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Comment by JakDrako | Hacker News Reader

Do you have some old full-sized SCSI 40MB drive lying around? It'd be amusing to see them trying to connect that to any modern computer... http://www.biocomp.net/seagate_st4766n.jpg

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You could also mention that the original data is on a SSD drive that is soldered to the motherboard of your MacBook Air/High-End Notebook/Chromebook and point out that even if you did send them a hard drive with a copy of everything downloaded that it would be just a copy. The original is uploaded 'onto the cloud' and not easy to delete even if you did smash the MBP to pieces, GCHQ/Guardian style.

Therefore, there is no need to send a drive, even a small child could understand that. A lawyer-type asking for 'the drive' does not get around this detail of how 's and 0's can be easily copied. Point out there is no need for the show.

Finally, go nucular on them. Say you are going to post your scraper tool onto github with full instructions on how to scrape their site unless $3,141,592.65 is donated by them to the EFF by teatime on Tuesday.

The letter didn't ask for "the drive that the data was one", it asked for "a drive with the data on it", which (when taken with comments about wiping the drive) indicate they just want to see a copy of the data, and named a hard drive as a convenient medium to exchange it on.

    > SSD drive that is soldered to the motherboard of your MacBook Air/High-End Notebook/Chromebook

Nitpick of something I hear a lot: No SSD is soldered on in a MacBook Air or any Chromebook I've seen[1]. You may need an unusual screwdriver (MBA – maybe worse for a Chromebook) to get the bottom cover off, but then it's just a single screw. The PCs I've seen are similar, but I don't have as much experience there.

I assume the confusion started because the RAM is soldered.

[1] You can see internal pictures at chromium.org, e.g. http://www.chromium.org/chromium-os/developer-information-fo...

Do what lawyers do, print all data paper, randomly order the pages, and then deliver by truck in boxes.

Ask them for their fax number, and beam them the contents of your drive in binary.

Ask them if they have a LOT of paper first.

You might be able to buy old mainframe platters on eBay. I would love to see their faces... Or maybe send them one of those new MacBook SSD's ;-)

Based on the email, I get the feeling that ext3 might be hard enough for them to connect to.

I was thinking Bernoulli drive...

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