This kind of stupidity is what I've come to expect from the TSA morons. Actually in one way this surprises me. I figured they would be too busy protecting travelers from killer Starbucks cups and bottles of contact lens solution to deal with a computer.

I kind of thought the non-removable battery might cause problems, but never thought that the missing HD would cause problems. I know after the exploding battery scare, some airlines wanted laptops to have their batteries removed.

It's nice to know that they actually do watch the xray machine screen, after all.

Yet another reason why my neighbor, a senior Delta captain, calls them "Thousands Standing Around." You'd think they would be reading tech magazines to keep up on this stuff...

Quote

Guest wrote:
Yet another reason why my neighbor, a senior Delta captain, calls them "Thousands Standing Around." You'd think they would be reading tech magazines to keep up on this stuff...

You are assuming they can read

One would think that as soon as you opened it, and it woke from sleep, that they would see it was a computer, and not a mock-up.

I just lost a bottle of Body shop liquid soap. Now one I asked the TSA guy if I could just tip out the amount to meet the reuirements, he had to ask his sup. NO. "It might leave a residue"
How is that any different than me bringing something on.
Not the swiftest personel.

These people aren't "morons", they're just not well trained, particularly on an on-going basis.

The TSA came into being because of the heinous actions of a group of barbaric, stone-age savages who intend to drag you down to their level, or kill you. Let's focus our anger where it belongs.

This happened with one screener in one airport, to one traveler. Calling all TSA screeners "morons" because of a single incident of this type is moronic. If these people are, indeed, "ignorant," this isn't proof of it.

This computer has been out for what, a minute? And, it is a rather novel design. I'm only surprised this hasn't occurred more often. Not everyone is a mac geek/fanboy, obsessed with the innards of every two-minute-old apple release. I'd bet half the people buying that model aren't even aware what Solid State means. Yeah, it's their job to be aware of this technology. But one flier had a problem. I'm happy to know that someone noticed something was "missing."

"Let's focus our anger where it belongs."

Yes lets. How about the political leadership that armed those thugs (Weapons and Training-Mujahadeen, Oil Money, etc), both literally and figuratively, then in response to the attack on 9/11 they squandered all the foreign goodwill generated in sympathy with brain-dead foreign Policy. Then on top of that, when they were forced to create a new agency to combat the problem (remember Bush didn't want Homeland Security at first), they just cannibalized a bunch of existing, mostly useful agencies and hired people like the TSA staff who are 80% mouthbreathing high school drop-outs (gotta give credit to the one that knew about SSD) to do cushy new jobs and they can't even be bothered to know the basics of consumer technology?

Don't worry Guest, our anger is quite focused. Its why not only the Republican candidate, but also the more traditional Democratic candidate (Clinton) are doomed in November, barring a monumental steal of the nomination by her Obama is going to be our next president, and while I don't expect reforming the TSA to be tops on the list I'm damn sure its been noted along with every other thing the current leadership has totally screwed up, mostly by themselves.

He's our last, best hope to get out of this incredible mess without too many more people, here and overseas, having to pay a further price in blood.

Quote

DaiMac wrote:
"Let's focus our anger where it belongs.".

Very true and I couldn't agree more, except I don't think even Obama will be able to fix things.

I HAVE flown a fair amount since 9/11; Minneapolis, JFK, Denver, Reno, Seattel, Phoenix, Atlanta, Miami. My impression of the TSA has always been the same; a bunch of Barney Fife wannabees. They do an indescribably bad job in the most insulting way possible, pull people at random to fill their quota of searches per hour, and when someone starts to question whether the TSA is doing something useful, they they come up with asinine ideas like no liquids.

No, I do not feel safer with these morons (yes I do mean morons) pawing through my stuff.

How about we keep the politics discussion where it belongs... in the politics forum, mmmkay?

Lots of folks can/are/will be confused by the design of the Air, not just TSA employees. And it happens overseas, too, I'm sure.

If you think the TSA's policies are bad/inconvenient, try taking a carryon (like a rollaboard) through Heathrow or Gatwick. Unless they've changed their policy, you couldn't take anything larger than a purse or a briefcase/laptop bag onboard. Very inconvenient for short trips (didn't get my bag from BA for three days).

Most TSA employees couldn't find their butts with with both hands, a map, and a GPS.

Didn't they have this same problem when the PowerBook was first introduced....

It never changes

I'll tell you who the moron is. His name is Michael Nygard. First off, he should have arrived an hour and a half before his flight. But second, he was starring in a new MacBook Air commercial! How the hell do you star in a commercial and (a) not know it and (b) have a flight to catch that day. This is brilliant marketing by Apple. The smart people who can afford to buy a MacBook Air will appreciate the humor of the spot when it finally airs. Way better than having a Dylan McDermott lookalike slacker and a whiney fat [CENSORED rhymes with truck] pitch your brand.

Quote

geoduck wrote:
Very true and I couldn't agree more, except I don't think even Obama will be able to fix things.

No one person will be able to, its going to take a long time. Of course nobody wants to hear it, because everybody wants to hear that things can be fixed quickly and easily. Sometimes life isn't fair.

@Intruder: Sorry man, but as a very recently created government agency the TSA itself is a political issue, as is the quality of its equipment/training/staffing, so maybe the whole article belongs there in the first place if discussing politics in comments relating to it is a problem in this section. I can't speak to UK security, the only overseas flying I've done is to Beijing in 2005 and had no problems (whether thats good or bad I don't know), even as a foreign national, with my laptop going there from NYC or flying around in-country. I have flown several times in the U.S. since the attack, and with the exception of the shoe swabbing thing had no problems personally with the TSA, but I've also had plenty of time to watch them work with other people and they're not the brightest lot in general.

I'm also not that happy about the expansion of the Sky Marshal program, a dubious protection at best to add one person with a gun to the equation of a terrorist strike against an aircraft. For one thing the strategy of the 9/11 attackers is unlikely to ever succeed again, and for another the likelihood of non-explosive weapons being smuggled onto a plane, while not non-existent, is lower than ever in the States. If somebody does bring a bomb, only a great deal of luck is going to prevent detonation, and while Passenger 57 was a fun movie I don't think most Sky Marshals are THAT badass.

Also Bosco, wow you're pretty sad buddy. Been so long since I'd noticed your lame attempts at humor that your post almost made me half-giggle, how pathetic it was. You could wish to be fit to lick the sweat off John Hogdman's rear end, but I've seen cesarean scars funnier than you. I'll give you a tip: WWTDD.com. A drunken hobo posting on that site from the library is more likely to make me laugh.

First off they alloweed ONE bag and it could be a normal rolling suitcase like before. All UK airports except one have gone back to allowing that plus a personal item e.g. laptop or camera or purse. So yuor understanding of the old policy is dead wrong and your lack of awareness of the new changes (not that new) would be aided considerably by using Google and doing so research before blindly posting nonsense.

Quote

Anonymous wrote:
First off they alloweed ONE bag and it could be a normal rolling suitcase like before. All UK airports except one have gone back to allowing that plus a personal item e.g. laptop or camera or purse. So yuor understanding of the old policy is dead wrong and your lack of awareness of the new changes (not that new) would be aided considerably by using Google and doing so research before blindly posting nonsense.

That policy was essentially useless for a business traveler going somewhere for more than a day trip, because you basically had to check your overnight bag if you carried a laptop. Coming from the States through London was a hassle because you could bring a carryon (for instance containing a change of clothes for your business meeting in the event that your luggage didn't make it) onto the plane from the States, but then had to check it before going through security in London.

My understanding of the policy (having been inconvenienced by it) is/was based on about 15 trips through both Heathrow and Gatwick within the last 18 months or so, not Google.

But you missed the point completely, which was that airport security is fairly inconvenient throughout the world, and many policies don't make a lot of sense. TSA does not have a corner on that market.

I am really sadden to read all the negative responses about "TSA" but the anger has to focused somewhere so why not focus it to the very people who still remember what happened on September 11 2001, and who also remember that many people died on that day that did not have a choice of how they were gonna die especially the ones who were in the planes. I watch people too, I have observed that its not just TSA it is also the passengers, they are rude, arrogant, and disgusting. So who are the real "morons" I ask, how about the ones who dont know how to walk forward in a line, how about the ones who pack everything in their house in one bag, then have to unload it all to go through x-ray, but mostly how about all the morons that have forgotten what happened on 9-11-2001. So if you must and I say must be angry about your inconvenience of standing in long lines and the "morons" at TSA why dont you pull out that mirror you packed your bag and look in it, be angry at that one because that moron looking back at cha forgot what happened or maybe doesn't care anymore.

What a load of old bollocks. You missed the point, and wrote it about in a virtually unreadable way. The point is about airport security in the US, performed by people who (especially in this case) are not competent to perform the task. It wouldn't be drawing too long a bow to suggest that what happened seven years ago was due to less-than-competent security too.

If you want good security, you need to have well-paid and well-trained security officers. Anything less will result in problems.

I suggest you get a laptop, a good old heavy one, and put it on your legs to stop your knee jerking.

Quote

LaurieF wrote:
What a load of old bollocks......I suggest you get a laptop, a good old heavy one, and put it on your legs to stop your knee jerking.

Well Said!

@Guest: Nobody is attacking anybody other than the people who hired the TSA personnel and those among them who are useless. As noted in this article, at least one TSA officer did know what the true nature of the MBA was, but obviously somebody less astute was actually in charge, hence the need to make calls and the missed flight.

I also agree that some air passengers act like they have a right to fly, rather than remembering that it is a privilege which circumstances could easily take from them.

Of course, I don't understand why we need to use jets for relatively unimportant passenger flights in-country, why we haven't moved back to Zepplins or some other ultra-efficient but probably marginally slower form of air travel in this time of impending energy crisis is beyond me. I know I'd rather it take 3 more hours to get from NYC to LA and use 20% of the fuel, which wouldn't have to be highly refined Jet Fuel per se.

But thats getting so far off-topic it ain't even funny

Quote

DaiMac wrote:
Of course, I don't understand why we need to use jets for relatively unimportant passenger flights in-country, why we haven't moved back to Zepplins or some other ultra-efficient but probably marginally slower form of air travel in this time of impending energy crisis is beyond me. I know I'd rather it take 3 more hours to get from NYC to LA and use 20% of the fuel, which wouldn't have to be highly refined Jet Fuel per se.

This is easy to explain. We live in a relatively free country and not all of us are Gaia worshipping panty wastes.

What is it with you two?

Guest,

First off: it's kind of hard to understand what you're saying. Try spacing your post a little more, and make shorter, clearer sentences. Then we could all read you without having to decipher the meaning.

Quote

Anonymous wrote:
and who also remember that many people died on that day that did not have a choice of how they were gonna die especially the ones who were in the planes.

That's terrible, but, man, there are lots of people who die without having "a choice of how they were gonna die". People are dying out there every day. That's how things work in this world. I could get run over by a taxi tomorrow morning. Trust me, I'd rather die another way.

Quote

Anonymous wrote:
but mostly how about all the morons that have forgotten what happened on 9-11-2001.

Anyhow... I think we all agree that the 9/11 events were tragic and regrettable. And I also agree that we should not forget them. However, the best way to do so would be to learn from what happened (I'm sure that more competent security would have helped), and how to function better as a society to avoid this kind of tragedy (now that people are a lot more sensitive and alert when it comes to air travel, it has become a lot harder to achieve acts like the 9/11 hijacks: we all saw what happened to the shoe bomber).

The creation of the TSA is an example of this kind of thinking. Of course, whether or not the TSA's actually doing a good job is another issue. If it's just another name for the same old incompetence, then it's completely pointless.

I don't think that mentioning the 9/11 attacks in such a way every time a conversation about airport security comes up is productive or useful in any way. That's essentially... living in the past, I guess.

My $ 0.02