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TSA Evaluating Laptop Bags
kbielefe writes "The Transportation Security Administration has sent out a call to laptop bag manufacturers to produce a laptop bag that could pass through airport screening without having to remove the laptop. The TSA will perform testing starting at the end of May, with the end result hopefully being a TSA stamp of approval that will reduce the hassle for a lot of us. According to the article, 'The key is for TSA screeners to be able to view the laptop in a single X-ray image, so the laptop would not need to be placed in a separate TSA bin.'"
And here I was trying to build a new laptop case-mod by integrating the laptop into the bag itself. This idea is so much easier though!
So what about the requirement that you actually show that the laptop is really a laptop and not a bomb by taking it out and turning it on?
Understanding the scope of the problem is the first step on the path to true panic.
so you need a bag without straps, zippers, without mouse, wires, pens.... i think they want you to use a brown paper bag.
Is right out!
Because instead of making everyone take our their laptop, making some do it and not others based on some random criteria like what bag it is in will not slow things down at all.
What do you mean this year's Targus bags look just like last years? So they'll just make everyone take them out to search them because it's faster than figuring out who has a special bag?
Comment forecast: Bits of genius surrounded by a sea of mediocrity.
Actually that's exactly it. Between the chargers, cables, the mouse you have for it, headphones, and all the other junk you put in your laptop bag (it's actually the ONLY carry-on bag I have when flying since I can fit my other things in there), what about all of that? Seems like that would re-disqualify you.
Dubious goals here it seems IMO.
Makes me want to change my boss' start up sound to loud orgasm noises before he travels.
"Can you turn this on for me?"
"Sure!"
"Aahahahahahahahoooooohhhh!"
"Trademarks are the heraldry of the new feudalism."
Just do what I do: boycott the TSA by not flying.
I've not flown since before 9/11, and I'm quite proud of it.
I support the Center for Consumer Freedom
Why actually build something when the reward is in submitting a vague patent?
Run and catch, run and catch, the lamb is caught in the blackberry patch.
Like every other country on the planet.
The lady at the Osaka airport looked at me weird when I tried to take my laptop out of the bag. I think Japan has an x-ray machine that can look through cloth, I cannot explain it any other way. We should buy those instead of what we got now and not waste our time on "Airport Cleared" bags.
... or then are slightly more free than the US.
The creatures outside looked from Alt-Right to Antifa; but already it was impossible to say which was which.
I've kept my laptop in a neoprene sleeve when going through security. 19 out of 20 times they won't make you remove the laptop from the sleeve.
The problem is not seeing through the bags. It's seeing through the laptop and the cables/adapters/other simultaneously that is the problem. Remember, metal blocks X-Rays. Laptops and the other assorted cables contain a lot of metal. Separating the two makes it easier for them to make sure that there is nothing in the laptop that isn't supposed to be in a laptop. Airport security in the U.S. didn't used to require laptops be taken out of the case. I'm guessing that changed sometime after 9/11. I've been carrying a laptop on planes since roughly 95/96, so I've seen several different policies on it. Originally, you had to turn it on and they put it in a bomb sniffing machine. Later, they required X-raying (after 9/11). A few years later, they started requiring it go into the X-Ray machine separate from the bag.
Fly me to the moon Let me sing among those stars Let me see what spring is like On jupiter and mars
It was actually first implemented after Pan-Am 103 when a bomb was fashioned into a boom-box in the cargo hold of the plane, but were discontinued when it was found that they don't actually improve security in any measurable way. They were re-instituted after the September 11 attacks in order to "do something", but like the "no liquids" on the plane they've remained in place even after they've been proven to be completely irrational and with no improvement of security.
Also the "turn on" rule was part of the aftermath of Pan-Am 103 until it was pointed out that the computer or boombox can still work perfectly fine ever after most of its internals have been removed to make a bomb.
Just thank god they didn't implement their first idea which was to ban all electronics from the cabin of the plane. Someone had the rationality to say, no that's just stupid.
Funny, my backpack has a separate laptop sleeve to it that uses velcro to close it. There's a mesh bag on the front that zippers, so you can easily see what's in it (or verify there's nothing there before running it through the x-ray machine.
I've had this thing for almost 6 years. Where has the TSA been? Of right, making me take the laptop sleeve out of my backpack, take it out of the sleeve, put it in the separate TSA box, then get conflicting instructions about where my shoes go.
Pan-Am had explosives and they were in the cargo hold as you say. I'm guessing they started looking for knives and so on that were going to be a carry-on. Slightly different situation.
Fly me to the moon Let me sing among those stars Let me see what spring is like On jupiter and mars
Why do they make you take the laptops out of bags if you can x-ray the whole thing at once? Does it have something to do with the X-ray damaging critical components?
BSD is for people who love Unix, Linux is for people who hate Microsoft.
It's not like this stops anything.
Most laptop batteries could easily be used to form a shaped charge with very minor modifications that wouldn't show up until after you slipped a film around the battery itself - and the separated components, combined with your seat tray table, can easily defeat the air cabin door.
At least, based on my memories of my first two Army combat field engineer courses.
Why are we as a society wasting our time on this?
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
Clothing line comes next. And footwear. Maybe we'll even be asked to wear approved clothing at all times, for the public good. Slippery slope? No, just convenient.
It seems ridiculous to me that we even carry our carry-on luggage through security. They should have a security line for people, and a security conveyor for bags, and we can claim/sign for our carry-ons from a TSA officer on the other side. If they want to take the laptop out of a bag to get a better look, let them make the decision right then. If they find anything they want to question someone about, wait until they come to claim their bag. If people are worried about their items (let's face it, stuff "disappears"), video tape it from start to finish and let people inspect the tape.
As a bonus, you can thereby reduce the possibility that someone will detonate a bomb in the security line: the line will move faster, and people will have fewer items on them as they move through it. The carry-on line will also move more quickly, as you'll have trained (or at least practiced) people doing the quick unpacking instead of a whole lot of fumbling amateurs who don't know the procedure.
So the alleged boogeyman will fashion a boom-boom device so that it looks like a spare battery into a spare battery or looks like a power adapter into a power adapter to the x-ray machine and operator. You could even fashion a box cutter into a spare battery and have it look like a spare battery.
The people that make the decision on how things are done are total frickin' idiot morons. Before 9/11, and several years afterwards, you could carry an extra large coffee through security and onto the plane without anyone even looking in the cup. Then some idiot moron retard discovered liquid-based explosives could be carried on in this fashion so they banned liquids. What about pens? Didn't they see the Mythbusters episode where a pen with 3 CCs of content could blow things up real good? What are they going to do next - ban pens?
[blockquote]
;)
bomb was fashioned into a boom-box
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Isn't a bomb in a box a boom-box anyway? so it wasn't fashioned into a boom-box...
--- Users are like bacteria -> Each one causing a thousand tiny crises until the host finally gives up and dies.
One of the reasons I try and limit myself to what I can take in a carry-on is to avoid having my bags subjected to the gentle ministrations of the baggage handlers. Thump, thump, thump...
You want to subject your laptop to that?
If people are worried about their items (let's face it, stuff "disappears"), video tape it from start to finish and let people inspect the tape.
Let's have them do that for checked baggage first so we can see how well it works.
Maybe the real answer for most of you is to take a nice slow ship, maybe with the family. That or stay home and use the internet for long distance work and stop wasting all that jet fuel. I won't get into environmental damage or risk of death.
So the alleged boogeyman will fashion a boom-boom device so that it looks like a spare battery into a spare battery or looks like a power adapter into a power adapter to the x-ray machine and operator. You could even fashion a box cutter into a spare battery and have it look like a spare battery.
From the outside you could make it look like a battery/power adapter. But would you be able to make it look the exact same through the x-ray machine? Power adapters tend to have the same x-ray look. Modified ones like you are talking about, not so much.
What about pens? Didn't they see the Mythbusters episode where a pen with 3 CCs of content could blow things up real good? What are they going to do next - ban pens?
Care to provide a link or something to this episode? I haven't heard of this one.
Fly me to the moon Let me sing among those stars Let me see what spring is like On jupiter and mars
I guess I can scrap the laptop bag I was just about finished building with lead shielding panels and a kryptonite lining.
This is a hacked account, for which the owner can not be held responsible.
They can take away my current laptop bag when they pry it from my cold.... oh yeah, I guess that's the plan.
I travel alot, and it is easy to pull out my laptop. What is a bear is digging out my CPAP.
I travel with a briggs and reiley laptop bag that contains all my gear and 1 extra shirt. I also carry a rollaway that contains my clothes for the week and the CPAP. Since the airlines balk at 3 bags it has to be 2, and every time I check a bag it gets lost. I cant survive without my CPAP, so it will never be checked.
I did have a TSA tell me that the CPAP motor is potted so it just shown up as a black spot on the screen. any ideas?
Any reccomendations fo a a smaller CPAP?
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