TSA Evaluating Laptop Bags 95
kbielefe writes "The Transportation Security Administration has sent out a call to laptop bag manufacturers to produce a laptop bag that could pass through airport screening without having to remove the laptop. The TSA will perform testing starting at the end of May, with the end result hopefully being a TSA stamp of approval that will reduce the hassle for a lot of us. According to the article, 'The key is for TSA screeners to be able to view the laptop in a single X-ray image, so the laptop would not need to be placed in a separate TSA bin.'"
Well damn (Score:3, Interesting)
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Have the bag constructed from two partitions that are velcro-stripped or zipped together. These can be pulled apart so that the cables can be separated from the laptop without removing either.
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Oh...you mean, make a machine that can CHEAPLY resolve a 3d image...well, that's another story.
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No, CT scanning could probably be done cheaply enough. The real problem is that CT scanners are unavoidably huge, and airports are already cramped.
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Jump on the bandwagon and just patent this (Score:1)
Ok... (Score:2)
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Los Angeles, CA-LAX
Hong Kong, China-HKG
Cebu, Philippines (Didn't even have to remove it from the bag)
Dayton, OH-DAY
Newark, NJ-EWR
Here is a funny quirk that pissed me off though...on the flight back to the US from HK, I couldn't take a bottle of water with me on the plane that I purchased after the security checkpoints...they confiscated larger bottles of liqid from everyone as we board
Re:Ok... (Score:4, Funny)
I've only ever been asked once to turn on my laptop, and that was pre-9/11. I was leaving Detroit for Amsterdam. The funny thing was, the battery was dead. I told the security guy, if he could walk me over to a power outlet, I could plug it in, and turn it on for him. Otherwise, he was out of luck. He didn't make me, but we did chitchat about my work for a while. I worked at an adult company, and he was familiar with the company, so it made for an unusual conversation, but it was neat talking to a fan of the site. With several million daily viewers, it wasn't unexpected to bump into a few regular viewers, I just didn't expect it.
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The same reasons airports do all kinds of strange things... To make you pay more.
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Here is a funny quirk that pissed me off though...on the flight back to the US from HK, I couldn't take a bottle of water with me on the plane that I purchased after the security checkpoints...they confiscated larger bottles of liqid from everyone as we boarded (excluding medicines and baby formula). What's up with that?
It's I guess theoretically possible for someone to smuggle in an explosive inside a regular bottle shipment or some other means then for an accomplice (who was actually flying) to pick up that bottle (or transfer the explosive to it).
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What a pisser. Security Theater. Tickets, please. Everyone please move to the end of the row to make more seats available.
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Apparently they have you remove them from bags because the bags (in conjunction with the case of the laptop) are too much of a barrier to the x-rays to properly image the inside of the laptop.
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And for what it's worth, I was a TSA screener for two years.
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What REALLY is necessary is to get a way of detecting the explosive materials and skip everything else. Unfortunately a laptop and it's accessories is a very complex component and it's not easy to distinguish the bad parts from the good.
And mind - cheese can appear suspicious on the X-ray scanners. I have been asked once about a strange scan that was caused by cheese I
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paper bag (Score:2, Insightful)
All the crap inside (Score:2)
Dubious goals here it seems IMO.
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Can't the bag just be wider than the laptop and put that stuff next to the laptop instead of on top/underneath. Gonna need a mega wide bag if you want one for external drives and a printer but still doable. Include metal thread embroidery that says LAPTOP and OTHER to really speed you through on the deluxe version
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But, currently, I still have to remove the laptop from the bag because nobody on the TSA security lines is permitted to think.
Re:paper bag (Score:4, Funny)
This one (Score:4, Funny)
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It helps remember that freedom, tempered with good taste, is something that keeps us all mellow.
Uh huh (Score:3, Insightful)
Because instead of making everyone take our their laptop, making some do it and not others based on some random criteria like what bag it is in will not slow things down at all.
What do you mean this year's Targus bags look just like last years? So they'll just make everyone take them out to search them because it's faster than figuring out who has a special bag?
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I had TSA approved locks. They survived about 3 trips. On the last trip, when I got my bags, I found the cut locks in the bottom of the bags, with the TSA advisory that the bag had been searched.
So much for doing the "right" thing. I just gave up locking them. The only people I worry about stealing from my bags are the people who can open those locks anyways.
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Re:Uh huh (Score:4, Insightful)
I know. Actually, the zipper is usually more likely to give way than the lock, but since most luggage is soft these days, a box cutter will open almost any of them very nicely, and faster than fiddling with the zipper anyways.
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I've traveled a few times with firearms in my luggage. It did expedite me to getting my checked luggage looked at, but the rest of the trip went normally.
The only odd part was, I had to unlock the case the gun was in, show them that it wasn't loaded, and then put it all back. While I'm very comfortable with firearms, holding a gun in an airport seems like a good way to get myself shot, which would suck since I didn't even have ammo.
I'd hate for one of them t
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Time for loud startup sounds (Score:4, Funny)
"Can you turn this on for me?"
"Sure!"
"Aahahahahahahahoooooohhhh!"
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Just do what I do (Score:4, Funny)
I've not flown since before 9/11, and I'm quite proud of it.
Re:Just do what I do (Score:4, Insightful)
As much as I don't like the TSA's policies, boycotting them is like boycotting the IRS by not working. There are some jobs that require flying. If I needed to go across country for a conference, it's much easier to just fly there than to spend a few days on a bus or train. If I needed to go overseas, I have no real choice but to fly.
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Though many people might have thought this was facetious, it's actually a practical idea that many people and companies have figured out. Starting in Oct 2001, I started reading and hearing news stories about the sudden boom in sales of small jets to "air taxi" services. It turns out that the price tradeoff is typically around 2 to 4 seats, at which point the small jet is cheaper than the same number of "business rate" seats on most commercial flights. These servi
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I suppose you would protest restrictions on free speech by not talking?
(I've only flown twice since 9/11, once 4 months later, where people were still pretty freaked out, and once recently, where it wasn't a problem at all, but I'm no so hopelessly myopic that I think that not flying(much) is a viable choice for other people)
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If only we were all fortunate enough not to be required to travel long distances in short amounts of time.
I have to travel a 5,000-mile round-trip a few times a year for being a subject of medical research and treatment (the cost of which is covered by the research hospital). Even though I've never had any specific incident with the TSA, I loath having to wait in line and be treated like a her
Re:Just do what I do (Score:4, Insightful)
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I'm not sure what you're talking about; I fly all the time (usually 253FD out of KSMO, sometimes 8074L if 253FD isn't available) and never have to interact with TSA at all.
Oh. You meant "pretend to be cattle by flying commercially." That's a different thing altogether.
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Or they can just not have us take it out the bag (Score:5, Informative)
The lady at the Osaka airport looked at me weird when I tried to take my laptop out of the bag. I think Japan has an x-ray machine that can look through cloth, I cannot explain it any other way. We should buy those instead of what we got now and not waste our time on "Airport Cleared" bags.
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Re:Or they can just not have us take it out the ba (Score:2)
Re:Or they can just not have us take it out the ba (Score:5, Insightful)
Also the "turn on" rule was part of the aftermath of Pan-Am 103 until it was pointed out that the computer or boombox can still work perfectly fine ever after most of its internals have been removed to make a bomb.
Just thank god they didn't implement their first idea which was to ban all electronics from the cabin of the plane. Someone had the rationality to say, no that's just stupid.
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bomb was fashioned into a boom-box
[/blockquote]
Isn't a bomb in a box a boom-box anyway? so it wasn't fashioned into a boom-box...
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The people that make the decision on how things are done are total frickin' idiot morons. Before 9/11, and several years afterwards, you could carry an extra large coffee through security and onto the plane without
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From the outside you could make it look like a battery/power adapter. But would you be able to make it look the exact same through the x-ray machine? Power adapters tend to have the same x-ray look. Modified o
Use a Neoprene Sleeve (Score:2)
My backpack (Score:2)
I've had this thing for almost 6 years. Where has the TSA been? Of right, making me take the laptop sleeve out of my backpack, take it out of the sleeve, put it in the separate TSA box, then get conflicting instructions about where my shoes go.
Why take em out? (Score:1)
Total waste of time (Score:3, Insightful)
Most laptop batteries could easily be used to form a shaped charge with very minor modifications that wouldn't show up until after you slipped a film around the battery itself - and the separated components, combined with your seat tray table, can easily defeat the air cabin door.
At least, based on my memories of my first two Army combat field engineer courses.
Why are we as a society wasting our time on this?
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"Why are we as a society wasting our time on this?"
There is surplus Labor. Either just give them welfare dollars, or hire them into pointless make-work jobs.
Every TSA Employee hassling a Taxpayer is one less welfare check which needs to be cut.
Pournelle's Iron Law of Bureaucracy in practice.
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Well, maybe, but the welfare recipient isn't spending his/her day actively interfering with the efficiency of the population's travel. I'd argue that we're all better off putting the TSA employees on the dole, and then the rest of us can go about our lives without the hassle.
Of course, considering their nature, some of them would have "hobbies" that are equally damaging to society. Some of them might even run for office
Why do we even carry our bags through security? (Score:2)
You want to lose your laptop? (Score:2)
You want to subject your laptop to that?
If people are worried about their items (let's face it, stuff "disappears"), video tape it from start to finish and let people inspect the tape.
Let's have them do that for checked baggage first so we can see how well it works.
true answer (Score:1)
Uh oh (Score:2)
No Way! (Score:2)
CPAP (Score:1)
I travel with a briggs and reiley laptop bag that contains all my gear and 1 extra shirt. I also carry a rollaway that contains my clothes for the week and the CPAP. Since the airlines balk at 3 bags it has to be 2, and every time I check a bag it gets lost. I cant survive without my CPAP, so it will never be checked.
I did have a TSA tell me that the CPAP motor is potted so it just shown up as a black spot on the
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He travels with his CPAP, a cell phone, work laptop, a personal DVD player and a few odd PCMCIA cards.
I usually travel with two work laptops, a personal laptop, a wireless router, a switch, two cell phones, two iPods, CAT-5 and serial cables and all the assorted dongles and bits that go with all that crap.
He always gets his CPAP inspected. By in