MacBook Air Confuses Airport Security

Ant writes "MacNN reports that the thin design of Apple's MacBook Air is causing some confusion for the technically ignorant, according to one blogger who says that the ultra-portable caused him to miss his flight. When going through the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) airport security checkpoint, blogger Michael Nygard was held up as security staff gathered around his MacBook Air, trying to make sense of the slender laptop/notebook. One of the less technically knowledgeable staff points out the lack of standard features as cause for alarm..."

Comments

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[QuantumG]

Besides that, it seems they were confused as to which set of procedures they had to apply to it. Is it a laptop or is it an "electronic device".. Seems the definition of a laptop included a hard drive.

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[innerweb]

It really boils down to the technically ignorant doing work that requires at some point a certain minimum level of technical competence. Kind of like a PHB making computer and networking decisions. I have not flown commercial in many years. The more stories I hear from my friends who still fly, the more I will take the train. There may be a case where I will fly again some day, but not if a viable alternative is available. I used to like to fly. I liked zipping into different cities, doing my job and popping back. It was exciting. Now, it would just be painful. Not my cup of tea.

BTW, if you fly on private craft, my experience so far has been a decided lack of idiots to deal with. Kind of makes the cost and time to get a pilots license that much more attractive.

InnerWeb

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[ushering05401]

"It really boils down to the technically ignorant doing work that requires at some point a certain minimum level of technical competence. Kind of like a PHB making computer and networking decisions."

I don't think you are being fair.

Protecting travelers from new attack vectors in real time based on an x-ray and basic visual inspection is not a job that can be performed reliably with any standard skill set. What the TSA actually appears to be aiming for is people who can identify a gun/knife/conventionally designed incendiary device, so that nobody has to stand in front of the cameras after an incident and explain how we missed the conventional threat during screening.

Unconventional threats cannot reliably be prevented through the methods the TSA is currently employing, but no one wants to admit this and pierce the illusion of security that these measures provide the average traveler.

Instead of relating TSA grunts to PHBs making decisions they are not qualified to make you could keep it simple and call it what it is: Politicians fronting like they have solutions, and average citizens (TSA workers) set up to take the blame when those flimsy solutions fail.

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[Nefarious Wheel]

Kind of like a PHB making computer and networking decisions

I categorically resent that. Historically our business transformation architecture achieves multipoint synergies by the close-tracking of business channel optimisation strategies, and our decision workshopping with regard to procurement of necessary infrastructure precludes the detail assessment quid-pro-quo with regard to non-executive decision makers. If I say we need duplicate DHCP servers then by god I want them to be exact duplicates, from their highly redundant address lists right down to the tiny little rubber feet!

And I have great hair! Just ... not much of it any more.

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[StrategicIrony]

See.... "private craft" is all well and good, but unless you can afford a Gulfstream or some other such ridiculousness, you're stuck in a Cessna 172 doing about 140knots. After paying for the aviation fuel and spending and hour dicking around getting it out of the hangar, checklists, etc, then worrying about where to put it when you arrive... and what to drive...

Your break-even distance is almost 8 hours... in other words... if you aren't expecting to have to drive 8 hours, use your car or take a bus.

If you're going further than 8 hours by car, it's going to be like 5+ hours by Cessna and just suck up the 45 minutes to get through security (and the $500 in fuel) and take Southwest Airlines for $99.

I've only ever heard of about 3 situations where it was actually ECONOMICAL (both time and money) to take a private plane, unless you're god-awful rich and can afford a pilot to handle the checklists before you arrive.

SI

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[StrategicIrony]

YES!!!!

You must appreciate the IT Director who demands (and I mean vehemently demands) that all 5000 computers deployed MUST HAVE FEET.

He almost fired some poor helpdesk lackey for deploying a computer that didn't have little feet on the bottom.

He says the carpet static will zap the computer. He says the feet must be made out of rubber or metal or they're no good.

I think he forgot that the case is made out of metal... and grounded.... doh!!! :-)

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[TheLink]

That sort of thing is not their fault.

The whole thing is actually more of a "show" nowadays, put on to make people feel safe and that the government is doing something. I mean banning liquids= joke.

After 9/11, the odds of such an incident being repeated went down a lot. In fact one of the planes didn't hit the target because of the passengers (who learnt what was happening), so that proves my point.

Now:
1) Cockpit doors are reinforced
2) The "unwritten rules of hijacking" have been invalidated- so more than a few passengers might think it is worth losing their lives to take down hijackers (esp if they think the hijackers are going to kill them all anyway). More importantly, serious hijackers know that (the crazy ones are a different matter).
3) The bomb scanning stuff has already been around for years, so the small stuff is invalidated by 2).

So, if terrorists now wanted to use planes to kill lots of people, they'll use private aircraft like you suggest ;).

AFAIK private planes don't have as stringent luggage requirements as long as you know the pilot (or are the pilot). Those stars don't appear to have problems putting illicit drugs and stuff on their planes.

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[CrossChris]

It's entirely fair! The airport "security" is just silly "security theatre" and does nothing to improve safety. At the risk of a holiday in Cuba: it's trivially easy to knock an airliner out of the sky with ordinary, innocuous materials. No amount of "security" checks can prevent this!

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[cheater512]

Dude? It was a laptop. GP is correct in his assessment.

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[LaskoVortex]

decision workshopping with regard to procurement of necessary infrastructure precludes the detail assessment quid-pro-quo with regard to non-executive decision makers

Case in point: someone modded you +4 insightful. You're right yet again. And they wonder why the PHB's rule the day.

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[ushering05401]

"The airport "security" is just silly "security theatre" and does nothing to improve safety."

I think you need to re-read my post. My entire point was that the current security schemes will only work against obvious conventional threats, nothing more.

And yet we have built this egregiously cumbersome security mechanism... which will most likely fail against the first unconventional threat that comes its way.

And who will be blamed for that failure? Surely not the architects of the system, because they will clearly point to all the measures they have taken, and the immense budgets they have alloted to secure flights. Therefore it must be the TSA grunts who failed to perform their appointed duties...

Maybe I needed to state my point more concisely in the original post. The system will fail and the point of failure will not be identified correctly.

If we are not in agreement please let me know.

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[ushering05401]

"Dude? It was a laptop."

No, it wasn't. It was a device that deviated from what what the TSA workers considered normal.

Ignoring the fact that the TSA foot soldiers are charged with the impossible task of assessing the threat potential of every unidentified device removes the culpability from the people who charged the TSA workers with this impossible task.

When the screening personnel miss firearms feel free to diss on them...

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[Nefarious Wheel]

Hehe yep, golden rule applies; man with the gold makes the rules.

I was being roundly sarcastic of course but I'm old & entitled to it.

But the scarier bit I put in was the "redundant IP addresses". Place I had a gig with recently had terrible DHCP response, so they kept buying DHCP servers. All replicated, right down to the address lists. 25 of them for a single smallish building. It was the most amazing case of whack-a-mole I ever saw, watching people booting each other off with address collisions. Nobody could depend on a connection for more than 10 minutes, if that. I just thank the Ultimate Noodle they were behind a NAT at least. And yes, I did tell them about it.

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[Fred_A]

YES!!!!

You must appreciate the IT Director who demands (and I mean vehemently demands) that all 5000 computers deployed MUST HAVE FEET. I think it's so that they can evacuate in case of fire. Makes sense to me.

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[Skreems]

It doesn't even succeed against known threats. They have regular security screenings where a TSA agent sneaks through a fake bomb disguised as a back brace or something innocuous. Less than a 50% success rate at stopping it. If "the terrorists" actually get to that point, it's more likely than not that TSA will let them through.

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[cheater512]

It looks quite obvious that its no threat with just a quick glance.
I cant imagine any gun shaped objects inside it either (hell do they make a gun that thin?).

They dont need to know what it is - they only need to know that its not a thread.
Asking him to turn it on would suffice.

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[mcrbids]

Kind of makes the cost and time to get a pilots license that much more attractive.

I will SECOND that motion! It's a rare month that I don't fly, I often fly 3-4 times per month. I recently got my private pilot's license. (yay!)

Flying to Oakland, CA? Go on a commercial jet, and you experience:

1) 1.5 hour trip to the nearest "major" airport.
2) 1-2 hour long wait at the security line.
3) Rude staff.
4) Lousy amenities.
5) Destination airport virtually guaranteed to be 1-2 hours drive away from the actual destination.
6) Cramped seat.

Now, I'm flying more and more privately, I'm in negotiations to buy into a partnership. Here's what I see so far:

1) Local airport, 5 minute drive.
2) 10 minute wait checking the plane out before flight. Effectively no security check.
3) Friendly staff that make it a point to remember your name.
4) Gorgeous bathrooms, with plants, tile, and free hygiene kits. (shave, toothbrush, etc) Free coffee, dough nuts, etc. Often catered luncheons for free as well. Leather seats, free waiting rooms with DVD collection, free conference room!
5) Destination virtually guaranteed to be anywhere from 10 minutes drive to ACROSS THE STREET from a small, local airport.
6) Cramped seat. (Hey, some things never change!)

Seriously, the difference is NIGHT AND DAY. Commercial = cattle. Private = red carpet. And, for shorter flights, the price difference is less than you might think.

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[aadvancedGIR]

"I've only ever heard of about 3 situations where it was actually ECONOMICAL (both time and money) to take a private plane"

How many of them did not involve drugs?

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[teh kurisu]

It's so that when he starts stealing the office computers, and his superior demands to know why there are computers missing from the offices, and states, "They didn't just get up and walk away, did they?", he can reply: "Well actually..."

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[deroby]

Well, it has electronics and a battery (= power source), hence it could just as well be something to jam the avionics and bring the plane down.
If you've never seen a MacBook Air before, it might indeed look like a bad mock-up of a portable computer. Sure there's a screen, and a keyboard, but the ATTENTIVE guard actually was bright enough to notice that there is no hard-disk !? nor a DVD drive !? nor a parallel port !?
Sure it's annoying for the guy that he missed his flight, but I always wonder why people need to complain over and over about some 'side-effects' that are there for their own safety. It's like that guy sitting in front of me in the plane once that refused to kill his phone when taking off. Had to ask him 3 times before he finally did, probably because he understood that my next move would be calling the steward (ess)s. I also very much doubt that a cell phone will bring down the plane, but if some -supposedly more in the know than me- official deemed it necessary to forbid cell-phones on a plane, then why is it so hard for some people to oblige to that ?

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[deroby]

But brings up the TOC quite a bit, especially in cold climates as you'll need to foresee socks for all pc's then...

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[ancient_kings]

My guess is the TSA agent knew exactl what is was, a very expensive, sleek, thin, notebook, and was probably planning to steal it, BUT
other TSA agents somehow got involved and that TSA agent probably changed his mind. Trust me on this, I know alot of security guards who routinely steal...

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[El Yanqui]

It was a device that deviated from what what the TSA workers considered normal.

I'm not completely in disagreement with you, but this means that the TSA needs to be kept up to date with all bleeding edge devices worldwide. MP3 players from Japan can look quite different than the bog standard iPod. I've seen mobiles in Europe that I never saw back in the States. If they are only looking for things that they saw on their last trip to Best Buy, that's going to be a problem.

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[stjobe]

"Baah! Do not question authority! Baah! Obey any rule, no matter how stupid it seems! Baah! It's a rule, it must be followed without question! Baah! Baah!"

... And the sheep moved quietly on to the slaughterhouse floor, never questioning why.

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[Alioth]

No one flies light planes because it's economical. They do it because they love it.

It doesn't take an hour to get going in a light plane, even if you need to file IFR. In my situation, the typical IFR trip was: drive to the local GA airport (5 minutes) and park. Walk to the hangar, pull the club's Beech Bonanza out. Pre-flight would take around 15 minutes. If the weather looked shitty, I'd probably have already filed the IFR flight plan the evening before. The airport line man would have already fuelled it, because I'd have made a quick phone call to ask for the plane to be topped off, and it's common for fuel to be on your account at your own airfield.

Then off you go. No security lines. No one rifling through your luggage. Your luggage will actually arrive with you.

Going to the airline airport was a 45 minute drive through Houston traffic to arrive an hour early and fight the crowds.
Driving meant going through Houston traffic then the dumbass drivers on the interstate on the way to Austin.

Flying privately was just far more fun, far more pleasant, and I could beat the airlines door-to-door on any trip less than 600 miles in a 160 knot Beech Bonanza: 90% of the airports in the United States have no airline service, and generally I could go to an airport that was close to my intended destination instead of one 45 minutes away through city traffic.

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[gnasher719]

It doesn't even succeed against known threats. They have regular security screenings where a TSA agent sneaks through a fake bomb disguised as a back brace or something innocuous. Less than a 50% success rate at stopping it. If "the terrorists" actually get to that point, it's more likely than not that TSA will let them through. I think what you are missing here is the psychological aspect. They watch out for people who behave in a certain way. Someone with a bomb in his backpack that he wants to explode in a mass of people, taking himself to heaven in the process, behaves very much different from someone who has a fake bomb in their back trying to get one over the security guards. I don't want security to check for TSA agents sneaking in with fake bombs, I want them to look out for people with real bombs.

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[Stanislav_J]

After 9/11, the odds of such an incident being repeated went down a lot. In fact one of the planes didn't hit the target because of the passengers (who learnt what was happening), so that proves my point.

Hell, before 9/11 the odds were slim to none. If security was so piss-poor before, then why had there only been maybe half a dozen or so (I don't have a list in front of me at the moment) incidents of, say, bombs being used to blow us U.S. originated airliners? And hardly any incidents of hijackers actually taking control of a plane and crashing it? For that matter, why have there never been mass suicide bombings in our malls or other public places a la what happens in some other corners of the world? In theory, it should be stupidly easy to walk into the Mall of America at lunchtime and blow yourself up, taking a few dozens shoppers with you.

It boils down to this: 9/11 was an anomaly. It was so far out of the norm that it had never been done before, and is not likely to be replicated anytime soon. The risk is always there, but it is infinitesimally small in relation to the number of flights and passengers annually. You can be 99.9% safe and, in the process, majorly disrupt and complicate airline travel, negatively affect the economy by costing businesses and their travelers added expense and delays, plus expend billions of taxpayer dollars on added security. Or, you can use the same common sense precautions that had always been used, and still be, say, 99.5% safe. The difference is not worth the expense. Of course, if you happen to have a loved one killed in such an incident, you will say that ANY improvement in security is worth ANY additional effort and expense, but when it comes to the big picture, common sense must trump emotionalism or we will all be held hostage to fear.

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[inca34]

We don't need the TSA to do this. Every able-bodied citizen of America who experienced 9-11 will now and forever watch and notice these attributes of their fellow travelers. 9-11 can never happen exactly the same again. However, newer unconventional methods may be used but the trick has been done and the magician won't be performing it again for this audience. They won't do it again because taking a plane out of the sky really will make airport security like a military check point, thus also limiting the mobility of the enemy for the reward of taking 1 or 2 planes out of the sky with no hard land target in mind. Not going to happen.

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[bigdavesmith]

If you can't tell the difference between a laptop, and a bomb, you are not security.

What the TSA actually appears to be aiming for is people who can identify a gun/knife/conventionally designed incendiary device, so that nobody has to stand in front of the cameras after an incident and explain how we missed the conventional threat during screening.

There is a difference between people doing their best with limited resources, and airport security, which continually employs the most inadequate individuals I have ever seen in the workforce. I get better service at McDonalds than I do airport security.

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[Hognoxious]

Well, it has electronics and a battery (= power source), hence it could just as well be something to jam the avionics and bring the plane down.

And the presence of a hard disk would nullify that threat how, exactly?

nor a parallel port !?

1990 called ...

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[deroby]

In fact, that's quite a silly remark to make.
Troll whatever you want, I am NOT saying to not question things, I'm saying to err on the safe side.
Realizing I'm only an amateur on the field, I don't know for sure what the influence of cellular phones on avionics is. Sure, I can imagine there is some, although at the same time I have a hard time believing that it would be enough to cause them to go haywire. That said, over 100 phones all broadcasting at max strength inside an aluminum tube does not seem like a good idea at all.

Since I find myself at a point where I would not KNOW (I use 'know', not 'guess') if the 'rule' is stupid or not, I prefer to stick to it, especially if my life potentially depends on it. Given the fact that the guy was reading (and phoning about) pharmaceutical sales documents, I'm somehow not convinced either that he had the know-how required but rather was trying to rake his bonus in.
Anyway, even when I would know that a rule is stupid, I would still have the decency to oblige if only to keep some order. People getting my voice-mail instead of me for the next 80 minutes somehow did not strike me as life-threatening, nor as a trip to the slaughterhouse...

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[deroby]

It does not nullify the threat, it simply makes it less obvious. These guys see thousands of computers going through there x-ray machine every day, and regardless of the make or model, they all look more or less alike. And then suddenly one comes by that not only misses some 'key components' both visually (ports) as though the x-ray machine (HDD). Heck, the thing doesn't even have a VGA output (yes, it has that mini-DVI thing), but the issue here is not "what are the tech specs of the Mac Book Air ?", the issue is "Why does this so-called computer look so different ?"

What most people here seem to miss is that these guys are not looking for computers, they are looking (amongst other things) for "stuff disguised as computers".

Man I am disappointed in the moderation going on here, common sense obviously has left the building =(

PS: As for the parallel port, maybe I should have said "serial" port and yes, my Latitude D830 has one and no, I haven't found a use for it (yet).

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[falsified]

All of the airports I've ever been to, the security screening area is an open room with several galley-style lines that all of the guards are standing along. You put your laptop, separately, into the x-ray machine, and you're standing at the other end of the x-ray machine waiting for it to come out.

If you're able to get your laptop stolen in that environment, you shouldn't have been using a computer.

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[Himring]

More like the fact that it was an apple product. You never really see one, but you talk with people who know someone who got one and you both discuss how cool it is. Usually, you both agree to get an apple device some day yourself, but, really, you never do....

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[bs7rphb]

You must appreciate the IT Director who demands (and I mean vehemently demands) that all 5000 computers deployed MUST HAVE FEET.

You might laugh, but those little feet saved half a dozen of my machines from a shallow watery grave when we had a flood last year.

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[LuisAnaya]

I'm not surprised... I got harassed by TSA while carrying my Tadpole Sparcle. Perhaps they thought that it was a weapon of mass destruction.

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[ohtani]

> 1) 1.5 hour trip to the nearest "major" airport.
When I was in Philadelphia area I was less than 1/2 an hour away. YMMV. Literally.

> 2) 1-2 hour long wait at the security line.
Never been more than 1/2 hour for me.

> 3) Rude staff.
Almost never had any issues there.

> 4) Lousy amenities.
Yeah it can certainly suck. But what would you like from them?

> 5) Destination airport virtually guaranteed to be 1-2 hours drive away from the actual destination.
Often when I travel it's for conventions of sorts that are usually very near the airport. Heck one of them was connected to the airport!

> 6) Cramped seat.
Ok I can't always speak of good there. But I do like United's Economy plus that gives enough extra room for me to feel comfortable. But I'm more concerned about arm space for me.

I'll agree that local airports do give you more convenience and whatnot, but that can come at a cost depending on where and how you go about it. Whether or not you can/will pay for them is key.

Overall: YMMV. Literally in some cases.

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[hesaigo999ca]

I concur as they would say in medical speak. I think with the amounts of flights I have taken, the belt the shoes etc...its stupid, I could easily find somewhere else to put it. I can make a small clay potery and lightly bake the outside without harming the inside, guess what I smuggled half pound of explosives on a plane disguised as my mom's delicate cooking pot gift. As for the security, they are brainless drones... unable to think for themselves, you are telling me that no one had seen one of the thin air models before....with all the ads being shown everywhere. I just hope this will go to court and hold them accountable, make it end this farce....if they are in a position to make you wait with no good excuse, then there should be accountability. They didn't take tech courses to keep up to date with technology, their fault not ours, now pay my missed airfare and personal damages.

Hope also that it can set a precedent that in future will hold up that you can't just start acting like a chief without having the proper training.

Too many chiefs, not enough Indians.

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[not_listening]

In comments by pilots, no one has mentioned the relative safety versus flying in an airliner. Airline operations operate under FAR part 121, the most safe standard. Commercial operations of aircraft operate under part 135, which is less safe. General aviation operates under part 91 which is less safe. The new sport pilot is less safe than part 91 and ultralight operations are less safe still. I don't think that being a pilot and owning an aircraft is an option for most people. But the amount of freedom a pilot with his own aircraft has is kind of amazing.

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[mustafap]

>If you've never seen a MacBook Air before, it might indeed look like a bad mock-up of a portable computer.

I hope steve jobs doesn't know where you live...

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[Wisconsingod]

Stop Giving the Terrorists Ideas...

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[Nimey]

TSA's going to start airport-style security on Amtrack soon.

Dammit, I hate driving long distances, but...

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[Plunky]

> 1) 1.5 hour trip to the nearest "major" airport.
When I was in Philadelphia area I was less than 1/2 an hour away. YMMV. Literally.

> 2) 1-2 hour long wait at the security line.
Never been more than 1/2 hour for me.

just out of interest, based on the above - if you were aiming for a flight that departed the runway at 12 noon, what time would you leave your house.. 11am?

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[jandrese]

Ironically, last time I got stopped by airport security was because I had a hard drive in my case. Apparently the hard drive looked like a bomb on the x-ray and it freaked the TSA lady out. It's never a good sign when three armed guards come running at you from three different directions. Luckily all they had to do was run my bag through the chemical sniffer, there was no waiting for guards to try to figure it out on their own like in the OP.

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[pak9rabid]

I categorically resent that. Historically our business transformation architecture achieves multipoint synergies by the close-tracking of business channel optimisation strategies, and our decision workshopping with regard to procurement of necessary infrastructure precludes the detail assessment quid-pro-quo with regard to non-executive decision makers. If I say we need duplicate DHCP servers then by god I want them to be exact duplicates, from their highly redundant address lists right down to the tiny little rubber feet! You forgot to pepper "value" in there as much as possible.

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[Rob the Bold]

YES!!!!

You must appreciate the IT Director who demands (and I mean vehemently demands) that all 5000 computers deployed MUST HAVE FEET.
Didn't everyone get the memo? All systems must be installed with LRF support!

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[seededfury]

.....because we all know that terrorist read slashdot for ideas.

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[seededfury]

....because we all know that terrorists read slashdot for ideas.

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[mdwh2]

Sure it's annoying for the guy that he missed his flight, but I always wonder why people need to complain over and over about some 'side-effects' that are there for their own safety.

For his safety? Yes, missing his flight certainly will mean 0% of dying in a terrorist attack on the plane!

But I think that kind of misses the point. You already have the choice not to fly if you are worried about safety that much, but it defeats the point if we force that upon people.

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[Jessehk]

Exactly. Any object can be used as a weapon by the wrong person.
What's important is their intent: somebody who wants to do damage will, regardless of the restrictions on what
they can carry on a plane.

I think what El-Al does (individual interviews with passengers and a second party observing their responses [1]) is the most
security-effective way to do things, but ideally in a free world, such measures wouldn't be necessary at all.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Al#Airport_security_measures

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[swillden]

Unconventional threats cannot reliably be prevented through the methods the TSA is currently employing

For example, box cutter blades cannot be detected when inserted into a laptop or other device so that they're flat against another piece of metal, and plastic box cutter bodies can be hidden anywhere.

Luckily, no one would use a box cutter as a weapon to take down an aircraft, so the TSA's inability to stop such devices isn't a problem.

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[stjobe]

What you're saying IS: Obey the rules, don't think for yourself. Put it in however nice a way you'd like, that is still the bottom line.

You'd make a good little goose-stepping [Godwin Violation Detected - Deleting], you know that. "I was only following orders" has NEVER been an excuse for not thinking for yourself. Go on -- do some research into how many flights has crashed because of cellphone interference. Then do some more into who gets paid for the regular in-flight phones. And, to top it off, ask yourself if this rule that you so proudly and valiantly defended is there for your protection or for some other purpose altogether.

And that is not even what pisses me off about your attitude. Not only do you not question the rules, you say that even if you did and found them wanting, you'd STILL follow them -- because they're the rules? You're a sheep if I ever saw one... A ruleslawyer sheep to boot.

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[Skreems]

They won't do it again because taking a plane out of the sky really will make airport security like a military check point, thus also limiting the mobility of the enemy for the reward of taking 1 or 2 planes out of the sky with no hard land target in mind. Not going to happen.

If that's true, why have tightened security and "liquid carry-on limits" in the first place? Either the TSA is useful and effective, or they're just for show.

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[thomas.galvin]

Protecting travelers from new attack vectors in real time based on an x-ray and basic visual inspection is not a job that can be performed reliably with any standard skill set. What the TSA actually appears to be aiming for is people who can identify a gun/knife/conventionally designed incendiary device... And they are failing miserably. Pretty much every penetration test that has been conducted says that the easiest way to get a gun/knife/conventionally designed incendiary device onto a plane is to put it in your bag and walk through security with it. Aitport security is a joke. The TSA's only mission is to hassle regular travelers.

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[lessthan]

You know, that is what I don't understand about the new security. I believe that this is probably an optimistic estimate, but don't you think at least half the passengers aboard a hijacked plane are going to hysterically convince themselves that the plane is headed towards a building? That conviction would lead to total non-cooperation, maybe even an uprising. After all, better to die saving lives than die as part of the larger weapon.

Or maybe I'm overestimating the character of the average person.

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[Jarjarthejedi]

"Someone with a bomb in his backpack that he wants to explode in a mass of people, taking himself to heaven in the process, behaves very much different from someone who has a fake bomb in their back trying to get one over the security guards."

That's the same rational used to explain why lie detectors should be admissible in court, and the same one that was shot down by the supreme court. Oh sure, your average person will act in an odd manor if they have a bomb on them (though honestly I'm not sure how you could tell with how uncomfortable airports and airport security is for most people. If you're not acting a little funny then you're the odd one out most of the time) but you can easily train someone to act perfectly calm, reasonable, and normal with anything on their person. Same goes for lying, for a normal, untrained, undetermined individual a lie detector works pretty well. For someone trained and determined to evade it there's nothing you can do to stop them really.

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[Jesus_666]

I think what you are missing here is the psychological aspect. They watch out for people who behave in a certain way. Someone with a bomb in his backpack that he wants to explode in a mass of people, taking himself to heaven in the process, behaves very much different from someone who has a fake bomb in their back trying to get one over the security guards. I don't want security to check for TSA agents sneaking in with fake bombs, I want them to look out for people with real bombs.

So if the terrorists spend some time preparing for the bombing and act differently from what the TSA thinks is a stereotypical terrorist, they can pass easily?

Acting is not exactly impossible to pull off. The TSA needs to get nearly all dangerous people under any circumstance without many false positives. That includes TSA agents who want to smuggle in fake bombs - because a real terrorist might behave just like those agents. Or like a regular tourist. Or like a stressed-out businessman who can't afford to miss his flight.

Deducing from behavior whether or not someone carries a dangerous device with him is non-trivial. The TSA has no means of knowing whether someone who tries to smuggle something in is a TSA agent or not, so they need to stop everyone who is suspicious while at the same time having effective, yet unobtrusive suspicion standards. If they can't pull that off they're pretty much useless.

Re:slashvertisement

[gmack]

This is complete crap.

The underlying problem was not that the terrorists on 9/11 used a weapon that no one thought of (box cutters) it's that they exploited a weakness in the security procedures everyone was trained with.

Up until that point the common practise was just to give the hijackers whatever they want so no one would get hurt. Worst thing that happened was that people on the plane got hurt but that was the risk anyways. Al Queda took advantage of that since no one had ever before used a plane to attack something else.

Box cutters weren't the problem as demonstrated by what happened on the last flight when they found out what had happened to the other planes they overpowered the terrorists (a bit too late). Had the security procedures been different they would never have gotten control of any of the planes in the first place.

Blaming the screeners meant several things:

1. They could blame the guys at the bottom instead of admitting that the higher ups had been the problem
2. They could get boatloads of money into their budgets for new toys

The problem now is that the screeners are in extreme CYA mode since they don't want to get crapped on again even though the underlying procedural problem was quietly fixed.

Re:slashvertisement

[lessthan]

This isn't insightful. Question all you want. Just because the rule "seems" stupid, doesn't mean it is invalid. People whine and moan about the no cell phone rule during takeoff, because it inconveniences them. That is it. The fact is that there is a very slim possibility that a cell phone could interfere with takeoff procedures. That could open a slim possibility of an accident during takeoff. An accident occurs that could have been prevented if everyone had there cell phone off. Why not comply? Just because the possibility of accident is remote? You know that if such an accident would occur, all the families would sue over it, possibly forcing the company out of business. Are all these consequences worth the ten to fifteen minutes of availability you get by having your cell phone on? It is selfish.

Re:slashvertisement

[cartman94501]

I have flown several times a year both before and after 2001, and I haven't noticed that it's any more difficult or annoying than it ever was. Sure, there are a few more rules, like the liquids in small containers in a plastic bag, shoes off, and laptops out of their cases, but if you know the rules, it takes only a few seconds to comply, and I whiz through every time. I'll be damned if I'm going to let a bunch of airport douchebags keep me from flying.

Re:slashvertisement

[nsayer]

even though the underlying procedural problem was quietly fixed. It's worth mentioning that the underlying problem was fixed without any government action at all. In fact, the underlying problem was fixed even before the 9/11 incident ended. As soon as the folks on the UA San Francisco-bound plane knew the ground rules changed, they responded appropriately and the hijackers failed in their goal. The would-be shoe bomber was tackled by his fellow passengers not because of the words or actions of any government agency, but because of the heightened vigilance of his fellow passengers.

In fact, all of the extra TSA security theatre has probably by now resulted in more deaths than the 9/11 incident. How? By increasing the costs of air travel both in money and inconvenience, more people have been diverted to the nation's highways, which have a death toll per passenger mile exponentially higher than air travel.

Re:slashvertisement

[L0rdJedi]

WHO GIVES A FUCK! The FAA requires that the GOD DAMN PHONE be turned OFF before the pilot can take off! For the sake of everyone on the plane who wants the flight to take off on time so they can make it to their destination ON TIME, TURN OFF THE FUCKING PHONE! If you have a problem with the rule, write your FUCKING representative and get the rule CHANGED! Don't start protesting the fucking rule on the plane where nobody on board can do anything about it! The pilot and flight attendants are NOT going to debate it with you. Nope. You turn it off or you'll be escorted off the fucking plane!

In fact, that's probably what I would have done if I had been on with an asshat like you. I would have politely asked the flight attendant to escort your ass off the plane. I'll be damned if I'm going to be late to my destination. If you want to break the rules and be late to yours, fine by me. Just get off the FUCKING PLANE!

You act like following the rules at all makes everyone a sheep. Some of us just want to get to our destination. Stop bitching about people being sheep.

I personally always question the rules, but I'm not going to do it in a situation where it's likely going to get me detained ie at an airport. I recently flew and we had to dump the water in our 14 month old sippy cup. YEAH! "It's for the baby" "It doesn't matter, you have to dump it". I was not about to get in an argument with a TSA moron about 5 oz of water. It was easier to dump the damn cup and mix his milk (water in the bottle mixed with formula, yeah, they let that through) then it was to argue the point with them.

If you want shit changed, call and write your representatives. If you want to sit and call people sheep all day, you can do that too, but it's not going to get anything changed.

Re:slashvertisement

[Mark_in_Brazil]

If you're able to get your laptop stolen in that environment, you shouldn't have been using a computer.

I don't know about that. All it takes is some smart thieves working together. You put your laptop in a tray separate from your other stuff, put your shoes in another tray [rolls eyes] and go to the metal detector. Your items go through the X-ray machine on the conveyor belt. Now it just so happens that two or three idiots in front of you have all kinds of metal on them, so the metal detector keeps going off, and you can't get past for a few minutes. So you're not standing there waiting for your laptop when it comes out of the X-ray machine.

When you get to the other side, you find your shoes and whatever other items you may have had, but your laptop and your laptop bag are gone. Looks like somebody was waiting for it when it came through, but it wasn't you. You might find the bag at the bottom of one of the garbage cans in the terminal, possibly in a bathroom, but by that time, your laptop has been placed in a new bag and is on its way to some destination, possibly in the same city (if the thieves have accomplices who work at the airport), or possibly in another city.
Hmmmm... d'ya think maybe the person who took your laptop knew those "idiots" in front of you who kept setting off the metal detector with all those coins and pens and keys and belt buckles and business card holders and iPods and cell phones and tie clips and whatnot?

Re:slashvertisement

[Anonymous Coward]

This is off topic but your little footer I found rather interesting. Do you also feel we should get rid of money and land too? War's fought over that. And skin color.

Or perhaps those are the SPECIFIED reasons for the war, not the real one. Perhaps certain people use the excuse of religion, money, land, or whatever, to start their holy crusade, but if you remove one of those they'll just make up another excuse.

Sorry but religion, nor land, etc, starts war. PEOPLE Start war. And as long as there are people there will be no peace.

Re:slashvertisement

[seededfury]

i fixed that for you....

Re:slashvertisement

[lwsimon]

It really isn't a problem. Would you sit there, knowing what you know now, if someone tried to take over a plane with a 1" long blade? Hijackings will never again be a problem in America.

Re:slashvertisement

[mcrbids]

if you were aiming for a flight that departed the runway at 12 noon, what time would you leave your house.. 11am?

FYI: If I left any time after 9:30 AM, I would be stressing being "late". 10:00 AM and I'd be rather unsure of catching the plane. 10:30 AM and I'm canceling the trip.

Re:slashvertisement

[treeves]

it has electronics and a battery (= power source), hence it could just as well be something to jam the avionics and bring the plane down.

By that reasoning, *every* laptop should be subjected to the same scrutiny. Please, no.

Re:slashvertisement

[deroby]

Nope, that's not what I'm saying at all. It seems to me that you are so focused on "thinking for yourself" that you completely lost ability to think about anyone else and/or the effects of your actions.

If you want to 'think for yourself', fine by me, in fact I applaud it; but for crying out loud : learn to put things into context. Being unreachable while flying is that much of an inconvenience ?? What's next ? Driving through red lights because, hey, you're not going to loose any of your oh-so-precious time on this 'law' imposed on you, are you ? "No sir! I'm not a sheep, I'll cross the road when *I* decide to !"

The "I was following orders"-alarm is so not relevant here. I'm not saying to never question anything, sure you can disagree with whatever you want but as far as fighting the system goes, one should weigh the consequences of ones actions. Obeying often doesn't harm anyone and potentially improves the quality of life for all of us, that's not being a sheep, that's being part of society. If ever in a situation where you come to realize that what you're being told/asked/forced to do something that would qualify as 'bad' in the more general context of the word, then yes please object and revolt. But when being asked to turn off an electronic device during take-off or landing you should indeed simply obey and make the world an easier place for all of us. If you cant cope with that and prefer to be selfish prick, feel free but please not in my time, nor in my neighborhood.

Trying to revolt to .. well "anything" simply because you believe you have the right to do so, doesn't make you a 'wolf', in fact, it makes you an idiot. The kind that makes so much noise that it doesn't take long before they get ignored completely. Maybe you'll be right on something one day, but trust me, by then people really won't be bothered anymore.

Re:slashvertisement

[Anonymous Coward]

stjobe complains that the poster is a mindless "The rule you defend is bad" robot only to become a mindless "Fuck big business for making money" robot himself.

Re:slashvertisement

[OwnedByTwoCats]

If the guy missed his flight, did he get where he was going on time? Did he miss a business meetings? Would he have been better off driving?

Has the basic utility of air travel to get somewhere quickly and inexpensively been totally undermined?

Re:slashvertisement

[kelnos]

For me, I'd leave home around 10.30am for a noon flight. I live within 20 minutes of a major airport (and 30 minutes from another major airport). Arrive an hour before the flight, checkin and security takes 20-25 minutes in my experience, get to the gate 5-10 minutes before they start boarding. If security takes a little longer than usual, bonus: I board the plane right as I get to the gate and don't have to wait.

Re:slashvertisement

[geekoid]

Having actually been pulled aside for a 'random'(HAH) check while my items went through the machine, out of my sight, I ahve to disagree with you.

This means the bus security guard was what I had to rely on to see nothing was stolen.
hmm...

Re:slashvertisement

[toddestan]

And not having to deal with the major airlines and the TSA's bullshit... Priceless.

That's the main reason I see for flying general aviation versus flying commercial. For most people, it's totally worth it.

Re:slashvertisement

[amRadioHed]

Maybe next time he should strap some C4 to the computer. You've got to make things unambiguous for the TSA if you don't want them to delay you.

Re:slashvertisement

[Nefarious Wheel]

You forgot to pepper "value" in there as much as possible.

Yes, I was seeing if I could get away with it -- sort of like trying to write a sentence without the letter "e".

Re:slashvertisement

[LinuxLuver]

A better solution to the security issues in the long run would be to stop lying to invade other countries and to stop supporting anyone who resorts to force instead of talking through problems. There may be a few exceptions....but they would be very few. Even Israel / Palestine would become tractable if the US stopped feeding it with money to sustain the unsustainable. Every time peace threatens to break out some land may be swapped to win peace, the extremists in the Israeli government provoke trouble so they won't have to give back any more West Bank settlements. The track record on that could not be more clear. That state of affairs wins enemies for America who see the US propping up the oppressors. They aren't completely wrong in thinking that.

Re:slashvertisement

[instarx]

"It doesn't even succeed against known threats. They have regular security screenings where a TSA agent sneaks through a fake bomb disguised as a back brace or something innocuous. Less than a 50% success rate at stopping it. If "the terrorists" actually get to that point, it's more likely than not that TSA will let them through."

It is a common misconception that it is necessary to have a 100% detection rate for security to be effective. In reality it is not necessary to implement security procedures so strict that they will find every single weapon every time. Mounting an attack on an airliner today takes a lot of time, planning, and an organization - so being discovered is a big price for the attacker to pay. That's a 50% chance that his entire operation (bomb-makers, money-men, drivers, planners, methods, contacts) will be discovered in a useless, unsuccessfull attack. An unsuccessful attempt would be a major blow to any terrorist network because years of work and a large part of the organization would be sacrificed for nothing. Terrorists are not going to take that kind of risk when there are easier targets.

Airport security is as much about deterence as detection. Frankly I think it is a very good thing for it to be unpredictable whether MacAirs will get special attention or not - whatever the reason.

Re:slashvertisement

[innerweb]

I do not think you are missing the actions of an average American. Many of us (I am an American) are stubborn (news flash?), morally convicted and aggressive individuals. Many of us on a flight that was hijacked now would probably take actions into our own hands if we perceived the proper authorities on board had lost control.

Now, I am not saying this would be done intelligently, with planning or anything else that might make the outcome better, but I am fairly certain that the proverbial hornet's nest would have been disturbed. The problem here is that if there are proper authorities on board, and they have not been smoked out, this presents an even greater difficulty for those responsible for handling the situation, as now they not only have to contend with the criminals involved, but they also have to contend with the strong possibility that many looses cannons are going to make their will known.

What is the correct answer in a situation like that? I have no idea, but I too would rather die than let the plane I am on be used as a weapon. I would rather take a chance at living than bow down to dying. I think most Americans would think the same way. Fear of death and fear of missing the ones we love is a very powerful motivator.

InnerWeb

Re:slashvertisement

[swillden]

It really isn't a problem. Would you sit there, knowing what you know now, if someone tried to take over a plane with a 1" long blade? Hijackings will never again be a problem in America.

Of course not. I was just pointing out that the job TSA is claiming to do is impossible. Your point is that it's useless. I fully agree with both, and would like to see us roll airport security back to pre-9/11 levels, and probably further.

Re:slashvertisement

[Hognoxious]

Then they're idiots, but at least they have the excuse of being minimum wage trash with a power fetish who thankfully (for us) couldn't pass the entrace exams to be a cop.

What this means in practical terms is that if they disguise $bad_thing as an old computer they're 100% sure of getting away with it.

How to tell if it's a computer? Turn the fucking thing on and if it works like it's a computer, it's a computer. (Insert yourr own Windows|Linux|OSX joke here).

Did it not occur to them to, umm, search the web or even make a phone call? Chances are if it was a big international airpiort there might have been a store withn 100 yards selling the damn things.

Ok - this is just getting silly!

[The Ancients]

Now even the (supposed?) lack of features in the MacBookAir is a security issue??? I knew some individuals got a little worked up about it, but really!

Re:Ok - this is just getting silly!

[JoeCommodore]

I bet during training they are told to look for things that may be designed to "look like" common things, and a laptop without ports would probably gain the notice of less tech savvy screeners.

I am sure those uber tiny laptops get as much attention as well.

Re:Ok - this is just getting silly!

[corsec67]

That surprises you?

This is TSA: even water is a dangerous substance, except when you throw it away.

Re:Ok - this is just getting silly!

[The Ancients]

I'd be a bit careful about water. Everyone who has ever died on this planet has drunk water at some stage in their life. Coincidence? I think not...

Re:Ok - this is just getting silly!

[KiloByte]

I bet during training they are told to look for things that may be designed to "look like" common things, and a laptop without ports would probably gain the notice of less tech savvy screeners. To the contrary, it seems like they get confused by things unknown to them. A long, long time ago I went to the USA and had a similar gathering of security staff because of a box of 3.5" floppies... It was before looking for terrorists was in fashion; they could possibly taken the floppies for some spy devices or whatever (being found on someone from ex-eastern bloc) -- but I can't think of any plausible explanation.

Re:Ok - this is just getting silly!

[TheRealMindChild]

Hey man. I have never drank water and I AM DEAD, you insensitive clod!

wait...

Re:Ok - this is just getting silly!

[corsec67]

Actually, water can be toxic, and lethal if enough is ingested.

That has nothing to do with explosives or planes, though.

Re:Ok - this is just getting silly!

[enoz]

Perhaps those technically adept people choose not to stand behind an X-ray scanner for 12 hours a day.

Re:Ok - this is just getting silly!

[shoemilk]

Don't you read slashdot summaries? Water is dangerous!
http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/03/09/2121249

Re:Ok - this is just getting silly!

[tverbeek]

Back in 1996 or 1997 I got some funny looks from security after the wire connecting the main AA cells in my Psion Series 3a PDA broke, in the International terminal at Boston Logan. The button cell that served as backup power for the memory wouldn't last the duration of the flight to London (where I might have gotten it fixed professionally), and I had data in it that I'd need after I got there. So I bought a travel sewing kit* at the newsstand (the safety pin made a good fine tool), got out my tweezers and Swiss Army knife* to help disassemble the PDA and to strip the wire a little, and spent the half hour before my flight in the waiting area at the gate, hunched over the "device" and performing emergency field surgery to make a solid connection between the AAs and the electronics. I snapped it all back together just as they called for boarding.

And the in-flight movie? Executive Decision, in which the Bad Guy uses a Psion Series 3a as the remote control for a bomb on the plane.

*Did I mention that this was way before Sept. 2001?

Re:Ok - this is just getting silly!

[Robert1]

This seems very reasonable. No ports, no disc drive, completely metallic instead of plastic. I could see how it would set of some warning bells that there might be more to this guy's laptop than he claims. Taken in this light it actually raises my views of the TSA and certainly makes it seem like they're actually looking out for potential safety threats.

Either way, had he been there a little earlier he could have had plenty of time to explain his new gadget and boarded the plane. TSA (and common sense) - 1, jackass blogger - 0.

Re:Ok - this is just getting silly!

[Hes Nikke]

well, water IS 2/3 hydrogen, and 1/3 oxygen... and thats what they use to launch the space shuttle, so water must be an explosive!

Re:Ok - this is just getting silly!

[vigmeister]

I am sure those uber tiny laptops get as much attention as well. I do not know if it qualifies as an 'uber tiny' laptopn, but my old 10.6" VGN-240P/L (link is a close match) gets a fair bit of attention, but it's usually limited to "That's the smallest laptop I've ever seen!" or at worst, "Start it and show me some programs". The latter happened just once. I think the fact that it looks like a laptop with all the 'standard' features (but no ports on the back) is the saving grace, but it does get them talking.

Cheers!

Re:Ok - this is just getting silly!

[nmb3000]

And the in-flight movie?Executive Decision

Ah, I remember Executive Decision. As I recall it was the first Steven Seagal movie that was any good!

Re:Ok - this is just getting silly!

[director_mr]

Actually water is the main ingredient in dihydrogen-monoxide. DHMO.org has confirmed this is a dangerous and deadly substance.

Re:Ok - this is just getting silly!

[edwardpickman]

The first poor bastard that flew with an iPhone probably was rocket sledded to Gitmo and is likely still cooling his heels there. "No really it's a cell phone". Screener, "What do you think I'm stupid?"

Re:Ok - this is just getting silly!

[jaxtherat]

Sorry to be picky, but according to standard of notation (as far as I was taught in Uni, anyway) putting any kind of prefix like (di, tri, etc) in front of the first element of the compound is incorrect, so it is in fact:

hydrogen oxide

even though it is H20

Re:Ok - this is just getting silly!

[mfnickster]

> I don't think they were referring to the fact that it won't run 99% of software out there

I know you're joking, but you are aware that Intel Macs can run Windows, Mac and Unix software these days... right?

In fact, I can't think of a single machine ever marketed that runs as much software as an Intel Mac. :)

Re:Ok - this is just getting silly!

[Anonymous Coward]

jackass blogger - 0 Aren't they all...

Re:Ok - this is just getting silly!

[mpeg4codec]

I travel with a Sharp Actius MM10 fairly regularly and I've never been hassled. This laptop is truly uber tiny, and it's quite similar to the Macbook in many of the ways listed. I'm willing to believe this is just viral marketing crap from Apple.

Re:Ok - this is just getting silly!

[Anonymous Coward]

It's no more of a threat than any other computer - if fact the smaller size means it's less of a threat than if someone turned a regular laptop into a bomb. Why not just ask him to turn it on right away and be done with it? I've had to turn on my computer going through security, I can't see why this deserves some special kind of review.

Re:Ok - this is just getting silly!

[Anonymous Coward]

Yep great movie :).

Re:Ok - this is just getting silly!

[zippthorne]

The trick is coming up with a chemical name for it that's as technically correct as possible, but conveys the worst fears of accidents involving powerful industrial solvents.

Frankly, I don't know why they call it DHMO, though, even though it has a nice acronym. When you can split H2O into H-OH and refer to it using acid-base terminology. Something like hydro-oxyhydric acid sounds pretty menacing to me, or the severely caustic protium hydroxide!

"My eyes! The goggles do nothing!"

Re:Ok - this is just getting silly!

[baileydau]

Or you could call it Hydrogen Hydroxide, or even Caustic Hydride

Re:Ok - this is just getting silly!

[jbellows_20]

Ah, I remember Executive Decision. As I recall it was the first Steven Seagal movie that was any good!

It could have been better. Ten minutes with him in the movie was a little long.

Re:Ok - this is just getting silly!

[hardcoredreamer]

You've got to be kidding.

Re:Ok - this is just getting silly!

[mfnickster]

> You gotta be kidding me and FYI, I'm not kidding. A "mac" running Windows is just an overpriced windows PC. Unless you have to buy a Mac AND a PC to run Mac and PC software. You could just buy the Mac and run both. > By macs can't run 99% of software, I meant actual macs can't run 99% of software. Funny, my Macbook Pro running Windows still looks like an 'actual Mac'. > It's kinda sad when being able to run your main competetor's OS is the biggest selling point. Yeah, sad all the way to the bank. I'm sure Microsoft is really sad about selling a few copies of Windows to Mac users too. > And what can macs run that PCs can't? Umm...final cut. Garage Band, Keynote, Pages, etc. but that's not the point. The point is that Macs can run DOS/Windows software in ADDITION to Mac software. Yes, you have to install Windows to do it-- but maybe not for long if Wine on Darwin gets up to speed. Oh, and you can run a helluva lot of Unix software on Macs. That's without installing a second OS like Linux. > That's all I can think of at the moment and I'm happy with the PC version of Adobe Premiere and some Ulead products so yeah, > macs are kinda pointless except as some douchey, almost status symbol. Whatever, dude.

Re:Ok - this is just getting silly!

[mfnickster]

(CRAP, forgot to preview...)

> You gotta be kidding me and FYI, I'm not kidding. A "mac" running Windows is just an overpriced windows PC.

Unless you have to buy a Mac AND a PC to run Mac and PC software. You could just buy the Mac and run both, cheaper.

> By macs can't run 99% of software, I meant actual macs can't run 99% of software.

Funny, my Macbook Pro running Windows still looks like an 'actual Mac'.

> It's kinda sad when being able to run your main competetor's OS is the biggest selling point.

Yeah, sad all the way to the bank. I'm sure Microsoft is really sad about selling a few copies of Windows to Mac users too.

> And what can macs run that PCs can't? Umm...final cut.

Garage Band, Keynote, Pages, etc. but that's not the point. The point is that Macs can run DOS/Windows software in ADDITION to Mac software. Yes, you have to install Windows to do it-- but maybe not for long if Wine on Darwin gets up to speed.

Oh, and you can run a helluva lot of Unix software on Macs. That's without installing a second OS like Linux.

> That's all I can think of at the moment and I'm happy with the PC version of Adobe Premiere and some Ulead products so yeah,
> macs are kinda pointless except as some douchey, almost status symbol.

Whatever, dude.

Re:Ok - this is just getting silly!

[Ortega-Starfire]

The last thing the TSA should let you do is power on a "Suspicious Object." I mean seriously guys. If the thing was a bomb, you don't have the carrier test it! Unless of course you have a bomb room set aside for this.

Re:Ok - this is just getting silly!

[Raideen]

My only problem with the scenario was that they somehow thought that herding together to have a discussion would help. A quick "I don't know what that is" from each of them would have sufficed. A group of people who lack the expertise to figure out what something is won't be able to make the right judgment call as to whether or not to let it (and him) on the plane. Speculation doesn't keep us safe. I don't expect a screener to have that expertise. However, they should be able to call people who specialize in technology, weapons concealment, bombs, etc. It's more of an infrastructure issue to me. He probably would have missed his flight anyway, but at least there would be a process that makes sense.

Re:Ok - this is just getting silly!

[DKlineburg]

Water can be dangrous. Look at all the drugs that they found in it? Prescription drugs found in water

Re:Ok - this is just getting silly!

[deroby]

Funny,
so you're telling us that you've never had a situation where something baffles you and you call in the help of some colleagues ? In my world, more people tend to know/spot/realize/understand/... more things, and even though none of them might know what a Mac Book Air is, they weren't trying to figure out whether it was one in the first place. They were trying to figure out if the thing was a threat (bomb, jamming device, idunnoknowwhat) and for THAT they all got some training and for that reason alone it was a good idea to have more people around trying to spot any caveats in the 'potential terrorist' his story / mock-up / explanations / ... They still might have failed coming to the right conclusion, but they did try to improve the odds of finding out what this thing really was, in my humble opinion that is "doing their job" and makes me think more of them than those guys that rather simply seem to "be" there waiting for their shift to end.

And, as you've obviously not read the article, here's a quote that displays that having more people around actually 'solved the mystery'

"...Nygard was made to wait until a younger agent came over to the gathering to inform his comrades of their error,...

Re:Ok - this is just getting silly!

[Anonymous Coward]

In fact, I can't think of a single machine ever marketed that runs as much software as an Intel Mac. :)

An intel greybox? It runs one less software item (vanilla OS X), but also one more (hacked OS X).

Re:Ok - this is just getting silly!

[jaavaaguru]

there might be more to this guy's laptop than he claims

If you can fit more inside a MacBook Air than Apple claims, you're doing *really* well.

Re:Ok - this is just getting silly!

[m50d]

An actual IBM PC (with sound blaster- and NE2K-compatibles) will run a lot more - all the older or niche systems like BeOS or OS/2 which simply don't have drivers for the fancy modern hardware.

Re:Ok - this is just getting silly!

[baldass_newbie]

The last thing the TSA should let you do is power on a "Suspicious Object."

Used to be the rule that you had to power on your laptop going through security screening. This was before 2001, in fact right before.

Re:Ok - this is just getting silly!

[yuri2001]

Oh I love so much this new regulation about not being able to bring some liquids in the cabin.

I often travel, for leisure or business and as a trekker/walker/scrambler I often try to combine both.

I use a backpack that is small enough to bring in the plane with me, and inside is a 3 liter Camelback, with a (very obvious) blue hose coming outside of the bag. Most of the time it's half full when i take the plane, and apparently scanners and TSA don't seem to know what it is, or even see it.

I'm so amused when I see TSA guys telling an old lady to throw away her 25 cl bottle of Evian in the big bin, and then juster after they let me pass with my camelback...And i'm sure I could even carry some fuel in it, they still would let me pass. (scary uh?).

Re:Ok - this is just getting silly!

[edittard]

I don't know why they call it DHMO

I'd guess that the monoxide part sounds dangerous by association with carbon monoxide, at least to the layman.

Re:Ok - this is just getting silly!

[Machine9]

I can see it now, you pop open the mac and reach for the power button, and the security staff all throw themselves to the ground and shake in fear of your mac exploding.

Airport security is in general retarded, and unbelievably racist. The last time I flew to the US I got sent into the "we're going to hassle you for two hours" queue and I was the only white person there, the rest were all arabic or black people. The only reason I was there was indubitably my long hair and trenchcoat.

It was really, really, vile. They could at least grab some random white people to try and disguise their racism. So yeah, I'm not visiting the states again =(

Re:Ok - this is just getting silly!

[Firehed]

It's not as if he could have just... you know... turned the laptop on. When it didn't explode, no problems and be on your way, Sir. And on the offchance it did, I suppose it's better to happen on the ground than in the air.

Re:Ok - this is just getting silly!

[kerrbear]

> To the contrary, it seems like they get confused by things unknown to them

I remember I was an early adopter of the 1st Gen iPod. I put it in a basket at the xray belt and when I got to the other side it was no longer in the basket. Whoooaaa! I said a little too loudly and looked around. A guilty looking security guard handed it to me saying, "I was just checking it." (more like he was checking it out). As I walked away, another guard says "Hey, what is that anyway?" "It's my iPod", I said, and walked away with a grin.

Re:Ok - this is just getting silly!

[Firehed]

Don't bother. I like my Mac too, but I've long since given up wasting my time explaining why to haters. People who want to hate Macs will, and I can't imagine why you or I should care if other people are moving over. Save it for people that are asking for recommendations for a new machine and will actually listen to what you have to say.

Re:Ok - this is just getting silly!

[ArsenneLupin]

Everyone who has ever died on this planet has drunk water at some stage in their life. Dude, it's not the water, it's all the pharmaceuticals in it.

Re:Ok - this is just getting silly!

[stiggle]

Why? When there have been other more featured phones out there for years :-)
Back in 2003 - I got odd looks from Americans when I was travelling with my SonyEriccson P800i.
Before that when I had my Palm IIIc and a PalmPix camera I got even more strange looks.

Re:Ok - this is just getting silly!

[hesiod]

> you've never had a situation where something baffles you and you call in the help of some colleagues?

If I call in colleagues and they all agree they they don't know what the hell is going on, we try to find someone who does instead of standing around staring at a computer.

Re:Ok - this is just getting silly!

[dbIII]

Think what Oddjob could do with a Macbook Air! Watch enough spy movies and you see danger everywhere.

Re:Ok - this is just getting silly!

[Loki_1929]

Actually, I travel through 8 - 10 airports a year on average and I've never been held up for extra scrutiny over my Sony PCG-SRX77 (http://myarticle.enet.com.cn/images/200510/1128762957284.jpg).

Of course, I've gotten through security with the wrong boarding pass (accidentally switched with a travel companion before reaching security), with an expired ID, and with a laptop bag that had wires hanging out of it every which way because I was in a hurry. One time, the people seated at the x-ray machine asked me what they were seeing in my bag. I told them it was probably my spare battery and they just said ok (no hand search). As I was putting my shoes on and gathering my things, I realized I didn't have my spare battery in the laptop bag - it was an external hard drive.

My experiences from regional airports (which, oddly enough, are the safest and best managed from a security standpoint) to international airports across the US suggests that these people don't know what they're looking for and largely don't care. I don't pretend to know how many are smart or dumb, but I will say that if you give someone a boring enough job, eventually they *will* stop caring. Apathy is a way of life at 'security' checkpoints in America's airports. They need to run drills on these guys once a month or so to keep them on their toes.

Re:Ok - this is just getting silly!

[Jesus_666]

I think a better way of solving such problems could be having a staff of "experts" (ie. people who can identify electronic gadgets) and a high-resolution camera phone. If you encounter a suspicious device and you can't identify it, you snap a photo, send it over to the central and they send you a reply like "HARMLESS; ultra-slim notebook, optical drive not included" or "CAUTION; device could not be identified"*.

Of course then you need people who are in the know about current gadgets, enough of them to guarantee short response times and a process that maintains some flexibility (so that people with unidentified devices aren't automatically assumed to be evul terrists).


* Or, of course, "EXPLOSION DANGER; this notebook model is known to use Sony batteries".

Re:Ok - this is just getting silly!

[Enahs]

I would agree with this, but the Air is one of the most over-hyped--and over-advertised--laptops ever made.

Re:Ok - this is just getting silly!

[henryhbk]

The thing is advertised on national TV frequently, and half the bus stops in town have a MBA ad on them. It's been covered in the national press, etc... I understand if this was an obscure machine from an obscure manufacturer, but this is Apple. It seems like some of the fellow passengers could also have pointed out the same thing... The lack of ports thing seems a tad ridiculous, since all you have to do is flip down the door, and many PC laptops have little doors over their ports... I have no idea what a SDD looks like on XRAY, so it may look like a block of C4. All that being said, who shows up that close to a flight and is surprised that he didn't make it (I mean the line could have been longer for goodness sake, would he have blogged about that?)...

Re:Ok - this is just getting silly!

[pyrr]

Uh, not really. The Intel Macs run pretty much exactly as much software as Intel PCs. There is no more OS 9, or even older versions of OS X. And I've seen several Thinkpads on which people installed OS X; granted, that probably wasn't exactly a legal thing for them to do, but the point is that the Intel-compatible version of OS X does run on PC hardware too, and vicariously all the software that a Mac would run as well.

I tend to wonder why that even matters. There's not really much point in running an OS if you're always having to switch to a different one in order to actually do anything. There's not much point in paying a premium for hardware if it all runs the same software, unless there's a quantifiable quality advantage.

Re:Ok - this is just getting silly!

[yngling]

I regularly bring a portable battery power spectrum analyzer with me as carry on luggage, not even once has TSA questioned me. There is not even the slightest chance any of them have a had a clue what it was, and even if I told them they STILL wouldn't know it from, say.... a portable high power one time use EMP device.... which would actually be MUCH less internally complicated than the $15,000 spec an.... Ah well!

Re:Ok - this is just getting silly!

[ZERO1ZERO]

Indeed, most dangerous. See the facts here : http://www.dhmo.org/facts.html

Re:Ok - this is just getting silly!

[mfnickster]

> Uh, not really. The Intel Macs run pretty much exactly as much software as Intel PCs.

Except that these PCs are not marketed as being able to run Mac OS X and its apps, and never will be. OSx86 is a hack. Windows on Intel Macs was originally a hack too, but once Boot Camp came out, it became a selling point.

> There is no more OS 9, or even older versions of OS X.

True, but I can run OS 9 apps in Sheepshaver on an Intel Mac. I don't know if there's anything similar for Windows, but Sheepshaver won't run on Windows.

> I tend to wonder why that even matters. There's not really much point in running an OS if you're always having to switch to a different one in order to actually do anything.

I often wonder that too, but I soon realized that I now have 1 computer to do what I used to do on 3!

And with Parallels or VMWare Fusion, switching from one OS to the other is no harder than logging out and logging in again. :)

> There's not much point in paying a premium for hardware if it all runs the same software, unless there's a quantifiable quality advantage.

True, and I wouldn't argue that Windows on an Intel Mac is more powerful than on a PC, or a 'better experience,' but it works well enough for most purposes. Sure, I can't do any hardcore 3D gaming on it, but when I need to do some work in, say, Access or Outlook, it saves me the trouble of hunting down a PC.

Re:Ok - this is just getting silly!

[Raideen]

I did read the article. You obviously didn't read my post.

A quick "I don't know what that is" from each of them would have sufficed.

I didn't say that asking everyone available was a bad idea. I said that the herding didn't help. Obviously, they should try to figure it out what it is, which brings me back to my original point. They should have someone (hopefully more than one person) on staff that has been trained specifically for that purpose and has the expertise and equipment to be effective. I never insulted the screeners, which you seem to imply.

Re:Ok - this is just getting silly!

[mfnickster]

I take it back... Sheepshaver will run on Windows!

http://209.85.165.104/search?q=cache:sYO2-f2qoMcJ:gwenole.beauchesne.info/projects/sheepshaver/

The gap has narrowed! :)

Re:Ok - this is just getting silly!

[derfred]

So they showed a movie about a bomb on a plane for the inflight movie? I thought that airlines don't show disaster movies/plane crash scenes on their inflight movies.

Re:Ok - this is just getting silly!

[CommanderData]

I travel 2-3 times a month with a Fujitsu P1610 (8.9 inch screen with SSD, no more hard drive) that definitely qualifies as "uber-tiny". The most attention I got was when I had taken it out of the case and put it in the same tote as my shoes for the X-ray machine. The guy running the X-ray could only see my shoes in the tote, he says I need to get my laptop into a tote as well. I told him it's already in the tote with my shoes... Anyway he actually stops the machine and gets up, walks over and looks in my tote! He didn't believe me until he saw it, and said that was the smallest laptop he'd ever seen and figured there was no way to fit all that in one tote without stacking (which is a no-no as well).

Nothing to see here.

[UseTheSource]

It's just the TSA, at its finest. :\

Re:Nothing to see here.

[Dr. Cody]

Whoever this guy is, he's ending up in an Apple commercial one of these days.

Re:Nothing to see here.

[stoolpigeon]

one of these days? he's already in one now - and it's been run for free on redit, digg, slashdot, etc.

Idiots...

[flajann]

What kind of idiots do they hire for these things?

There you have it. Homeland Insecurity. A bomb in every laptop. What morons.

Re:Idiots...

[Kryptonian Jor-El]

You have to remember, That for every 1 person that is "above average", there is one person "below average" (assuming a normal distribution)

Re:Idiots...

[spud603]

Not to get off topic, but you really can't assume any sort of symmetric distribution with something like "tech savviness". More likely there are a whole lot more folks below the mean than above it (long tail on the high end).

Re:Idiots...

[Stinky Fartface]

Not just any bomb, mind you. It's a really thin bomb. With NO optical drive, which makes it perfectly useless to me.

Re:Idiots...

[houstonbofh]

From https://tsacarrers.taleo.net/ Read to the end... I was not scared before I read this, but now...

1802-Transportation Security Officer (TSO) (Screener) - SUN107

Job Description

Apply Online

Description
As a Transportation Security Officer (TSO) (Screener):

You will perform a variety of duties related to providing security and protection of air travelers, airports and aircraft. You will be responsible for identifying dangerous objects in baggage, cargo and/or on passengers; and preventing those objects from being transported onto aircraft. You are required to perform various tasks such as: wanding, pat down searches, operation of x-ray machines, lift and carry baggage (weighing up to 70 pounds), and screening and ticket review using electronic and imaging equipment. As a TSO, you may perform passenger screening, baggage screening or both. You are expected to perform these duties in a courteous and professional manner.

* Communicate with the public, giving directions and responding to inquiries in a professional and courteous manner.
* Maintain focus and awareness within an environment containing numerous distractions, people, and noise.
* Stand and remain standing for periods up to 4 hours without sitting.
* Repeatedly lift and carry an object weighing up to 70 pounds.
* Work within a stressful environment, which includes noise from alarms, machinery, and people, distractions, time pressure, disruptive and angry passengers, and the requirement to identify and locate potentially life-threatening devices and devices intended on creating massive destruction.
* Make effective decisions in both crisis and routine situations.

Work Schedule: Full-time Split-Shift (40 hours per week). A Split Shift schedule is defined as any two shifts, lasting at least two (2) hours each, in one 24-hour period with a break of at least two (2) hours between shifts. Full-time work hours for this position consists of shift-work on any day from Sunday through Saturday, which may include irregular hours, nights, holidays, overtime, extended shifts and weekend shifts, changing shifts, and split shifts. Exceptions include additional shifts to support morning, midday, and afternoon or evening operations. Specific work shifts and schedules will be determined by the airport.

TSA will not pay any pre-employment travel expenses (e.g., travel to and from testing, medical examination facilities and assessment sites). As part of the evaluation process you will be required to travel to a TSA specified medical facility within commuting area of the airport for which you applied.

Qualifications

1. You must be a U.S.Citizen or U.S. National; AND
2. You must have a high school diploma, GED or equivalent; OR at least one year of full-time work experience in security work, aviation screener work, or x-ray technician work.

Possess the following job-related knowledge, skills, and abilities:

* English Proficiency (e.g., reading, writing, speaking, listening)
* Mental Abilities (e.g., visual observation and identification, mental rotation)
* Interpersonal Skills (e.g., customer service, dependability)
* Work Values (e.g., responsibility, honesty, integrity)
* Physical Abilities(e.g. repeatedly lifting and carrying baggage weighing up to 70 lbs, bending, reaching, stooping, squatting, standing, and walking and identifying objects by touch).

All TSOs must meet the following standards:

* Distant vision correctable to 20/30 or better in the best eye and 20/100 or better in the worse eye
* Near vision correctable to 20/40 or better binocular
* Color perception (e.g., red, green, blue, yellow, orange, purple, brown, black, white, gray) note: color filters (e.g., contact lenses) for enhancing color discrimination are prohibited.
* Hearing as measured by audiometry cannot exceed:

Re:Idiots...

[mikael]

You've got to remember the rapid speed at which new electronic gadgets come on the market. On the salary of an airport security guard, they're probably not going to be able to go to those trade conferences every year ... some common ones:

The deduction logic thus works as follows:

External USB hard disk drive cases = flat metallic objects => body armour

Fisheye camera lens = circular metallic object => land mine or grenade

Computer cables = long thin stretchy objects with connectors at each end => detonation cord

Re:Idiots...

[Anonymous Coward]

Since the purpose of the TSA isn't to stop terrorism but to act as a social placebo, would you really want to waste hundreds of thousands of intelligent and educated man-hours on it?

Re:Idiots...

[evanism]

so its actually:

- Is Alive
- Can HEAR thunder
- Can SEE lightning

Ability to grunt gutturally a benefit.

Re:Idiots...

[Godji]

So that's what a friend of mine must have meant when he told me that "Macbook Air is da BOMB, you know!"

Re:Idiots...

[HeronBlademaster]

I think the TSA is aiming even lower - cavemen are already employed by GEICO.

Re:Idiots...

[RabidMonkey]

Just remember that, even though you look down on these people, and think them lesser, they can still arrange for you to be stripped naked and jam things in uncomfortable places. You may not respect them, but you have to yield to their authority anyways.

Ain't that always the way?

Re:Idiots...

[p0tat03]

Isn't that the problem entirely? I have no problems yielding to the authority of those better qualified than I am. In this case, though, better qualified they are not. Not to mention the fact that the fact that I make 3 times more than they do at half their age is MORE incentive for them to jam things in incorrect places. It wouldn't surprise me at ALL to find out that TSA screeners routinely take out their frustrations on travelers.

Re:Idiots...

[SeaFox]

George Carlin said it better:

"Look at it this way: Think of how stupid the average person is...and realize, half of them are stupider than that."

Re:Idiots...

[megaditto]

Without googling for goatse, identify this symbol:
=O=

Re:Idiots...

[Myrcutio]

and identifying objects by touch See, they hid their TRUE requirements in the fine print. All TSO personell have to be psychic, and identify bombs just by touching their luggage. I think we're safe in their capable hands...

Re:Idiots...

[xRelisH]

Not just any bomb, mind you. It's a really thin bomb.

Actually only the detonator is in the laptop. The bomb is sold separately as a $99 external USB device.

Re:Idiots...

[Anonymous Coward]

What kind of idiots do they hire for these things? The kind of people who *like* looking through other people's dirty laundry. You remember the kids in school who caught flies alive and plucked their wings off and watched them struggle while they died? Yup. That's them. At least in my experience. :-(

Re:Idiots...

[flajann]

Ha!

I also find it amusing that they don't think the Macbook is a "device". Man, these morons have even less brains than I had anticipated.

Wonderful Airport Insecurity. Gotta make you wonder.

I just wonder how much longer must we deal with the TSA? I mean, for the actual "threat" of "terrorism", they are overkill to the max. And are completely useless. All a would-be terrorist would have to do is pick a really busy time to come into the airport, stand in the TSA security line, and blow himself sky-high before he got to the checkpoint. Many would die instantly.

The fact that this has not happened since 9-11 tells me the "terrorism threat" is largely nonexistent.

Some level of caution should be exercised, for sure, but not these insane levels. The actual TSA process would make more people vunerable to the scenario I described above because more people would be concentrated in a small area for greater effect AS WELL AS showing egg on face of the US Insecurity measures.

Meanwhile, 41,000 people die each year on our highways, and no one seems concerned about that. When I drive everyday, I am fully aware of this and watch every car around me like a hawk. Everyday I see nutty drivers dancing with death on the highways, and have seen quite a few nasty accidents as well. Improving road safety would cost far less than the TSA and actually save real lives. And improving road safety is easy -- it begins with educating the idiot drivers or get them off the road altogether.

But then, I expect way too much of my government. Bad me!

Re:Idiots...

[flajann]

You remember the kids in school who caught flies alive and plucked their wings off and watched them struggle while they died? Yup. That's them. At least in my experience. :-(

Must be a part of the job description! I wouldn't even be surprised if one of the questions on their application is "did you EVER pull wings and/or legs off an insect when you were a kid?" All that answer "yes" are hired on the spot!

Re:Idiots...

[3247]

George Carlin said it better: "Look at it this way: Think of how stupid the average person is...and realize, half of them are stupider than that."

George Carlin is stupid wrt to mathematics, then.

Re:Idiots...

[Jesus_666]

But every CBO (Chief Bombing Officer) is going to want one!

Re:Idiots...

[tiananmen tank man]

"Since the purpose of the TSA isn't to stop terrorism but to act as a social placebo..."

While I agree with this statement, you say it as tho it is a universaly known fact. It is not. What we need is for everyone to realize this then can that be called progress.

Re:Idiots...

[rossz]

* Color perception (e.g., red, green, blue, yellow, orange, purple, brown, black, white, gray) note: color filters (e.g., contact lenses) for enhancing color discrimination are prohibited.

I bet this violates the disabilities act. I'm color blind, which (technically) is a type of handicap. Time to sue! Big bucks coming my way.

Re:Idiots...

[flajann]

Don't they learn anything from the training they get? Or is that equally moronic too?

Re:Idiots...

[flajann]

If more people are below the mean, that's not much of a mean, now is it? :-)

Re:Idiots...

[spud603]

You're thinking of median:
mean
median

Re:Idiots...

[mikael]

To be honest, I don't think they get any training - I had to show them that the metal box in the external hard disk drive enclosure was the same thing as the hard disk drive in my laptop.

You don't even want to know want happened to the biology student who wanted to study the effect of air travel on the maturation of cheese, and placed a temperature probe inside a block of cheese wrapped in clingfilm.

Re:Idiots...

[instarx]

"Not to get off topic, but you really can't assume any sort of symmetric distribution with something like "tech savviness". More likely there are a whole lot more folks below the mean than above it (long tail on the high end)."

Well, no. There are always just as many people below the mean as there are above it.

Re:Idiots...

[spud603]

Ok, maybe an example will clear things up:
Imagine we've measured the "tech savviness" of a population of 10 people to be (1,1,2,2,2,2,3,3,8,10). The mean savviness is 3.4, meaning that 8 of the 10 people are below the mean. In this example, 80% of the population is below average.

TSA has a hard job

[BadAnalogyGuy]

TSA agents have a difficult job as it is. How much harder do Apple fanboys have to make it for them by insisting that their toys are "computers"?

Re:TSA has a hard job

[frenchbedroom]

TSA agents have a difficult job as it is.

Yeah, Apple fanboys should beware them TSA Gangstaz.

Re:TSA has a hard job

[Kagura]

That was rather amusing. :)

Re:TSA has a hard job

[someonehasmyname]

My roommate works for TSA and told me when he started working there he was surprised to see more macs than pcs.

Re:Jock Son/ For Big Daddy - m4m - 18

[Vehstijul]

Wow.. Goatse and the MacBook Air together on the same thread--is there an Apple ad somewhere here?

MacBook Air--so small you can store it anywhere!

Is this news? or marketing?

[Ironclad2]

Anyone who's ever tried to bring a less-than-common piece of electronics through airport security has probably had them happen to this. I've had TSA agents inquire about my TI-89 on two separate occasions. Is this story really news? or just cleverly embedded marketing?

Sounds like his fault

[Anonymous Coward]

He should've gotten to the airport earlier. It sounds like he was operating on razor-thin margins, and got bit. Tough. Deal with it.

Re:Sounds like his fault

[ters a-zA-Z0-9$_. !*]

mod this troll but he was probably a typical "mac" user and was just getting hassled by airport security. 1. Possibly wearing John Lennon glasses 2. Maybe wearing a save padro t shirt or whatever the fuck 3. Answered whats this with "Thats THE Laptop what are you a caveman beige box wielding fuck" and so on until "Travel Companion" stepped in 4. Perhaps wearing sandals well if he had linux on it he probably would have got the cavity search, at least he wouldn't have liked it Christ i have a Compaq evo with no drive and well lots of ports but that thing isn't that small

Re:Sounds like his fault

[T-Bone-T]

If everyone left earlier enough to account for everything, nothing would get done because everyone would be waiting around somewhere else.

Re:Sounds like his fault

[cerberusss]

What is this straw man argument? He's not saying that people should account for everything, just to try to be on time. This is slashdot, it's better to not use logical fallacies ;-)

Re:Sounds like his fault

[Yvanhoe]

Needing two hours of margins to board a plane is a bit overkill though. No wonder that here (in Europe) they are loosing all their short-distances market to trains where you can arrive 5 minutes before the train starts. And yes, get aboard with your damn geek swiss-knife tool.

Re:Sounds like his fault

[Jeppe Salvesen]

I see The Pun!

Anyhow, Michael Nygard sounds like a guy who knows his airports. Had a smooth routine that worked. Until he got a MacBook Air and confused the authorities. If you confuse the authorities you must face the consequences!

Re:Sounds like his fault

[xenocide2]

where you can arrive 5 minutes before the train starts. These sound incredibly fast!

Re:Sounds like his fault

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes, unfortunately the rail system in the US is sorely lacking and is essentially another bloated government entity that does nothing but sap money.

Re:Sounds like his fault

[celtic_hackr]

No one seems to notice the tongue-in-cheek of this post? I mean "razor thin" and MacBook Air? Seriously, if you open up a PC and power it up and it works thew way it's supposed to, how could TSA people say it isn't a PC? I think this whole article is a troll, I mean sure these TSA people love to pick on people but to say they don't recognize a PC when they see it working. They even patted down my 2yo daughter, because they probably are pedophiles on top of everything else. Maybe we were singled out to prove they are racially profiling. I think she was the only Caucasian blonde baby on the flight. She could of had a bomb in her diaper, except she wasn't wearing a diaper. I suppose she could of had a bomb in a cavity. Yet they still can't seem to catch the people sneaking bombs and knifes and guns on to test the security. Hmmm... maybe they need to take a whole new approach? One thing that is important these days is to not piss of the TSA and checking clerks when flying, they love to demonstrate their power to make you miss your flight.

Re:Sounds like his fault

[sinserve]

His margins might have been "razor-thin", but they also had round corners and would stay safely in a manila envelope.

Re:Sounds like his fault

[Tom]

Why?

No, I'm serious. Why the fuck do I have to show up at the airport an hour or so before? I'm the customer who pays for the whole charade, and I've not seen serious attempts to make things smooth and going well for the customer in many airports. What I do see are easily spotted attempts at operating as cheaply as possible.

"Put up with it" is an attitude that not many industries can afford, you know?

Re:Sounds like his fault

[cjdkoh]

i was unaware that airlines had started allowing passengers to board their flights before they had landed.
as far as i can tell from (gasp) reading the article, this happened as the guy was about to board the airplane.

Deja vu

[Dr. Cody]

Same thing happened to the Power Mac G4...

But..

[Canosoup]

Could you even fit a bomb in that thing?

Re:But..

[RuBLed]

With plastic explosives, definitely yes...

Ignore this shitty, fake story

[Anonymous Coward]

Just more viral advertising by Apple Corp.

Re:Ignore this shitty, fake story

[RealGrouchy]

What, so the message is "buy MacBook Air: it'll make you so cool, they'll think you're a terrorist"?

- RG>

Re:Ignore this shitty, fake story

[Phroon]

Just more viral advertising by Apple Corp.

You are confusing Apple Corps, the record company with Apple Inc, the computer company.

Re:Ignore this shitty, fake story

[darkmeridian]

The story has the ring of truth to it. I was going from JFK to LAX last Thursday and the TSA scanner operator picked my cash clip out of the X-Ray machine and examined it for about a minute. The cash clip was shiny, so I understand why he was interested, but it was still annoying standing there barefoot waiting for him to finish.

Ooga Chaka

[ZeroFactorial]

In other news, the Ooga Chaka tribe brutally murdered a tourist to their village who was carrying a double-blunt-ended walking stick.

Apparently, the "spear with a lack of features" was cause for great alarm among the Ooga-Chakas.

Re:Ooga Chaka

[Anonymous Coward]

Dude, blunt spears are no joke. Ever tried catching a fish with one? You can't just stab & enjoy, you've gotta beat the sucker senseless first. Ever tried clubbing a bass to death. Its hard work.

But with the new MacBook Air, I don't need to bludgeon my trout anymore. I can just pluck it out of the water with my newly developed mind powers and have it baked with a side of waterfowl before it even hits the ground. Yummers, pyrokineticly cooked duck! Thanks MacBook Air!

Re:Ooga Chaka

[bladesjester]

Okay, remind me to bring my spear and not my walking stick when I visit the Ooga Chaka tribe.

I tend to prefer swords, but I can deal with a spear. =]

Re:Ooga Chaka

[LaskoVortex]

You're a fucking idiot.

Which part exactly do you object to?

Re:Ooga Chaka

[frehe]

I tend to prefer swords, but I can deal with a spear. =]

I say, Good Sir, I know of several makers and sellers of swords suitable for the modern gentleman who plans to visit the darkest corners of Ooga Chaka's land, but I have so far only found one for spears:

http://www.coldsteel.com/spears-high-performance-spears.html

Re:Ooga Chaka

[Anonymous Coward]

It is not hard to bludgeon a fish to death. My first memory of ever catching a fish was a traumatic experience.
My mom grew up in a VERY small fishing town of the coast of Newfoundland. Her whole family's income and most of their food depended on fish. We were here in the states fishing at a state park. I was about 5 years old. I caught something small reeled it in to shore. I was proud, my fist ever fish. I watched it flop around on the dock and I was afraid to get it off the hook because I did not want to hurt its mouth. I also dangled the line back into the water so it could breathe. My mom came over to look at it. She grabbed it by the tail and pulled it out of the water, ripped the hook out of its mouth and while still holding it by the tail, smacked it against the dock. It died instantly. I was terrified. I eventually noticed that some she grabs and impales of the dock like that and some she lays them down and steps on the them. I guess that was the difference between her growing up off the north coast of Newfoundland and us now living and me growing up in a big city suburb.

I have never enjoyed fishing since then although I eat a lot of fish. Out of sight, out of mind I guess.

Re:Ooga Chaka

[klubar]

Like many mac laptops the air gets so hot that not only can you use it as a computer, but it doubles as a cooking implement. And in case of an emergency you can always use the battery as a firestarter. It's really three tools in one!

Nothing like the smell of baked trout on your mac toy.

Re:Ooga Chaka

[BadHaggis]

What makes me mad is that the guy in front of me with a walking stick that would make Merlin's staff look like a toothpick didn't receive a second glance from the TSA, but I have to play 20 questions about my laptop, electronics, an 3 ounces of cologne, mouth wash and toothpaste.

Re:Ooga Chaka

[Culture20]

I call fakery. Everyone knows that Apple fanbois who are fervent enough in their beliefs as to produce psychic phenomena are photo-silicavores. They wouldn't dream of eating anything that has DNA.

Re:Ooga Chaka

[bladesjester]

The swords and spears from Museum Replicas are decent as well.

The quality didn't used to be so great (about 10 years ago), but they're worthy of use now.

Re:Ooga Chaka

[bluefoxlucid]

Your mom sounds like a brutal whore.

Re:Ooga Chaka

[Lord Flipper]

I have never enjoyed fishing since then although I eat a lot of fish. Out of sight, out of mind I guess.

if it makes you feel any better, I arrived in San Diego, from Montréal, back in '78, and went out to the pier at Ocean Beach during my first week there, and got to see a fun little episode: Some old timer was sitting on an over-turned bucket, fishing the shallows, with another bucket of water and some fish in it, that he had caught. (They looked like carp, but couldn't have been). Anyway, laying motionless on the dock next to him was a little 5 or 6 inch long dead fish.

I asked him what it was, and he said it was a young sand shark that he had caught about 4 or 5 hours previously. I said, "Oh". After a pause I asked why was it on the dock like that, and he said he wanted it dead, instead of in water, whereupon he reached down, picked it up to remove the hook, forced open the little jaw... and the 'dead' sand shark bit at least the entire last joint off his index finger. So, it works both ways. I think, to make it all kinda complete [in a Mother Nature, Ha Ha way], he got pissed and threw the little guy back in the water.

Re:Is this news? or marketing?

[Bill, Shooter of Bul]

Yeah, I've been stopped because of my external dvd drive for years.

Question about missed flight

[Midnight Thunder]

Its a real bummer that these TSA guys end up being no better than night club bouncers, but heck I suppose technology is not their forte, which is kind of ironic given they need to understand recognise what's going through the machine.

Anyhow, my question is if you miss a flight because of these TSA guys, does your airline put you on the next available flight at no extra cost?

Re:Question about missed flight

[MattHawk]

>> Anyhow, my question is if you miss a flight because of these TSA guys, does your airline put you on the next available flight at no extra cost?

My guess would be, not voluntarily. There's a reason they say to get to the airport a couple of hours early, after all, and he very likely didn't if he was cutting it this close.

Re:Question about missed flight

[p0tat03]

Actually, I know some night club bouncers, and they would probably be insulted to be compared to TSA screeners. The bouncers I know are in general quite intelligent, capable of quick, rational risk assessment, in addition to being built like a castle. They might not have Ph.D's in quantum physics, but their intelligence is WAY further along the scale than your average TSA monkey.

Re:Question about missed flight

[eggnoglatte]

Anyhow, my question is if you miss a flight because of these TSA guys, does your airline put you on the next available flight at no extra cost? Only if you are missing an "official" connection, but not if you are missing the first flight in a sequence. The rationale is that you arr repsonsible for showing up at the airport in time to catch your first flight, and they are responsible for you making the connections (*) if they have offered you a ticket, even if there are only 30 minutes between one arrival and the next departure. (*) of course the airline may bail out if they learn that you were delayed because you uttered a bomb thread or something similarly stupid.

Re:Question about missed flight

[megaditto]

Hey give them a break. You try working full-time for $20k/year, lifting heavy bags all day and dealing with smug assholes that think they are better than you.

Frankly, I am surprized one of those guys/gals doesn't pull a gun and go postal.

Re:Question about missed flight

[LaskoVortex]

Frankly, I am surprized one of those guys/gals doesn't pull a gun and go postal.

Patience, my friend, patience.

Re:Question about missed flight

[Eivind]

Atleast in Europe they would. Conditions say, you check in atleast 30 (45 for abroad) minutes prior to your scheduled departure-time. Assuming you make -that- time-limit, the airplane is liable if you still miss your plane.

Which is logical, the security-check-people are (indirectly) hired by them afterall, if they want to they can hire more people and handle more people in parallell to make the lines shorter.

Re:Question about missed flight

[Phroggy]

Anyhow, my question is if you miss a flight because of these TSA guys, does your airline put you on the next available flight at no extra cost? Generally yes, but if it was an evening flight, the next available option may be the next morning, and they probably won't put you up in a hotel for the night. And you won't see your checked baggage again until after you've arrived at your destination. Even during the day, if things are busy, you get last choice of the available options, so the next flight could be several hours later, and you may end up with a multi-hour layover somewhere that wasn't part of your original travel plans.

On the other hand, your airline did tell you to show up two hours before your departure time, and if you'd done that, you wouldn't have missed your flight in the first place. :-P

Re:Question about missed flight

[Suhas]

> the airplane is liable if you still miss your plane.

So we can actually sue the airplane? cool.

Re:Question about missed flight

[Eivind]

You can sue anyone or anything you like.

Re:Question about missed flight

[grassy_knoll]

Frankly, I am surprized one of those guys/gals doesn't pull a gun and go postal.

The TSA screeners at my local airport appear to be unarmed. There are armed airport police, but they're not Federal employees.

Re:Question about missed flight

[halber_mensch]

Frankly, I am surprized one of those guys/gals doesn't pull a gun and go postal. I think the government pension system deters most TSA employees from seeking employment in the postal system, and even so I hope you don't think that bringing a gun to an interview is an acceptable substitute for submitting a well written resume.

Re:Question about missed flight

[Jaysyn]

"Anyhow, my question is if you miss a flight because of these TSA guys, does your airline put you on the next available flight at no extra cost?"

I've read similar stories on The Consumerist, & it appears that an airline's general response to things like this is "Tough luck, we already have your money."

Which is also a great reason to only use credit cards to buy plane tickets. They screw you over, you charge-back the cost of the ticket.

Re:Question about missed flight

[Jesus_666]

I want to see how they're going to get it into the court room.

Re:Question about missed flight

[Fri13]

20k$ in year? Hah, i was one summer (3 months) working as "bag-rat" (lifting bags to/from airliners and from/to wagons and my salary was 22.5/h, it's about 4 years now from that summer (i was 22 then) and it was bretty bad for body because work conditions (tight and low place where trowh big bags) but paycheck was good.

And because it was 22.5/h it's about 35$/h 4 times a week and 8-10 hoursh shifts. And it was nice because you got almost free flights to anywhere you wanted (example from sweden to italy) and two times even me and my shift group really flighted to italy for pizza and then back.

Re:Question about missed flight

[Anonymous Coward]

He missed the flight, because he did not arrive early enough. You have to assume that they may want to hand search your bag, examine your shoes or look at your funky laptop looking toy.

not news.

Re:Question about missed flight

[Anonymous Coward]

If they figure that part out, I'm sure its testimony would blow the jury away (or suck them in, depending on how the court room is configured)...

No surprise really...

[Ekhymosis]

Whilst this might be construed as a troll, and my moderation hit might reflect that, you have to think about the people who are hired as airport security. They are not the best or brightest, and seeing the amount of problems that are caused by simple misunderstandings, ignorance, etc. (although many of these problems are the administrations problems NOT the airport security people), this is just another drop in the bucket. Of course, there are exceptions and I have personally met very bright airport security people, but mostly in the international section of the airport.

Re:No surprise really...

[Anonymous Coward]

well i work airport security so FUCK YOU!

Re:No surprise really...

[Anonymous Coward]

well i work airport security so FUCK YOU!

You fail.

Real airport security wouldn't be that diplomatic.

Re:No surprise really...

[QuantumG]

Umm.. they're given a bunch of rules that they have to follow. It's not like they are bomb experts. If they were they would be working a higher paid job. This doesn't mean they are idiots. It doesn't even mean they are ignorant, unless you want to compare them to said bomb experts, in which case every one of us who isn't a bomb expert is ignorant.

One of the rules happens to be: separate laptops from other electronic devices. So what makes it a laptop and what makes it a "dvd player"? The keyboard? You can't see the keyboard until you open it.

Another rule happens to be: don't open electronic devices unless a secondary inspection is warranted.

And there's a bunch of other rules to decided if a secondary inspection is warranted.

They're just trying to do their job. It's a joke what the experts tell them but they are the experts so if you want to blame anyone, blame them.

Re:No surprise really...

[Anonymous Coward]

well i work airport security so FUCK YOU!

I was going to ask if you talked to your mother like that, then I realized you must have asked her to type that out for you.

Re:No surprise really...

[anthonys_junk]

I'm guessing you don't work at the international terminal.

Re:No surprise really...

[RealGrouchy]

Airport Security.

They've got electrolytes.

It's what air travelers need.

- RG>

Re:No surprise really...

[DaleCooper82]

They are not the best or brightest, and seeing the amount of problems that are caused by simple misunderstandings, ignorance, etc.

...and as regular traveler to US from EU growing arrogance I must say.

Anyway, quite interesting reading about airport security is Unsafe at any altitude.

Re:No surprise really...

[Mr. Slippery]

They're just trying to do their job.

A horrible, horrible excuse. While the security theater being perpetrated here is merely lame and inconvenient, not horribly wicked, still "I was just trying to do my job" is the same justification as the guy running the slave market, or the pilot dropping bombs on civilians. People have responsibility for their own actions.

If your job is to screen electronics for hazardous devices, it's your gorram responsibility to know something about consumer electronics.

Re:No surprise really...

[QuantumG]

Ok, Mr smart guy, please explain how you find people who want this job and have an extensive knowledge of consumer electronics.. how do you retain them? What makes you think they are not going to just leave the moment they gain this extensive knowledge and get a better job?

Seriously.. it's really easy to say "the guy who screens electronic devices should know something about electronic devices" but how exactly do you make that a reality rather than a random wish?

Re:No surprise really...

[Drew McKinney]

A quick story about a clever/funny TSA screener. I saw him once at ORD and never saw him again (I travel every week).

I walk through the electronic screener, and the TSA guy on the other side says to me:

"What's the capital of Alaska?"

"Anchorage?"

"Nope, Juneau"

"Really?"

"Yeah, everyone says Anchorage, but in fact it's Junaeu."

"Awesome, thanks screener-dude."


And that's when his cohorts realized he was not one of them, pointed, let out an alien-like screech, and he was promptly spirited away to work at the Cinnabuns where they require a High School education to retain employment.

Re:No surprise really...

[19061969]

It can read and write also, so it fails the intelligence test too.

Re:No surprise really...

[Mr. Slippery]

Ok, Mr smart guy, please explain how you find people who want this job and have an extensive knowledge of consumer electronics.. how do you retain them?

Same way you retain anyone. Good pay, good working conditions. Hell, if what they're doing is so critical to our nation's security, if they're fighting the "War on Terror", consider them an armed service and offer them veteran's benefits. Yes, that would mean a few extra dollars in the price of your ticket and or higher taxes. If what these people are doing is actually keeping us safe, it would be worth it.

If, on the other hand, what they're doing is meaningless and not contributing to our safety, then rather than doing a bad job of it they ought not to be doing it at all.

But whether they're underpaid or not, whether they're keeping us safe or putting on a show, they each still have the individual obligation to be sufficiently informed to use their authority with some sort of sense.

Re:No surprise really...

[mopower70]

:%s/airport security/military/

Can't blame them

[RuBLed]

it looks like TEH BOMB!!!11...

(either that or they just want one)

(or they just want to rub their thing on.. awww nvmd this one..)

Re:Obviously

[name*censored*]

What would they think
I'm not sure they do..

good logic...

[arse maker]

Look how small it is, it must be a bomb. I personally would try to make something larger to hold a bomb, but hey thats just me. Steve jobs is the only one trying to make bombs smaller and sexier.

Humm, and I going to go to jail for that last comment, its hard to tell what's a crime any more...

Re:good logic...

[Lulfas]

Of course you would make it different. Of course, you also have absolutely no clue about anything on a bomb except what you learned from playing CS, so I'm not exactly sure your opinion means much, but thanks for sharing it.

Re:good logic...

[bdjacobson]

Steve jobs is the only one trying to make bombs smaller and sexier. [citation needed]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8L39UwOS-Y

I think that video speaks for itself about the uses Steve Jobs has in mind for his products.

I'd say these TSA guys are definitely on to something...

Re:good logic...

[nexuspal]

Actually a laptop is the PERFECT size for blowing a hole in a highly compressed fueslage at 30k something feet. Takes only a couple ounces MAX...

Re:good logic...

[dotancohen]

Humm, and I going to go to jail for that last comment, its hard to tell what's a crime any more... There are no crimes, now that there are no longer any laws.

Re:good logic...

[Thwomp]

That would be some Macworld!

Steve: "I just open it up, and boom!"

or...

Steve: "There's just one more thing... boom!"

Re:good logic...

[sashapup]

Don't worry! They'll let you know between water boarding sessions at Gitmo.

goatse them

[timmarhy]

just load up a nice big picture of goatse on your background, or maybe some tubgirl.

if enough people did it TSA agents would quickly lose their taste for looking at our laptops.

on a more serious note, has there ever been a record of someone attempting to sneak a bomb onto a plane via a laptop? no? then pay attention to real dangers pls just for once.

Re:goatse them

[cdrdude]

I totally agree. Furthermore, I think everyone should set 2 girls 1 cup to play on startup whenever passing through airports. If that isn't enough, be sure to keep your favorite (or least favorite) set of gay furry porn as their screensaver, which should be set to start after a minimal inactivity.

Well, that's what I do everytime...

Re:goatse them

[Phroggy]

on a more serious note, has there ever been a record of someone attempting to sneak a bomb onto a plane via a laptop? no? then pay attention to real dangers pls just for once. Right, because terrorists only try things that have been done before...

I agree that this was pretty silly, but there is a reason TSA x-rays all laptops.

Re:goatse them

[pjbass]

Just because it hasn't happened doesn't mean it isn't a possibility of happening. If the TSA waited to have something bad happen everytime before they added it to the list of things to inspect, we'd have many more incidents. Granted the shoe inspection is because of the infamous attempted shoe bomber, but that reality check for them prompted other checks.

I get annoyed by the security checks, but if there is a remote possibility that those checks might catch someone really intending on causing something bad to happen, I'm willing to deal with it.

And I'm sure there were a large number of passengers that have the same "techy" level that the TSA agents did, let's not be so hard on those people. I'd rather the TSA agent err on the side of caution than not, and letting something flagrant through screening. Odd that this made the news, when we (society) seem to love pointing out the failures of the TSA of *not* stopping bad things.

Re:goatse them

[slowbad]

All you have to do to prove it is a REAL computer, is take it out of stand-by mode and show them it can load Internet Explorer!

Like the name?

[Belial6]

The sad thing is, I'm sure that not only are there people who will thing MacBook Air owners have an educational MBA, but there are probably even a few people who will buy them for that reason.

Similar though completely different experience...

[NoobixCube]

One time, when flying from Melbourne to Brisbane, I had two cans of coke wrapped side by side in a tea-towel (to stop condensation from wetting other stuff) in my backpack. In front of the coke was my Nintendo DS's charger, wrapped up neatly. It did look pretty suspicious on the screen, I must admit, but they wouldn't let me go until they'd used what I guess was a portable mass spectrometer to check every inch of clothing and backpack for explosives residue.

i am no expert, but ...

[erlehmann]

Just again, this hints at the fact that TSA screening is at best a security simulation and not real security.

Meanwhile, check out this neat music video (via Schneiers blog).

Show up on time, dumbass.

[urbanriot]

Everyone else should read the original blog post, and note that his flight was taking off AS he was talking to customs. Meaning he showed up at or after boarding time. Airlines suggest showing up 1 to 1.5 hours before takeoff, not at the last minute. Furthermore, I call bullshit on this story. I've recently traveled internationally and went through 8 major airports (plus 'random selection' secondary inspection in Philadelphia) throughout the world, with a laptop, Nintendo DS, two Ipod Mini's, and a case of DVD's all stuffed into my laptop bag, while returning from an Islamic nation and nobody asked me to show them anything.

Re:Show up on time, dumbass.

[zakeria]

we've been looking for YOU!!!

Re:Show up on time, dumbass.

[Anonymous Coward]

Parent is right. GP would disbelieve in global warming because it's cold outside.

Re:Show up on time, dumbass.

[pavera]

well.. see you came from an islamic country so they couldn't touch you cause they'd get sued for profiling... They aren't allowed to screen people coming from/going to islamic countries...

Seriously, every time I've flown with my family my 8 year old brother gets selected for the "secondary" inspection. It's pretty funny, last time he didn't even try to walk through, walked straight to the yellow feet... and they actually had him selected, they asked "how did you know?" He said 'you always pick me, I must look like a terrorist I guess..."

Re:Show up on time, dumbass.

[Jester99]

I call bullshit on this story. I've recently traveled internationally and went through 8 major airports (plus 'random selection' secondary inspection in Philadelphia) throughout the world, with a laptop, Nintendo DS, two Ipod Mini's, and a case of DVD's all stuffed into my laptop bag, while returning from an Islamic nation and nobody asked me to show them anything. And I've had a shmucky customs agent detain me for 30 minutes while going through my bags verrrrrrrrrry slowly and rambling the whole time about how he better not find drugs or contraband or whatever in my bags and I'd better tell him now if I've got any (NB: I didn't). So what have we learned? That you have a luckier record than I have with airport security. But I'm young and have long hair which makes me a "troublemaker" in some peoples' eyes. I've been told that when I look older, this'll happen less. But some people look black/brown/muslim/female/hippie/counter-cultural/whatever and get hassled more than you do.

Your experience, believe it or not, does not establish the absolute truth for every one of the millions of airline passengers who deal with the TSA and US Customs & Immigration on a daily basis. I wouldn't discount anyone's anecdote of their actoins simply based on my own prior experience.

Re:Show up on time, dumbass.

[SvnLyrBrto]

Well that's just wonderful for you.

The last time *I* had the displeasure of flying the unfriendly skies; I waited in line for over an hour for a fifteen minute harassment session while the tsa knuckledraggers ransacked my carry-on, damn near felt up my privates, and accused me of being everything from a terrorist to an anarchist to a communist to a vegan to a drug-smuggler. And this was for a rinky-dink little Southwest flight from the Bay Area to SoCal. In fact, I think I took more time clearing security than I actually did in the air!

So help me... I actually took Amtrack (*shudder*) home... I was so PO'd about the trip down. They were slow and late and incompetent (as usual), but a whole lot less surly and offensive than air travel is these days.

cya,
john

Re:Show up on time, dumbass.

[jimicus]

And I got questioned about an electric toothbrush on a recent flight.

Your point is?

Re:Show up on time, dumbass.

[stephanruby]

Seriously, every time I've flown with my family my 8 year old brother gets selected for the "secondary" inspection. It's pretty funny, last time he didn't even try to walk through, walked straight to the yellow feet... and they actually had him selected, they asked "how did you know?" He said 'you always pick me, I must look like a terrorist I guess..."

I hope your little brother didn't get selected after he went through a sniffing device, these devices look all cool and stuff, but they can't distinguish between fertilizers, explosives, or kid poo, and most now run on silent alarms to avoid the potential embarrassment of what a false positive could mean.

Re:Show up on time, dumbass.

[urbanriot]

And you're assuming these idiots do exist, based on an anecdotal story.

Hehehe. You claim you've flown recently and carried some electronics, and didn't run into the same idiots, and therefore you "call bullshit" -- apparently claiming that because you took some other flights and didn't see the same idiots, ipso facto, said idiots don't exist.

Re:Show up on time, dumbass.

[SoupGuru]

well.. see you came from an islamic country so they couldn't touch you cause they'd get sued for profiling... They aren't allowed to screen people coming from/going to islamic countries... Because that's retardedly easy to get around. Give someone like Johnny Walker Lindh a shave, send him home, FedEx some fertilizer to his house in Marin county, book a domestic flight, boom. The fallout would ensure a nice discussion on why we were *only* going after guys named Muhammed from Iran.

Re:Show up on time, dumbass.

[urbanriot]

Did you miss your flight from the questioning?

And I got questioned about an electric toothbrush on a recent flight.

Your point is?

Re:Show up on time, dumbass.

[jimicus]

No, but I'm not in the habit of showing up at the airport 20 minutes before my flight leaves.

Re:Show up on time, dumbass.

[CommanderData]

Yep that's right. I bring my laptop into some harsh industrial environments as a contractor. And I used to get picked for the explosive swab test quite a bit. Enough so that the supervising authority (who had to come appraise the situation when the little machine goes beep) would actually recognize me immediately and tell them to let me go!!!

Re:Show up on time, dumbass.

[CommanderData]

My wife (5'10" blonde with blue eyes, yes some of us are attractive and married or have girlfriends here!) was held up for 30 minutes at Heathrow airport for a fucking pink Nintendo DS in a little pink carrying case with charger, headphones, and catridges stuffed in it. I couldn't believe it... Probably one of the most recognizable portable devices around, and they were worried it could have been a bomb!

Reminds me of my RIO PMP300

[weave]

This story reminds me of a similar hassle with new technology and security lines...

I had a Rio PMP300 MP3 player back in late 90s when no one knew what an mp3 player was. I went into a US Court House for some business and the guard at the metal detector couldn't figure it out. Wanted to know where to stick the tape in. I tried explaining it to him but eventually he just insisted I check it and pick it up on the way out at the end of the day.

Gotta wonder what they did with the thing while I was up in the court office looking through the PACER terminal! :)

MSoft conspiracy

[Aegis Runestone]

"It doesn't run Windows..." "So, should we let him through?" "Maybe if we can sneak Vista onto it."

Re:MSoft conspiracy

[Aegis Runestone]

What? I was just joking! O_o

Re:MSoft conspiracy

[Anonymous Coward]

Well I laughed.

One word!

[bogaboga]

Incompetence!

meh, sounds a lot like bullshit

[siddesu]

and attention whoring. i have had notebooks that were smaller, lighter, weirder and probably thinner than the air mac since a few years ago. i have travelled to more than one country with those.

sometimes the security check personnel would be interested by the stuff I carry, but never in the way alledged in the article. even people in quite underdeveloped countries are able to recognize a laptop, and the "revolutionary" air mac isn't that different.

that guy probably just can't get over it.

Re:meh, sounds a lot like bullshit

[Mox-Dragon]

Yeah, but one of the things that baffled the TSA people was the absence of a platter-based hard drive. When's the last time you travelled around with a laptop that had an SSD? I'm sure "weird" is a very different looking thing for visible light and x-rays.

Re:meh, sounds a lot like bullshit

[Anonymous Coward]

When's the last time you travelled around with a laptop that had an SSD?

early last year was a first. noone noticed.

Re:meh, sounds a lot like bullshit

[aviators99]

I've been travelling with my Sony Vaio with a solid state drive every single week for almost a year now, and TSA has never even looked at it twice.

Re:meh, sounds a lot like bullshit

[raynet]

I've had my Psion Series 7 for about 5-6 years and it has SSD drive(s). Never had any trouble traveling with it.

Re:meh, sounds a lot like bullshit

[CommanderData]

Put me in the pile of people who've been flying with tiny laptops containing SSDs almost every week for a year now. No one has ever stopped me. In fact, I think I used to get harassed more with a full size laptop! They would have me power it on, or do the swab for explosives test. Maybe they think my current one (Fujitsu P1610) is just a portable DVD player or something :)

I hate to say it... but they are right

[zakezuke]

One of the less technically knowledgeable staff points out the lack of standard features as cause for alarm.. I'm somewhat technically adept... and I have to say if I did airport security and saw the MacBook without any visitable ports, I would give it a closer look. From what I've read the sucker's few ports tuck away on the side. On X-ray I'd imagine the CPU footprint is 1/4 the size I'd expect. If I was unaware of the model, I would in my mind give it a second look, without a doubt. However after doing the job for a while I imagine I'd give up on trying to do a good one and just do my best to provide the illusion of security just like everyone else.

What I wonder is how customs would deal with it, presuming they wanted to scan the drive for contraband. Popping on a CD would be a pain.

Re:I hate to say it... but they are right

[Fnordulicious]

> What I wonder is how customs would deal with it, presuming they wanted to scan the drive for contraband. Popping on a CD would be a pain.

AFAIK Customs doesn't bother with copying data off your machine if they think you have contraband. They just appropriate the machine and you don't get it back.

Re:I hate to say it... but they are right

[Gordonjcp]

On X-ray I'd imagine the CPU footprint is 1/4 the size I'd expect.

Wonder if it would be worth the TSA running a few example laptops (and similar things) through a scanner, and creating a list of example images? Then you could have a book (or more likely on-line thing) that TSA screeners could look up if they spotted something unusual. "Yes, a Macbook Air really *does* look like that on the scanner."

Kind of makes me wonder what would happen if...

[Mr. Roadkill]

What kind of world of hurt would the person in TFA have had to go through if the battery was flat, or the laptop was defective?

Re:Kind of makes me wonder what would happen if...

[NoPantsJim]

None, if he had the power cord.

Re:Kind of makes me wonder what would happen if...

[jimicus]

You missed the second part of the sentence: "... or the laptop was defective".

You or I might find it odd to bother carting a broken laptop around the world. A salesman who knows that despite being broken, getting that laptop to his IT department is the only hope he has of recovering some sales lead wouldn't consider it remotely odd.

Re:Kind of makes me wonder what would happen if...

[wild_quinine]

Given past history, he should think himself lucky the battery didn't explode whilst they were prodding the damn thing. That would have been a one way ticket to Cuba.

You think that's bad...

[ChePibe]

I was held up by French airport security in CDG for half an hour because, as it turned out, my car key was rotated in a funny position that made it look like I had an extremely tiny knife in my bag. It took them forever to figure that out - right after the rifled through everything I had and left my suitcase in one big mess.

Yup, a car key. Serious electronic equipment there, I tell you what.

I don't think it's a TSA thing - I think it's a let's-pay-people-$30k-a-year-and-get-them-paranoid thing around the world.

Re:You think that's bad...

[Anonymous Coward]

Yup, a car key. Serious electronic equipment there, I tell you what.

Nah. They just wanted to mess with a Texan.

Re:You think that's bad...

[Datamonstar]

LOL now I wish I bought that novelty key holder that looks like a switchblade.

Re:You think that's bad...

[Archon-X]

You must have been the first person who ever got held up by french airport scanners / customs.
They care so little, I love it.

What they *do* like though, is blowing up people's luggage. Ask anyone who is in the army and patrols the train staions or airports - it's the only entertainment they get :D

Best airport security

[Simonetta]

The best airport security policy is the cruelest. We will destroy the entire village or sector of the city of anyone who creates a terrorist act on an airplane of our country that causes a loss of live. Then forget about inspecting shoes and laptops and hearing aids and soap bottles, etc...

    When the criminals realize that they will be destroying their city, their mosque, their people, themselves, by convincing young men and women to murder random others in the name of some god, then this nonsense will stop. The first few times that we have to do it, we will get called the greatest mass murderers since the Germans (oh, excuse me, the Nazis) and monsters and all those other things.

    But the rest of the world isn't going to miss the people from the villages and slum sectors of the giant mega-cities from when these criminals come. And they aren't going to miss the holy men who sent them either. Despite all that they say. Yes, the first few times that they call our bluff and blow up an airplane in the name of what passes for a god in their part of the world, and we just nonchalantly nuke their sorry asses and go back to watching the Brittany show, it will be hard.

    But it will pass. And it will come to be seen as simply the way that the world works in the new era where there are billions of surplus people.

    And the terrorism will stop...or just fade away to a few incidents.

    And we won't have to take off our shoes to board an airplane anymore.

    The hardest part of this strategy is learning how to avoid being manipulated into destroying someone by one of their tribal enemies. Say that there are three countries: A, B, C. A and B have huge nuclear arsenals and C has only one little atom bomb, maybe ten kilotons. C also hates B with a passion that is historic and pathological and senseless. If C uses its one bomb on B, it gets one good sneak attack and then gets wiped out by B.

    But if C uses its one bomb on A and convinces A that B did it, then A will completely destroy B and also be wiped out by B. C doesn't care what happens to A. And with both A and B reduced to ashes, C is now the king shit country and the 'peacemaker'.

    But if A and B have a secret agreement that if any bomb goes off in either of their countries, then before they attack each other they are going to first completely destroy C, D, E, and all the other pissant little psychopathic peoples republics, then this plan will keep the peace because D, E, and all the rest will do whatever they can to make sure that C and all the rest of the pissants behave. This means a lot of little wars and assassinations among the pissants, but it is the price paid to avoid nuclear exchanges.

    If we are going to adopt a policy of nuking pissants every time that they blow up an airliner, then we going to both have a lot of secret agreements and be willing to accept a lot of random bloodletting between the pissants.

    But if it keeps the rest of the civilized world safe, well then, fine...just do it.

Re:Best airport security

[that this is not und]

If we are going to adopt a policy of nuking pissants every time that they blow up an airliner

We aren't.

(nice long troll, though)

Re:Best airport security

[Gordonjcp]

When the criminals realize that they will be destroying their city, their mosque, their people, themselves, by convincing young men and women to murder random others in the name of some god, then this nonsense will stop.

That's great, until you realise that this means America gets it first. Maybe now you've cut back a bit on the funding for terrorist attacks on your own so-called allies, we can let you off with it.

Re:Best airport security

[Zey]

We will destroy the entire village or sector of the city of anyone who creates a terrorist act on an airplane of our country that causes a loss of live.

Capital punishment of a non-combattant without a fair trial is a war crime, and on the scale you're talking about, it's a crime against humanity.

It's also monumentally stupid, tactically. Mass killing civilians creates more terrorists who'll rightly believe they're fighting an evil oppressor.

When the criminals realize that they will be destroying their city, their mosque, their people, themselves, by convincing young men and women to murder random others in the name of some god, then this nonsense will stop.

Sheer idiocy. You kill peoples families indiscriminately as some form of braindead communal punishment, they'll hate you and have nothing left to lose.

Maybe

[James in NJ]

I don't know if the story is true or not, but at least part of it rings true for me. I was traveling through Florida a couple years ago and asked the TSA guy if I should take my iPod out of my bag and place it in the bin next to my laptop. "Your what?" he said. "My iPod," I replied holding it up, "you know, an iPod." "Yeah, whatever that is" he laughed as if I was ridiculous for thinking he would know what I was talking about. Ironically, this was the same day that the 4G iPods were announced and Steve Jobs was on the cover of Newsweek (or was it Time?) holding one.

With that thin design...

[iabervon]

People make fun of the TSA for this, but it's only a matter of time before somebody mounts an Air on a pole and starts wielding it as a battle axe.

Re:With that thin design...

[MikeBabcock]

The Motorola Razr commercials are likely to get those phones banned next ;-)

Re:With that thin design...

[Dzimas]

it's referred to as a scythe, as the grim reaper just informed me when he sfhq290h H xa, . 42

Re:With that thin design...

[Phroggy]

The Motorola Razr commercials are likely to get those phones banned next ;-) I was thinking more along the lines of that Sprint commercial...

I think BS.. but who knows.

[dbcad7]

This whole story "could have happened", but really if I put myself in such a scenario.. I can not see it taking more than 10 to 15 min delay tops..

I think he was late for the plane anyway.. Of course in his mind it's someone else's fault.

My Business Card Got Me Through Security

[MichaelCrawford]

Now, this was a long time ago, so no doubt things are much stricter nowadays.

I was traveling to visit a client, but didn't have a laptop, so I put all my stuff on an external SCSI drive enclosure. To save space and weight, I didn't carry its power cord, figuring the client could lend me one.

When it got X-rayed, they wanted me to power it on for them, so I could prove it wasn't a bomb. But I had no power cord! The guard was quite unfamiliar with SCSI drives.

In the end, he asked me for my business card, and let me pass when I gave it to him.

Re:My Business Card Got Me Through Security

[Datamonstar]

I hate that stupid rule, having to power something on to prove it;s not a bomb. Would it be any better to have an explosive go off in a crowded airport terminal? Does being in the air make your eminent death that much more scary or something?

Re:My Business Card Got Me Through Security

[Fnordulicious]

More questionable is why powering on a device proves that it's not a bomb. Any dweeb could hollow out a drive and fill it full of explosives, retaining a functioning power supply and green LED on the way. If people are smart enough to use cell phones as detonators then I don't think making a powerable external hard drive filled with explosives would be very difficult for them.

Re:irony

[Anonymous Coward]

No irony is misspelling the word "first" in a first-post.

Re:Is this news? or marketing?

[Anonymous Coward]

Try taking a headphone amplifier on an airplane in your carryon. 9V battery, check. On/Off toggle switch, check. Multiple wires, check. Dention time for you, check...

Re:Is this news? or marketing?

[blantonl]

Try running a scanner "radio communications receiver" through TSA. You'd think they'd be all over that sucker, yet it's the antenna that gathers the most attention... it (the Antenna), upon xray, looks sharp and pointy, but when they see it the laugh (it is a "rubber ducky antenna").

What is even more scary is that they flag it intermittently... sometimes they'll go berserk over it, other times it will go right through without a 2nd thought.

I often wonder, looking at the xray tech/guy/woman/thingy what they are thinking about when they look at those xrays.

TSA = Thousands Standing Around

Idiocracy in action

[HangingChad]

MacBook Air Confuses Airport Security

Which points out nothing other than airport security is easily confused. Although it would make a great Apple ad. MacBook Air: Laptop of Doom!

Re:Idiocracy in action

[fireslack]

Or that the MacBook Air can confuse Apple's Wireless Base Station's security.

Re:Idiocracy in action

[HeronBlademaster]

That's the first thing I thought when I saw the headline. I thought it was referring to some wireless connection or other provided in the airport.

Sony X505 - Same result with TSA...

[PCMeister]

While waiting for a connecting flight several months ago, I heard about a guy getting delayed for about 15 minutes at an airport security checkpoint because of his laptop's "suspicious look" on the x-ray machine. It turned to be a Sony X505 laptop. For those not familiar with the X505, this review by Digital Trends mentioned in this /. article back in 2004 details the specs.

What was so suspicious about it? I was told that someone overheard a TSA agent mention that it looked transparent on the x-ray machine. It seems that this was the case with the AirBook.

Perhaps companies like Sony and Apple that develop such advanced portables should notify TSA officials so they could, inturn, teach the line agents to not become alarmed when encountering such a device passing through the x-ray machine? Since that would make too much sense, it probably won't happen. Go figure.

If you happen to own an AirBook or other sub-notebook, good luck!!

Re:irony

[ozmanjusri]

irony: The fist thing I see on this page is an add for MacBooks!

It's not even Alanis ironic.

The whole story is part of a viral marketing campaign intended to establish the Air as different, iconic.

Behind me, I hear the younger agent, perhaps not realizing that even the TSA must obey TSA rules, repeating himself.

"It's a MacBook Air."

It's 1984 all over again...

Not always true

[forand]

I too have been through countless security check points with enough electronics in my bags to make my back hurt. I have never had a problem with the people at security. However, I travel with a wife and colleagues who are not always so lucky. The difference? I am a white guy and they are not. Sad but true. Next time you are in line watch who is being searched or detained.

Re:Not always true

[calebt3]

I had a trip to Virginia and back last year. I got flagged for the expanded screening every single time (4/4). And I am a white male.

Re:Not always true

[FlightTest]

A company I worked for in the past was very slow at paying expense accounts. Since I knew it was ending anyways, I just told them I was happy to travel, but they had to pay me cash up front and I'd document my expenses and return what I didn't spend. Strangely, they didn't have a problem with this, and always gave me more than I spent (but then, I never was the type to pad expense accounts). Since I was ferrying airplanes for them, I was traveling on the airlines one-way.

So, I was a middle-aged white male, paying cash at the last minute for a one-way ticket traveler, with an airplane headset and flying charts in my bag. How many times do you think I got the extra-special treatment?

Every. Single. Time.

Re:Not always true

[HeronBlademaster]

You probably shouldn't have sent those threatening letters to the president.

Re:Not always true

[megaditto]

How tall are you? They always seem to pick on tall white guys as well as anyone who stands out (e.g. sikhs).

Re:Not always true

[vought]

Factors contributing to an SSSS (mandatory secondary screening) assignment:

-Booking within 24 hours of the flight
-No checked luggage
-One way flight
-Open return flight
-Not a US citizen
-Flying to certain high-risk destinations

Re:Not always true

[Phroggy]

You would think that TSA would figure out some way of tracking how many times you've flown before, and whether this behavior is unusual for you, so that they wouldn't need to search you every single time...

Re:Not always true

[jimicus]

That's not a particularly good way to determine whether or not someone is a terrorist, because it would be trivially easy for a terrorist group to arrange for someone to spend some time building up a pattern of behaviour before carrying out whetever they have in mind.

Mind you, I think most of it is bull anyhow. I haven't forgotten how many senior politicians in the UK went on the news after 9/11 to say "The most important thing we can do is change nothing, because changing everything about our culture through fear is what the terrorists want".

Re:Not always true

[LukeWebber]

Here in Australia, the checks do seem to be truly random. I recently travelled with my 16YO daughter, and she was singled out for explosives scanning on both flights. Unless they're profiling cute, 16YO, atheist geek-girls, I'd call that random chance. Especially when her black-haired bearded father looks so very much more like a terrorist.

Re:Not always true

[Anonymous Coward]

cute, 16YO, atheist geek-girls

I think you forgot to post the pics.

Re:Not always true

[DNS-and-BIND]

Hey, I've got a poster for you to check out. [link]

Re:Not always true

[Bill_the_Engineer]

I experienced the same thing. I had a last minute itinerary change and Continental wouldn't exchange my return ticket for the new destination. So my employer purchased a one way ticket for me at the last minute. It was the last minute one-way ticket that caused the dreaded four 'S's on my ticket, meaning I had a rough time at each of the security checkpoints.

Re:Not always true

[Phairdon]

It is sad but true, but consider this: How many white guys from America were a part of the hijacking teams on 9/11? There were 19 attackers, fifteen of the attackers were from Saudi Arabia, two from the United Arab Emirates, one from Egypt, and one from Lebanon.

I attend Auburn University, and if you have been following the news recently you would know that a freshmen girl was murdered and her car gutted and set on fire, and a girl at UNC was murdered as well. Look at who committed these crimes?

Saying that, I know white guys commit crimes too. I'm not an idiot or a racist. (e.g the Oklahoma city bombs), but in regards especially to airport security, you have to play the percentages. You can't blame security for taking a closer look. They aren't arresting people. They aren't seeing someone driving a car, pulling him over and arresting him for no reason. Just get to the airport a little bit earlier to account for the time it takes for the special inspection.

Myself, I make sure I have nothing in my carry-on that looks dangerous, and I get to the airport 1.5-2 hours early. I take my time in getting in line and going through security. I am relaxed because I know I have enough time.

Re:Not always true

[calebt3]

6'4", so that's possible.

Re:Not always true

[calebt3]

6'4"

Re:Not always true

[Rary]

Also:

-Paying in cash
-Flying standby

I got flagged coming home from Vegas because I was flying standby. Of course, I was only flying standby because I missed my original flight (I only arrived an hour early, which turned out to be not early enough due to unreal lineups at check-in and security) and they put me on standby for another flight. Apparently, this makes me high-risk.

Re:Not always true

[L0rdJedi]

Not true. I'm a white guy with chinese relatives (wife's chinese). All 3 of us (myself, wife, and her brother) got stopped a few years back (post 9/11) for extra special scrutiny. In fact, it was my backpack that got wiped down for explosive residue.

Next time maybe you should try watching more than just a few people.

Re:Not always true

[Phroggy]

That's not a particularly good way to determine whether or not someone is a terrorist, because it would be trivially easy for a terrorist group to arrange for someone to spend some time building up a pattern of behaviour before carrying out whetever they have in mind.

Very true, but what we're doing how isn't a particularly good way either. If terrorists can spend time to build up a pattern like that, they can just as easily book roundtrip tickets a month in advance using a credit card.

Mind you, I think most of it is bull anyhow. I haven't forgotten how many senior politicians in the UK went on the news after 9/11 to say "The most important thing we can do is change nothing, because changing everything about our culture through fear is what the terrorists want". Yeah, over here on this side of the pond, all they said was that it's important for us to keep going shopping.

Re:Not always true

[Anonymous Coward]

I've flown a fair amount the last few years, and the people getting wanded and patted down always seem to be retirees with shrapnel in their ass and moms who forgot to take their handcream out.

Re:Not always true

[mr100percent]

In 1986, a pregnant Irishwoman named Anne Murphy attempted to smuggle three pounds of explosives onto an El Al jetliner bound from London to Tel Aviv.

In 1962, in the first-ever successful sabotage of a commercial jet, a Continental Airlines 707 was blown up with dynamite over Missouri by Thomas Doty, a 34-year-old American passenger, as part of an insurance scam.

In 1994, Auburn Calloway, an off-duty FedEx employee and resident of Memphis, Tenn. nearly succeeded in skyjacking a DC-10 and crashing it into the Federal Express Corp. headquarters.

In 1974, Samuel Byck, an unemployed tire salesman from Philadelphia, stormed a Delta Air Lines DC-9 at Baltimore-Washington Airport, intending to crash it into the White House, and shot both pilots.

Racial profiling does not work. Ask the NYPD, they stopped black people far more often, yet arrested white people twice as often as a result.

Five Finger Shoes

[morcheeba]

One morning the fate of the free world depended on my screener's determination on if a pair of Vibram Five Fingers was a shoe or not. Never mind that I own bulkier socks than this, but apparently it's a shoe.

Re:Five Finger Shoes

[dosun88888]

Al Bundy wants his idea back. God's shoes indeed.

Re:Five Finger Shoes

[Anonymous Coward]

you wear those in public?

Re:Five Finger Shoes

[morcheeba]

1. I wanted to see if there was any possible way I could avoid taking off my shoes when I fly.
2. I live in Boulder. Mork lived here and didn't raise an eyebrow.

Re:Five Finger Shoes

[mdf356]

You travel in VFFs? These days I wear flip-flops so I can take them off at all opportunities and be really barefoot, but still have a "shoe" when it's socially required.

Mac Users are Terrorists

[Abuzar]

See... I always knew Mac users were computer terrorists. Just y'all wait, artists schmartists whateva, we got some water-boarding for all ya metro-sexual weed smoking commie asses.

Ok, seriously though, not knowing what a Macbook looks like is really retarded. Can anyone tell me what the hell is going on in the states? Do you guys even go to schools? or grow up inside mine shafts? I mean, geez, if you're checking baggage all day, everyday at an airport, how can you possibly not run into a Macbook at least a few times each week?

TSA Agents are techie wannabes

[Beltonius]

For winter break I brought my desktop home via my flight. Needless to say, they were very suspicious that I was bringing both a laptop and a desktop home (I know, how dare I?)!

On the trip home, they were frustrated that the metal case seemed to be blocking their x-rays and started swabbing it for explosives (instead of asking me if it could be opened up or anything) and the tests kept coming up positive! I was terrified they were going to blow up my computer. They kept asking if it was a "real computer", as though my Thinkpad isn't a real computer.

Then on the way back to school they made a much smaller fuss (I took it out of the duffel bag before running it through the scanner this time) though they still took it aside to look at it. However, this time the guy was grilling me on the manufacturer (Shuttle) and specs (Wow, 6 USB ports and surround sound? Geepers!) It was more amusing than anything else as luckily I always leave myself plenty of time to get through security.

...and then they paged someone over the PA system to come back to the security checkpoint to claim a purple dime-a-dozen, dentist-give-a-way toothbrush. Half the TSA agents looked very serious when the announcement was made, and the rest were laughing.

Re:Is this news? or marketing?

[Mr. Slippery]

Anyone who's ever tried to bring a less-than-common piece of electronics through airport security has probably had them happen to this.

I've flown with my Sharp Zaurus C3000 several times. Never got a second look at it from security, even though I often draw attention when use it in a bar or cafe.

But the TI-89 looks like it might be a remote control for something, which might warrant attention. (Especially as some remotes work by radio - the remote for my satellite box sends UHF signals, probably a bad thing to have on a plane...)

Private Pilot License

[Suzuran]

Don't bother. End of this year the government has a new tax package and special user fees that will increase the costs by over 400% (proceeds going to fund tax breaks for the airlines, of course) and "increase security" for private airfields as well. It was nice while it lasted but the party's over.

Re:Private Pilot License

[Anonymous Coward]

And the real problem is that the airlines fear a total bypass of all of the commercial air travel foolishness. They don't want to be subsidized by general aviation -- they want it to go away. The last thing they want is competition from charter and corporate aircraft flying out of smaller airports, exempt from TSA bu11shit. Honda and Toyota are threatening to start building small jets, which will drive down the price of every small aircraft in the sky.

In a classic example of short-term thinking, the airlines are going to protect themselves in the short run by lobbying for user fees, only to be scratching their heads later when their source of new pilots is gone. If Congress was anything less than totally corrupt, they would force the airlines to set aside huge reserves in escrow for training. After all, the proposed user fees will turn most private aircraft into scrap aluminum and the airlines will then have to train new pilots from scratch.

And this time, there will be no H1-B labor to assist. GA has already been pretty much taxed to death in Europe, and the third world is not exactly a hotbed of aviation activity. Pilots are one of the few US exports that we have not yet screwed up. A disproportionate percentage of pilots on foreign airlines are American. Most people do not realize that English is the ONLY language spoken from air traffic control towers worldwide.

If they were really clever, the Congressmen from aircraft producing states would arrange for the user fees bill to be linked to some kind of carbon tax nonsense that would hold the auto industry hostage at the same time.

Re:Private Pilot License

[Anonymous Coward]

Can you provide some documentation on these items you mention please?

Actually I've had something similar happen to me..

[SuperKendall]

I've done all the same traveling and generally had the same experiences as you. Except for last time...

I was flying from Orlando, and they ran my bag through twice. Then, they had me open my bag so they could look through to fnd what was causing them consternation. It turned out to be my camera flash (large professional model)! Now I've traveled with this plenty before but this time, it confused them - they asked me if it was new (it was several years old) and said they had never seen anything like it on the scanners!

So, sometimes they just see something they do not understand and want to see it in person. Of course since I always arrive early for flights it was easy for me to be understanding and accommodate them, I wasn't anywhere close to missing a flight from the extra five-ten minutes it took me to satisfy their curiosity.

So even though you go through a million times and nothing happens, sometimes you can run into exceptions...

I'm a new soul, in this very strange world

[bitrex]

It seems difficult to imagine that someone couldn't recognize the Macbook Air, considering at least where I live I'm subjected to that 15 second commercial spot at least 3 times an hour. Perhaps if the laptop played that little piece of doggerel every time someone whipped the computer out it would jog their memory.

Re:I'm a new soul, in this very strange world

[T-Bone-T]

The only MacBook Air commercial I've ever seen was online when it first came out.

Well it is kind of funny

[SuperKendall]

Sure we've all had some odd occurrence, but you have to admit it's pretty funny thinking of them standing there going "but it's got no drive, how is it a laptop!".

Funny to us, at least...

Airport security manual

[edwardpickman]

When faced with new and strange technology first

A) Strike with hand, grunt and run away.

B) Strike with rock, grunt and run away.

C) Strike with club, grunt and run away.

D) If first three methods fail strike passenger with club, grunt and run away.

Re:Airport security manual

[shamer]

as i was reading the summary all i could picture where cavemen pointing and gathering. As one figures out how to turn it on, the others flee in fear, and slowly look from around corners or behind barriers to see what all the commotion was about.

Actually I'm fairly impressed

[jiggerdot]

Look at is this way - If you're not familiar with the MacBook Air, it DOES look suspicious - at least at a cursory glance. I'm actually impressed that they picked up on the fact that the hard drive looks unusual and noticed the alleged lack of ports. If I were building a bomb to look like a fake laptop, these are the two things I'd probably miss. Not to mention the space for a hard drive is the best place to mount some plastic explosives. They were doing their job and doing it thoroughly. On a personal note - I very recently traveled to the US from Israel, and while I found security people at the airport to be somewhat stern, they were very courteous and professional, not at all like the nightmare I was prepared for from reading Slashdot comments (this is with a laptop, PDA and a KVM switch in my bag).

Re:Actually I'm fairly impressed

[The End Of Days]

You'd be amazed how off-base the Slashdot impression of America is.

Re:Actually I'm fairly impressed

[Anonymous Coward]

If I were building a bomb to look like a fake laptop, well, I would just get a real broken laptop and fill it up with C4. Fabricating a case? Lunacy.

Re:Is this news? or marketing?

[MrNaz]

Given that the summary contains something to the effect that "The MacBook has so few standard features that TSA guys think that it doesn't count as a laptop" I wouldn't call it marketing. At least, not the positive kind anyway.

Re:Is this news? or marketing?

[HeronBlademaster]

I had a program for either my TI-89 or TI-83+ which could send signals through the TI-Link port that AM radios could pick up. It was supposed to be a piano program... there were about seven distinct tones it could send to a nearby radio. Range was short (maybe three feet) but if you're a suicide bomber and it's in your backpack, that might be far enough.

who you calling "dumbass", dumbass.

[spagetti_code]

Furthermore, I call bullshit on this story. I've recently traveled internationally and went through 8 major airports (plus 'random selection' secondary inspection in Philadelphia) throughout the world, with a laptop, Nintendo DS, two Ipod Mini's, and a case of DVD's all stuffed into my laptop bag, while returning from an Islamic nation and nobody asked me to show them anything.

So let me see if I get you. You went through one trip with all that crap, and based on that call his story rubbish.

I've done that road warrior stuff - I was a 100k united flyer for a while, plus a crapload in other airlines. I spent up to 6 months a year on the road all over the world for a few years. Thing is - frequent fliers see all sorts of weird and stupid stuff. I've been singled out once or twice and it can get surreal and disempowering. You really are at their mercy, and "they" ain't the pick of the crop.

Further, I sure do know that feeling of waking up and not really knowing where you are - I think he describes it well (although exaggerated). It's disorienting.

Re:who you calling "dumbass", dumbass.

[urbanriot]

I call it more gross exaggeration, than complete rubbish. The TSA people expect that you've arrived at least an hour prior to your flight, as instructed, and rarely cause you to be delayed anywhere near that long. So knowing this, and based on his description, it sounded like he showed up late and expected to breeze through customs. Since he had technology his agents hadn't experienced, they slowed him down (as I'd expect) to question him about it, while his flight was taking off.

I know it's fun to slag on "stupid people", luddites, the TSA, apple, whoever... but this sounds more like a story of someone who screwed up, encountered some people who were doing the job expected of them, and decided to blow it out of proportion. It doesn't help that the internet loves stories of ignorant TSA people who don't let people bring whatever electronics they like on board.

So let me see if I get you. You went through one trip with all that crap, and based on that call his story rubbish.

Re:Is this news? or marketing?

[vigmeister]

I often wonder, looking at the xray tech/guy/woman/thingy what they are thinking about when they look at those xrays. The guy is obviously thinking what Jessica Alba would look like if...

Oh! And about sex once every 6 seconds...

Cheers!

P.S. I know it's a myth :)

It's not just technology stuff.

[supernova_hq]

We were leaving from vacation in Florida a few years ago (post 9-11), and they stopped my sister at the screener because they didn't know what to make of here Disney pouch of squished pennies. You would think that of all the aireoports in the country, that at least the TSA's in FLORIDA would recognize them! go figure...

Re:Similar though completely different experience.

[HeronBlademaster]

What, they couldn't open it to see that it was just two cold cans of coke and a DS charger?

Re:Is this news? or marketing?

[xcfmx]

I got hung up at SNA for about 10 minutes while they tried to figure out what my RSA SecureID card was.

Not financially practical...

[fahrbot-bot]

No one in their right mind, or otherwise, would blow up a Macbook Air. The cost of the unit not withstanding, do you know how hard it would be to get replacement parts, or service, for that thing after that? Not cool. Plus, I think it would void the warranty. And we all know what dicks Apple can be about that -- especially the the incendiary device wasn't official factory-installed Apple gear.

Nope, it'd be way easier to get a Dell or Sony unit and simply trick out the standard battery.

Appropriate Quote

[Ace905]

"I'm sick of some guy with a triple digit income and a double digit IQ rooting around inside my bag and never finding anything" -- George Carlin

Not a laptop, but a boom box brought down a 747

[The Breeze]

The fear of a laptop carrying explosives is valid, seeing as how a radio-cassette stereo player - a medium size boom box - with a pound of plastic explosive in it - brought down a 747 - pan am 103 - over Scotland.

Re:Not a laptop, but a boom box brought down a 747

[jonaskoelker]

I've always wondered about how this scenario is handled:

Stick a bunch of Stuff That Goes Bang up your $CAVITY.
Get onto plane.
Make Stuff That Goes Bang go bang.

Anyone got any ideas? If we want to be protected against every possible scenario, why not start with this?

(wait, did I just advocate mandatory cavity searches?)

Re:Not a laptop, but a boom box brought down a 747

[downix]

Yes, a boombox... with tons of dead space inside the unit.

Are you seriously going to try and tel me with a straight face that a macbook Air has dead space inside of it? Hell, I don't know how they DO fit the electronics in it as/is!

Re:Not a laptop, but a boom box brought down a 747

[Fifth Earth]

Yes, but then why would (assuming this is what the screeners were afraid of) terrorists make a fake laptop that is unusually small? If I were in the market for concealed explosives, I'd get some junky antique real laptop that's bigger than a college textbook, hollow it out, and pack it full. You'd probably get 2 or 3 times more crammed in there than you could possibly fit in a container the size of a Macbook Air. Now if you'll excuse me, the FBI is knocking.

Re:Not a laptop, but a boom box brought down a 747

[arotenbe]

Did you know - that it's fun - speaking with - hyphens between - every phrase?

Re:Not a laptop, but a boom box brought down a 747

[toddestan]

Well, just remove the computer parts and fill with explosives. They did X-Ray it and noted that it had no harddrive.

Re:Not a laptop, but a boom box brought down a 747

[NuShrike]

Ya, but obviously forks, nail clippers, and any significant amount of liquid in one place is more dangerous.

No need to fear what's in that one pound of battery, or a few people putting together a few separated ounces of IED fluids into the toilets.

Re:Not a laptop, but a boom box brought down a 747

[The Breeze]

I've seen a mockup of the Pan Am bomb, which was based on a similar device that was seized prior to detonation. It actually was only a pound of explosive; it was enough to tear the aluminum skin of the aircraft in just the wrong place and the aircraft disintegrated due to wind pressure. It looked like a normal radio on x-ray except the batteries were somewhat malformed and bigger than they should have been; howover, most of the circuitry was still there.

Aircraft are weird things; a 737 survived the entire upper hull ripped off near hawaii inflight but several aircraft have been brought down by much smaller tears in areas where the wind get in.

Yep!

[Techogeek]

That's our hard-earned tax dollars at work there!

Who's dumber?

[Aqua OS X]

I don't know who is dumber, the TSA screeners, or the guy who paid $3100 for an SSD MacBook Air.

Re:Who's dumber?

[mjwx]

I don't know who is dumber, the TSA screeners, or the guy who paid $3100 for an SSD MacBook Air.

I sincerely doubt the Macbook owner could get a job as an airport screener, they are required to think for themselves occasionally.

I'm surprised he made it at all

[Chuck Chunder]

Seeing as he apparently can't remember where he is or how long he's been there without some external assistance.

Sleep tight, your guardians are ever-vigilant

[hyades1]

I guess it would be asking too much to expect one of those jackasses in charge of "Homeland Security" to be sufficiently up-to-date on technological innovation and sufficiently cognizant of his staff's shortcomings in that area to send 'round a memo describing the damned thing.

You can just imagine some Arab-looking guy in full desert costume staggering through behind their backs, groaning under the weight of a couple of Stingers, an AK-47 and a dozen grenades.

Re:Similar though completely different experience.

[NoobixCube]

They did, but they claimed it was some regulation or other that they just had to do a more thorough inspection at the first hint of anything "suspicious". This was a few years back, not long after 9/11 (as you backwards, month-first people say it), so everyone had to get their dose of the security illusion.

TSA Gangsters

[Tracy Reed]

belt buckle, money clip, coin, keys, wallet purse, put some d's on it. run it through...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7AWw7t5zj0

THIS is how you sneak stuff past security...

[Tracy Reed]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mA3voZUZrk

This dude is hilarious...

Re:THIS is how you sneak stuff past security...

[myth_of_sisyphus]

"Knock, knock"

"Who's there?"

"A terrorist with a bomb--fucking BANG!"

Savage French Security...

[flyingfsck]

I can understand the guards gawking at the Macbook but delaying till the plane departs is a little extreme.

However, the French security guards at Ottawa airport keeps confiscating my Marmite - damn savages don't appreciate fine British cuisine...

User's fault IMHO

[denzacar]

I mean... what did he expect? He wasn't using the MacAir properly.

The commercial clearly shows that it should be MAILED to its destination.

Re:Actually I've had something similar happen to m

[Achromatic1978]

I was flying from Orlando, and they ran my bag through twice. Then, they had me open my bag so they could look through to fnd what was causing them consternation. It turned out to be my camera flash (large professional model)! Now I've traveled with this plenty before but this time, it confused them - they asked me if it was new (it was several years old) and said they had never seen anything like it on the scanners!

Of course, the flipside of this is just a few months ago, I was travelling with a Canon EOS 5D, several lenses... including in a separate hard box - 20lb worth - a 400mm f/2.8 IS lens. The guy ran it through the X-ray, stopped, backed it up, and I was getting ready to fetch the key to unlock the case and show inside, and all he does is grab one of the other TSA guys and says "Just so you know if you ever see it, this is just a /really/ big camera lens, that's all the glass and electronics inside it."

Re:Is this news? or marketing?

[Workaphobia]

You think that's bad? I hear security's afraid of shoes these days.

Pop quiz

[rice_burners_suck]

Pop quiz:

You're an airport security official, checking passengers en route to their departure gate. Which of the following do you stop for interrogation:

A.) A bent, elderly woman in a wheelchair.
B.) A 12 year old kid on vacation with his family.
C.) A middle-eastern man in his late 20's, carrying an AK-47, a few grenades, a copy of the Quran, and yelling "Allah akbar!"
D.) A businessman sporting a MacBook Air.

I think the choice is clear. If you chose anything but option C, you are correct!! At least by our politically correct airport security standards, since heaven forbid if you should use (shudder) racial profiling. After all, 99% of terrorism worldwide is committed by elderly grandmothers, 12 year old kids on vacation, and businessmen with MacBook Airs. The remaining 1% is committed by "disgruntled youth."

(After all, the MacBook Air ads are only all over the papers, billboards, the Internet, and television.)

Re:Pop quiz

[xenocide2]

Racial profiling won't work if terrorists can recruit westerners sympathetic to their cause. Frankly, I'm glad our Homeland Security is a bumbling idiocracy. I shudder in fear to think what terrible things a smarter one would inflict on us.

Re:Pop quiz

[flajann]

Have you forgotten about the Oahkahlomona City Bombing? Or the Unibomber? Or the many times abortion clinics have been bombed or whose workers were shot?

They don't need to recruit. We have enough of our own.

Re:Pop quiz

[geekoid]

except by comparison, ares seem rational.

can't I just eat pork, renounce all gods and then get on my plane?
I would even sign a paper saying the can defile my dead body in case I am killed in an accident.

The lifestyle of small-scale private aviation

[daviddennis]

A former boss of mine owned a Mooney prop plane (a bit faster than the Cessna, I think about 170 knots) and I found the routine at private airports refreshingly easy - go to the plane, walk around it to make sure nothing's fallen off, run up the engine and take off. The checklist isn't that hard, and much of it can be done during the brief wait for a take off slot.

I loved the freedom associated with being able to take off and land at any time, at any airport. In this particular case, he could leave out of Van Nuys airport, about 15 minutes from his home, instead of LAX which would have taken a grinding hour and a half to get to.

I will admit that flying a private plane is disappointingly non-luxurious - his interior felt more like a Subaru than a Mercedes - but even though I was not very good at physically flying the plane I enjoyed changing the frequencies on the radios and navigation systems. (This was before GPS took off in a big way - we used the old beacon system.)

I would have surely preferred a jet but I liked flying private better than commercial. As I remember it cost him about $55 per flight hour to run, including overhauls, and he certainly believed it penciled out for him economically. He had to carry fairly heavy amounts of baggage for the trade shows we went to and that definitely helped.

D

Re:The lifestyle of small-scale private aviation

[StrategicIrony]

Aha, one of the situations where it might be economical to fly.

If you live near a small airport, frequently travel to another location with a small airport, own your own airplane, would normally have to fight traffic to get to a big airport, have transportation when you arrive...

Yes, if ALL of those things fit, then it's a great idea.

I know of a guy who lived in Rural Wisconson and travelled to Minneapolis, Green Bay, Madison and Chicago for work. Had a deal where he paid a guy at the airstrip like $15 to haul the plane out, warm it up and he would just roll up, toss his bags in and go...

Fly to Chicago in like 3 hours, outside Minneapolis in 1 hour...

But the cost was very high. I think a plane like a Mooney costs around $200,000 up front, more for the faster turbocharged versions. Annual maintinance runs a big and aviation fuel is like $7/gal right now. Those turbocharged prop engines aren't exactly efficient, especially if you're not willing to take it slow.

for primarily city-to-city travel, private planes are a joke. For rural-to-rural, it's a cool idea and *sometimes* for rural-to-suburban...

*shrugs*

still... I'd rather buy a sailboat and actually have time and space to enjoy my $250k investment. :-)

Re:The lifestyle of small-scale private aviation

[geeper]

found the routine at private airports refreshingly easy - go to the plane, walk around it to make sure nothing's fallen off, run up the engine and take off
Partner, I'll see you on the 6:00 news!

Re:The lifestyle of small-scale private aviation

[Nimey]

It'll cost much more these days per hour, with avgas prices being what they are. I wouldn't be surprised if it's much closer to $100/hr or maybe a little more.

Re:Is this news? or marketing?

[TheVelvetFlamebait]

Probably marketing. What kind of right-minded person wouldn't want to take their shiny new MacBook Air(R) through airport security now?

electronics, bah

[CaptainNerdCave]

i went on over a dozen fligts (us and international) with pliers, needlenose, tweezers and a crescent wrench in my backpack before someone at amsterdam gave me guff over everything except the tweezers. they asked if they were job-related items, i told them that i had forgotten they were in my bag when i left... about four flights earlier. after 6 security personnel bothered me and they all talked, i was dismissed with "don't try this again"

keep in mind, amsterdam, not the us. this kind of bs knows no boundaries

The term is "astroturfing"

[transiit]

Note that the article reads like a press release, with the exception of playing into everyone's dislike of the TSA.

Note that the "linux to mac" section of the blog has one article, not once mentioning linux.

Read through it, and ask yourself, who the f*#@ is Michael Nygard, and why should I care?

Re:The term is "astroturfing"

[Abcd1234]

Yeah, there's no f*cking way airport security is gonna do any more than ask him to flip the bloody thing open. The minute they saw the screen and keyboard, the show would've been over, and worst case, they would've just asked him to turn it on.

Sorry, I call BS on this one... it's astroturfing, plain and simple.

Re:The term is "astroturfing"

[VisceralLogic]

Read through it, and ask yourself, who the f*#@ is Michael Nygard, and why should I care?

Michael Nygard? As in, blogger Michael Nygard? You've never heard of him?! Yeah... neither have I.

Re:The term is "astroturfing"

[Anonymous Coward]

O RLY?

Re:The term is "astroturfing"

[Abcd1234]

Yeah, really. The TSA blog has no more information than we do. In fact, he explicitly says "Here is my theory", because all he's read are news reports.

IOW, the TSA blog also fell victim to the astroturfing... which, really, just makes 'em look like bigger jackasses. Nice job!

Seems reasonable to me.

[Killshot]

TSA employees don't make much, they probably can not afford a macbook and probably are not up to speed on the latest and greatest tech items to hit the market are.

They are trained to identify items by looking at an xray image on a monitor. They are also trained to look for common items that are modified to hold weapons or explosives. Now, imagine day after day for several years you see the clear outline of a hard drive in every laptop that passes through security. and then one day there is a laptop with no hard drive. Not investigating it would be not doing your job.

Macboy should have allowed for more time to get through security.

Re:Seems reasonable to me.

[flajann]

Not seeing a hard-drive is not evidence of explosives. Seeing the outline of explosive is evidence of explosives.

What if I decided to take my hard drive or my CD-ROM out of my laptop for some reason? Is that really sufficient cause for needless harassment?

Besides, how much trouble would it be for someone to fashion an explosive to look like a hard drive, anyway?

Poor excuses for harassing the innocent. This man missed his flight do to the incompetence of the TSA. What if he lost his job over it? It could happen.

Besides, I loathe the "just doing my job" excuse. That excuse has been used so many times as justification for others to harass me. And I'm the one that suffers for it, not they.

Yep, the Nazis were "just doing their jobs" as well, I suppose. As were the soliders in Viet Nam that slaughtered millions of civilians in Viet Nam during that war. Or the troops that blew up innocent villages in Afghanistan during the Afghanistan "war" shortly after 9-11.

Humans are no better than apes if that's the best we can do.

"Just doing my job" at pointing out the truth of the matter.

Batteries

[fishbowl]

I was going on a photo assignment to a place with no electricity. I was going to be there for two weeks.
I took a LOT of batteries, including quite a few rechargeable battery packs. Checking in at the TSA was
a surreal experience, because the guy kept asking me why I needed all these batteries, and I kept explaining
it. It was as if he could not understand the concept of going to a place with no electricity, and especially,
not understand that going there could be for work purposes. He kept asking the same questions, and got his
supervisor who also asked me; it seemed like they were hoping for some other answer, one they could process.
Eventually they had to acknowledge that batteries are not on the list of banned items (although I'm surprised
they get past the 3-ounces-of-gel restriction), and they let me fly.

FWIW, I hate to fly, and when I travel for work, I'm always secretly hoping the flight security won't let me
go. Hoping for this seems to lead generally to being waved through to an on-time flight, *sigh*.

hello

[theheadlessrabbit]

Oh, Hello Mr. TSA agent!

Do not be alarmed, this is a standard laptop, there is nothing to be suspicious about. Yes, its new, I'm a techie, do not be alarmed!

yes, this really is a normal laptop!

logging in is easy.

oh, you need me to log on for you?

I can understand your confusion, since logging in on a system with a grey background is completely different from logging in on a system with a blue background.

I'd rather log in my self...

but I don't feel comfoprtable giving away my passwor...

oh, ok, fine.

for the log in, type 'fascist_douchbag'
the password is 'youareviolatingmyprivacy.'

where are you taking me?

101 ways to mess with a Mac user... =)

[eNygma-x]

1) Mister TSA officer... I'm not sure but the person behind me was using something kinda wierd... At first I thought it was a laptop... but it didn't look right. Then it just vanished. I'm kinda nervous. Ok I would never do such a thing... but the thought gave me a giggle. =)

What about the EEE?

[Raven737]

The EEE also has a SSD and no ports on the back!

Why haven't we heard of people getting held up by the TSA for that?

Maybe people just like pick on those smug apple fanbois?

Re:What about the EEE?

[kalidasa]

Speaking as a smug Apple fanboy: the reason you don't hear about people with eePCs getting stopped by TSA isn't because it never happens - it's because ASUS doesn't have as good marketing people as Apple does. "Hey, some guy just blogged that he got held up by TSA because they didn't think his Macbook Air was a real computer! Priceless! Let's get it on Digg and Slashdot!"

Re:What about the EEE?

[glittalogik]

Probably because they're so bloody small that an Eee PC filled with plastique would be lucky to take out your lunch tray.

When the 9" model comes out, then they'll have to start worrying.

Re:Is this news? or marketing?

[duggi]

I would not call it clever, but its a simple slashvertisement.

Re:Is this news? or marketing?

[dunkelfalke]

i have once flown with a small guitar tube amplifier built from spare parts and without any casing, just some pcb and a current transformer. never had a problem with that, but then again, that was in estonia and in the year 2002.

what i had a problem with was a disassembled strat clone in berlin schoenefeld. the security there couldn't believe i had a disassembled electric guitar in my bag and checked it properly for explosives.

Re:Actually I've had something similar happen to m

[Valacosa]

A 400mm F/2.8 lens - if you were TRYING to make me jealous, it worked.

Trolls and Orcs

[Fantastic Lad]

Argh! That was just too close to the kind of internal movie which plays in my head whenever I think through possible scenarios wherein I must deal with the trolls in uniform who do the work of the dark lord.

Other movies now playing. . .

"What happens to Fantastic Lad when the Government Goon Squad goes door to door forcibly administering flu shots."
"What happens to Fantastic Lad when the economy finally tanks and it's time to pay rent and buy food."
"What happens to Fantastic Lad when every person on the block is hosting a WiFi hotspot and there is no escaping the EM soup."

Usually I leave the theater before I get to the part with barbed wire.

-FL

Re:mo7d down

[Anonymous Coward]

You must be new here.

Also, to avoid the too-fast-post-lame-filter, goatse is one of the oldest trolls on slashdot. The racist, coprophiliac, homosexual and/or pedophile copy-paste trolls seem to be a newer development, but have still been around for a long time.

Slashdot, Reddit, and Digg... Congrats Apple.

[pQueue]

Apple got this same fake story to the front page of reddit and digg also. Steve Jobs should rejoice at his marketing teams success. I wonder if they used companies like Subvert and Profit to get this promoted to front page news?

Life imitates Art

[Fantastic Lad]

--Or should that be, "Art is all a bunch of metaphors for stuff that really happens."

In the fantasy adventure stories, Trolls, Orcs and other various hybrids of stupid, warty thug are always the ones employed by the Dark Lord/Evil Witch for the purpose of intimidating and shaking down the public.

The sad part is that in this reality, we will see every other metaphor out there except for golden-haired good guys with shining swords. All we have is each other. Don't lose site of that and NEVER report on your neighbor. --Tell everybody on your street that the government approached you and leaned on you to try to make you become an informer.

-FL

Re:Life imitates Art

[flajann]

One of the biggest problems I see with people in this country is that they simply can't mind their own business. They are constantly poking their noses in other people's affairs, disrupting lives and what not.

I sued one such busybody a little while back -- and this was in New England, of all places. The particular busybody in question was Allison Beal, who lived in Stoneham, Mass, at the time. This woman with her elderly father came to a pizza restaurant near where I live, got drunk, and uttered some racist allegations that got ME arrested and in jail for part of the night.

I sued her and won a settlement. But it did leave a very sour taste in my mouth.

Her racist slander turned the entire restaurant against me, which goes to show something about the people in general in this area, and in this country at large.

So perhaps US-America is getting what it deserves. 9-11 occurred because the government itself can't simply mind its own business in geopolitical affairs -- always trying to manipulate other countries and various and nefarious ways. But few called that to attention after the towers fell. I thought that was a fine time for the US to review its "foreign policy" practices -- instead, it use that as an excuse to invade two countries in the Middle East -- countries it had wanted, apparently, to invade all along, but couldn't "justify" it.

So, to the little guy and the big wigs in the US alike, I have one thing and only one thing to say:
MIND YOUR OWN BUSINESS!

Re:Is this news? or marketing?

[jac89]

Or you could just have a button in the bag.. I mean seriously, if you get the bomb onto the plane your basically home free.

MAC Air having trouble with AirPort?

[carvalhao]

When will they fix these compatib... oh, forget it!

Re:MAC Air having trouble with AirPort?

[MagicBox]

Maybe it's time he switched to a (real) LAPTOP!?!?!

Completely off topic

[Kupfernigk]

You don't need to spend $250k on a sailing boat. Assuming you don't have one and would like one, and assuming you have or can learn some basic engineering skills to cut down annual maintenance costs and the embarrassment of having to be rescued periodically (if you can make it through Nigel Calder's book, you can probably do it) you can have everything you really need for around $60000.

After years of dicking about the cost I finally went for it four years ago. I've spent $80k in total, spent a few hundred hours fixing and modernising, I have something I can live and work on if I want to. I should have done it 10 years ago.

Re:Completely off topic

[StrategicIrony]

Ahh yes, but I want a 40ft+ cat. Those tend to be pricey unless you want one of the "box on floats" made in the 80s.

And the same goes for airplanes. You can get a neglected old Cesssna 172 for like $40k if you have lots of time to repair and renovate it.

However, if you want a turbocharged mooney with integrated GPS, you're going to spend $250k. :-)

I wish i lived on the coast... I might have already bought the boat and just used it as a liveaboard.

As for being rescued.. good advice. :-) I've been sailing since I was 6. I singlehanded halfway across Lake Superior when I was 12 and dad was nasty sick for a few days. I know it's not the North Atlantic, but the principals are generally the same.

Because of where I live, I just race my Hobie Tiger, but I'd like to get back on the ocean someday. :-)

Uhm... so how about those TSA officers? eh? :-)

Re:Is this news? or marketing?

[Anonymous Coward]

It's neither news nor clever marketing. It's a non story that would not even grace these pages were it not for the fact that Slashdot jumped the shark for Apple a LONG time ago.

Less technically knowledgeable? It's all relative.

[babbling]

One of the less technically knowledgeable staff points out the lack of standard features as cause for alarm...

Perhaps less technically knowledgeable, but certainly more technically knowledgeable than the thousands of MacBook Air owners who sacrificed the most basic of features (USB ports and wired ethernet ports) for a slimmer but still big and heavy laptop. Compared to the Eee PC, anyway.

Re:Is this news? or marketing?

[Impeesa]

I've been hassled about exactly two things going through airport security. One was a microcontroller, a large 40-pin IC that I had burnt out during prototyping and then drilled a hole through to make a nifty keychain. The lady at security was asking me what it was, and whether the pins came out (like you could threaten anyone with a sliver of metal that small). They didn't take it away or anything, though.

The other thing was an oversize tube of toothpaste.

water is rocket fuel

[cheekyboy]

After all the shuttle uses Lo2 and Hydrogen, just seperate the h2 from water and instant flamables.

How do you trigger?? Well there is sunlight coming in the window, use the sun and the mag glass like mcgyver.

Probably in the U.S.

[slashbart]

I've brought crates full of improvized electronics through security, I've literally had a ratsnest of wires and handsoldered breadboarded electronics in my hand luggage, together with a laptop and all the usual crap.

The worst that has happened is that one of the polite security people asked to look inside my backpack containing all this junk showing up on the scanner. I've not had any nasty experiences on Amsterdam Schiphol, Paris Charles de Gaulle, Bordeaux or Toulouse.

My wife has actually been interested in a job as "high risk flight agent". They are actually asking for a fair amount of education for these jobs.

So I don't share these experiences at all, here in Europe.

This gives me ideas...

[downix]

What piece of oddball equipment can I take with me... I'm debating between the Commodore 64 and the Atari Jaguar... decisions decisions...

Re:This gives me ideas...

[flajann]

The Commodore 64!

Long live Commodore...

I'm not *really* blonde, you insensitive clod!

[Hognoxious]

How does your system cope with dihydrogen dioxide? Though as others have pointed out you totally missed the point anyway.

Never thought

[Wooky_linuxer]

I'd see someone defending these actions, at all places, here in /... So it is different from a standard laptop. So what? One can't cram C4 or some liquid explosive in a standard laptop with a HDD and a DVD drive? In fact, good luck finding any spare space to do that with a MacBook Air.

The question is, if a MBA can be concealing an explosive device, or been tampered with to interfere with the flight, so can any laptop out there. So ban all laptops in flight, and go live your 1984 paradise. Only a moron would be suspicious of a notebook because it has no parallel ports - I would be much more apprehensive of the opposite.

They can't track them all...

[Crazy Taco]

If you ever play MS Flight Simulator, you start to realize just how many airports there are in the US. Many of the small ones are uncontrolled, often without a tower and maybe just a single building. There's no way the feds can watch them all. Even some of the larger municipal airports will be lucky to have a dedicated fed at them, because it turns out there is one in just about every city of 30,000 or more, and even many smaller cities (though of course you aren't going to find 737 service to them). My bet is even with extra funding, you aren't going to be standing in line for TSA security screenings at most private airports. Thank goodness.

Re:They can't track them all...

[frehe]

If you ever play MS Flight Simulator, you start to realize just how many airports there are in the US. Many of the small ones are uncontrolled, often without a tower and maybe just a single building. There's no way the feds can watch them all. Even some of the larger municipal airports will be lucky to have a dedicated fed at them, because it turns out there is one in just about every city of 30,000 or more, and even many smaller cities (though of course you aren't going to find 737 service to them). I see the government's indoctrination plan to turn all citizens into socialist sheeple is working. Around here, we local hard working and God fearing folks decided to round up all the local paranoid-schizophrenic sniper wannabes, form them into a local airport protection militia, give them permission to use deadly force as necessary based on their judgement, and tell them that we trust them (and their beloved sniper rifles) fully to protect us from any terrorists/UN troops/space aliens/French people, that try to infiltrate our local community in order to fluoridate our drinking water and children's ice cream. So far the plan has worked perfectly, despite several attempts by the terrorists/UN troops/space aliens/French people to infiltrate our community disguised as regular innocent people. No sirree, you thought you were oh-so-clever to disguise yourself and your comrades as a normal 'Murrican family with kids, but Bubba and Cletus aren't fooled that easily!

Re:irony

[yabos]

It's called contextual based advertising.

But they can tax them all!

[Suzuran]

The taxes are built into the fuel costs (That's the base 400% increase) and in the form of fees for air traffic control services. If you want to talk to a controller, you pay. Want a weather briefing? You pay. Want traffic advisories? You pay. Just like the Europeans. (Ever seen a private airplane in England or Germany? No? There's a reason for that.) The airports will die out as their customers die out.

Re:But they can tax them all!

[Nursie]

People do have private planes here in the UK, it's just not that common. Probably because it's very expensive and our Nanny State government think it's dangerous and to be discouraged.

Re:But they can tax them all!

[mhall119]

That and the fact that you have trains.

Re:But they can tax them all!

[ZERO1ZERO]

People in the UK tend to have helicopters instead, from what I've seen. (I'm in the UK)

Re:But they can tax them all!

[RockDoctor]

You pay. Just like the Europeans. (Ever seen a private airplane in England or Germany? No? There's a reason for that.)

I'm not sure if your "private" means "owned by one or several individuals, for their own exclusive use and not for hire" or if it means "tickets are not available to the public ; the planes are standard commercial, but no-body can buy a ticket to fly on them. They're operated by companies for their own purposes".
The huge majority of my flying is on private (second sense) flights. One of my former colleagues got his commercial pilot's license after a number of years operating as a part-time chauffeur to people who owned private (first sense) planes.
There's no shortage of commercial, non-public, flying going on in the country. But you tend not to see it adv ertised, because there's no need to advertise it. A small number of seats do become available to the general public, but on strict stand-by (viz, you can have brought your ticket and be walking up the steps onto the 80-seater plane, and still be bumped for a more important non-paying passenger; you'll get your ticket refunded, probably, but you'll have hours or days to wait to get a chance at another seat. Quicker to get the boat.)
I did about 500 miles of "private" (second sense) flying today. Nothing unusual about that.

Two things geeks despise

[stewbacca]

This article features two subjects slashdotters truly despise: Apple ingenuity and the TSA. This should be an interesting thread.

Do airport security personnel not own TVs?

[in10se]

Have these people never watched TV before? That Apple commercial is on every 10 minutes. Hey look at this cool new laptop - it's so thin you can fit it in a manila envelope!

The perfect Slashdot Story

[chord.wav]

This Mac adstory was tailored specifically for our profiles. Don't buy it.

Airport Security + Problem + New hyped product + SSD.

The only missing here is porn, but I'm sure that what's we all assume this guy had on his drive so no need to mention it.

It sucked in 1986, too...

[alispguru]

My wife carried the code for her master's thesis project back from California to Maryland once. It was on an 80 MB hard drive removed from a Xerox 1108 - a little bigger than a shoebox, weight like it was full of pennies. Physical replacement cost of $$$$, plus a year's worth of hacking - no way were we going to put it into checked-in luggage.

Caused some concern at airport security, though. Couldn't prove it was a computer by turning it on - no power supply. They finally shrugged and let us through.

Why not just...

[MichaelJ]

Seems to me the easiest thing would have been to turn it on, connect to the airport public wifi network, connect to the Apple Store web site, and show them the MacBook air page.

"Standard Features"

[nurb432]

My old thinkpad workhorse didn't have internal floppy or CDROM either.

Idiots. I hope he got a free ride out of the ordeal.

Let's Cut TSA Some Slack Here, Ok?

[BigBlueOx]

Yeah, it may look at first glance like this story is about officious bureaucratic democrats ... sorry ... government worker fucktards but let's all remember a couple of things before we howl in derision.

1) They might have thought that the unrecognized laptop was a new model of Dell Inspirion

2) Dell Inspirions have been classified as class-3 destructive devices by the BATF since 1996

So back off.

See Bruce Schneier's interview on this topic

[bwhaley]

Bruce Schneier discusses this with KipHawley, the head of the TSA and comes to many of the same conclusions.

Re:Is this news? or marketing?

[HeronBlademaster]

But that's less clever :(

Re:irony

[ArsenneLupin]

That's not irony, that's just gaming the slashdot first-post delayer (tm). If an otherwise first post contains the word first or post, Slashdot delays it until a second post is available, and posts it afterwards. This is meant to protect against overzealous frist psot hunting. Indeed, in the olden days, you had to first wade across some 20+ posts per story which all called out first post, and it became a distraction. They had to put the delayer in, in order to stop the madness. So nowadays trolls just mipsel.

Re:Is this news? or marketing?

[Bill, Shooter of Bul]

That reminds me, next time I fly I'm going to have to leave my liquid computer shoes at home. The fools.

Vigilantism, Rationality

[TerranFury]

I. Vigilantism

Every able-bodied citizen of America who experienced 9-11 will now and forever watch and notice these attributes of their fellow travelers

Devil's advocate: What attributes? Being brown?

This is what vigilantism looks like.

II. Rationality

They won't do it again because taking a plane out of the sky really will make airport security like a military check point, thus also limiting the mobility of the enemy for the reward of taking 1 or 2 planes out of the sky with no hard land target in mind. Not going to happen.

I'm not so sure. Your argument rests on the assumption that the terrorists make well-reasoned decisions to further their cause. They do have objectives -- "get out of the Middle East, U.S!" -- but in my opinion they are horribly misguided in their decisions: If they wanted to reduce the U.S. military presence there, they sure as hell haven't succeeded.

Some people say, "the terrorists have succeeded beyond their wildest dreams." I don't think so. Rather, the current situation is a dismal failure for all involved, terrorists included. It's a failure for the U.S., which is now engaged in a bloody, costly (we have spent more than we did in Vietnam), no-way-out quagmire of a war. It's a failure for the extremists who downed those planes, who rather than convincing the U.S. to pull out of the Middle East has provoked it to deploy even more troops there. It is a failure for "Iraqi" civilians (even if no "Iraqi" ethnic identity really exists), who might have been oppressed under Saddam but who at least had electricity and drinking water. It is a failure for nearly everyone. The only reason this mess continues is that we, the extremists, and everyone else, are stuck together in yet-another (the world has so many) collective action problem.

[The list of those who have benefited from this situation is short -- mainly politicians (in the US and in the Middle East) and government contractors (Haliburton/KBR, etc) happy to multiply the terror and exploit the situation (see the BBC's The Power of Nightmares -- video here). But these people didn't engineer the attacks; they're just opportunists.]

I got a little sidetracked, but the point is this: The terrorists did not plan a well-reasoned attack to achieve their objectives; by most rational metrics I can think of, they have failed. Therefore, I wouldn't put it past them to do something stupid again -- like stage an attack which will ultimately make their task more difficult. That's the part of your post I was disagreeing with -- that these terrorists make smart decisions. I suspect they don't -- not because they're populated by stupid people (terrorists tend to be well-educated. I'm most familiar not with Middle-Eastern terrorists, but with the Japanese terror cult Aum Shinrikyo that released Sarin nerve gas on the Tokyo subway -- and that organization was full of Ph.D.s and physics students) but because their logical, analytical minds have been short-circuited by a seductive ideology.

In other words, we've got one group of people whose brains have been short-circuited by ideology and anger against another whose frontal lobes have been shut off by a hyperactive fear-and-stress center. I'm not counting on rationality from anyone.

Re:Vigilantism, Rationality

[the_rtb]

If the intend of terrorism is to inflict terror, or in other words cause fear, where exactly did the terrorists in general go wrong?

There's no need to plan anything solid, when after pulling just one stunt, anyone with power intends to use that fear for his/her/its own ends and magnify it. Only once the general fear dies down again do they need to cause major havoc again.

I do hope they're going after the people with power then, because that would be stupid. They would be killing the people who magnify the already irrational fear of terrorists to even greater levels.

Statistically speaking, the chance of dying in a terroristic attack is neglectable compared to the chance of dying while in traffic. I'm not worried at all.

Re:Vigilantism, Rationality

[BiggerIsBetter]

There's no need to plan anything solid, when after pulling just one stunt, anyone with power intends to use that fear for his/her/its own ends and magnify it. Only once the general fear dies down again do they need to cause major havoc again. I hear this talk of fear, but I am curious... who, exactly IS scared? Nobody I know considers "terrorism" to be a valid threat, and they are certainly not afraid of it. Especially those who travel.

Re:Vigilantism, Rationality

[sheldon]

Some people say, "the terrorists have succeeded beyond their wildest dreams." I don't think so. Rather, the current situation is a dismal failure for all involved, terrorists included. It's a failure for the U.S., which is now engaged in a bloody, costly (we have spent more than we did in Vietnam [spiegel.de]), no-way-out quagmire of a war. It's a failure for the extremists who downed those planes, who rather than convincing the U.S. to pull out of the Middle East has provoked it to deploy even more troops there.

What if that wasn't their goal?

What if their goal was to collapse the US economy?

Re:Vigilantism, Rationality

[innerweb]

I am not sure the terrorists have truly missed their mark. They may have totally missed the time frame.

Society changes slowly. As new limitations are introduced and more liberties and rights are taken away, we are slow to learn to accept them (we have a choice?). As each change becomes accepted, the next incremental change is introduced. There are opportunists involved in this sequence of events who will consolidate power and leverage the situation to gather more control through laws or lack thereof that directly impact our rights and freedoms.

I am willing to bet that Bin Laden understands all to well that the state is the ultimate form of terror. He has had a rather good education in Afghanistan from the USSR and in his own country. He also knows how to manipulate people to attain his goals, and I doubt his is beholden to the truth, even if he thinks he is. He has a moral belief (religious or not) that he is right and his cause is just (even if it is merely revenge). He has involved others and trained them in his ways. His people can go to sleep and wake up many years later. The only way to truly beat them is by loosing our freedoms and liberties. Until we maintain a truly superior moral high ground in all of our collective dealings, he and his kind have an arguable war against tyranny for those who feel repressed and injured by those parties. And, there is no way to accomplish that without a completely transparent world where there are no secrets, and there are no secret dealings. Everyone can know everything and about anyone all the time. That is a chilling thought. The current reaction to terrorism has sent us two opposite directions at once. The public is having its rights and liberties eroded more and more in the name of security and financial gain (though I am not certain there is much of a difference and that in the end, it is only financial gain). The government is getting more secretive about what it is and is not doing let alone to whom it is doing whatever it is doing. I am willing to bet he/they consider that alone to be a major victory. They do not have to destroy our country to win, only our way of life.

He has seen first hand what government tyranny can do to people, and that may be the real goal. He also knows how that tyranny caused the eventual downfall of the USSR. The government simply collapsed under its own repressive weight. If the US were to continue down the road it is traveling, what do you think will happen as more and more of our daily life, business and emotional energy is soaked up by paranoia and expensive security apparatus.

The amount of impact on the economy, and more importantly, the general public's health that can be tolerated before breaking is limited. One debatable question is how much stress can be absorbed? As stress levels rise in a nation, especially because of governmental intrusion and interference where it ought not be, the productivity of the populace will reach a plateau (feeling safe) and start to slide (feeling intruded upon) and then collapse (feeling oppressed). Mental health issues will rise as justified paranoia causes stress related problems. In turn, so will physical health issues related to stress, like heart disease, diabetes and other such conditions/diseases start to increase faster. Yeah, many of these are related to diet and excercise as well, but adding extra unhealthy stress on top will only multiply the situation and leave the average person feeling more helpless/hopeless and therefore unwilling or unable to do anything about their plight. If the slide continues to far in that direction, then people might become much more *excited* about events and take matters more into their own hands.

Another question, is where are we on that slide? Are we approaching the plateau, people feeling safer in general and willing to give up more liberties in exchange for more security? Are we at the top and now ready for a slide back down in either direction depending on which direction our government now t

Re:Vigilantism, Rationality

[xhrit]

>But these people didn't engineer the attacks; they're just opportunists.

I wouldn't put it past them, as in the past those same people have put forth proposals to stage mock terrorist attacks and blame them on enemy forces in an attempt to create justification for invasion; including hijackings and attacks that would result in U.S. citizens being killed, with a secondary suggestion of possibly using unmanned drones masquerading as a commercial aircraft and fake funerals instead.

I am not saying 9/11 was a Northwoods style false flag operation committed by the US government and the military industrial complex, but the list of those who have benefited from this situation is short. In any criminal investigation, the first suspect is always the party that stands to gain the most, and the US governmet has the means, motive, and opportunity.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Northwoods

I've just had a look at the TSA regulations

[nowhere.elysium]

And I find it worrying just how easy it is to smuggle such stuff in... Yeah, ok - you can't expect X-Ray jockeys to know about every single type of new laptop available: the blogger was an arse for expecting them to. However, the fact that you can have 3oz of 'jello' (jelly, to the rest of us) on board with you should flag some concerns. There are, insofar as I'm aware, several materials that resemble gelatinous liquids that can be encouraged to go 'bang' by introducing a small electrical charge, such as that from any electronic item, which can also be carried in hand luggage. I dunno. I just think that as laudable as the pursuit of safety is, there's no sane way of doing it. You don't exactly need much to bring a plane down: many airlines still believe that it can be done simply by having a telephone turned on: it's definitely possible if you've got something that can transmit radio signals on the right frequency. Paranoia's making you look in the wrong directions. People who plan to do stuff like take a plane down are usually smart, and can think their way round this rudimentary attempt at security without any serious hassle.

Re:I've just had a look at the TSA regulations

[Anonymous Coward]

One of the arguments of the movie "Loose Change" is the inability to make cellphone calls inflight. There has been some arguing that "Loose Change" was blowing smoke...Then why, 6 years after 9/11 is there an article that could verify "Loose Change ('s)" argument? Feel free to read for yourself. The way I see it, the technology wasn't really available back then. Read for yourself...

In-Flight Cell Phone Calls a Reality Posted Apr 20th 2007 1:45PM by Terrence O'Brien
Filed under: Cell Phones

The death knell has tolled for one of the last lone cell phone-free frontiers on Earth -- or above it, actually. Beginning in July Air France will begin piloting a six month program (pun fully intended) that will allow travelers to send and receive text messages and emails from cellular devices. After three months, though, the true horror begins as passengers will be permitted to talk on their phones. During the trial, questionnaires will be handed out to passengers after each flight to gather feedback. The service, which is only being tested on Air France's short-haul A318 aircraft, works by having an antenna run the length of the plane. Calls and data transmissions made on board are sent to a satellite, then beamed back down to ground. In-flight calls are expected to cost $2.50, while a price has yet to be announced for emails and text messages. So what of all that fuss about cell phones and other wireless devices interfering with a plane's navigational systems? In 2004, the FCC and FAA began testing cell phones on planes, but to date has been unable to determine if they pose any danger or not. According to Computer World, the ban is still in place in the U.S. for a variety of reasons, chiefly politics and concerns that in-flight calls could cause technical troubles for cell networks on the ground.

http://www.switched.com/2007/04/20/in-flight-cell-phone-calls-a-reality/

In-Flight Cell Phone Use Moves Forward in Europe
Posted Oct 18th 2007 8:35AM
by Tim Stevens
Filed under: Cell Phones

The plight of in-flight cell phone use has been more turbulent than the last time we flew from Philly to NY in the middle of a blizzard. Airborne cell use was looking promising at one point in the US, but the FCC has been staunchly against the idea. That said, earlier this year, things started looked promising in the European Union, and now are looking even better, with regulators requesting the introduction of technology that would allow for safe mid-flight calling on European flights. Not wanting to have to hear the babbling of your fellow passengers while you're trying to sleep through that red-eye out of LAX is a perfectly valid reason for not wanting in-flight cell phone use, but the real reason it's currently disallowed is safety. Studies have shown that phones have the potential to mess with an aircraft's navigation systems, meaning your pilot might think he's making a safe landing at a runway while actually lining up over a cow pasture. To prevent this, the system proposed in Europe would place transmitters on the aircraft themselves, allowing calls to be safely routed by the plane to a satellite and then back down to the terrestrial phone system. The problem with this approach is, of course, that it will require the installation of hardware on planes before calls would be allowed. No estimated costs have been given at this point, but we can only imagine what sort of extra fees you'd see on your cell bill (and plane ticket) if you were, say, to pull out your iPhone mid-flight and make a few calls over Spain. We've already seen what kind of bills you can get there when you stay on the ground.

http://www.switched.com/2007/10/18/in-flight-cell-phone-use-moves-forward-in-europe/

Re:Is this news? or marketing?

[prestomation]

I think the better question is, why did you bring that thing on the plane? Do you whittle away the hours checking your integrals on the TI-89?

oh, I forgot...this is /.. You probably do...

You can build airplanes, too.

[smellsofbikes]

Likewise, you can build your own airplane using very similar skills.
The KR2 can be built for under $15,000 USD. It uses a VW engine and eats about 3 gallons of car gas per hour, while doing 180 knots. You can't say it has much baggage room, though. But it does have a 1000 mile range.
If you want to step up several notches, the Stallion is a six place plane you can build for about $120K. It's fast and the original Stallion has been modified so the designer and his wife can roll their Honda Goldwing motorcycle into the back, fly somewhere, and motorcycle wherever they want.

Re:You can build airplanes, too.

[icebrain]

And when you build one, you don't have to pay some mechanic to do everything beyond changing the oil. As the builder, you can do anything you want--including major structural repair--yourself. I wouldn't necessarily suggest doing major structural changes unless you're an engineer or whatever... but you get my point. You do your own annuals and maintenance, saving you a ton on labor and parts. It's not particularly hard to do; you just need to be patient and committed enough to detail to spend two to five (or more) years building said plane, then maintain it properly.

If you can make the payments on a brand-new medium-sized car or full-size truck, you can afford an airplane.

Re:irony

[amias]

Do you have problems with grammer when posting to online forums ?
If so then why not try our new cluebat and a new brain !
</advert>

no its not , its called context based advertising.

Toodle-pip
Amias

It's the TSA Gangtaz

[toddlg]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7AWw7t5zj0

NSFW language

Re:Actually I've had something similar happen to m

[Achromatic1978]

With Image Stabilization, no less! :) If it makes you feel any better, though, it was only a rental. I can't justify the $10,000 or so for the lens (actually, I can, but the wife cannot).

Re:irony

[DinDaddy]

I have those problems. My grammer stands behind me and yells "why didn't you ever learn to spell?"

/rolleyes

[entmike]

/rolleyes @ his self-important 5-paragraph intro into a most likely made up story of him getting stopped at an airport in a thinly-veiled way of saying he owns a Macbook Air.

Ack! Should have previewed

[Phroggy]

That's not a particularly good way to determine whether or not someone is a terrorist, because it would be trivially easy for a terrorist group to arrange for someone to spend some time building up a pattern of behaviour before carrying out whetever they have in mind. Very true, but what we're doing how isn't a particularly good way either. If terrorists can spend time to build up a pattern like that, they can just as easily book roundtrip tickets a month in advance using a credit card.

Mind you, I think most of it is bull anyhow. I haven't forgotten how many senior politicians in the UK went on the news after 9/11 to say "The most important thing we can do is change nothing, because changing everything about our culture through fear is what the terrorists want". Yeah, over here on this side of the pond, all they said was that it's important for us to keep going shopping.

Amtrak Security

[Natros]

Maybe that's a good idea. Right now, the security on Amtrak amounts to a pretty sign that reads: "Please refrain from detonating explosives while the train is in motion." OTOH, maybe that's one of the reasons I like taking the train...

TSA Salaries are ~$36K/year

[littlewink]

You try working full-time for $20k/year, lifting heavy bags all day and dealing with smug assholes that think they are better than you.

TSA screeners average salaries are ~$30K/year. They are hourly employees and average about 6 hours overtime per week. That averages out to about $36K/year.

They have to be healthy enough to work and have clean backgrounds (no DUI, no time in jail, etc.). There aren't many healthy people like that in the US, thanks to our propensity to toss most anyone into the slammer for the slightest suspicion of a legal infraction.

So let me get this straight...

[pandrijeczko]

...some dumbass Mac user who is so totally full of himself that he cannot be bothered to check in for his flight in reasonable time, then has a hissy fit because the "pose box" he bought purely to force down everyone else's throat that he stands out from the crowd is more carefully examined by security than a bog-standard laptop would be. So what's the problem?

If it was me on security, I'd have had the guy up against the nearest wall with his trousers down and his hands grabbing his ankles whilst my most "sausage-fingered" and long-nailed work colleague gave him a rectal examination for smuggled iPhones.

Re:ridiculously pretentious blog posting

[Anonymous Coward]

Please don't repeat yourself.

The blog is by a Mac owner - therefore the "ridiculously pretentious" part is automatically assumed.

TSA

[PHAEDRU5]

Thousands, Standing Around.

Yielding to Authority...

[flajann]

I have a big problem with yielding to authority.

If what authority makes sense, I may do it. If it does not make sense, I won't, unless they have a gun pointed to my head.

What the TSA does makes no sense because:

1. There is no credible security threat.
2. It impacts the lives of millions of innocents and makes the airport an unpleasant place to be.
3. It chews up tax dollars just to go after a paper tiger.
4. They are so easy to defeat by a real terrorist, anyway.

Well, they hold the gun, and I suppose I will bend over and take it up the @$$ at gunpoint, but it only means that I will seek other means to travel to avoid the airport if at all possible.

How hard is that?

[CamoCoatJoe]

MacBook Air Confuses Airport Security How hard is that?

Re:irony

[ohmpossum]

I took a brand new HP lap top through airport security recently and they didn't know what to make of it either since it had the wavy line pattern on the case instead of just a dull gray finish like they are used to. They asked something like "Is that a notebook computer?" to which I answered "Yes." and went on my way. If you give a non straight answer (other than yes, or no) to a security guard you are asking for trouble. I imagine this genius answered "It's a mac air." and was pulled aside for further screening. Which for a viral marketing campaign would be exactly what the 'reporter' wanted to happen. I can only imagine what they would do if you walked through with long hair and an HP imprint artist edition. (See hp's website)

Re:irony

[ohmpossum]

For the record I do own stock in both HP and Apple.

Re:irony

[ozmanjusri]

Which for a viral marketing campaign would be exactly what the 'reporter' wanted to happen.

There's more similarly structured stories starting to appear. Check this tagline...

As humiliating as it sounds, let me repeat: the MacBook Air is so thin that it got tossed out with the newspapers. http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2008/03/newsweek-report.html

FTW!!

[BrunoUsesBBEdit]

I can't catch my breath!

Hijackings

[derfred]

How many planes have been hijacked since 9/11?

bomb

[bithound]

i've always wondered how you can tell if a hard disk is say a hard disk and not a bomb. how does the x-ray really call out "no bomb". i think anyone with a high school degree could refit a notebook with a bomb of sorts. btw, i found a funny post one the TSA/MBA at Products.

No Surprise - Some Screeners Puzzled by Thumbdrive

[Pulsar]

This doesn't surprise me, because I was once 'randomly' selected for 'secondary screening' at an airport in Houston, Texas. The TSA screener glanced through my carry-on without saying a word, outside of just friendly banter. But the screener locked onto the USB thumbdrive on my keys, and seemed almost afraid to remove the cap on the end; he demanded to know what it was immediately. I told him it was a USB thumbdrive, for a computer. He looked puzzled and started looking at me like I had said it was a knife, so I rattled off every name I could think of for a thumbdrive - flashdrive, jumpdrive, memory stick, etc., etc. He still didn't get it, so I told him it plugged up to a computer and stored photos. He said "Oh, well, can you turn it on and show me?". I told him no, it didn't work unless it was plugged up to a computer - that seemed to satisfy him and he gave me my keys back and waved me through.

I can understand (maybe) how someone could be ignorant of what a thumbdrive was, but how could a TSA screener at a major US airport get through his job without ever seeing a USB thumbdrive before?! This was a fairly common brand/model, too, it wasn't anything unique or rare. And this occurred in the past year or two, it wasn't like thumbdrives were new on the market at the time.

Scary stuff, so I'm not surprised at all that the new MacBook Air is causing trouble at security checkpoints; it seems like the TSA isn't training their people on what laptops and other technological devices should/should not look like, as well as what the latest developments are. Considering how commercially successful Apple has been and how many people consider the latest Apple products a status symbol, I'm floored that the TSA hasn't issued some sort of bulletin to their screeners about the new MacBook Air.

If you're one of the lucky few that's scored Amazon's new e-book reader, the Kindle, look out if you try to fly with it...I'd love to try to explain that one at security. "No, it's not really a computer, it's basically an electronic book..."