Laptop checking in airports

"Nick FitzGerald" wrote in message
...
"Shawn Hearn" wrote:


Thus, the fact that you comply with the request and see lights starting
to blink is probably enough "evidence" that the machine poses no
significant threat.

Except that many laptops have *two* battery compartments!

"Benny" wrote:

Quite the opposite to booting up in Australia- we have to take out the
battery and put it through x-ray separately.
International airport security seems pretty inconsistent- which I can't say
makes me feel too secure :-)

On the contrary! A consistent security check procedure will eventually let
someone to defeat it.

Regards

"Benny" wrote:

Quite the opposite to booting up in Australia- we have to take out the
battery and put it through x-ray separately.
International airport security seems pretty inconsistent- which I can't say
makes me feel too secure :-)

On the contrary! A consistent security check procedure will eventually let
someone to defeat it.

Regards

laptop, and then they insert some sort of device into the laptop
(presumably
into the USB port or something). What exactly does this device do, and is

Like everyone else here so far, I've never seen this. Got specifics?

laptop, and then they insert some sort of device into the laptop
(presumably
into the USB port or something). What exactly does this device do, and is

Like everyone else here so far, I've never seen this. Got specifics?

laptop, and then they insert some sort of device into the laptop
(presumably
into the USB port or something). What exactly does this device do, and is

Like everyone else here so far, I've never seen this. Got specifics?

On that special day, , (curious) said...

The security guard asks them to boot up the
laptop, and then they insert some sort of device into the laptop (presumably
into the USB port or something). What exactly does this device do, and is
there a possibility of a virus being transmitted from the device into the
computer?

I don't think so. In the 1980's I once traveled within Germany by plane,
to Berlin, and had a walkman with me. I was asked to turn it on and show
the moving gear, so that they were convinced that this device was a real
cassette player, and no bomb.

IIRC, the Lockerbie bomb was said to be some plastic explosive, hidden
within a portable radio device.


Gabriele Neukam




--
Ah, Information. A good, too valuable these days, to give it away, just
so, at no cost.

On that special day, Zvi Netiv, )
said...

International airport security seems pretty inconsistent- which I can't say
makes me feel too secure :-)

On the contrary! A consistent security check procedure will eventually let
someone to defeat it.

Says someone in a country, which to my knowledge applies the most rigid
security standards of the world. Until now, I haven't heard of bombs in
Israelian planes or airports. Although I don't like such security checks
very much, I must admit they work, do they?

The problem is, you can't have your eyes everywhere (buses, taxis and so
on). This is why the bombings after 9/11 happened by means of cars (that
Kenyan hotel), lorries (the synagoge in Tunesia, near Djerba), vans (the
disco in, where, Bali?), and even trains (Madrid, 3/11/2004).


Gabriele Neukam




--
Ah, Information. A good, too valuable these days, to give it away, just
so, at no cost.

On that special day, Zvi Netiv, )
said...

International airport security seems pretty inconsistent- which I can't say
makes me feel too secure :-)

On the contrary! A consistent security check procedure will eventually let
someone to defeat it.

Says someone in a country, which to my knowledge applies the most rigid
security standards of the world. Until now, I haven't heard of bombs in
Israelian planes or airports. Although I don't like such security checks
very much, I must admit they work, do they?

The problem is, you can't have your eyes everywhere (buses, taxis and so
on). This is why the bombings after 9/11 happened by means of cars (that
Kenyan hotel), lorries (the synagoge in Tunesia, near Djerba), vans (the
disco in, where, Bali?), and even trains (Madrid, 3/11/2004).


Gabriele Neukam




--
Ah, Information. A good, too valuable these days, to give it away, just
so, at no cost.

"Hawth Hill" wrote in message
...
in article , PTRAVEL at
wrote on 07/12/2004 3:25 AM:

You were stopped at the gate and asked to turn on your laptop? Sorry,
but I
don't believe it was in the US -- random gate checks are all but
eliminated
here.

It's happened to me several times. Both in Los Angeles and in San
Francisco.

"All but eliminated" means that it is still sometimes done, though rarely.
I live in San Francisco and travel through SFO all the time, usually on
Continental or United and occassionally on American. I've never been asked
to turn on my laptop.

And, get this, since I retired and moved to the U.K. in May,
2001, it had to have happened before 9/11. From what I could observe,
there
was nothing random about it; it looked to me like everyone with a laptop
got
the same treatment.

Good grief. Did you read what I wrote -- these kinds of checks have been
ALL BUT ELIMINATED.

Sheesh.


Nobody, however, tried to stick anything into my Mac. Just make me boot
it
up. I had no problem with doing that. They just wanted to check that it
did, indeed, have real "electronics" inside. They never tried to look at
any of my data.

I've not happened to take my laptop along in my travels since then, so
don't
know what the practice may be these days. I'd be a bit disappointed if I
were to learn that it hasn't become even stiffer. Good grief! If nuts
can
hide explosives in their shoes, they could surely hide even more inside
the
case of a laptop that'd had its innards removed.

So, they're more than welcome to look my machine over all they want.

HH