Re: Fwd: Check Your Computer at the Border

[leslie bialler lb136@xxxxxxxx]

Rene von Rentzell wrote:
>
> >Probably one of those Internet hoaxes. I don't believe a word of it.
> >Leslie Bialler
>
> I am not sure. Never underestimate the amount of ignorance out there.
> Remember that multimillion Dollar Hollywood movie "The Net", where they
> carried the internet to the beach... on a floppy disk?

Nope. Didn't see it. My favorite piece of computer-illiterate screenplay
writing was on some TV movie I was channelsurfing by: in it the good guy
extracts a computer password by the usual Hollywood methods from the bad
guy, enters it on the computer, and behold! It appears on the screen as
the good guy keys it in.

Anyway, a not-so-close reading of this part of the text . . .

>>As I walked through UK immigration, two guys pulled me aside, flashed
>>badges, and said: "UK Customs. Come with us." They walked me behind a
>>wall where they handed me off to one of a fleet of waiting agents.

. . . Should arouse one's skepticism. A UK customs official would be
more likely to say something like, "Inspector LeStrade, UK Customs [or
perhaps "Her Majesty's Customs; or whatever]. Would you mind stepping
aside from just a minute sir?"

And then we have:

>>And thus ended my experience with inspector "K. PARE_," whose name tag
>>was partially torn at the final one or two letters of her last name.

I suspect officials in the UK sport nametags made of permanent material.
I doubt if they walk around Heathrow with paste-on "Hello My Name Is . .
. " thingummies attached to their uniforms.

Whatever.


> --Impeach Clinton


Oh can't we just spank him and send him to bed supperless? (Anyway, I
can't _wait_ for Monday. I want to see if he can top, "I smoked but I
didn't inhale.")

--

Leslie Bialler
Columbia University Press
lb136@xxxxxxxx