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Security Tips for Traveling with Tech Gear
securitas writes "Many Slashdotters will be traveling during the next week and PC World has an article about how to travel with tech gear with a minimum of security hassles. The Transport Security Administration maintains an allowable and banned items list (PDF) that you might want to check. Make sure that you have fully charged batteries for any tech gifts you received. I've had big hassles with all the tech gear that I routinely carry, especially when combining business trips with a vacation. One security screener even asked me to log in, decrypt and look at files on my notebook's desktop, which was unnecessarily invasive (not to mention against my then-employer's security policy). He settled for viewing the secure login screen 'to make sure it worked.' Any other horror stories out there?"
The story says:
The Transport Security Administration maintains an allowable and banned items list (PDF) that you might want to check.
The agency who manages airport security is the Transportation Security Administration. Looks like someone goofed here.
Support the Chagossians
We carry around all this crap (yes, me included) and require it for our jobs and personal lives. We can't live without it. Right? Laptop, cell phone, Wi-Fi gear, PDA, and related equipment. Are we not borg already?
Discuss...
"If you want to improve, be content to be thought foolish and stupid." - Epictetus
I thought this article has some nice information. I printed it out and will be handing this to my father-in-law, sister-in-law, and my two brothers.
"Try living without the IPod for a few days"
What in the name of Linus Torvalds is this guy thinking? Living without my precious? I don't think so....
Sorry, but some security guy trying to do anything on my computer is an attempt to bypass a security device and in violation of the DMCA. Federal law says I can't do what the federal agent says.
Showing that it works does not really mean much. How much stuff could you pack into a laptop and still have it boot once? Take out the CD/DVD bay, or take out the hard drive and boot from a live CD, hollow out the PC card slot. Make a false battery and tell the agent your battery is dead so you have to use AC, etc.
I just find it strange that we're not allowed to bring a pair of pliers, but can bring a spear-like umbrella, and "safety" razor blades (which take around 2 seconds to "unsafe").
It's even stranger that we are allowed to bring explosives like LiIon batteries... Bypass the fuse, short it, and you have a nice little bomb (as the owners of many a Nokia phone can attest to).
--
*Art
Most important, leave the laptop at home unless somebody's paying you to take it along--borrow friends' computers or stop in any cybercafe if you feel compelled to check your e-mail.
Oh yeah, that's exactly why I bought a laptop: so that I can pay a cybercafe to use a computer on the road.
He's not doing anything. He's telling you to turn on the computer, log in and show him the files...
The owls are not what they seem
You allowed someone to look at secure FILES on your system? What on earth made you think they had the right, or the authority for that matter, to look at FILES? They can physically inspect your system, but they do not have any right to search your laptops electronic contents.
I've flown about 85 - 90 times this year from a base out of either Kansas City International, or Raleigh Durham International.
I've flown to Dallas, San Francisco, Oakland, NYC Laguardia, Des Moines, IA, Orlando, Miami, Chicago, Las Vegas, and other cities and have carried even two laptops, a cell phone/pda, a iPod, and between 3 - 7 paper back books.
At the most I've had my bag physically searched because the x-ray guy couldn't see something quite right because a few of my chargers were laying weird. I've even been told what caught them up a few times.
I've carried a backpak full of camera equipment (digital SLR body, three lenses, battery charger, extra batteries, video camera, two microdrives, and a Powerbook G4) through multiple times on vacation and never had a single concern.
If a screener *ever* asked to see the contents of my laptop they'd get the verbal equivalent of a polite middle finger. There is *no* way any TSA screener needs to look at the contents of anything I have that is beyond a cursory physical examination.
As a rock-in-roll Physicist once said, No matter where you go, there you are.
What is horror? I travelled from Durban to Amsterdam on september 15th, 2001, and still have pictures of every security-guard who frisked me on the way. "Make a picture, Sir. Show me its a real camera."
:P
Oddly, security-personell shouldn't let themselves get photographed. That's a violation of security.
They're not Federal agents AFAIK. They're still rent-a-cops.
I have one of those old clunky IBM craptops. TSA not only made me turn it on, they had me open it up and check the internals.
Luckily, those old IBM models come apart quite readily, just pop the keyboard to access the drives and battery.
So I had to remove the C4 (wrapped in tin to look like a second battery) and the detonator (masquerading as a floppy drive), put them through the metal detector before they'd let me board the plane.
But I must have crossed a wire when I reassembled it all, because somehow the plane actually made it to Albuquerque.
Some of the stuff on there seems pretty obvious. Blasting caps?! But I guess there's always someone who must try not necessarily out of malicious intent, but perhaps pure stupidity for them to have to list these things. On the other hand, some of the things you are allowed to take via checked baggage are pretty scary too- like firearms.
...and don't forget to bring said charger. This past weekend I flew to California to meet up with the rest of my team for a party. I figured having my cell with only half the battery charged would be fine for that day since I forgot to charge it. Boy was I wrong, the battery just about died when I got there. Luckily I had just enough juice to turn it on to recieve a phone call that someone was picking me up from the airport. Even worse, my portable DVD player ran out of juice on the flight back. Had I brought the charger for that I wouldn't have had a problem. Curse you short battery life.
Some years ago you weren't allowed to use a CD-player on a plane. Why was that?
Put them in your bag, not in the hand bag, there is much less hassle than carring them with you, because it isn't checked every time, maybe just once on the check-in.
And it would botter me so much if someone ask me to turn the notebook on because the battery is dead for a long time ago (does anyone knows how to recover it btw)
OT, but it is the holiday season...
About a month ago, my brother's family flew to Florida from the UK, and my young niece's beloved teddy bear (travelling as hand baggage - she can't bear to be parted from it) had to go through the X ray machine at a US airport. The security officer in charge joked "How do you want it - medium rare, or done to a crisp?" She gave him a very hard stare...
(Well, it tickled me.)
Using HTML in email is like putting sound effects on your phone calls. Just say <strong>no</strong>.
Sure, you don't have to do what he says. And he doesn't have to let you on the plane.
because they took my mom's sewing scissors away from her, they have blades that are about 1/2 an inch long and are used to cut thread. However, she is allowed to carry knitting needles! Why don't they just let people bring knives on with them? I just don't understand.
I mean, I flew, with my laptop, a week and a half after the Planes Hit, and didn't get any kind of ding from security. I've flown a bunch of times since then, and nothing. Four or five flights from Dulles in DC, and nothing at all like this.
The worst I had was in Denver, where I hadn't realized my ID card had expired two weeks before (hey, I thought they all expired at the end of the month), and they just had me go through a secondary search. At that point, they had me boot the computer (which was easy, as I'd had it on standby instead of having to power it up), and checked my shoes.
Since the TSA came in, I've been overall pleased with the situation - most of the people I've encountered have been pleasant, and the rest at least passable, and all of them have done their job with a minimum of stressing me out about it. While I'm not a big fan of 'add another federal agency', traveling by plane has actually gotten EASIER from Newark International since the TSA got up to speed, and I make sure to thank them for their help every time I go through.
Brazil has decided you're cute.
What will I do on vacation without my tasteful collection of Realistic Replicas of Explosives?
And how many geeks refuse to fly commercial flights because of TSA restrictions?
Email: slashdot3@FreeMars.org (Address will be abandoned when it gets spam.)
I had my laptop bluescreen once while navigating the terminal security gauntlet once. I tried explaining to the woman "Uh, it doesn't normally do that" but got a blank stare in return. Almost like a stare of... acceptance. Then I realized she had already been taken by MS.
The funniest encounter was when my chest set off the guy's wand when getting the body scan. He got this totally locked-up look as he tried to come up with some kind of reasonable explaination.
Guy: Uh, did you have... surgery or something... uh... pacemaker?
Me: No, that's my nipple ring.
Guy: (big grin, sign of relief) Oh, OK!
... Apparently one of the common methods is to use a shill to slip in before you so your laptop is sitting at the other end of the x-ray machine while you are still waiting to clear. Thief then takes off with it.
Last trip thru LAX, one of the "security" drones tried to get me to wait about 100 feet away from my work supplied laptop and other possessions, while he re-examined my shoes. Told him it wasn't gonna happen. He eventually agreed to me toting all my crap over, and then checking my shoes.
Honestly, this whole security thing wouldn't bother me too much if it was done with any common sense - and if it actually made me feel a little more secure.
Don't blame me, I voted for Kodos
Last week I went through airport security 3 times, and not once was I asked to power up my 12" Powerbook. I was surprised by this, as many of the PC laptop users around me were asked to.
Will airport scanners do any harm to CF/SD/Memory Stick cards?
The surprise isn't how often we make bad choices; the surprise is how seldom they defeat us.
Airport security was a joke before Sep 11, and remains a joke today. At my local airport we have the same minimum wage, minimum training, minimum testing, "security" guards that we had prior to 9/11. The only difference is that now they want to make you think you're more secure so they add all sorts of obvious and invasive procedures. Show a photo ID, sure that'll stop terrorists, I'm sure they've never heard of fake IDs...
Big surprise here: private, for profit, "security" corprations have the same priority that all private for profit corporations have. They want to make the most money by spending the least money as goal number 1. Actually providing security is, by definition, goal number 2 at the best. This isn't to say that private, for profit, corporations are bad. Its just a recognition of reality, the way corporate law works their prime goal must be making money, everything else is secondary. Real security might involve several things, but at the minimum it must involve removing the profit motive from security. Why? Because every dollar that goes into profit isn't going into *security*. I'd be happy if they started using real police officers as airport security.
So, by all means, let's get busy not doing anything real to improve airport security, instead let's harrass the geek crowd. Not that I'm bitter or anything...
"Mission Accomplished" -- George W. Bush May 1, 2003
Pegoraro's advice for tech-inclined vacation travelers is that less is more.
What is wrong with taking along music, maps, cameras, something to read, and games? Isn't that what people do to relax? Well, it's the 21st century and that sort of thing is done with laptop, handhelds, digital cameras, and all that.
And it's a whole lot better than what we needed to travel with 50 years ago. Cell phones, for example, mean that you aren't at the mercy of hotels and their exorbitant rates. Laptops are a godsent, allowing you to carry plenty of reading materials, letting you write stuff and send it, carry all the maps you might ever need, etc.
With a little bit of planning, you can fit all those gadgets into very little space. Some good power adapters are useful (there are some universal ones that will power your cell phones and laptop).
Step out into traffic again, young Frodo. You didn't quite do the job the first time.
There'll not be an absolute hijacker-proof security policy in the US airports. Ever.
All that's being done right now is creating an illusion of safety, and gives people headaches.
What.....I can't bring my 1.5" swiss army knife on board? "Sir, please don't give me an attitude, or we'll have to step aside for a search" (actually happened).
Those who want to hijack a plane, can do so with things that CAN be brought onboard. Hell......I even think someone could simply grab a soda can from the stuardess (I don't care what they like to be called), rip it with their teeth, and voila....sharp instrument that can be put to someones' throat.
I think nowdays even if someone does have a knife on the plane and tries to take a person hostage, they'll be tackled by passengers. Everyone's seen what happens to them if they don't do anything.
We should still screen for bombs made deliberately, that have enough power to bring down an airplane. But please stop with the madness of searching everybody including little old ladies and 2yo kids.
I was traveling recently for a factory acceptance test for a peice of industrial equipment. We brought our own PLC (Programmable Logic Controller) with the power supply, CPU, and a couple of I/O cards. Because this is relatively expensive and fragile equipment, we took it carry on - BIG MISTAKE!!!
They made us unpack everything (hassle, but understandable), then they wanted us to try and turn it on and see what it did. When we tried to explain that it required a special power supply to hook into (it is 110, but not a normal plug) and even if we turned it on, without any I/O devices hooked up to the I/O cards, they would see nothing but a couple of LED lights flashing. That made them even more mad.
We tried to show them the manuals for the stuff, hoping that would ease some fears - hah, the techno babble irritated them more.
Fortunately, we were at the airport with lots of time to spare, so we jumped on the cell phone, called a co-worker who then rushed over and picked up the stuff. We had him run it over to a Fed-Ex station and ship it to us at the vendors. Luckily we only lost about 6 hrs of testing time and a bunch of $$$ for shiping costs, but the agrivation and irritation suffered was significant.
Maybe if the TSA hired people with a IQ over 50, things would run a little smoother.
"Murderer? Well, that's a harsh word. I prefer to think of myself as a Mortality Technician."
This is slightly off topic, but its related and worth mentioning.
I went to a football game about a month ago and the Superdome and, as we were going in, they were searching everyone's bags (manually). This makes some sense but more to the point gives them some legal protection is there is a problem.
The woman in front of me had one of those stylists combs with the long pointed plastic handle. They required her to throw it away before entering. The amount of damage that she could do with that comb before being tackled by security would have been remote at best (if she had the training to be more dangerous she would be dangerous with her shoelaces, the weapon isn't nearly as much of a factor as the person is).
Now that that's been said: I had a 3 inch folding knife (spyderco) on my jeans. Since they never searched my person, they would never know about it, had no way to know about it.
How a middle aged woman is more dangerous with a plastic comb than a male in his twenties is with a knife I will never know.
Integrate Keynote and LaTeX
Telling you to activate a device is silly, but defensable. Telling you to open encrypted files doesn't increase security one bit, and brings up all sorts of trade secret laws, as well as simply being an inexcusable invasion of privacy.
"Mission Accomplished" -- George W. Bush May 1, 2003
It's mainly random idiocy. I travel 120,000 miles a year and see the same.
- In Vancouver they want me to REMOVE batteries. In Toronto they want me to turn the equipement ON and leave the batteries connected.
- In Toronto every first passenger boarding is searched. How long till the terrorists realise they should board as passenger 2 instead?
- I carry at least one ham radio. Big trouble when they see it. Big antenna. So before travelling I tune the radio to a public FM broadcast station and when they ask "what is that" I say "a radio" and turn it on to that broadcast station.
- Don't start me on the shoes.
- No cellphones in the cabin on some flights; OK on others. Random again.
- No cell phones while flying, I can understand. But all our PDA's and laptops with 802.11b are always on, blasting 2.4 GHz signals all across the pacific, and no-one cares.
- The thing with the shoes.. in Orlando the security person recently told me "all those with laptop PC's must remove their shows". Huh??
It's all very very silly but if you look respectable and smile, all is OK. I;ve never had anyone take anything and I am mr gadget: over a dozen electronics bits in my briefcase every time I travel. Actually enjoying to see the security propls sweat trying to understand what the equipment is...
Mike
---
BDOS ERR ON A:>
i was told to go back to the counter and check in a handful of tools i was carrying in (pliers, a bike spanner, a half inch wrench, and a couple of seven-sixteenths wrenches). small stuff really, but apparently since they haven't specified exactly how large of a tool can or can't be brought onto a plane, no wrenches or metal tools can go on board.
We've not had any incidents with bombs in laptops, but we will never let our guard down.
I've never had an incident with a bomb in my morning coffee either, but I check it religiously every time!
Seriously... I wouldn't expect them to stop checking laptops.. but uh.. why focus on them if they've never actually been used as a weapon before? I'd think you could swing the thing around and hit people with it like a (crappy, unbalanced) mace. That seems like a more likely use of a laptop as a weapon than it carrying a bomb. Even putting in some sort of electronic jamming equipment, as unlikely as it is to actually work, seems more likely. I do not think the $7 Rent-a-cops have gotten the hang of this whole "security" thing, yet.
Alito: A vote for Alito is a punch in the eye to put that bitch back in her place!
Why in god's name would you post anything like this? Are you really so full of hate?
I travel regularly on a large American airline. I sometimes get upgraded to First because I travel so much.
In first class they give me a plastic knife and fork. And then they hand me two _glass_ wine glasses. I've never tried smashing one, but I assume that they are not specially hardened and therefore would be breakable and usable as a weapon.
This seems like a bad idea.
John.
Thank god for gnupg/pgp.
"But someone else has the password to this file, honest!"
"Oops! I just pressed secure wipe!"
Provide more details. What airport, what circumstances? Has this ever happened to anybody else, ever? I can't even remember the last time I had to turn on my laptop, let alone imagine the screener who knows what "decrypt" means.
I've got sleep apnea, and so I travel with my CPAP machine. This is a device which keeps a constant air pressure flowing in my nose, which in turn keeps the tissues in my throat open while I sleep.
The machine looks like a very small bedside humidifier, only with an LCD screen, buttons and nobs. It also comes with a six-foot-long flex tube, a reservoir for heated water and a mask not unlike the one Dennis Hopper used in Blue Velvet.
It's become my 2nd carry-on bag, replacing my notebook computer, which now goes in my suitcase.
Screeners' reaction to this device has been mixed, to say the least. Some have said, "Oh yeah, that's a breathing machine. We see these those all the time." Others have asked me to assemble it and power it up, and don't appear to understand what it's for even after 3 or 4 attempts at explanation.
It's a real hassle, however, since not traveling it and using it could result in heart attack, stroke and/or death, I put up with it.
C'mon, baby, kiss The King.
You can also make lovely weapons out of tax-free booze bottles.
People say I'm crazy, I got diamonds on the soles of my shoes...
Unlike the teller, you don't have to comply. Don't expect to get on the flight, though. p Personally, I often feel like punching people who get all upset at the security checkpoint and cause delays that could have been avoided. Just do what the friggin' Mr. Security tells you to do and we'll be safer and don't have to stand in line forever.
The owls are not what they seem
Talking of the randomness of all this:
The sign I saw a couple years ago at New Delhi airport said it was forbidden to carry on the usual supsects (weapons, bomb, poison) plus "cricketballs" and "other round objects".
Go figure.
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BDOS ERR ON A:>
They'll be sure to swaddle it in cotton wool as they put it in the plane's hold.
Government of the people, by corporate executives, for corporate profits.
you can still only carry 2 zippos on board, even if they have no fuel. I ended up going back to the gate, finding a box for ten zippos without fuel, and checking that as luggage.
the tsa lady said "be careful to wrap them up good, or they'll get stolen."
talk abuot peace of mind.
and not really tech gear, so yeah this is off topic a little, but holy sh*t last month I actually saw the ground staff for United tell a first class passenger they were sorry "but you have been randomly selected for a strict security check."
.?...)
this is just bad.
First off, if it is random that is good. however, the positive part to the randomness disappeared when you TOLD him about it! wtf.
assuming terrorists are stupid is sooo easy and so deadly....
how much do you want to bet you can get on an airplane with a battery powered grinder
(instant deadly weapons made in the first class bathroom)
or multiple cans of shaving cream (one empty, the other three with chemical components that mix into something in the empty one and then are easily sprayed about killing others or at least putting them to sleep...)
A diabetic with insulin shots?
ooops, that wasn't insulin, that was CYANIDE!
etc.
the rest of the nonsense we all have to deal with is ridiculous when anyone with a little intelligence and a great amount of desire can bypass any of this..
(like cracking in a microsoft world
national security needs to be open source! (at least in the sense that the "software" running airport security is determined by a management core at the Homeland Schmorgishbord. And said software needs to be edited or re-programmed.)
anyone know of a place to submit security related thoughts in an effort to help improve safety?
'course, its probably a round file...
- j -
Haven't flown since 1981, and until airlines start treating customers like human beings again, odds are slim to none I ever will again. Now that the feds and the airlines both get to treat us like cattle and lose/destroy and our equipment. I've made it clear at my current job... I'll quit before I'll fly period.
Great tools do only ONE thing, but do that ONE thing very, very well.
The problem is he also doesn't have to refund your ticket if he doesn't let you on the plane. That IMHO is bullshit. If I buy a ticket now and in 2 months when I go to get on the flight, get up to the security gate and suddenly find out that new security measures require anal cavity searches for all passengers, what am I to do?
... even when it is pointless. It would be tempting to blame the President and administration, which many love to hate, but they simply reflect the opinions of the electorate: "Do something!"
So they do. Confiscating box-cutters is pointless now -- they only worked once, because for years the "paradigm" for dealing with hijacking was: "obey all orders of the hijackers until landing". Now that we know, there may be no landing, the paradigm is different and the boxcutters (and scissors, and small knives) are useless to terrorists, as they will not help against the dozens of passengers with NOTHING TO LOSE.
The scumbags knew that -- all four attacks were timed to coincide, because such trick will only work once. Still, there are indications, the last attack failed, because the passengers have learned what they are facing.
But allowing to bring boxcutters on-board is politicly impossible with today's electorate and hence -- praise democracy -- the elected.
In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
Nope. The rent a cops have been newly rehired by the TSA.
Sorry, couldn't resist. But seriously,yeah, I agree its BS. I'm sure there's fine print on the ticket somewhere that says they have the right to refuse to let you on the plane, without any obligation to refund your money. Their game, their rules. Only way around it is to not play.
I think it got bad when they banner, er, "advised" us not to lock luggage that I think it became a nuisance. Long prior to 9/11 I used to just check everything; there was nothing more liberating than cruise through security with a book, my car keys and boarding pass. Checking luggage and waiting for it was a slight bother, but not nearly as much as the nuisance at security and the sardine-can spaces on the plane.
Now I'm forced to actually bring my laptop on the plane (which I hate to do; unless I get a lucky upgrade to first class or an exit row, my Dell D600 is too darn big for regular coach), deal with more security, and lug more shit onto the airplane.
I still seal my luggage -- instead of a lock, I use a tie-wrap and I keep a cheapie wire cutters stashed in a hidden pocket. It's not much, but at least I'll know that prying eyes will have to WORK to get into my luggage.
I had to go back through security and check in my carry on because it contained (a) R45 crimper (b) 10 metres of Cat5 and (c) a cable tester.
What was I gonna do, crimp an RJ-45 to someone's throat? Sheesh.
Since he does not look like the average englishmen (he looks like a well-groomed Saddam Hussein - which is quite funny, given that he is a member of the Royal Academy of Arts), he was singled out at security and his bag searched; they found the scissors, and while apologizing profusely (this is England, after all), they put the scissors in a enveloppe which was handed to the captain.
He then went back into the boarding line like if nothing happenned. Now, every average englishmen in the line was looking at im with suspicion and distrust. This lasted throughout the whole flight. Whenever he got up to the loo, everyone followed him by the eyes.
The kicker was when they were unboarding the plane, the captain was standing in the cockpit door, waiting for my father, and when he passed by, he handed my father his scissors with a cheerful "I hope you had a pleasant flight"...
If you have to travel with your AX please check it through...
Fortunately they decided to just do the standard chemical explosive swab (and maybe waved a Geiger counter at it, I don't know).
A relative works for the FAA. I thought they might flash their ID at airports to get VIP treatment, but they said there is no way they ever let the security guys see the FAA ID. If security knows you are FAA, they will demonstrate their zeal by searching your baggage in great detail while you are bent over in another room auditioning to be the goatse guy understudy.
Meanwhile... had the fortune to fly out of Logan in October of 2001 aboard a 757 fully loaded with fuel for a long flight. Man, they had reps from every law enforcent agency there, packing heat plus. State troopers, Boston cops, National Guard. Get up in the air - not a one. Undercover agents with hidden Glocks? Maybe, but I would have felt a lot better if they had just lent me one of those Uzis they were flashing around on the ground. Sure, I felt safer in the airport, but who ever hijacked an airport?
If Slashdot were chemistry it would look like this:Cadaverine
I'm predict a future website that lists tech-unfriendly airports, a sort a map of airports to avoid. I can probably guess that "The Man"(tm) will try and shut it down, because of "National Security" reasons. Maybe I should make my own list....? hmmmm..
For a nice date: call strftime(3C)
Be wary of mishandling by TSA staff in general. I was carrying a fairly expensive fountain pen I'd received as a gift in my laptop bag. TSA fumbled while examining it and dropped it on the nib. It's now a $250 paperweight until I can send it off to be repaired.
Try to be aware of anything that doesn't open or operate in the way that a tired, bored TSA person expects it to. (The fountain pen cap screwed on, rather than pulled on and off.) It only takes a second of inattention for something to get broken.
I created a homemade external battery pack for my iPaq a few years back. Pulled out the soldering iron and parted it together to run off a collection of rechargeable 'd' cell batteries. Apparently, someone in the security line freaked when they saw it - but only had minimal delays.
I occasionally go to a firing range and do a little pistol shooting. I was using a tradeshow laptop bag to hold my weapons and expended brass. My main bag broke, so I emptied the pistol bag (being very careful to not accidentally pack any ammunition) and ran to the airport. Missed the flight because my bag lit up when they swabbed it. No trouble other than talking to a bunch of people... but still, what a pain.
One of the things that seems to trip up the security folks - especially in EMEA - is how long I keep a laptop and how many people have access to it. I usually get to trade up laptops every quarter (and schlep off the older, but now fully configured box to one of the other Sales folks). Since these laptops are really mobile dev servers (IMHO), when I respond, "do you mean physical access to the laptop, or from a remote access standpoint?" Always gets them...
+++ UGUCAUCGUAUUUCU
I realize that's both unfair and unhelpful, but it's still good advice. Actually I formulated notion that years ago... and not in connection with baggage inspections.
It stems from the time when we tried to bring a sewing machine into the United States.
I mean, at that time, Necchi sewing machines happened to be a real bargain in Curacao because Curacao was a junior member of the common market. My wife had been wanting a sewing machine that cost about $500 in the U.S. In a little window of a little fabric store way outside the tourist shopping district it was selling for the equivalent of $200, so we grabbed it. The store people were fascinated because they'd never had anyone from the U.S. buy a sewing machine before. Didn't know people in the U.S. even used sewing machines.
And it took us an hour to get it through customs.
It wasn't that sewing machines were contraband, or forbidden, or suspicious. It's that apparently nobody buys sewing machines on vacations. And it wasn't that it was an expensive or high-duty item; it's that they didn't know what the duty was. They weren't on the list that the inspector had at his station. So they pulled us out of line and took us to the supervisor's office. And he didn't have it in his big reference book. It took them about six phone calls and various people running around and bringing loose-leaf binders into the office before they could determine what category it belonged in. They decided that we owed them about six dollars and twenty-two cents and could proceed on our way.
For the same reason, I've quit taking my Rocket eBook with me. Which is a big shame, as the only real use it had was on trips. I can read novels with comfort and enjoyment on it, and I can carry eight to ten full-length novels in the same weight and volume as a single trade paperback. But it always causes extra delay because the inspectors have never seen one before and don't know what it is (and there's something about it that they don't choose to share with me that shows up in X-rays and bothers them). Plus, of course, the airlines consider it a "personal electronic device" that might interfere with navigation...
So, blend in. Don't carry items that other people don't commonly carry. (In other words, behave like a terr--no, let's not go there).
"How to Do Nothing," kids activities, back in print!
A couple of years prior to 9/11, the man standing ahead of me in line tried to walk off with my laptop at security in the Memphis airport. It was the classic--cause a delay as you're walking through and grab whatever you can on the way out. He was helped by the idiot-woman running the scanner, who picked the computer up, batted her eyes at him, and said, "Is this yours, sir?" He smiled, nodded, took the computer, and began to walk away. I made a slight disturbance by following him and saying 'THAT'S MY LAPTOP' and put my hand on it. A supervisor was called, and I was able to produce a company ID badge with my picture, the company name and logo, and my employee ID number--which happened also to be the property tag number of the computer. There was no doubt he had attempted to steal it, no chance at all it was a mixup, yet he wasn't detained at all.
The truly bizzare end of the story was that not a half-hour later, a man got through that same security area with a weapon and they cleared the entire airport--sent us all out of gate areas to mill around in the main terminal and outside. I was five hours late getting home, but my laptop was with me. During that chapter of the fiasco, their public-address system didn't work, various officials gave conflicting instructions, and many planes took off without passengers who were still waiting to get back inside.
I believe there's less chance of theft happening now, as at our airport (BWI) they place all your belongings in a plastic basket, and they move people through very slowly. But it can still happen, and I'll bet it still does. It might be even more difficult now to do what I did--make a fuss--as the security people are into such a rigid routine.
My under-educated guess is that the post-9/ll security at Memphis is probably still bad, since they obviously had entrenched incompetence higher-up. I'm guessing security at Baltimore is probably pretty good, since they seemed to have an efficient culture among the security people there before 9/11.
If I ever have to pass through Memphis again, I'll walk.
DUCT TAPE: The Election Supervisors' Secret Weapon
Its interesting to see what they do and don't like. For example:
- the one item that we know has been used to try to blow up a plane in the last two years, matches, are still permitted. This is allegedly at the insistence of the tobacco lobby, who want to make sure all their addicts can light up as soon as they arrive at their destination.
- metal forks are still provided by many airlines and airport outlets for meals. Among cutlery items, forks are arguably more dangerous than knives, especially the blunt knives you used to get on planes.
- glass is an interesting one. I could convert my glass eye glasses into weapons in a few moments. Glass cutting edges could be more effective than boxcutters, as long as you don't mind getting too messy.
Time and time again, from ID cards to the TSA, it seems this whole intrusive system isn't about providing real security its about providing the illusion of security, and that makes me very worried.
Of course now I'll probably get strip searched whenever I get within a mile of an airport...
On Discovery there was a series of the bionic man (or something),
on which I've seen
a man whom lost his legs and could run faster with his new pair(special desingn),
and he was quite happy with them.
But my favourite was not yet done;
a "new" eye;
equiped with zoomlens, infrared, UV, memory disk for image storage, laser distance meter, and/so/on
(I could be exagerating, it was long time ago since I've seen the show, but I'm pretty sure X-ray is out of the question)
I thought a long time about it and I think I could poke one of my own eyes out just to have one.
It's an amature astronomers dream come true(too much equipment to carry around besides the scope).
but seriously: ever thought about how the world "looks" in UV or a mix from UV/visible/infra ?
The show gave sort of a preview....I thought it was awesome.
I can just imagine trying to explain it to security. Yes, it is an atomic clock. Yes, it is supposed to have all of those counting digits on the front panel. No, you can't take it apart to see how it works. No, I can't turn it off without making the whole trip pointless.
Mea navis aericumbens anguillis abundat
Travelling out of a former republic of the Soviet Union, I set off the metal detector. I was immediately taken to a side room where a man in full military uniform patted me down. Nothing was found, but as I was leaving, they were leading a woman into the same room. On the other hand, in India, they have separate metal detectors for men and women, and curtained off areas, also for the women. Handbags are thoroughly searched; one fellow in front of me had a pack of matches that were found and confiscated. In Germany, my laptop was vacuumed. I inquired, and the lady told me that they were checking for traces of explosives. All she got from me was a lot of dog hair from my golden retriever. I don't recall ever having to power up my PowerBook. It did give the agents in San Jose pause, however, when the "wipe-scan" caused an unknown error. A supervisor was called over said it happens sometimes, and let me go on.
Going through metal detectors in the states, I remove my coat, watch, glasses, wallet, shoes, empty my pockets and take off my belt. At one airport, this still wasn't enough and I set of the detector (don't remember what it was). At LaGuardia, I went through the same routine and made it to the edge of the detector without setting it off, at which point I did a little victory jig -- and prompty set off the detector. The TSB agent was kind enough to show me what had happened by demonstrating how sudden motion can set those things off.
The items on the prohibited list make sense. Blasting caps, knives, etc.
I have flown w/in the US and internationally since 9-11. What irritated me is not the list itself, but the subjectiveness in applying the rules.
At one airport sewing siscors are OK, while at another they are not. In one airport inspecting shoes is all the rage. Now all laptops have to go through the x-ray machine (at least in Dallas). You never really know what you will be asked to do with electronics. Heaven forbid you bring on a piece of electronics the screener is unfamiliar with!
my cube has a window...
In 1986 I flew from LA to Toronto via Chicago with an Atari 400. You might remember they had the slot for the cartridge completely encased in Aluminum. In Chicago going north they freaked out at this and made me open it up. Ok. On the way back, at Chicago going south I was carrying a 100 year old sterling fish serving knife and fork, they REALLY freaked out over this and damn near didn't let me on the plane. Sure it looks deadly but it's ornate and not even remotely sharp. They ignored the Atari.
The last flight I was on they xrayed my stuff then hand inspected all the crap in my pockets, including a leather keycase with a zippered compartment. The nice but really dumb lady opened the keycase, felt it through and through and handed it back to me without openeing the zipper where she would have found a sterling Tiffany Swiss army knife. Helloooooooo?
My mother once had a pair of nail scissors confiscated. She bought a new set inside the airport at one of those cheesy airport stores once she was past security.
The point is the secutity searches are remarkably inconsistant.
Need Mercedes parts ?
I see a lot of people moaning at the idiocy of all this, and yet, why is it happening?`
In Slashdot comments people never tire to cite famous people like Ghandi (each MS bashing article has it), but why is the one about liberty and temporary safety missing here?
Yes, screen for obvious threats like firearms and bombs with tools like x-ray machines, dogs, and chemical sniffers. But quit harrassing everyone by trying to find every nail file, screwdriver, pocket knife, etc.
The simple answer is: nightsticks. Issue every adult passenger a nightstick. Anybody tries something funny, there's a hundred people with hard, heavy sticks ready to pound his ass. I also expect that it should improve the service from the stewardesses. The airline could even put their logo on it, and let the passengers keep them as souveniers. It'd be good marketing!
btw: a battery (or accumulator), can ecplode on its own
3 -nokia_m obile_phones_explode.htm
see:
http://www.cellular.co.za/news_2003/10060
Sorry, my mistake. Left the US nearly two years ago so not quite up to speed on these things...
As an aside I realised after a vacation recently that I had a razor blade (new, sharp) in my 1st aid kit in my hand luggage. Flew Gatwick to Malta-Luqa and back on Scare 2000/JMC and not one of the security bozos saw the thing. Oh well.
+5, Hilarious
From the pc mag article:Marty maintains that the scanners at the security gate will not harm film, hard drives, or digital cameras. The stronger scanners for checked baggage, on the other hand, run the risk of causing damage to any of these items
That would seem like a very good reason not to put anything that has data you don't want to be erased in your checked baggage - which would include digital camera with memory card, laptop with hard drive, and hard drive based MP3 player like iPod.
I have blog like everyone else
Razor blades are specifically ALLOWED both in checked as well as carry on, idiot. The "security bozos" simply didn't give a fuck that you brought your Mach III's on board.
You're lucky _I_ am not a security bozo, or I'd be just liable to kick the living shit out of a smart talking punk-ass little faggot like you.
not personally, but i bet Steve Mann does
hook line and sinker.
you took the bait faster than any fish i've ever seen.
Of course, Penn Gilette had the all-time best word on that in his PC Computing essay. Just write a little start-up program that fills your PC screen with "10...9...8...7...". Airport security love a passenger with a sense of humour.
Outside of perhaps a welfare office or major metropolitan emergency room waiting area, is there any public space more repellent than an airport? Inspecting your shoes while they do a cursory glance at the _cargo_ riding with you is just added value in an already surreal experience.
Positive suggestion: avoidance. Less than 150 miles, drive. Less than 500-600 miles: Can you arrange a Monday business meeting? Amtrak down Sunday. Amtrak back the same day.
some nut figures out how to screw the airport security and passengers completely by making a bomb, inserting it where sun don' shine, and getting caught at the checkup point on purpose?
What will TSA do then?
Have you considered changing it from "retard" to "neurotic"?
My magic 8 ball went throught X-Ray 3 times...
Why???
Maybe it's because it has a classic round shape bomb look...
Remember, there is no privacy when you *choose* to fly..
You wave most all your rights to privacy at the door. ( especially now that the patriot act is fully in force which blurs the lines between privacy, rights, commercial and governmental entities... )
Do i think they should ask, no..
Do they have the legal right, currently... yes.
( actually, in theory they can deny you access just because you have long hair.. but they could loose federal funding in that case )
---- Booth was a patriot ----
"If you could just step behind this curtain, sir? Pants around your ankles please. And bend over this table. This'll only take a few minutes."
Point being, there are limits on what friggin' Mr. Security is allowed to ask you to do.
Tom Swiss | the infamous tms | my blog
You cannot wash away blood with blood
Thanks for modding that down, and for recognizing that posts about niggers and faggots are inherently trolls.
Keep up the good work, keep Slashdot free from niggers and faggots!
Stuff almost everything in a small carry-on bag. A professional-looking backpack is the best (the backpack part for ergonomic, not security reasons).
Wear as little metal as possible. That includes shoes with metal inserts in the soles (a lot of plain-looking walking or dress shoes have those). Get a coin purse and stuff your change in the purse and that in your carry-on.
When going thru security, do not rush, follow instructions even inane ones ("yes, I will turn on that Palm V for you sir"). Do not tell them that you got a flight to catch or attract their attention in any other way. Since you're not carrying anything dangerous (right?) it will be far faster for you to go with the flaw and accept the default process rather than try to explain your reasons for short-circuiting it.
I travel for work on occasion. I've had some issues. The problem is I insall stuff on customers machines-both hardware and software. The problem is-the stuff I do is complicated, and the tools etc have radios in them, wires, etc. And I carry a peice of luggage full of this kind of stuff. Guard "So what do you do with this stuff?" Me "I install it on ovens" Guard "OK go over there for a second" Guard 2 "Whats this thing?" [holds up a supermole gold profiler] Me "Its a thermal profiler" Guard 2" I though you said you installed ovens?" The long and short is-they're certain I lied to them the first time when all I did was try to keep it simple, and then they're upset because the don't understand what I do. Nor can I easily and simply explain this. I was once searched 13 times in one round trp within the US. One of them said I raised red flags. I imagine it didn't help that I pay for my flights in cash. My shoes ALWAYS set off metal detectors. And they once almost refused to allow me to travel with my laptop because it was broken. Why-because at the prior security point they had dropped and broken it! Canadian customs is the worst. same scenario as above only rude and full of paperwork. Leaving your cordless drill with the battery in as it goes through things....sometimes if they're jostled/compressed they get turned on...and your baggage begins to smoke and catch fire as its going through te x-ray machine. If this happens to you-you will not be flying that day. Do not yell and scream. if you get too excited you also won't be staying at your hotel that night. LOL. Gotta love idiots-that kept me entertained just thinking on it on my flight home.
I'm not sure what is supposed to make us feel safer but it doesn't work for me. On the other hand I have never really felt threatened. About a year after 09.11 I went the airport with my hard drive case. The drives contained an album I was working on. Besides the obvious danger of damage if I checked them, it was material by a major artist that I couldn't let out of my sight. Picture a medium sized (18" x 12" x 8"?) Pelican case, with custom foam inserts and four Kingston SCSI removable carriers w/drives lined up in there. When I got to the security check I was thinking I couldn't imagine anything that would look more like bombs! It looked like a bomb from an old Bond movie or something, it just needed a big red LED display to be complete. I was prepared for a big explanation. I have no way to mount these, obviously! This is what I got; Pause, open case, blank stare, "what is that?" , I reply "hard drives", more blank stare, obviously not sure what a hard drive is, "OK", close case. end of security measures. I haven't had much faith in security since then. I can remember only one time that I had to turn on my notebook at security. It's not a problem because it's always just sleeping, but they never ask. Maybe they think no one would blow up an ibook?
I was stupid enough to have the following conversation with a security officer last year while going through the checkpoint with my notebook in hand:
Officer: "Hello sir, may I have a look at your computer?"
Me: "Sure, have blast"
Officer: "Sir, would you please step over to the two gentlemen on the side over here, they would like to hafve a few words with you"
Me: (Internal voice: WTF did you say "Have a blast" for, you could have said, "Sure, no problem") Ugh!
I would have said:
I would like it done professionally, and with dispatch.
Optionally to throw in, as well:
And with your immediate supervisor's direct supervision.
No, I wouldn't have smiled when I said that.
Sam
Quite inadvertently, I have made round trips from
Toronto to Boston and from Toronto to Chicago with
a big screwdriver (12 inch shaft) in my laptop bag.
I was shocked to discover it at the gate on the
last leg of my second trip. Since I'd already
cleared security I kept it.
That's 4/4 security checks (2 Canadian, 2 U.S.)
that failed.
Not that I'm so worried. I believe it no
longer fruitful to commandeer a plane with hand
tools. Surprise and the doctrine of "give them
what they want" were essential components of the
9-11 attacks. Both are now absent.
Most people here are talking about PC equipment and consumer technology. But I still remember years ago in the mid '70's when my father (an oceanographer) would travel on commercial aircraft with current meters (meters for measuring ocean data). At the time, these where a hardened metal cylinder about 10 inches in diameter and 18 inches long with some probes and a handle on top, the lid was held on with large metal clips. They still had a lot of mechanical components (for example the tape cartridge storage device that recorded the data), and occasionally would make ticking sounds. He would carry these onboard because even back in the '70's, they cost around $100,000. These days, the are yellow plastic balls full of solid state... I can not imagine being able to show TSA that these things where not bombs. I wonder about other non-consumer, non-PC electronic equipment...
"Who are in control, they are not in control of anything - they don't even control themselves!" - Glen Beck
My sister-in-law is studying medicine in Israel. When she came home for Christmas she had her laptop "inspected". The process included putting the laptop in a padded box, mounting it in a catapult (Yep, you read that right!), heaving it across a large room at about 40mph, hitting a wall about 8 feet up, and crashing to the floor. That was to make sure it wouldn't blow up.
She also had to have her 8 chocolate bars, that were christmas gifts, packed in a security marked box and stored in the blast-proof part of the luggage compartment. There must be something special about the way Israeli confectioners make their products.
Did you see sabers on there? Do Light Sabers count? What does that Star Wars kid do when he flies?
___ Shout Central - Crushes your nuts!
It's probably late enough in the posting that this will get buried, but I have always had problems with wires. Even back in the "laxer" days of airport security, they don't like to see lots of wires in a carry-on. If you have any wires, disconnect and twist tie them so they're obviously not doing anything. Just a quick tip on how to avoid a little potential hassle.
I have travelled with a large lock blade knife several times since 9/11, and it was found by the x-ray people once. I checked it after that.
I used to keep a flip-blade screwdriver in my laptop bag, and on the x-ray it looks exactly like a zip gun. No one ever looked at that, but they did spend 10 minutes and two supervisors deciding whether or not to allow me to take my retractable phone cord on the plane. I guess it looks like a garrote, and the TSA manual must say that a garrote is more dangerous than a zip gun...
I've walked through the metal detector with a pocketknife and watched the TSA monkeys grab the person behind me for the anal probe.
Bruce Schneier says that the two things that make us more secure since 9/11 are reinforced cockpit doors, and the knowledge among passengers that we are responsible for our own safety. Unfortunately, we aren't allowed to have any tools with which to implement that safety. Except our brains, which is kind of a scary thought for most people.
I remembered Matt Blaze (really sharp computer security and crypt guy)going through some fun experience that he wrote up in trying to -legally- transport some relatively basic phone-crypto device. I found the article online, and have posted the text below. Note that the article is copyright Matt Blaze, and that I have followed his guideline for reproducing the article: his copyright notice is intact, and the article is provided in its entirety. Sam Nitzberg http://www.iamsam.com - - - From: http://www.epic.org/crypto/export_controls/blaze.h tml - - - My Life as an International Arms Courier Matt Blaze Under an obscure provision of US law, devices and computer programs that use encryption techniques to hide information from prying eyes and ears are considered ``munitions'' and subject to the same rules that govern the international arms trade. In particular, taking such items out of this country requires the approval of the State Department, which decides whether exporting something might endanger national security. In the past, these restrictions were of little concern to the average citizen; encryption found most of its application in military and diplomatic communications equipment. Today, however, growing concern over electronic fraud and privacy means that encryption techniques are starting to find their way into more conventional commercial products like laptop computers and portable phones. Mostly to find out what the process was like, I recently applied for a temporary export license for a portable telephone encryption product that I wanted to take with me on a business trip to England and Belgium. The item in question is more properly called a ``telephone security device.'' This is a little box that scrambles telephone conversations to protect them against eavesdroppers; this sort of protection is sometimes important when discussing confidential business matters from faraway places. The particular model I bought was already approved for export; it employs a cipher algorithm that the government has already decided is not a threat to national security even should it fall into the hands of some rogue government. This model is aimed primarily, I presume, at international business travelers who want to communicate in a reasonably secure manner with their home offices in the states. In other words, a typical user buys two of them, leaving one at the home office and carrying the other when traveling abroad. The options that came with my device included a James Bond-ish looking acoustic coupler and handset to facilitate its connection to the hardwired phones that are still common in European hotel rooms. It turns out that there was recently some discussion in the government about exempting products like my secure phone from the licensing paperwork requirements. Unfortunately, however, this exemption never actually took effect. So even though the device I had was already approved for sale abroad, I still needed to get a temporary export license before I could take it with me. But I was assured that ``this is an easy, routine process''. Well, sure enough, about two weeks before I was to leave I got back my official US State Department ``license for the temporary export of unclassified defense articles''. So far, so good. From what I was able to figure out by reading the license (and having a few conversations with an export lawyer), I'm required to leave from an international airport with a Customs agent present (no problem there, although Customs is geared to arriving, rather than departing, travelers). At the airport, I'm supposed to fill out a form called a ``shipper's export declaration'' (SED) on which I have to declare that ``these commodities are authorized by the US government for export only to Belgium and the United Kingdom. They may not be resold, transshipped, or otherwise disposed of in any country, either in their original form or incorporated into other end-items without the prior written approval of the US Department of State''. Then I'm to present the SED and export license
Gee, I guess not. They will allow actual guns in your checked luggage, but not gun lighters. Apparently there's a huge fear of people being scared by lighters after the owner of the lighter has left the airport.
-----------------------
You are what you think.
My family had an interesting problem returning from a vacation in mexico. The airport screeners wanted to look through our carry on bags and then our electronic toys. They desided that about half of our batteries (all 1.5V AA) were unsafe and took them. The others we were allowed to walk on with. Quite an interesting security issue.
-Tim Louden
it is not directly related to the subject but it recalls me a recent experience. when going to london, i took the eurostar train. ;)
and when i reached london, an english customs cop selected me for a few questions and to check my belongings. i had to turn my laptop on, like you would do in an airport. but it gets more complicated next.
they had a cdrom they wanted to use on my machine to search for paedophilia and other illegal content. i said i was ok but the first problem was my laptop is a sub-laptop without cdrom nor floppy drive. so as we could not use the cdrom, i turned the machine on so they could check around.
i use netbsd and i dont use x window so there is no graphical interface of any kind on my machine. so he asked for a mouse and i told it has no mouse but that red kind of thing, the trackpoint. but there was no graphical interface on screen, so he was quite puzzled.
so i had to explain i use it to write programs and just check emails so i dont require a graphical interface, just a clean and simple 80x50 console.
well the more i tried to help them check my machine, the more the customs guy looked at me like some kind of extra-terrestrial when it came to using a computer. it's fun to tell but it was not fun to go through.
i also had my gps with me (i'm a geocacher too) and he asked me if i was using a gps to mark spots for future bombings or alike. i thought that joking might be a very bad idea so i kept serious and i just told him i used a gps to avoid getting lost, and to mark the hotel and places so i dont get lost in london.
for people of you using macintosh machines you should be safe : the custom people told me their cdrom only worked on intel machines (for now) so if you are into sex pics, use a mac
(gilbertf (at) netbsd-fr (dot) org)
Researching the secret shadow government...
d _Prohibited_12_18_2003.pdf
<bash_code>
wget http://www.tsa.gov/interweb/assetlibrary/Permitte
WORKER=$(pdfinfo Permitted_Prohibited_12_18_2003.pdf | grep Author | cut -d':' -f2 | sed -e 's/^[ ]*//g' | tr ' ' '+')
links http://www.google.com/search?q=${WORKER}
</bash _code>
Got 'em. Err... Grand View College?
Whiskey Tango Foxtrot--is that accredited?
Must be clerical support. Time to try again.
Or, read up on GVC's "therock" tradition,
and use that as social engineering angle.
("Didn't we paint the rock together back
at 'Grand?"...)
The point: TSA <b>LEAKS</b> info with everything
they do. They use M$ products. They do crappy
work with these tools.
I'd never use a cyber cafe for anything remotely useful because it seems pretty likely the machine will have a keyboard logger on it. This advice about not taking your laptop seems pretty pie in the sky...
I am not a number! I am a man! And don't you
I remember years ago when Matt Blaze (A very sharp crypto and computer security guy) tried to follow the laws and properly take a phone-crypto device with him. I have the link (and the text) below.
.h tml
In accordance with his copyright usage requirements, I have the entire article and his copyright notice provided below.
Sam Nitzberg
http://www.iamsam.com
http://www.epic.org/crypto/export_controls/blaze
My Life as an International Arms Courier
Matt Blaze
Under an obscure provision of US law, devices and computer programs that use encryption techniques to hide information from prying eyes and ears are considered ``munitions'' and subject to the same rules that govern the international arms trade. In particular, taking such items out of this country requires the approval of the State Department, which decides whether exporting something might endanger national security. In the past, these restrictions were of little concern to the average citizen; encryption found most of its application in military and diplomatic communications equipment. Today, however, growing concern over electronic fraud and privacy means that encryption techniques are starting to find their way into more conventional commercial products like laptop computers and portable phones.
Mostly to find out what the process was like, I recently applied for a temporary export license for a portable telephone encryption product that I wanted to take with me on a business trip to England and Belgium.
The item in question is more properly called a ``telephone security device.'' This is a little box that scrambles telephone conversations to protect them against eavesdroppers; this sort of protection is sometimes important when discussing confidential business matters from faraway places. The particular model I bought was already approved for export; it employs a cipher algorithm that the government has already decided is not a threat to national security even should it fall into the hands of some rogue government. This model is aimed primarily, I presume, at international business travelers who want to communicate in a reasonably secure manner with their home offices in the states. In other words, a typical user buys two of them, leaving one at the home office and carrying the other when traveling abroad. The options that came with my device included a James Bond-ish looking acoustic coupler and handset to facilitate its connection to the hardwired phones that are still common in European hotel rooms.
It turns out that there was recently some discussion in the government about exempting products like my secure phone from the licensing paperwork requirements. Unfortunately, however, this exemption never actually took effect. So even though the device I had was already approved for sale abroad, I still needed to get a temporary export license before I could take it with me. But I was assured that ``this is an easy, routine process''. Well, sure enough, about two weeks before I was to leave I got back my official US State Department ``license for the temporary export of unclassified defense articles''. So far, so good.
From what I was able to figure out by reading the license (and having a few conversations with an export lawyer), I'm required to leave from an international airport with a Customs agent present (no problem there, although Customs is geared to arriving, rather than departing, travelers). At the airport, I'm supposed to fill out a form called a ``shipper's export declaration'' (SED) on which I have to declare that ``these commodities are authorized by the US government for export only to Belgium and the United Kingdom. They may not be resold, transshipped, or otherwise disposed of in any country, either in their original form or incorporated into other end-items without the prior written approval of the US Department of State''. Then I'm to present the SED and export license to a Customs official at the airport before I leave. The Customs officer is suppose
Basically, the restrictions on carry-on beyond knives are silly, and even restricting a knife is somewhat silly because you can always make a substitute (however, if you think about just stopping random highjackings [non-premeditated], restricting knives is good).
Since the restrictions are stupid and time wasting, and the service (air travel) is fairly essential given how it's the only way to travel to and from some areas, entire planes of people who try to smuggle on nail clippers is the only way to get things changed. The governments involved won't change it, because they don't want to look bad to all the people who are deathly afraid of more terrorism. Only people can change it.
If the other people onboard those other planes had simply stood up to the highjackers, nothing bad would've really come from it. No one wanted to be a hero, so the highjackers were able to execute their suicide mission. At any point in the 2 years since, plenty more suicide missions could've gone off just fine -- there just haven't been any suicide missions to execute. The "security" is nothing but a smokescreen that needs to be taken away.
--
Internet Explorer (n): Another bug -- that is, a feature that can't be turned off -- in Windows.
I was traveling to an explosives conference in Maryland. I didn't have my laptop with me, but I had the case. I was way early for my flight, and got hungry; there wasn't anywhere to eat where I was, so I went out through security, ate, and came back through. I was the only person there, other than the security guard, who asked me if it was okay to use an electronic "sniffer" on the bag.
"Hey!" I said. "We tested that machine!" Which is true- I forget the model, but it was made up in Massachusetts. You wipe the object down with a bit of cloth stuck in a wand, and then put the cloth into the machine. I told him it was fine, but that it would probably set the machine off, which caused him to look at me like I asked for a fried weasel on a bun. "I work with explosives. I carried that bag with me to work every day for years." He sighed, rolled his eyes, and said, "Nobody's ever told me THAT before."
He finished up, put the cloth into the machine, and I waited for it to go "bling" and have all kinds of alarms go off- or at least get a full-body cavity search. It didn't. For some reason, the machine said no explosives were detected, and the man told me I could leave.
"No! Wait!" I held the case up and pointed to the feet. "Swab these! That'll set it off." I really wanted to see if it would work- I wasn't holding anybody up, and I had time to kill, so what the hey.
"You can go now, sir."
What's ironic is that my specialty used to be blowing airplanes up for the gov'munt. Now they don't even believe I can do that.
I've traveled a great deal in my life, and consider myself a "Technology Road Warrior", adept at dealing with many of the known hassles of traveling with technology. After 9/11, I'm sure we all have been frustrated by the added hassles at the airports, but also acknowledge the need for the increased security. I've been patient and tolerant of the new obstacles until now.
Tuesday, I flew Continental from Seattle to Houston. I decided to check my bag, even though it was small enough to carry-on. I had a lot of electronic equipment in the bag that I didn't want to bother carrying with me, such as a high end digital camera, Palm handheld, assorted charging cables, nice watch, etc. I had a lock on the bag, but was politely reminded as I checked the bag that locks are not allowed so that our bag can be searched.
After arriving at my destination, I quickly discovered that all electronics had been stolen from my bag, only to be replaced by a slip of paper from TSA that my bag had been searched. It's all just stuff, and can be replaced, but I'm pretty irritated by being stolen from, and by the situation as a whole. Customer service at Continental pretty much blew me off, even though I consider it their responsibility since the items were stolen between the time that I checked the bag into their care, and when I picked it up at baggage claim. I was brusquely told (as I'm sure several of you will be thinking) that I should have carried electronic items with me on board.
Now I'm skittish about my flight home. My expandable bag is now too big to carry-on, and is full of expensive Christmas presents. I don't feel that I should have to incur the cost of shipping the items to myself, yet I no longer feel safe that my possessions will arrive safely at my destination if I check my baggage with the airline, as they certainly have made no assurances or apologies.
One security screener even asked me to log in, decrypt and look at files on my notebook's desktop
You didn't get that state department memo about encrypted bombs?
who are those slashdot people? they swept over like Mongol-Tartars.
I work for the TSA and I can tell you directly that we do NOT require that anyone turn any electronic devices on. The reason for this, first and foremost, is that we run the risk of blowing people (and ourselves) up in the process of testing things. Other reasons include the possibility that people are transporting damaged items for repair at a relative's home in another state (which happens) and the list goes on! If some fool suggests that he was required to turn on his laptop in order to pass security checks, then he's either lying or wasn't being screened by Federal Security Screeners. If this actually happened, then PLEASE report the fool and they will be summarily dismissed.
I know the TSA and security procedures are a general pain in the butt but I honestly feel that most of us are doing a good, correct and consciencious job.
And to be perfectly clear about the detection of potentially dangerous items, we have devices and procedures in place to cover such screening. We do not require anything be in working order. That'd be like testing "white powder" by sniffing at it. SUICIDE!! Even if it were "just a drug" and not anthrax, how ready are you to put an unknown substance up your nose? (and yet, thanks to Hollywood, there are many ready to lay down their lives supporting the cause of stupidity)
Frankly, I am sick of hearing nonsensical stories about imagined hassles that never happen in airports these days... especially those handled by the TSA. I know the procedures and I know the minds of the people who write them well enough. While security procedures are constantly being updated, they haven't changed so wildly as to include such stupidity. And again, if you can document such procedures in place, PLEASE tell someone. Your rights to travel are the same as before this 9-11 mess. You can still have guns in your luggage just as before. You can still even travel without government ID if you want to. It might be a little more of a hassle in the case of flying without ID, but such situations happen to honest people on a regular basis for a variety of reasons and restricting the constitutional right to freedom of travel is never the purpose or intended result of the TSA's activities... on the contrary, our mission is to preserve such rights.
That said, I wish I could get back into I.T.... *sigh* this economy sucks...
Once in Dubai Airport, I was stopped by a security guard to open and show my notebook computer. I had no prior experience of travelling with a notebook, so I didn't know that they were a security concern. Anyway, the guy wanted to see that my notebook "worked", and unfortunate me, I had just wiped the hard disk of my shiny new Thinkpad, as it was waiting for Linux to be installed on it. Hence, I got into all sortes of troubles you can imagine, as the security guys couldn't underestand that a computer might be phisycally OK, but have no OS installed on it. luckily, I suddenly remembered that I had a Knoppix CD with me. putting it in, and showing it boot, saved my day. Yet another way of how Knoppix can save you!!
--
The UK used to demand that you boot your incoming laptop from their magic floppy disk which was somehow supposed to detect pornography.
I'm 'Merican and I've been living in the UK full time since 1997. I've also traveled to the UK - frequently! - on biz since 1996.
I've always travelled with a PowerBook, sometimes leaving and re-entering the country as often as 30+ times a year, yet for some strange reason I've never seen the Magic Floppy Porno Disk of which you speak.
Are we talking about the same UK?
Or have HMS Customs Service always acknowledged the moral superiority of PowerBook users?
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Except for the more intensive laptop examinations, and the longer lines, I've not noticed any real changes at the checkpoints.
The biggest issues I had were...
--Coming through Seatac to meet my wife as she returned from Florida. Had my Motorola portable radio (an MT2000) with me, as I was keeping in touch with some (amateur radio) friends of ours while I waited for the flight. By odd chance, it happens that the security screeners also use MT2000's, but not the VHF model that I had. Red flag! I got asked twice if it could work on "their" frequency, and told them (twice) "No, it's not even in the same band as yours." I know this to be true, because the security guys work on the Port of Seattle's 800MHz trunked system. They let me through, but I could tell that you could whack them over the head with the facts, and they still wouldn't "get it."
--On a change-of-planes at Atlanta, while traveling from Seattle to Orlando. I had already been thoroughly screened, and there was no additional X-ray type security checkpoint when simply changing gates to get to the next flight. Despite this, and for reasons still unknown to me, I got all but strip-searched by the morons at a specially set-up secondary checkpoint at the gate. I was wearing open-type sandals (the all-terrain type) with no socks, and I still got asked to take 'em off. Go figure.
I would agree with another poster: Dress well, keep a cool head, and be prepared to explain anything you're carrying, electronics-wise, in full.
Bruce Lane, KC7GR,
Blue Feather Technologies
Apple did away with the floopy... No floopy, no boot. :)
I fly roughly every three weeks, and have yet to have any trouble! In fact, it seems to me that the TSA screeners are getting better about tech, not worse. You just have to tell them you have X laptop(s) and that you'd like to let the guys at the other end of the line finish up first before you send them through -- they'll understand, if they're nice people. As far as having to pack and unpack and whatnot, all you have to remove is your laptop. You can cram whatever else into your carryon (cell, iPod, PDA, whatever) and run that through, rather than emptying your bag out into a bin.
A very useful hint: If you are tired of having your shoes scanned, or being wanded down because of your shoes, try Ecco shoes. They're incredibly comfortable and well-made, and don't have any metal in them at all (at least the suede ones I have don't -- bug your local shoe salesman about it to be sure).
Also, for some insight into travel security (or to post a story) about it, check out www.StupidSecurity.com -- "Exposing Fake Security since 2003."
Michael C. Hollinger
This is about the TSA.
Further, asking to read FILES is equivalent to reading documents.. if I have a briefcase, do I have to allow the security personel to read all my confidential documents before deciding I'm allowed on the aircraft? No, and if that were the case, you can bet the business travelling public would revolt.
Asking me to prove my equipment is real by performing some tasks, that's just fine.
Asking me to decrypt and view personal documents is not going to happen, ever.
Just a few years before 9/11 I had the pleasure of rebuilding a customer's system (PDP-11) from an old tape and hand carrying their new o/s from California to New Jersey. Same day ticket with a funny hard disk. "what is that, I want to unscrew it." I was able to get a manager to understand what I was doing, I don't think that would work today.
Like it or not, you agreed via contract when you purchased the ticket, to sign most of your rights to privacy away.
If you don't agree to their requirements ( as I don't, just for the record ) you don't have to become one of their customers. Its called 'choice'.
You dont 'loose' the rights beacuse its a corporation, you signed them away willingly.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
I have recently flown out of Houston Hobby, Houston Bush and St. Louis with two laptops, a pocket pc phone and a Shuttle PC without encountering any problems at all. I had to send all of the computer devices through seperate from their carying cases, but I was not asked to 'prove' that they were functional. Course on the trip out of Houston Bush my belt buckel set off the alarm, but they still didn't require me to turn anything on to 'prove it operates'
I, for one, welcome our new terrorist overlords.
Not Flamebait. I wish it was Funny, but I'm afraid it may actually be Insightful...
so I can check in ammunition but not explosives?!
How about a handgranade?
ammo or explosive?
Why would he have a saftey razor in his first aid kit?
Sounds to me more like he'd have a tool for cutting...
Advanced users are users too!
" Since you're not carrying anything dangerous (right?) it will be far faster for you to go with the flaw and accept the default process rather than try to explain your reasons for short-circuiting it." Indeed.
"What we do in life echoes in eternity." Maximus Decimus Meridius
Once I had a 250MHz RGB video splitter in my backpack - I had to show it to the security guys and explain them for five minutes what it does.:)
I was travelling from the US to Canada last year, carrying (among other things) my dead-battery iBook, and digital camera. Of course, you have to show them that your laptop works. The security agents would not let me plug the iBook in in order to show them; instead, they had the luggage people find my bags, so I could re-pack with the iBook in my checked luggage. Then the search continued, and it was discovered that i was carrying AA batteries for my digicam! Well, that was completely out of the question. I don't understand why batteries are not allowed as carryon items ("I've got a 9v, and I can make you put your tongue on the contacts!" what a threat!), but apparently they aren't. So my luggage was opened yet again, and I ended up with an empty carryon.
**** You never REALLY learn to swear until you own a computer. ****
n the old world, in old times, citizens were not only protected from liability if trying to save lives, but they also had the citizen's duty of always doing so, even if it meant risking one's own life.
While true, in "old times," citizenship was severely limited to those who could provide some useful service to the local feudal lord. This service typically was typically military in nature.
Given that your average medieval town had a small number of citizens hanging around with military skills, it is no surprise that they were tasked with the town's defense.
Now, fast forward to 2003:
(1) You experience some chest pain, would you like some random person to break your ribs while attempting some misguided chest thumping maneuver?
(2) You are on an airplane, terrorists attack. Should you whip out your fully automatic hand gun and start blasting at them? Recall that airplanes are made of aluminum which is almost as soft as butter, and ignites at only a slightly higher temperature.
(3) Your linux laptop crashes. Before you can react, the guy sitting next to you declares that he is an MCSE and can fix the problem right away. Before you can do anything, he has WinXP installed and all your data has turned into a nice empty NTFS partition.
Putting your computer through an xray will not damage it and will reduce the number of questions your are asked. I also reccomend using PGP DISK to store any sensitive information and putting the associated keys on a USB drive or cd. That way you cannot access the sensitive data without being in physical posession of your key and knowing the password.
411 Y0UR 8453 4R3 8310NG 70 U5!! -NSA
Just stick the goatse.cx guy as the background on your laptop...after seeing that a couple times, these security bozos will learn not to ask.
What if Goatse turns him on?
BIG Mistake. My laptop ended up cracked and I was lucky it was still working.
Those who trade freedom for security will lose both, and deserve neither" -- Ben Franklin
That image might evoke the phrase "cavity search" which is the last thing you want him to be thinking.
Boffoonery - downloadable Comedy Benefit for Bletchley Park
Smart talking punk ass little faggot? Nice words coming from someone too young to think of the old school razor blades that don't have lubricating strips or safety features to keep their metro-sexual babies-bottom skin silky smooth.
Also I don't travel alot but after returning from my last deployment to Bosnia last march, I was cleaning out my laptop case and found a 25.06 bullet I had picked up a year before while Archery hunting. (I had planned on showing it to the local game warden if I had run into him because it was in suspiciously good condition for when and where I found it.)
Anyway that bullet had traveled to and from Ft. Benning and Utah with me, (the actual travel overseas and back was all military transport so no annying security checks) with not a blink from the TSA Nazi's. I had to turn on the laptop once but nothing else.
I'm too lazy to compose a creative sig.
Honestly, this whole security thing wouldn't bother me too much if it was done with any common sense - and if it actually made me feel a little more secure.
It's not about making anyone feel secure. It's about making anyone wanting to try anything feel uncomfortable. It's a psychological tactic as much as anything. That's why the security monkeys are generally assholes - they're trained to be, because it helps freak potential nutters out.
Personally, I think they're wasting their time (any everyone elses). All it'll do is force real terrorists to get better trained and use more hidable devices. Or they'll simply use methods that don't involve going through the boarding proceedure. Ground staff and baggage handlers, anyone?
Forget thrust, drag, lift and weight. Airplanes fly because of money.
It's obvious to everyone that there are no guaruntees. At the end of the day we aren't and never will be 100% safe.
That doesn't mean we can't take some reasonable precautions in an attempt to make those who wish us harm have a more difficult job of it.
Ensuring that a laptop is bootable doesn't prove it's safe but does make things more difficult for people wishing to make one unsafe.
Your point about the drive bay is probably moot. Mine is removable and has an alternate face plate but you would stand no more chance of smuggling anything in there than in your toiletry bag, that's what they have x-ray machines for and they could manually examine that part if they needed to. The boot test is just one of the ways they can try and check something they can't manually examine, the innards of your computer.
Is it a guaruntee? No. But it would be foolish not to be doing it.
Boffoonery - downloadable Comedy Benefit for Bletchley Park
Ban all carry on baggage! Anything you want to bring on board you have to carry in your hands. A book, a couple of magazines or whatever but that's it. If you have special requirements (medicines etc) then they have to be in a clear pouch.
The problem is not so much that the current restrictions are stupid and time-wasting it's that people are bringing on board an enormous amount of shit they don't need. This simply means security has a larger haystack than necessary to look for the needle in.
Flying offers people enormous amounts of convenience (ie the ability to travel places in hours that would otherwise take days). It isn't unreasonable that this enormous convenience is part of a trade off for some other minor inconveniences.
Boffoonery - downloadable Comedy Benefit for Bletchley Park
I've never seen any security in the US that came close to comparing to the rest of the world.
In China and hong Kong (1994) many of us hand checked all our rolls of film, one at a time, with an inspector.. why? because the Xray mahcienes were turned on so high, those lead film bags wouldn't protect the film.
All other countries I've been to... armed guards everywhere. Even better, if you go up and ask the armed guards for some assistance, they are pleasant and cordial.
Buisness Travelers? First Class customers? Same line as everyone else... Same searches, If your belt buckle or shoe buckles set off the alarms, belt and shoes go thru the xray.
So no, I don't feel safer at all... never felt remotely safe in a US airport. ~Marchie
~Donald / Just RTFM
I just think it's funny how this site always posts news articles which contain laments about the "computerized policing" of America, and how american's are so paranoid now-a-days Than you have this story, which proves those who make these prediction share the same degree of "paranoia". Maybe, Slashdot, it's because people care about their families as much as you care about your hardware. -1 TROLL
the TSA is a huge waste of money. they solved the terrorsit threat to the airlines when they put the bulletproof doors on the cockpits. everytime I fly and I watch the TSA hassle people over nail clippers, swiss army knives, knitting needles I laugh at the poor bastards because they are preemptively preventing nothing. if anyone ever has the chance to go to any prison museum I highly recommend it. the killing tools on display in any prison museum will make you realise that the TSA's job is impossible (unless they strip search every passenger). plastic puncturing weapons, polycarbonate knives, oh my.
and my personal favorite, the TSA took my swiss army knift on my keychain (a knife with a 1 inch blade). then i make my way into the airport restaurant and am served with a metal fork (bend all tines down except one, and bend handle into a loop, you have a perfect puncturing weapon to stab into a stuartess).
we would all be better off spending the TSA budget in other ways!
It's all relative, really. Every dry cell battery I've ever seen says someplace on it (or on the bubble-pack container it comes in) that it could explode if tossed into an open flame/incinerated.
... so sure, the expansion from the heat and boiling chemicals inside might burst said container and "explode".
Shorting out any battery creates large amounts of heat, and you're dealing with the core of it being encased in some type of metal or plastic lining
How big an issue is it? Well, not enough of one that anybody I know feels unsafe having batteries lying around in their house, car, or devices.
rtc
Just saunter up to the screening station almost butt naked.
Last time I flew, I put *everything* in the plastic bucket and was wearing nothing but my Teva sandals, some sweatshorts, and a really cruddy wife-beater tank top. I looked like I was nearly homeless.
They barely gave me a second look. Fortunately, I had packed *nice* clothes in my carry-on and changed as soon as I could.
I once took a Linn power amp in my hand luggage. Two security guards spent about 10 minutes looking at the X-Ray picture of the inside. I saw the screen and there was a big 6 inch ferite core for the power supply that did look rather like a chunk of high explosive, with lots of wires around it. I was lucky they didn't take the whole thing appart.
Offtopic, Inflammatory, Inappropriate, Illegal, or Offensive comments might be moderated up.
Hastle: I fly out of Oakland International US once a year. I have a ibook, and a cellphone and a PDA (PDA needs some juice though.) I used to beable to take my traning EQ to (Aluminum swords). Then asskrock farted, now I'll be lucky to take my PDA some idjut at Oak never saw a white laptop or computer cord before, thought it was an explosive and hastled me over it.
The funy: I know a urban legened about a man that did a social hack to get a chartered flight at 75% off and was able to take all his gear, pot, acid, some peote and a wiches brew of involving exotic plants on a plane.
So I think the real trick is to instead of all these security mesures how about NO security mesures and we all learn martial arts, cary two guns, two swords and tazer. No problem stoping them suspicous terrorists
No Way! I just left there. Great place! Their airport rocks. It's all open air, friendly staff. Be warned, lots of people try port your luggage for money. Do it yourself.
Check out my sysadmin blog!
TM
Support TBI Research: http://www.raisinhope.org
I had my dell laptop, 2 cell phones, my digital camera and had no problems.
They just asked me to remove the laptop and digital camera from my laptop carrying bag and x-rayed them seperately.
It was the first time that I was flying though that I had to take my shoes off to get them xrayed.
Wonder if they'll also do the same thing in Amsterdam when I fly back in several days.
Several years ago (pre-War On Terror[TM]), one of the wires supplying battery power in my PDA (Psion Series3) came loose while I was travelling. I was waiting at the gate in O'Hare for a flight to London when it happened, and I would have been quite lost on my trip without the data in the device. The button cell that maintains memory when the main battery is dead had a limited life, and wouldn't last the flight. And what if someone demanded that I turn it on for them? So I spent my layover attempting repairs using my Swiss Army knife and a travel sewing kit from an airport newsstand... all the while thinking of the scene in a then-recent movie in which the bad guy uses a Psion Series3 as the detonator for a bomb on the plane. I half-expected to be hustled away by airport security (heck, I would've detained me, if I were them), but no one questioned me, and I managed to restore power to my PDA before they announced boarding for my flight.
My friend is a film production guy and he was flying back from Bulgaria with his digital clapboard. The thing they slap down in front of the camera each take to sync. Anyway, the young guys at security were confused by this slate and were gathering around to examine it. Then my buddy reached over to turn it on and the red lights began to countdown numerically(like a bomb in some Hwd movie). The security guys jumped and grabbed their machine guns and started screaming at him. He froze and soon a supervisor came over to set things straight. He said he nearly pissed himsef.
Libertas in infinitum
Kansas City had problems a few years ago with a string of laptop robberies. The theives were working in pairs around the metal detectors. Basically, one would distract you right after you put your laptop bag on the conveyor, while the other was standing at the other end of the conveyor waiting for it, and would take it and run. The guards at the detectors were under orders to stay at the gate, so they would not give chase to the thief - so if you wanted your laptop back you'd have to chase them yourself.
I work for the Department of Redundancy Department.
Warning, the following site is for mature over 21 audiences...
www.Naked-air.com
-- Each tock of the Planck clock is a new world and here we are still life. --
Make people fly naked! And handcuff them to their seats! That'll make security easier.
This is a terrific solution however it does seem to invade our right to privacy. Is Peace of mind is worth seeing naked bodies of various proportions?
This wreaks of stepping on our unalienable rights. Why should our God Given rights to privacy be so unalienable? Liberty Essay
Why should we fight for our freedom?
Dred Scott's fought
The advance of freedom is the calling of our time.
Because if we don't fight we will continue lose it. Like the frog in the pot, it will slowly heat up and we will boil in your loss of freedom. Like the Nazi's took away the rights then more rights then until they finally found it convenient to take away the right to live. You would think we would have learned something. But no. We are sheep.
The terrorists caused more harm to us by causing a societal Auto Immune Disease than by their attacks. The lymphatic system of our society over- reacted to the threat to the point where the true threat is fear which for some reason, our society has propagated. The true problem was the sheep.
We need to teach our citizens to defend themselves from terrorists. We should all learn Krav Maga in grade school. But we would rather be sheep. Fat fast food eating, non-exercizing Sheep that watch too much TV.
It starts with fear. Fear is the mind killer. is the mind-killer.
Terrorists work to create fear. These terrorist succeeded in stirring up a lot of fear. Now we have to fly naked.
America used to be the Home of the Brave . We did not have fear. We were the land of the "NoFear bumper stickers"
But now we fear our fellow americans. We fear anybody we don't know who rides on the airplane with us. We fear men in turbans. We are afraid to lose our valuable sheep lives.
This is why we should be able to bear arms. An American with a machete, a machine gun, a nuke, and nifty ice9 nano particals is a Free american afraid of no one. The interesting aspect of this is that if one bears arms he is afraid of something otherwise why carry the extra weight? We should be able to bear arms but we should not because bearing arms shows that we are afraid. What arms we decide to bear is irrelevant.
Q. What are we afraid of?
A. Death, loss of life, loss of loved ones.
Q. Why are we afraid?
A. We are afraid of where we go when we die.
1. heaven? if we are going here,
what are we afraid of? cool gardens streamside with plenty of fruit? Spending eternity with our God?
2. hell? if we are afraid of going to hell we are already in hell.
3. nowhere? Ceasing to exist is like total loss of freedom. We are afraid of losing our freedom. Why give it up without a fight now. Why die the little death?
Sheep.
We are sheep.
We go where they say to go.
When they say submit to the search, we submit.
When they say bend over, we bend over.
When they say no nail clippers, no baby swiss army knife, no pointy things, do we say "We are free!!! We are CITIZENS!!! WE HAVE UNALIENABLE GOD GIVEN CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS TO BEAR ARMS/FINGER NAIL CLIPPERS!!!!!
When they say "fly naked", we will submit.
When they say take this tattoo on our hand or forehead, we will submit.
Why?
Because we are sheep.
When they say we will implant rice chips in all our kiddos when they are born and we will track their GPS coordinates and purchases for their lives, we will submit. We won't just submit, we will want it. We will demand it. Why?
Because we are sheep.
Be brave and be free. Remember the Su
-- Each tock of the Planck clock is a new world and here we are still life. --
You're lucky _I_ am not a security bozo, or ...
You _are_ a dumb piece of american shit.
Unfortunately, the last thing on the screen was a terminal window filled with stuff, but the bottom lines saying
beastie 51% ps ax| grep something
beastie 52% sudo kill 1514
Pause "What's that KILL thing there mean?"
I was stopping a program. Do you really want me to explain BSD in detail?
PauseUm, I guess you can go.
I bump my WM (fvwm) over to an innocuous desktop when I go through now.
I had major problems with my Apple power adapter. It's the square one with the little legs that flip out, around which you can wrap the wire. The result is a square with a coil of wire on top. Airport security ran my bag three times, and I was told that the power adapter looks exactly like something very bad. The lady was mumbling and I didn't hear what she said it looked like, but I can imagine that a little square with a coil on top is suspicious on the monitor. Meanwhile, my Dad (who also owns an Apple laptop) has had no problems -- because he doesn't wrap up the wire. He just tosses it into his bag in a big jumble.
irb(main):001:0>
You allowed someone to look at secure FILES on your system?
No. Kindly read more closely before leaping to the conclusion that I let anyone look at files, let alone highly sensitive ones that required serious encryption.
I'm looking forward to when Via comes out with a new CPU, and I can get a laptop that uses it.
I'll put a big sticker on it that says "C4 Inside!!!"
"[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz
My whole point is that the person who started this topic said he decrypted company confidential files.
Relax - you're less likely to blow a gasket. You're getting worked up over something you misread.
I think if the guy wanted to see secure files, it was a misunderstanding.. they are not allowed to ask to look at confidential documents. They ARE allowed to make you prove to their satisfaction the computer is real. That's their job.
Now, yeah, they aren't geeks, how could they be qualified to determine if i'ts real? We could fake one easily? True enough.. but the fact remains: if they think it's not real, it's your problem to prove otherwise. Being calm, and explaining the situation rather than saying "you are trying to look at my confidential documents!" is likely to get you where you need to go.. often they may not realize the implications of what they are asking.
Second... the best advice I have for travelling is pack light. EIther put most of your stuff in your checked bags, or if it's a short trip and you just have carryon, don't bring every toy you have. Look as normal as possible when travelling, not like some geek freak. A laptop and an mp3 player is normal enough, and not likely to cause you problems.
Pack light, don't be that guy in line who holds up the plane, and don't be that guy who gets on the aircraft and makes everyone wait behind him as he tries to stuff his overpacked bags into the overhead bins.
I've traveled a great deal in my life, and consider myself a "Technology Road Warrior", adept at dealing with many of the known hassles of traveling with technology.
Funny how you lead off with this and then you go on to enumerate some really stupid stuff that would indicate just the opposite.
First, you let your own laziness overrule your good sense and checked an unlocked bag full of small, expensive technology items.
Second, even pre-9/11 the airlines were plagued by theft by baggage handlers-- there have been numerous news reports about it. Then as now, despite the press attention, there is practically zero accountability-- the scope of the thefts has only gotten worse since the 'no locking of bags' rule came down. And the airline claims process is designed to frustrate you and make you give up and just buy replacement stuff out of your own pocket.
Third, in light of your experience on the outgoing flight, there should be no question about whether or not you should ship your Christmas gifts home or check them in your baggage on your return flight. You can either pay to ship them, or pay to replace them when they get stolen-- but either way, it's going to cost you some money.
I've only flown three times in my life, and only one of those was post-9/11, but I've never lost anything. Why? Because all of my tech items get carried on or shipped separately and and the carry-on stuff never leaves my sight. If the baggage handlers want my jeans, underwear or toothpaste, fine, they can have it-- only way they're getting my laptop, digicam, or iPod is if they kill me in the concourse and take my backpack.
Note to any females on slash:
Do not wear an underwire bra
>"If you could just step behind this curtain, sir? Pants around your ankles please. And bend over this table. This'll only take a few minutes." Point being, there are limits on what friggin' Mr. Security is allowed to ask you to do.
Except not. (Well, they use a room with a door instead of a curtain, and I suppose that does make a qualitative difference, but to me a body cavity search is a body cavity search regardless.)
My only advice? Don't buy your tickets with cash, don't buy one-way tickets, and don't buy tickets the same day you're going to fly. I once made the mistake of doing all three for the same flight...which is how I know what the room where they do body cavity searches looks like. (And my PDA and laptop went missing while this was going on...which is the sort of thing I _thought_ this topic was going to be about.)