Re: Lua Workshop 2008 Announcements

[Duck <duck@...>]

> Unfortunately, I won't be able to come to the workshop, 
> my company is backing off since they read 
> <http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,142429/article.html 

But this isn't news. And it's no reason to avoid the USA, unless you also 
avoid entering almost any other country, e.g. UK (which has IIRC been 
notifying travellers of the possibility of a full laptop audit for about 
10 years!) and Australia. Naturally, this means avoiding leaving any of 
those countries if you live in one of them, unless your intention is never 
to return.

If your company really is that worried about US immigration, to the point 
that they won't let you go to a Lua conference on those grounds alone, 
then surely they'd never let you stay in a hotel, either, where the 
average laptop is much more likely to 'get surveilled' (probably without 
your knowledge) or simply stolen.

Why not simply get a second hard drive? Use it when travelling 
and equip it with the data you need for each specific trip, and wipe it 
between trips.

Restricting the set of data you carry around on international visits is a 
good idea _in all respects_. Indeed, you shouldn't do it just because you 
are afraid of US public servants. You should do it because you are mindful 
of the ease with which data you carry around can be {lost,stolen,peeked 
at} whilst you are on the road, and of the difficulty of taking your usual 
computer security precautions when you are 2,000 light years from home and 
living out of a suitcase.

So perhaps you could get your company to agree to let you go, if you 
provide your own hard drive, which you set up for the trip _outside_ the 
company network (i.e. so there is no corporate data on it). Leave the 
company's disk at work, where it can be stored securely until you get 
back.

After all, countries like the US and the UK -- where the possibility of a 
laptop shakedown is overtly documented -- are actually giving you a fair 
chance to take the sort of computer security precautions which a 
well-informed person ought to be taking anyway. In that sense, they are 
doing you a favour :-)