (normally) your data hold hostage.
Though in my experiance, the password cracking is more of a problem.
Users really do need education on stronger passwords that are still usable, which they will promptly forget or write on the bottom of their keyboards therefore pulling the PS/2 or USB connector out of the back of the computer and then call the helpdesk because their keyboard doesn't work.
I'll put up with shitty, slow DSL.
I'm really, REEEEEALLY tired of everyone talking badly about DSL.
DSL is no longer "slow" OR "shitty".
I am happily buzzing along on a consistant, dedicated connection at 3mbps/786Kbps connection (Actual connected speed is 3398 down/896 up via DSL modem status).
I have no complaints at all, in fact I easily outpace my freinds 5m/768k cable connection on upload (I pull 100KB/S+, he barely manages 40KB/S on a good day) which is far more important to me than downlink and am often on par on download speed because of the delightful shared natured of cable forcing him to catch all the network bandwidth fluctuations.
And I pay 20 bucks per month LESS.
Yes, 768/356 DSL conections still exist as a "budget" option, but are only marginally less expensive than a "real" 3mbps DSL connection and therefore don't make much sense.
So to the next person who spouts off about DSL being a "crappy" choice for broadband internet access is going to be forced to use dial-up until they smarten up...
You have ironically made a near perfect statement. In this case, if you aren't murding anyone, then you are automatically reducing the number of murders committed by at least one.
Sounds like it works well to me!
This "simplistic stance" is actually a good thing and is effective if only in a small way.
"Be the change you wish to see in the world." - Mahatma GandhiI wish I had some mod points left... definete +insightful....
Thank you.
Ummm.... the mini IS a desktop...
You have a few points that need to be corrected, I shall volunteer...
#1 - The Time Capsule. Haven't we had wireless NAS's since 802.11 became a standard? I've got a USB-2 external drive that does my backups now. This announcement does absolutely nothing for me.
Yes, the hardware is nothing new, but the excellent software and the sheer ease of use is going to be the key selling points with Time Capsule. So instead of farting around trying to get your back up software to work with your NAS, John Generic opens the box plugs it in and he/she is done. That's exciting for most people.
#2 - The iPhone/iPod touch updates.
I'll give you this one. Well done!
#3 - The AppleTV/Movie Rental Service. Exciting, if the XBox360 hasn't been serving this capacity for over TWO YEARS. Wow, all the major labels, eh? Are they suddenly going to cut ties with all their other distribution partners? I didn't think so. And the price cut on the AppleTV was okay, but they *really* couldn't go just a bit further to put it below the $200 mark? Really, they must want this device to fail.
Two problems. One, the XBox 360 costs more than the AppleTV and doesn't have the best (read: sad) compatibility with streaming video and other media in from Macs. Yeah you can play games with it also justifying the cost, blah blah blah, we're not talking games.
Two, there WAS a price cut, so hush. Apple would have been justified in leaving the price point the same just as it tends to do with all it's systems, upgrade the hardware, leave the price point the same. Yes, loosing that last $30 to bring the price under 200 would have been nice, but not doing so is NOT, by any stretch of the imagination, wanting the device to fail.
#4 - The MacBook Air. It's really just a masturbation toy for the rich gadget hound -- it does nothing new besides be smaller, and it does it slower and more expensively to boot.
You're not the target audience. Stop talking.
It's a laptop for people who want something more portable, lighter and smaller than the MacBook, of which there are plenty. For most people you can't make a laptop small or light enough and as a bonus it does make an excellent status symbol. Guess what? ALL of Apples products are considered status symbols. Outstanding style, design and functionality at a premium price, thats what a large part of Apple's market demands, so Apple delivers. It doen't HAVE to be the end-all be-all of portable computing, there are two other perfectly capable models in the line up to do that.
Regarding the price, small cost money to MAKE so small costs money to BUY because people WANT small!!
As for the wireless CD sharing, I've been doing the same thing via Apples file sharing since '92, it's nothing new, they're just gonna make doing it easier and slicker so that John and Jane Generic can do it in their sleep.
What WOULD have been impressive:
- A new headless Mac Desktop that fits between the Mac Mini and the Mac Pro.
No arguements here, been practically begging Apple for this for years.
- An iPhone Nano, about the size of the old iPod Nano with 1-2gb of memory for $99-$149.
You want a blow job from Steve with that too? Not happening. The iPhone is extremly sucessful at it's current size and price point. In 5 years maybe we'll see a Nano iPhone for around $200, until then go buy a Centro
- A Mac tablet running full Leopard with multitouch. Bonus points if it's under $1500.
The market is not demanding a tablet Mac, only frothing geeks that want a "masturbation toy" I believe you said.
- An iMac with a curved monitor like what's been shown at CES.
Shut up.
- Price drops on the iPhone, iPod Touch, or Mac Mini.
It took 4 or 5 years of CONSTANT UNRIVALED SUCESS for Apple to drop the price on the iPod... Ask again in a few years for
Yeah, I heard that Congress was concerned the FCC wasn't corrupt enough.
Actually, I believe you have that switched around. Congress is always looking for more ways to be lazy AND evil at once.
It's a reply like this that make me wish for a "6" rating for informative... or at least to be able to use karma to email you oral sex for such an excellent response!
I stopped reading comments when I hit this reply because it made me happy!
I know there are an ever increasing number of LED's and other lights popping up on an ever increasing number of products *cough*HP LAPTOPS*cough* but there are also an EQUAL number of products out there with very few or even NO lights of any kind, such as many Apple products. Of course, there are also every combination of lighting options in between. I, however, do not think "We the people" care much either way. Though on some subconscious level, led encrusted products that can be seen from space seem to induce an automatic "wooooow.." and all the subsequent drooling and twitching of fingers toward the wallet that causes fad products to sell well before word gets out how bad they suck. PERSONALLY, the more status information in the form of bright blinky things you can throw at me the better. I like bright things people! If you get that option taken away from me, I'm gonna find you and light you up with 3-phase. Nothing brings me closer to nirvana than when I walk into a server room and there are hundreds of thousands of brightly glowing and blinking LEDs of all colors. Now THAT'S some good shiny!!
If you keep offsite backups, just keep 2 hard drives on an easy to yank tray with a "standard disk" that's just never used and one with your actual mp3's and mpg's. When the RIAA comes knock-knocking, just yank the hard drive with the "perfectly legitimate" content and toss it into the wood chipper you happen to have sitting in your living room next to your desk for shredding your..... sensitive documents! 15 noisy seconds and one quick switch later, they can't prove nuthin'.
That would begin to explain why Bush is still president.....