[conspire] GLUE

[Rick Moen]

Quoting Bruce Coston (jane_ikari at yahoo.com):

> I don't want the elastomer [synthetic rubber] on top of my left mouse
> button to detach at some public event and get lost. Does anyone have
> some ideas on how best to prevent this security problem. May want to
> use someones younger and less shakey nervous system to do the
> attaching with barge contact cement as its one contact only, vs one
> fix only w crazy glue.

I don't even play chemist on the Internet, let alone be one, but for
some plastics, cyanoacrylates (Krazy Glue, Superglue, etc.) might hold
better.  That type of glue is said to be more effective than most on
non-porous substances.

I'd be glad to help you with this on Saturday, and yes, I do have some
of that stuff.

> Speaking of security, I'd recommend a careful rebuild to anyone using
> anything over 6mo. old like say a box using a 2.4 kernel.  You tend to
> ditch unknown malware infestations that way. 

When last I studied this matter seriously, in general, the antique 
2.4 series (if kept reasonably current) seemed to pose fewer risks than
the current 2.6.x, both for kernel.org and vendor kernels.  That's just
my impression, but I know I'm not alone in that.

A typical system has much more glaring vulnerabilities in userspace,
though a possible kernel-based privilege-escalation path, if present and
credible, is certainly a concern.