Friday Musings

Well, it is Friday, and I know everyone is waiting to get on with the weekend. So, just a few meandering thoughts:
1. The morning St. Petersburg Times has an article about the Sami Al Arian case, in which the Judge has allowed the use of WebSite pages stored on the Defendants' hard drives as evidence by the prosecution. Some of the problems with this are evidentiary, but what about the issues of: a) whether cached web pages on a personal computer have been read? b) Who downloaded them? c) What was in the user's mind when they were downloaded? Do you see other computer or evidentiary issues?  Check out the article at Article .
2. On the security issue, what is in your computer's cache? Do you erase the history of your website visitations? Even if you only visit websites containing innocent material, many sites containing questionable content can be accidentally loaded. Have you investigated the Options and security settings of your web browser lately? Do you know where your computer has been?
3. Is it just me, or is there a flavor of "subpoena the librarian for the books you have read lately" here?
4. On the data security front, what sensitive client materials are stored in your computer? Are they accessible? When files are deleted by the Windows operating system, they stay on the hard drive until overwritten. Get the free program, "eraser", and use it. Eraser free download .
5. Okay, now that you are sufficiently warned, go have a nice weekend.