Darren New wrote:

 > Have you considered what happens to your data if you lose the HD? Is
 > there anything on there of enough value that you're screwed if it gets
 > stolen?  A NOC list, perhaps?

LOL! And now I'm thinking about that ridiculous scene from Mission 
Impossible 2.

You know the one I'm talking about. The NOC list resides on a 
stand-alone computer in a sealed vault. [This itself is highly 
implausible. Surely people need to access that thing all the time?]

The vault features a state-of-the-art alarm system, including 
temparature sensors, sound sensors, floor pressure sensors, and a 
friggin *laser grill* over the air vent!

This state-of-the-art system does not, however, feature any room motion 

shudder to think what it costs to purchase, install, calibrate and 
maintain a laser grill.

This alarm system also does *not* include sensors to maybe, um, detect 
that somebody is typing stuff into the computer when the room is 
supposed to be empty. Like, WTF? Are you *kidding* me??

Better yet, why doesn't arming the alarm _disable the keyboard_?? How 
hard would that be?

If we assume that the only copy of the NOC list exists inside the 
harddrive of the computer, if the alarm system disables the computer in 
some way, you'd have two options left for getting at the data.

Option 1 is to open the computer's casing and remove the harddrive. 
Since presumably the case is alarmed, you'd probably have to drill in. 
And you know what? Dills are really noisy. Alternatively, laser your way 
in. Mmm, that should heat the room up nicely, eh?

[I won't even comment on the concept of having a temperature sensor in 
an air-conditioned room...]

Option 2 would be to install some kind of electronic bugging device to 
passively detect signals from inside the computer and relay them to you 
somehow. (Perhaps you install a short-range transmitter and an antenna 
in the air vent connected to a long cable? IDK. But given *sane* 
security precautions, this seems like the only really plausible tactic.

Of course, from what I've seen of major governments, if you want the NOC 
list you don't need to break into a sealed vault; it's probably laying 
on a seat on a train somewhere. ;-)

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Invisible wrote:
> 
> This alarm system also does *not* include sensors to maybe, um, detect
> that somebody is typing stuff into the computer when the room is
> supposed to be empty. Like, WTF? Are you *kidding* me??
> 
> Better yet, why doesn't arming the alarm _disable the keyboard_?? How
> hard would that be?

It wouldn't be hard, but it would ruin the movie.

-- 
Eero "Aero" Ahonen
   http://www.zbxt.net
      aer### [at] removethiszbxtnetinvalid

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Eero Ahonen wrote:

> It wouldn't be hard, but it would ruin the movie.

Yeah, but come ON! An entire movie based on something as absurd as that? 
What's next? A movie where they extract dinosaur DNA from foscils a-- 
hey, wait a sec...

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Invisible wrote:
> Eero Ahonen wrote:
> 
>> It wouldn't be hard, but it would ruin the movie.
> 
> Yeah, but come ON! An entire movie based on something as absurd as that? 
> What's next? A movie where they extract dinosaur DNA from foscils a-- 
> hey, wait a sec...

or a movie about a heroic journey to the earth's core to kick start its 
spin again to save earth. That was a painfully bad movie. :(

-- 
~Mike

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>> Yeah, but come ON! An entire movie based on something as absurd as 
>> that? What's next? A movie where they extract dinosaur DNA from 
>> foscils a-- hey, wait a sec...
> 
> or a movie about a heroic journey to the earth's core to kick start its 
> spin again to save earth. That was a painfully bad movie. :(

Hahahahaha...

Yeah, there are movies with far-fetched concepts which are none the less 
great films. (I'm thinking... The Matrix, Hackers, The Crow, Back to the 
Future, etc.) And then there are movies with far-fetched concepts which 
UTTERLY SUCK. And even movies with perfectly valid concepts that still 
completely suck.

The Core was... awful. Much like Event Horizon, actually.

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Invisible wrote:

> The Core was... awful. Much like Event Horizon, actually.

I don't know if I saw Event Horizon. Sphere was another truly awful movie.
-- 
~Mike

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>> The Core was... awful. Much like Event Horizon, actually.
> 
> I don't know if I saw Event Horizon. Sphere was another truly awful movie.

Sphere was quite bad.

"Look at it. I bet it's perfect down to the atomic level."
"Yeah. Perfection is a strong message."

Uh... dude, I can *see* its surface rippling with my naked eyes! o_O

But Event Horizon was far worse. Imagine Nightmare on Elmstreet MCMXC, 
but in outerspace... that's basically Event Horizon. It's basically a 
mindless "OMG, some supernatural thing is trying to kill us!", but in 
space instead of rural Texas.

Still, Sam Neil *is* one scary ****er...

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Invisible wrote:
> What's next? A movie where they extract dinosaur DNA from foscils a-- 
> hey, wait a sec...

They're actually doing this now, by the way. :-)  I think they're 
finding fossils with enough DNA in different places they can figure out 
how to stitch together an entire genome.  *And* they're comparing it to 
modern reptiles.

-- 
Darren New / San Diego, CA, USA (PST)

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>> What's next? A movie where they extract dinosaur DNA from foscils a-- 
>> hey, wait a sec...
> 
> They're actually doing this now, by the way. :-)  I think they're 
> finding fossils with enough DNA in different places they can figure out 
> how to stitch together an entire genome.  *And* they're comparing it to 
> modern reptiles.

What, you mean despite the minor detail that DNA molecules slowly 
decompose into simpler molecules and we're talking about animals that 
lived 70,000,000 years ago? :-P

Regardless, I doubt we'll be reanimating any long-dead animals any time 
soon. (And even if we did, how would we know if they are accurate 
recreations or not? Certainly we couldn't observe any behaviours that 
aren't innate. And so on.)

-- 
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*

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Orchid XP v8 wrote:
> What, you mean despite the minor detail that DNA molecules slowly 
> decompose into simpler molecules and we're talking about animals that 
> lived 70,000,000 years ago? :-P

Yep.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7285683/


Doing the amber trick, too:

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?sec=health&res=9C00EFD61331F93BA25752C1A962958260

> Regardless, I doubt we'll be reanimating any long-dead animals any time 
> soon.

Nope, likely not.  Altho I wouldn't bet my life on it... :-)

-- 
Darren New / San Diego, CA, USA (PST)

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