SlipHead Design

I recently had a business idea which I am sure could be a success if only I had the time and money to implement it.

The basic idea is that you create a service where regular postal mail is automatically scanned and emailed to the appropriate recipient.  Nothing complicated or fancy, just a basic service to help bridge the analog-digital divide.
Initially, I envision people signing up for the service on a website and getting a postal mailing address in some large city like New York.  The mailing address would likely just be a PO Box.  Any mail then sent to that PO Box would be automatically opened and scanned by a machine such as the ones made by Opex.  The service would probably cost around $5 a month - although I have not really run the numbers to find the appropriate price point.

If this basic business model ended up being successful, then I envision offering additional lines of business related to the principle of automatic mail<->email handling.  Ideally, it would be possible to partner with the US postal service and offer mail redirection of people’s home address to the email service.  Another avenue of possible interest would be to setup and/or operate digital mailroom solutions for businesses of all sizes.  There are a number of other obvious directions the business could go.

Anyone want to spot me the money to get started?

Since there have been a string of high-profile laptop thefts in the news lately, I thought it would be worth sending out a few quick ideas on protecting your laptop in case it gets pinched.

1. Use a Hard Drive password
Most of the modern Dell laptops support this. It is turned on through the BIOS configuration screen, but is different than a BIOS password as it actually sets the password within the hard drive’s controller firmware. This will disable read and write access to the drive until a correct password is given. Simply moving the hard drive to a different machine will not make it go away. Basically, the disk is unusable until either a) the correct password is given, b) the physical controller on the disk is replaced, or c) someone solders a debug port onto the right hard drive controller pins and reverse-engineers the back-end diagnostic protocol.

When the hard drive password is set, you will have to enter it every time you turn the machine on or resume from standby. Since you are (hopefully) already doing this anyway when Windows or Linux boots/resumes, simply turn off the OS password protection and you will still only have to enter one password to boot/resume.

2. Use an encrypted volume to store any work
I personally like TrueCrypt because it works on both Windows and Linux, is really easy to use, and is free/open-source. Basically, it will create what looks like another hard drive on your machine where you can save all your data. Simply create a shortcut on your desktop to that drive and you are good to go. Yes, you will have to enter a password the first time you want to mount the drive, but it will then stay mounted until you reboot. Just don’t forget your password (and make it long enough not to be brute-forced)!

3. Securely delete files and encrypt your swap file
I use a program called BCWipe on Windows which is also free and does three things really well. First, it installs some Explorer hooks to allow you to easily delete files in a secure way (multiple overwrite passes, etc). Second, it can go through all your deleted/slack space and scrub any leftover bits. Finally, it has the ability to encrypt your swap file on the fly…very cool.

4. Use a screensaver password
Dumb i know, but when combined with the other options it makes getting on the box pretty difficult.

5. Write or download a script that phones home
In case all the above falls through, write a script that periodically goes and checks your personal webpage or something. I set it up as a cron job under Linux or a scheduled task under Windows. This way, you’ll at least be able to track the IP address of your stolen laptop when the thief goes online.

6. Finally, use a personal firewall to protect you from Network-based attacks
This is not so much concerned with a thief stealing your laptop as it is concerned with data theft through the network. I really like ZoneAlarm for its ease of use and simplicity. Just be sure not to accept any ‘incoming connections’ unless you are know that it is safe.

I was digging through some files today and came across the old version of SlipHead.com.  There were so many good ideas in it, that I just had to put it back online.

Go ahead, click on the link and take a walk back through memory lane.