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Forrest Mimms On Modern Air Travel With a Bag Full of Electronics
Evidently even Forrest Mimms isn't famous enough to fly without hassle when carrying a briefcase full of electronics; he writes at Make about his experiences, both before and after 2001. A relevant slice:
After police were called when I was going through security at the San Antonio International Airport and after major problems going through security in Kona, Hawaii, I finally realized the obvious: Most people who don’t make things have no idea how to evaluate homemade equipment. Some are terrified by exposed wires and circuit boards, maybe because of bomb scenes in movies.
So I gave up. Now my carryon bag is only half stuffed with electronics; the rest is shipped ahead via FedEx.
Forrest Mimms is the man who wrote the book that got me started in electronics. Getting Started In Electronics. The greatest beginner electronic book EVER!(In my not so humble opinion.) He also wrote the Engineers Mini Notebooks that sold in radio shack to teach us about opamps and 555 timers and all the other things we needed to learn before ardweenies hit the world.
Hand in your 5 digit Slashdot ID... I pulled out my heavily earmarked copy of his "Engineer's Notebook" for my kids a few months ago to illustrate Boolean logic. I can see where the average Joe wouldn't know of him but if you were into early personal computers and the electronics hobby, especially in North America, it would have been hard to avoid Radio Shack and hard to miss his book(s) on display.
Less is more.
Now hand in your nerd card, it's important that nerds have a basic understanding of Nerd History.
Bombs are made with chemicals. All the electronics in the world won't blow up a toothpick. The sight of wires should alert you to... the presence of electronics.
Which is to say -- a bag full of wires is likely harmless. Something that looks like a birthday cake could probably take down the building you're in.
Oh go wet the bed. It's nothing to do with being elite. I worked in central London through the Troubles, and flew regularly with development kit for work and homebrew stuff as a radio amateur. I know what "enough actual bombs" in a First World nation looks like (thank god I'm not living somewhere with a real war), I was twice seconds from being blown up (as were many Londonners two-three decades ago), and there was never the need for this level of government interference.
As a former security officer with relevant training, the chemicals are the thing to look for more than anything else. You usually need several components to have a bomb that works and detonates when you want to, but chemicals are really the common denominator. Even if you're homebrewing on the plane, you still have to have chemicals whereas the rest of it is potentially optional
Most airports I've flown in and out of don't give a shit about wires, but they get really uptight about batteries and unknown liquids. A wire without a battery is completely benign. You're not going to be triggering a bomb with wires that aren't hooked up to a power source. Wires don't work that way otherwise we'd have all the free electricity we wanted.