As much as I like the ACLU for abstract reasons, I like the Electronic Frontier Foundation more, since, well, I make a living, such as it is, on the Electronic Frontier. Recently, (Ok ,an hour ago) they had an alarming piece on a dangerous Boston College student who had all his computer stuff, down to digital cameras,his Ipod and a copy of Ubuntu on CD siezed by the police. He called suspicion to himself by using
A black screen with white font which he uses prompt commands on
and
he uses two different operating systems to hide his illegal activities
He was tracked down because, evidently, he was part of an investigation into who identified another student as gay on a mailing list.
More beyond...
Here's the Whole Story
Now, I'm a reasonable person, and I've used more than one operating system myself, sometimes as many as three in a day. Is there a twelve step program for that?
And for years I, and every one I know, has been perfectly happy with green screens. Or maybe Black screens with green characters. I think anyone who purposely uses white characters on a black screen has...issues. And Ubuntu, what's up with that? Red Hat isn't good enough? Xenix (Microsoft) seemed Ok to me; SCO (Santa Cruz Operation) was better, maybe, but it took most of a day to even get a computer running with that stuff. 'Course, loading from thirty floppies was a disadvantage...
For those who don't know, Ubuntu is a type of Linux Operating System. it's the anti-windows, maybe...
This isn't the only incidence of Police State (literally) intrusions onto College campuses. Only last March an unarmed student in Michigan was Shot by police while investigating marajuana possession.
My kids are out of college now so it's not a direct problem for me, though I will admit they went to a university where a tenured professor (who was a little outspoken about 9/11, and maybe not as rigorous in his writing as he could have been) brought the wrath of the Governor and most of the MSM down on his back. He won his lawsuit for reinstatement just a week or two ago, making the university look pretty foolish. And on ASU, don't get me started.
So the larger context is police and brownshirt tactics on College Campuses, but this recent episode about the computer guru being suspected of terrorism or something, I just have to shake my head.
This kid was a computer science major and the local wizard. Reminds me of the Arthur C. Clark (iirc) quote
any sufficiently advanced technology is indistuingisable from magic
I'd like to think the police, in their best moments, are actually service and protecting us. When they freak out over "multiple operating systems" and "command prompt" computing, I'm afraid they're too stupid to be allowed to carry guns.