Before we Americans point too many fingers, let's not forget NASA is not immune to similar mistakes.

Better yet, since PGP/GnuPG compress content before they encode it, and they have base64 armoring, just encrypt your archive file with armoring and print that out.

However, since OCR can be finicky, I'd suggest some sort of Reed-Solomon or Hamming code for error correction on the printed file. Perhaps you could break it up into digestible chunks and make a series of QR codes out of them... in which case, you'd be better off using the non-ascii format.

Remember, the more it resembles a numbers station, the less suspicious it is...

"Passport please."

*swipe*
*clickity-clack*
*suspicious glance*
...

"Mr. Smith? Do you go by the online handle ozspeed?"

...

*Stamp* "Please follow Agent Proubb to the digital goods inspection station."

Wrong, wrong, wrong! And wrong!

It's a common fallacy spouted by those who foist surveillance on us. See here, here, or any other of the many hits when you search for privacy "nothing to hide"

It goes right along with the "privacy and security are mutually exclusive" fallacy.

People like you that are trading your long-term liberty and privacy for a current sense of security are going to rue this day eventually. These essential freedoms need constant vigilance. Many of our forefathers died defending them. They're rolling in their graves now seeing how so many are nonchalantly pissing them away.

Here's your homework. Go read the Constitution of the United States of America. No, really. Read it line by line and understand why some say it's the most important and influential document created in the last 1000 years.

Ha, ha, ha! Nice one!

Agreed. Java by itself is boring.

At younger ages, pure software is not always that interesting. I'd suggest starting out with a hardware/software mix, like Arduino. Make something cheap with blinking lights that they can take home with them. Buy a few AVRs, a handful of resistors and caps, some LEDs, voltage regulators, and mini breadboards so you can make Arduino clones. If they want to keep them, sell them at cost; it's only a couple days of lunch money.

Once they've outgrown that, move their skills over to the Raspberry Pi and have them blink a LED using Java or Python. Now, they're on a cheap, fully functional (albeit a bit underpowered) Linux system. They can learn BASH, Python, C/C++, etc. by seeing and tweaking what's already there. And if they break it, you're only out $35. Or if they want to continue playing at home, they're only out $35 plus accessories.

The 10000 attempted attacks per month is the CIO's way of justifying their core firewall. Every SYN packet that hits port 22 is an attempted attack.

You see, they need big scary numbers to justify to the CFO why they need a maintenance contract on their overpriced Cisco what-cha-ma-call-it doothingy that separates their network from the wild and caa-razy internet. "10000 attempts?!? Wow! Good job, Biff. Here's your budget."

Sad. But true.

You're not distinguishing between data in transit and data at rest. And it's an important distinction. Using Google's mail service as an example, my gmail is encrypted in transit via SSL. Always. I use HTTPS-Everywhere plugin to ensure that.

That said, I don't know how Google stores it while it rests on their servers, but it is in that state that the government claims they have a right to inspect it without a warrant. I hope it's encrypted, but it's not under my direct control. And it sounds like government is insisting Google not only give them access but share any keys they use to encrypt the data at rest. That means, if it is encrypted on their servers, that only helps protect it from hackers and accidental disclosure, not from authorized (by Google) agents.

The solution, as you hinted at, would be to encrypt your messages with something like PGP or GnuPG before sending them (in transit) or storing them (at rest) in either your or the recipient's mailbox. That puts the encryption keys squarely under your control, and makes the stored ciphertext inaccessible to the government, but comes with its own usability and key management issues. It's not something your everyday user is going to be comfortable with.

I don't believe that should mean that the less technically adept experience less privacy, but that's just my humble opinion...

I'd like to clarify something in your assertion above, maverick. Wherever you say innocent, I add the phrase "in the eyes of the court" following it.

It is the court and only the court that must maintain a clear lack of prejudice on defendants brought before them. Jurors picked for the trial become members of the court for the trial's duration, and must also be free from prejudice.

We the public like to see an unbiased media as well, but there's no requirement for them to be. Its just that they risk alienating a percentage of the population that feels like they're watching propaganda rather than news when they tune in. (Chase Carey: I'm looking at you here...)

Me? Not so much.

I can rely on circumstantial evidence, hearsay, and gut feelings all I want. Stereotypes are often based on solid observations. The prejudices they produce can save a person's life. That tingle you feel on the back of your neck while walking through Harlem in the middle of the night? That's not spidey-sense.

So when I see surveillance photos of someone looking suspicious and watch news reports of them in an armed confrontation with the police, I'm free to judge them all I want. Because I'm not in a position to deny them of their freedom or life; that's the court's job.

I say they're guilty, but that's just my opinion.

Your statement as I would fix it:

You're talking about Community Antenna Television, or CATV, which is what gave birth to the whole cable TV industry. Somewhere along the historical timeline, they made a poor concession to the broadcasters (or the broadcasters paid the right officials off), and instead of viewing CATV as a service to extend their viewership, broadcasters treated CATV as a leech to their profits and demanded fees to allow them to carry their signal. Make no bones about it. Fox is getting paid by the advertisers as well as the service that carries those ads to the eyeballs.

Now, tell me. If you were getting a deal this sweet, wouldn't you raise a huge fit to try to keep it from ending? I'm just sayin'...

FWIW, the same double-dipping game is my biggest objection to Hulu. I'm paying for specific content streams, and you're STILL going to bombard me with ads? And worse yet prevent me from fast-forwarding through them?!? No. Thank. You.

They might want to, but the latest reports I've seen (search google for citations) indicate they have enough fissile material for a mere handful of weapons, and their longest range missile won't yet reach the US coast.

Except for maybe Alaska, but last I knew, nobody was calling Anchorage a "major city."

j/k, Alaska.. We still love you, you gorgeous, scenic, oil-rich babe!

This.

Thanks for that link. I learned something useless today...

To me, it's all about your "expectation of privacy." At least in the USA, that's the legal standard they use to determine whether a warrantless search is permissible. If my cellphone is locked, that is a very strong indication that I expect the contents to be private. I'm glad that at least the Canadian courts agree. I just wish the US courts did as well, but they seem to be eroding individual privacy as much as they can get by with.

What filesystem would you suggest? YAFFS?

It would seem to me that there are parallels between the write limitations of flash memory and the need to avoid latency in distributed writes to cloud providers. I'm envisioning a YAFFS filesystem built on same sized blocks that are individually encrypted (and compressed) and written to the various cloud providers. Each block could be replicated (raid1) or broken into stripes of blocks used to calculate parity (raid5).

I think the technology exists, and all the components are proven, they've just never been assembled in exactly that way before.

I wish the OP the best of luck. Even if it isn't practical in the end, it sure sounds fun..

The VPS provider notices the continuous high bandwidth you're using and cancels your account for violating their TOS long before the authorities get around to raiding them.