Does it irritate anyone else...

...that when you go through airport security with a laptop they make you put it all by itself in one of those trays, and won't even allow you to put padding between the laptop and the tray itself? It irritates me because when it slides off the metal table onto the conveyor belt there's an inch difference in height between the two. The tray bounces! My beloved Black Lotus bounced in the tray! :eek

Who ever wrote that TSA rule is soooo lucky the hard drive was already starting to fail, or I'd be blaming it entirely on them. As it is now it only seems to have made things a little bit worse, which was inevitable anyway. Once a hard drive starts to fail, they don't miraculously recover so I was already preparing to replace it. It just irritates me that because the super-special and extremely advanced x-ray machines at the airport apparently can't see clearly if you put padding underneath the object they're scanning, things got worse when they didn't need to.

Bleh. Stupid trays.

 

I haven't flown in a real long time, but that's really annoying

 

Have you given any consideration to the idea of gluing your pad to the bottom of your machine? Or Velcro?

 

Briefly, but I cancelled the plan because of the potential for over-heating. I play games on this laptop. I just wanted to put the laptop bag as padding underneath it in the tray but they wouldn't let me.

 

Velcro would still work. Remove as needed.

 

Thanks Mimsy. Maybe we users should insist on putting our laptop bag, or something soft, on the catch tray so our precious laptops fall on something soft.

"They" can put the laptop bag through first if "they" get their knickers in a knot. :-D

Bazza

 

What all could be concealed inside one of those huge telephoto lenses?

 

That is my point. Discrimination against computers.
They must be PC illiterate, so take it out on the people who do know something.

 

Fair point... it sounds like a lot of work for someone like me who only flies with it once a year though. Maybe for next time... or maybe I should get an SSD for it? :innocent

Only to them... trust me.

At least the things still works, so I guess to could be worse.

 

Or it could be an "Authority" type of thing.
Give a guy a badge and watch him abuse the power it gives him.

 

Acronym for the TSA...

Thousands Standing Around. :-D

 

Laptop drop test

 

I gave up flying with my laptop a few years ago. Luckily, all my work travel involves driving.

What kills me is how inconsistent the TSA is with their rules from airport to airport! When I leave home, I have to put my shoes on the conveyor separately from everything else, and my purse and phone must be in a bin. When I left Reno, my shoes had to be in the bin with my purse, but my phone had to be in a separate smaller bin. At home, TSA provided a cane so I could walk through the scanner. In Reno, they just stood there and watched me put my crutches through the machine and didn't even acknowledge my presence. Sometimes I have to put my boarding pass through the machine, sometimes I am required to carry it with me. Just make up your minds already! I want to follow the rules, but you don't have the same ones for every airport. Which, you know, could be part of the problem...I'm just sayin'.

 

Huh. Keyboard vs. Coffee... why does that sound familiar:-D

 

Yes, for all the good that does.

I just recently flew, and I had a LARGE tube of toothpaste in my carry-on, way over the 3 oz. limit.

But toothpaste now comes in plastic tubes, not metallized. So they couldn't even see it. Could have been anything, like some plastique.

The security is a joke and only serves to inconvenience the passengers.

But at least they check your shoes!

 

To the OP

I recently saw something in SkyMall Magazine for lappys that is supposed to be designed for security. However, I couldn't find it there, but found this on PCWorld's site.

http://www.pcworld.com/businesscent...p_bags_that_zip_through_airport_security.html

Might have something for you there, though they are a bit expensive, but sometimes, convenience has a premium on it.

 

They caught my facial cleanser, and my body butter, both in plastic containers and both way too big. I packed in a fever haze and forgot about the 3oz limit. We didn't have time to redo everything, so just left them with security and told them they could do whatever they want with it... bye-bye $50 worth of Sephora products...! :cry

And I never, ever, ever fly if I can avoid it, simply because of all these stupid rules that make it a huge pain in the rear and in the end do absolutely nothing to make us safe. All they do is invade the privacy of my suitcase (there really was no need to take my underwear out of the suitcase to get to the lotion! :mad) and inconvenience me. Anything dangerous can still get through.

I miss flying in Europe. At least those airlines know how to do airport security efficiently and courteously. Sigh.

 

Hang on there... if I read that right, my existing neoprene laptop sleeve already meets those criteria. Nice of them to tell me that when I took it out of the bag... rolleyes

Thanks for the link!

 

My laptop came with instructions to go to the manufacturer's website within 30 days of purchase and register it, and if I did they would give me a year of additional "Clutz Warranty". If I drop it or spill on it and the laptop breaks as a result of my clumsiness, I file a claim and they replace it for me. The extra warranty is good only for one claim, but since it was free of charge, I of course took it.

That's the link motc posted too. I'm looking at it now and checking the neoprene sleeve to make sure it qualifies, and it looks like it does. I'm going to leave it in the sleeve for the flight home now, since the sleeve does have some padding.

 

Hey now.. not all of us abuse the power granted by a shiny bit of metal.

 

Maybe not all,but enough do.

 

At least in Belfast they can justify a bit of paranoia... unlike in a small non-international airport in the middle of nowhere in the US where they're doing the "security" just so they can say they're doing it. *glares contemptuously at hometown airport*

 

The next time you go through security, you tell them that old motc7 said that you can leave it on the neoprene and they can get to feck.

 

I actually did put it on the neoprene sleeve for the flight back, on its own on the sleeve in a tray, clearly visible as a laptop. The TSA agent by the scanner wasn't even looking at the screen the entier 20 minutes it took us to go through security, he was busy hitting on the much younger female TSA agent to his left.

It makes me feel good that our airport security is in such good and dedicated hands. rolleyes

 

All this reminds me when I was passing through a UK airport, going to Africa to work, in around 1992 or 1993 (well before 911) a gun toting Security guard came up to me and asked me "You're a big guy, do you mind if I frisk you?"

I was wearing a kind of half length trench coat, and had stepped off a long flight from OZ to the UK. I said "OK" and he did not find anything ( of course )

I guess he was thinking I was toting a gun under my coat. Maybe he thought I was bound for Ireland.

Bazza

 

Was in Barcelona a while back and the security and frisking was rudimentary at best.

Flew into Paris and had to take off the overcoat and sweater then the shoes and belt. The temp in the airport was all of 10c :-D All that passed through the X-ray then you walked through the metal detector and got a thorough frisking- felt like a feel up:-D

Was in Thailand last week and they were pretty cool. Surprising considering the unrest they had two months ago. Cigarette lighters passed through with flying colours :-D

India is pretty tough and my Cig lighter always get pulled out even from the cabin baggage after it gets nuked by the x-ray. They even check inside the cig pack- the swines!! Although never been asked to take of shoes. Try flying in or out of the Kashmir valley and every one is considered a potential terrorist.

Cheers..

 

Yes, it's nice to know that the next time you are on a plane and it gets hijacked, it might be because of some horny TSA agent....