We prepare to greet our petty and punitive overlords...

Seems that techfolk that aren't politically correct are now on the special hasslement list...

Why is this silly/stupid?

Disposable netbooks. With a cheap netbook available for under $300, they become disposable - i.e., if seized or inspected while outside of your direct line of sight, they become garbage as they may be potentially corrupted (sell it on craigslist or some such)...and since you never EVER put anything on the hard drive (booting from a USB stick and accessing your files in a variety of creative ways)...you should be about as safe as it's practical to get. If you really want to be sure, find an appropriate data transmission method, move your data before attempting to re-enter the United States, then sell the netbook before you get on the homeward bound plane.

Nothing says you need to physically carry files these days, and even should you choose to do so, there are a number of ways to do so well outside of a recognizable electronic device.

Now, all that said, I'm not the geekiest kid on the block, nor do I have the kind of super-secret experience that some folks do. But that's just my take on it all...that the linked incident is just yet another sense-free punitive and petty measure enacted by a power-hungry administration out of control.