[Olpc-open] Olpc-open Digest, Vol 29, Issue 22 - Macbooks

[Todd - try laptop.org/xo]

(Pre-Apology for ignorance of Bitfrost) - as much as I have loved Macs since
1984, from a presidential security standpoint, is there a sense in which the
XO is perhaps more secure than a Macbook -- because of the Bitfrost/Sugar's
security layers?

Mac OS X targeted by Trojan and backdoor tool
http://news.zdnet.com/2424-9595_22-251586.html

Many moons ago when I came to the olpc offices with visions of Flash on the
xo in my head, a wise Jedi explained there was reluctance because it was not
open, took a too much processing power, and in part, because of not being
able to thoroughly know Flash's codebase (and therefore not being able to
attempt to thoroughly plumb the depths of potential vulnerabilities)

I also seem to remember that Windows itself had a naughty "NSA" back door at
one point that Microsoft could use in certain situations. And even with the
best intentions of paid full time employees, I am seeing how Microsoft,
Apple, Macromedia, security vendors, may not be able to adequately find
vulnerabilities in competition with the crowdsourcing of volunteer script
kiddie hackers, increasingly powerful criminal gangs, and naughty
intelligence services. And I "think" I see how part of the problem is in the
nature of a closed code base.

Given this - with the right application of effort, could Sugar OS on an xo
in fact be more secure, on a presidential family laptop?

If the president wants to be green, could he not just try an xo? If he wants
to set an example of sustainability at the white house, could he not in fact
set up a combination of xo's and a solar-powered linux terminal server
project like Solar Net One? http://solarnetone.org/blog

I used to think gov't employees (ex: those in charge of security) were
mythic superbeings who don't need any help, and I don't think that any
longer. Maybe one of you wise jedis out in olpc land could help make the
white house green.

On Sat, Nov 29, 2008 at 11:00 AM, <olpc-open-request at lists.laptop.org>wrote:

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>   1. Re: [Grassroots-l] Fwd: [IAEP] Important  government      demo
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> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
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> Message: 1
> Date: Fri, 28 Nov 2008 21:25:17 -0500
> From: Tom Stewart <laptop at tastewar.com>
> Subject: Re: [Olpc-open] [Grassroots-l] Fwd: [IAEP] Important
>        government      demo opportunity
> To: olpc-open at lists.laptop.org
> Message-ID: <20081128212517.4ejspicf8kwwcw88 at tastewar.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain;       charset=UTF-8;  DelSp="Yes";
>  format="flowed"
>
> Quoting Edward Cherlin <echerlin at gmail.com>:
>
> >
> > No, two in the residence section, for the girls. The Secret Service
> > doesn't let the President carry around anything that broadcasts his
> > location. He had to give up his Blackberry the day after the election.
> > %-[
>
> Might be a bit late: Michelle apparently bought 2 MacBooks recently,
> one for Barack and one for the girls:
> http://www.newsweek.com/id/112849/output/print
>
>
>
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> End of Olpc-open Digest, Vol 29, Issue 22
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-- 
- Todd Kelsey
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