MacBook Air puzzles TSA, what might be next?
It's just way too easy to pile on the Transportation Security Administration.
Sure, they've got a blog and all, but the TSA is not high on business travelers' lists of efficient, tech-savvy organizations. That's not going to change with the revelation that the TSA detained a new MacBook Air customer because they couldn't figure out what type of unusual laptop-like device he was carrying.
The MacBook Air recently had TSA agents scratching their heads.
(Credit: CNET Networks)Michael Nygard related the tale on his blog last week, explaining how gate agents were flummoxed when the X-ray machine couldn't find the hard drive. A younger member of the TSA recognized the MacBook Air, but had trouble convincing his fellow security personnel that Nygard was carrying a real, genuine laptop.
To be fair to the TSA, should they be expected to keep up with every new technology product? (Tip: here's a good resource.) And that got us thinking.
Without further adieu, CNET News.com's Top 5 Tech Products Bound to Confuse the TSA:
Lead-lined film bags in your luggage? Only if you want a call back to the check-in counter.
(Credit: BHphotovideo.com)5. Lead-lined film bags: Believe it or not, some people actually still use good old-fashioned film. And while it's not exactly a tech product, anything impenetrable by the scanning machine, such as protective lead-lined bags, is bound to raise a few eyebrows when your checked baggage passes through security. The TSA advises that users of "specialty film," such as "film with an ASA/ISO 800 or higher," to request a hand-inspection instead of using the lead bags, adding precious minutes to your airport ordeal.
4.Homemade electronics: Remember the days of building your own radios and electronic gear? Well, me neither, but many folks are still fooling around with custom-designed electronics for work and/or play. Just don't try to take an "improvised electronic device" through the security process, as one engineer learned the hard way via a 10-hour delay spent explaining Ohm's Law to security agents.
Medtronic's MiniMed Paradigm looks a little bit like an early 1990s' pager.
(Credit: Medtronic)3. Insulin pumps: For some diabetics, a trip through the security line can be exasperating. Some insulin pumps look like two-way pagers, and they can't exactly be turned off and disconnected from the body just so they can pass through the scanning machine. The MiniMed Paradigm could pass for an old PDA/cell phone, and will probably earn you a trip to that glassed-in box for additional screening.
2. The OQO: Not that all that many people bought one of these devices, nor the UMPCs that arrived after the OQO handheld computer, but what is it? Is it a PC, and should therefore have to be taken out of the bag while passing through the scanner? Is it a PDA, which can stay in the bag? For a while, San Francisco TSA agents stopped trying to figure it out, and just made travelers take everything electronic out of their bags, but that practice supposedly has come to an end.
And the Top Tech Product Bound to Confuse the TSA.....
"Honestly, sir, it's for my 12-year-old daughter."
(Credit: Riflegear.com)1. The Hello Kitty Assault Rifle: Come on, it's just too cute to be a weapon of medium-size destruction, isn't it?
Tom Krazit writes about the ever-expanding world of Internet search, including Google, Yahoo, online advertising, and portals, as well as the evolution of mobile computing. He has written about traditional PC companies, chip manufacturers, and mobile computers, spending the last three years covering Apple. E-mail Tom.
along with my laptop. They told me that I needed to remove "that
gadget" from my laptop bag. Go figure?
minutes with out issue), or at least I hope they can, since thats
what my endrocronologist (a diabetes doctor) told me.
On my first flight home for the winter holiday from college, I
removed my pump and told the TSA agents that it was not
supposed to go through the x-ray (you want to play it safe with
something that is sustaining your life...). I'd thought ahead and
put it in a zip-lock bag so they tube wouldn't be hanging every
where, and so the whisked that off for a bomb sniff (im
assuming), and promptly returned it to me a few moments later
after I went through the metal detector. I was told that I didn't
have to take it off to pass the the detector in the future.
On my return flight, I figured I would just leave it on. Surprise:
the metal detector went off (because of the metal belt clip, the
only type available for my pump). After about 30 minutes of
biting my nails because the TSA agents made me leave my
Macbook Pro (and other belongings) in those gray trays at the
end of the x-ray conveyer-belt while I was on the other side of
a plexiglas barrier, I was finally allowed to go through.
It was a pain either way, though far less of a pain to just remove
the dang thing. In each case however, at least one agent
recognized it as a pump, which I guess is a little more than can
be said about the Macbook Air.
BTW - I've had almost no issues with the pump internationally as well.
Worse yet, the AAD is integral with the reserve parachute system ? a system both packed and sealed by an FAA certified parachute rigger. Breaking the seal to inspect the unit would require the parachutist to have the reserve repacked by yet another FAA certified parachute rigger at his or her own expensive ($50 or more).
Yes, the TSA would sometimes tear apart work done by an FAA certified person, sometimes causing physical damage ? all at the parachutist's expensive. It took us years to sort that out with the TSA, and occasional problems still occur. Few parachutists will check their parachutes because these are life saving devices, and if they are tampered with, the results could be fatal. Fun stuff.
Jack
opposite side was printed the same message. The TSA checker
spent about 20 minutes flipping the card over and over. The only
thing that got the line moving again was that it came time for his
coffee break.
Many of us (check the Underexposed Blog here on C|Net) travel
with sheet film for large format cameras like my 4x5 or even
8x10 inch cameras.
For obvious reasons, you can't open the box of film in daylight -
so users of sheet film who are traveling to photograph must ship
film ahead to their destination and back home at considerable
risk and expense.
While sheet film for landscape and studio photography is often
slow (low ISO) enough to survive an x-ray exposure or two, most
fine art photographers would rather ship film than have their
exposures increased by a third of a stop due to cumulative x-
ray exposure.
It used to be that TSA would waive the hand-inspection for
sealed boxes of film or for Quickload/Readyload sheet film
packets, but this doesn't help 8x10 users and the TSA once
asked me to pull my film from the QuickLoad envelope during
hand inspection - prompting me to leave the check-in line, call
a friend, and have them ship my film back for me.
The TSA should know: when you only allow people to adhere to
strict rules, the chances of something unexpected occurring
become higher, not lower. Letting agents use common sense (it's
obviously a laptop in this case) would make the process a lot
easier for everyone.
Listen. We all agree it's terrible when that one flight in several hundred million gets highjacked or something. But, please...it's time we all decided that the odds simply aren't worth the gigantic expenditures in money, time, and waste that is involved in the last several-years' searches of water-bottles, makeup containers, baby bottles,etc etc etc ad nauseum.
If we're all that worried about that one-in-a-billion, let's all just give up and hand over the keys to the first lucky passenger to make it through security with a loose can opener.
protective lead-lined bags, is bound to raise a few eyebrows when
your checked baggage passes through security."
It's been several years since machines were installed at most major
airports that made it a BAD idea to put ANY film in checked
luggage, since the neutron scanning machines are guaranteed to
fry it. Come on cnet, you had to have read the reports......
Solid State drives are little more than flash memory.
These things are already in the pipeline, and the folks buying
them are mostly travelers. Policy should be aware of that. they
are in Japan. It always kills me that I can get through
immigration and customs faster in any country other than the
USA where I am a citizen...
at least they don't take lighters but let you have matches any
more...
bad policies, bad culture, bad politics, bad country.
will worship the people that protect us.
was so important.
It got to the point that carrying printed instructions on doing the conversions with lots of photos would be enough to cause the TSA agent's eyes to glaze over as they tried to figure out what it was I was doing that they would just pass me on for fear I'd attempt to explain it to them in the level of detail they might want.
- quit whining
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by llorgam
March 12, 2008 6:13 AM PDT
- Let's see here, we get all kinds of gleeful comments over inspectors sneaking "bomb components" through the checkpoint, then indignation over a MacBook Air causing said owner to miss his flight.
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Reply to this comment
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(21 Comments)We are stuck to using a technology suited to spotting guns and knives to ferret out explosives. Laptops contain most of the items necessary to set up an IED and X-Ray screeners have to look for signs of tampering consistent with actual explosives. That SSD might just look like the kind of tampering we are trained to hunt for. Snide comments regarding technical expertise are unnecessary here.
If the bag checker was following procedure, a negative result from the sampling device should have been sufficient -- opening up the laptop and operating it is not part of the routine any more. Major goof on part of TSOs here.
Arriving at the airport without allowing time for such a delay... The ariline tells travellers to arrive 1 1/2 hours ahead, so no sympathy from me.
Looks like all involved went off track.