[ltp] New Thinkpad and First Steps

[Matt Graham]

On Wednesday 17 January 2007 12:31, after a long battle with technology, 
Adrian Bastholm wrote:
> On 1/17/07, James Knott <james.knott@rogers.com> wrote:
>> Rolf Kutz wrote:
>>> * Quoting Theodore Tso (tytso@mit.edu):
>>>> fingerprint.  So if someone steals your laptop, they will have
>>>> much harder time getting access to your data
>>> Aren't your fingerprints all over the laptop or
>>> do you use it with gloves only?
>> BTW, what do you use to clean PGP fingerprints off your screen? ;-)

Vodka, right?

Actually, it's a bit of a pain to lift good fingerprints from surfaces 
that people have been putting their grubby paws on in random patterns.  
It might be easier to fool a mechanical device than to fool a human lab 
tech.  ISTR some guys did some experiments with a commercial 
fingerprint reader and Jello somewhere, and managed to fool the reader 
with some preparation.

> And how does the password and fingerprint stay in memory if you
> remove the CMOS battery?

In the vast majority of cases in the real world, convenience >> 
security.  Hyper-paranoid, Real Hacker-deterring, super-safe security 
is a monumental pain in the ass.  Most people don't need that level of 
paranoia, and most data isn't worth that level of pain-in-the-assitude.  
(There are exceptions.)

-- 
   Some people are alive only because it is traditional to keep
   torturing the poor guy about being lost in the machine room with an 
   IBM water buffalo.  --MegaHAL, trained on ASR
There is no Darkness in Eternity/But only Light too dim for us to see