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Is Your Laptop At Risk While Traveling?
Editorgirl35 writes "Here's an interesting story on DesignNews.com
With last week's announcement that the British government thwarted an alleged terrorist attack planned for flights from the U.K. to the U.S., news that travelers are required to check their laptops as baggage on some flights has raised a new level of panic as they try to figure out the best way to protect their laptops."
I'd rather take 10 minutes for the baggage screeners to give a laptop a "full cavity serch" than to be without a laptop on an international flight.
Pelican Cases have a good reputation, but they don't look as chick as the Halliburton. LowePro also makes some hard cases for cameras, but they don't take a computer (yet, I am sure it will very soon); they are a hardcase and a matching bag inside it.
The reality is that you don't want attention on your bag, as it might be stolen. I just recommended a person
to take the Styrofoam that came with the laptop to get to Heathrow. At least the laptop arrived in a working
condition.
I think the optimal solution is to find something that looks like regular luggage. Perhaps buying a cheap, beaten up luggage bag (garage sale?) to put the computer inside. Use duct tape and dirt for extra effect, and geek chicness.
People should be more concerned about the long lines being created by all the security. There is nothing stopping terrorists from taking out all the people standing around waiting to get through security. High concentration of people in one area == prime oportunity.
Once in Honolulu a plane full of passengers at the gate (including myself) watched an entire cart full of luggage sit through one of the worst rain storms I have ever seen. A couple of workers were watching it. You might think that it would be a minor problem solved by drying your clothes out when you got to your hotel. Not true. Everything was ruined. Books, smaller electronics that had been packed, and even our clothes. We had a couple of red garmets that hadn't be washed and they soaked our clothes with red dye.
The airline didn't give a shit and wouldn't help us- they said TSA handles all baggage problems now. Well, you can imagine how well TSA (a government agency) handles this. It is just like if something breaks while a professional mover is moving your stuff. On paper you are covered, but in reality they make it so incredibly difficult to file a claim and prove damage that it realistically isn't even possible.
But I really feel the need to ask this question, and hope someone out there in /. might work for the TSA or other security company, and/or hardware manufacturing, and might give a good answer to this question.
... thank you Dan Rathers). America can't always be 100% secure, and I think most /. readers are intelligent enough to know that when there's a will, there's always going to be a way. Does anybody honestly think we can keep every port of entry secure? If you truly do, do some reading on the Akwesasne reservation.
The parent poster mentioned sneaking C4 in a laptop battery. I was wondering the same thing about a hard drive. When you think about it, both are small, but certainly have enough volume to put explosives inside of the casing that would cause a very significant detonation onboard an airplane. And would screeners really see that on their scanners? I'd imagine that to the lazy eye, it would just be another object like any other inside a laptop. I doubt most screeners would be particular about looking for the platters inside a hard drive, let alone know that a hard drive is a necessary part of a laptop. I'm sure that if you were to hand these explosive laptops to 20 terrorists, at least one would get through, and it only takes one. I've gone on a number of domestic and international flights, and the laptop is a carry-on object. I've never seen any bomb-sniffing dogs sniff my carry-on luggage, so I think the TSA are the only checkpoint for an attack such as this.
Now, I've never seen all of what those modern x-ray scanners are able to detect, so if there's anybody with knowledge on the subject, I'd sure appreciate an explination of whether or not this is feasable.
Oh, and for anybody who wants to try and accuse me of aiding terrorists, I get my information from the six-o'clock news. They give me all these great ideas each and every day on how to cause devistation to America (blow up the Hoover Dam, San Fransisco bridge, Alaska Oil pipeline, the Lincoln tunnel
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Parent may be moded funny but it's almost plausible. In 2010, will all passengers be required to change into airliner provided jumpsuits with no pockets to hide things and little paper slippers for footwear? No carry on luggage; sorry sir, you'll just have to risk hypoglycemia, no insulin allowed? How about a rectal search while were at it. You could probably fit enough explosive in there to take down a plane, or a ceramic knife (in some sort of container). Lots of possibilities. So how far do we take it?
Nothing says you are a professional more, than showing up to a presentation and hoping your client has some way for you to present your information. In the business world, showing up with a usb stick wont cut it. What if you get last minute changes? Going to borrow a clients computer to do your work on?
Presentations are meant to impress somebody. People dont hop onto a jet and fly around the world to impress their underlings. If you cant spend $1k on a laptop, and $1k on a projector, my company wont be providing what you cant afford, and wont be doing business with you.
Let's stop just a minute...
Let's also leave aside that the above is simply wrong as a matter of fact...
Do you really think that doing something 'in the name of Islam' (or Christianity, or the Free Software Foundation, etc) automatically makes you a Muslim (or Christian, or Free Software advocate)?
I don't know where you stand on the FSF, but assuming you are broadly sympathetic to its aims, how would you feel if I suddenly started blowing up planes 'in the name of the FSF'?
Let's be rational about this. Anyone can claim to be associated with a particular movement or organisation. Whether you actually are can only be decided from whether your actions are in keeping with that organisation's goals.
> Oh and flashback to last century anyone?
Disturbing but your rewording is exactly what went on in the 70's in England. Even though my parents were not religous I got moved to a Catholic school in England instead of a public school after IRA attacks basically enraged locals to attack Irish people who had nothing what-so-ever to do with it.
>DO NOT, I repeat DO NOT, EVER put anything of any value in your luggage!!
If you can prove that you own it, and you can prove the purchase price, there is a straightforward way to
get direct compensation for losses due to airport security. It works, I've done it. In fact, it works surprisingly well, because it falls in the category of "allowing a functionary to perform his function."
There is a form -- I'm sorry, but my copy is deep in the piles of papers on my desk -- which the TSA manager will give you. You fill it out with the description of your damaged or lost items, essentially swearing that you lost it. You provide the proof of its value, and the proof that you owned it (the only hard part). You mail it to DC. About the time you decide to give up on it, a check arrives from the US Treasury in the amount you claimed. Surprised the hell out of me, but the US Government paid for a belt (the buckle got broken on the conveyor belt) and paid the repair costs for my laptop screen, no questions asked (except for the questions on the form).
Never just walk away from a claim against the TSA. They will compensate you for your losses. Don't confront the people at the airport, just do the paperwork and be quietly paid off by the bureaucrats in DC.
-fb Everything not expressly forbidden is now mandatory.