For the record, I didn't submit this to start a flame war. I get the whole concept of "if you cross the border, you're subject to a full search" -- after all, that's the entire purpose of customs: to control stuff moving across the border.

The thing here is that government took the guy's computer, then sent it off to some lab 150 miles away for analysis. If I understood the article correctly, the judges said that was fine to do, even without probable cause.

Since a notebook computer is a tool for my trade, I'm left with the conclusion that not only can I be fully searched, but the government can also take my tools away from me for a long period of time while they examine them. There's no guarantee that the tools I left with will be allowed to re-enter.

Lesson? The U.S. government is effectively killing the personal PC, at least as a centralized place to keep my stuff. Move everything to the cloud, and make the notebook, phone, tablet, etc disposable.

Amazing. I must be missing something somewhere.