“To make a long story short, it turns out the Transportation Security Officers (TSOs) gave some special attention to his new MacBook [Air]. Mac fans would tell you the TSOs simply couldn’t resist getting a closer look at a fine piece of machinery. PC fans would tell you the TSOs are all PC fans and flagged the computer just to hassle the Mac guy. As a security fan, I can tell you that TSOs are trained to look for anomalies. Each TSO X-ray operator sees hundreds of laptops a day and some have been doing this for 6 years. They know what laptops are supposed to look like,” Bob blogs for The TSA Evolution Blog.
MacDailyNews Note: According to the blog, “Bob” started with the TSA in September 2002 and works at the Cincinnati-Northern Kentucky International Airport. He started as a Transportation Security Officer (TSO), and has since been promoted to a Supervisory TSO and a Behavior Detection Officer. The TSA Evolution Blog is sponsored by the Transportation Security Administration to facilitate an ongoing dialogue on innovations in security, technology and the checkpoint screening process.
Bob writes, “Here is my theory. Along comes the new MacBook Air. The thing is as thin as a potato chip, and looks completely different than any other laptop the TSOs have ever seen. They are seldom seen at TSA checkpoints due to their newness and the fact that they can be hard to find sometimes.”
“To help prove my theory, I’ve contacted Apple to see if I can process a MacBook Air through an X-ray and see how it looks. If it does indeed look odd, I’m going to take a picture and send it to TSA Training to help avoid future issues with MacBooks. The jury is out for now, but I’ll post an update as soon as I can get my hands on the MacBook Air,” Bob writes. “One thing is for sure though. This was just a case of diligent TSOs paying special attention to something that caught their eye. Exactly what they are trained to do.”
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “JMP” for the heads up.]
“Fill people with fear, and they will do anything.”
That’s why my plan to take over the world using nothing more than toothpaste, a lighter and nose clippers cannot fail.
It’s just another excuse for mandatory cavity searches.
Ampar – it’s a good thing I brush my teeth!
Peace.
Thank you all for reinforcing my determination never to set foot on an airplane again.
TSA = Totally Shitty Assholes
(with an attitude)
TSA would have us believe that their government sponsored terrorism is really patriotism.
Spreading fear and loathing far and wide, yeah, that’s the way to make the flying public feel safe. (I’m leaving my MacBook Air at home next time I travel to a Klingon Convention.)
The most annoying thing about the TSA is after you have removed your belt, shoes, jacket, laptop, watch, phone, etc., and are in the process of getting dressed again and putting your laptop back in your bag, they come tell you to hurry up and move. I have actually had a guy say “you can’t do that here, get moving” as I was putting my belt back on. That’s LAX for you.
Jim, shutup… thats not the issue….
try to stay on topic.
@tt
What is the topic? Why were TSAs invented?
I think you should find out what the topic is, before advising others to keep quiet. Idiot.
Guys like Jim, Random Traveler, and Ampar are just jacking their jaws. If you follow their logic, we shouldn’t have security on airplanes because it’s too inconvenient to let someone look at your toothpaste tube or nail clippers. History tells a different story. The box cutters used on 9/11 were no bigger than a toe nail clipper. Richard Reid tried to light his explosive laden shoe laces while in-flight, and British police recently stopped a traveler carrying gel-based explosives in carry-on luggage.
I really don’t mind if someone takes a close look at my MacBook, or smells my deodorant stick. Terrorists are smarter than we give them credit for. It wouldn’t be difficult to disguise a “device” as a laptop, or video camera, or even an iPhone for that matter. It doesn’t take much to do a lot of damage.
I understand the need for security. But it’s hard to take them seriously when a TSO is screaming at an eighty year old woman because her underwire keeps setting off the metal detector.
I prefer to be frisked.
I continue to oppose the TSA and most elements of the “Patriot” and banking acts. At this point, the TSA has been around so long, people accept it as normal and necessary. Instead, all this has kept up on the road to a government of which we must have increasing fear that we will be unjustly caught up in whatever violations of the original protections we had under the US Constitution. (Is this post being monitored?) Increasingly frightening.
@concerned
No.
Yes, the TSO agents are fantastic at what they do – spending your money to have 5+ agents (without college degrees being mandatory mind you) look at a laptop and try to figure out what it is.
Meanwhile, the screener randomly pulls out an 85 year old white lady who’s on her way to attend her husband’s funeral, as he wanted to be burried in Germany, where he fought in WWII…
Meanwhile, the guy who is sweating and very nervous of Persian decent with his 3 other buddies walk right though…
Morons.
Someone implement an Israeli security policy with qualified people working it!
@culbert
TSA didn’t exist pre-9/11.
It’s just another excuse for mandatory cavity searches…..
Ampar, I laughed when I read that because we were talking about the MB air. It occured to me that one didn’t need to hide it in a cavity but that it is soooo thin that you can hide it BETWEEN the cheeks of your ass.
TSA officers need to take a chill pill on the small stuff. My own experience in Canada was when I had a hammer in my carry on. The x-ray person and another security person looked at it and then calmly asked me why it was there? I calmly relied that I was an idiot and it was supposed to be in my checked luggase. They said no problem, they handed it to me and said if I rushed, I could get back to the counter and ask them to check it in a separate box. They held my carry on until I returned. Everyone smiled and we all had a chuckle.
THAT is how it should be done! Innocent until proven a terrorist…errrr guilty.
Cutbert.
TSA wasn’t created until AFTER 2001 so I don’t think it TSA that was freaking out over your medical device….
But what to do about Airport Security. Taking off shoes for fear of a bomb is a bit much…… We need to figure out a better way to board a plane…
For those of you that are critical of the TSA as civil servants. I don’t think contract workers hired by the airlines or airports would be any more competent. The nature of the job whether done by private or public sector employees is just that it is a really weird job: going through folks personal stuff day after day hour after hour…. How tedious.
@Cubert
I just reviewed the video from that day. The powder that we dusted you down with turned out to be Anthrax. We had confiscated it from the small dark skinned woman who was in line ahead of you. We weren’t sure what it was at the time. Sorry about that.
BTW. We use dogs, puffers, and swipes to detect explosives.
@Allex and grognard,
Well who in the hell was grabbing my family jewels for all those years as I went through the security line?!?! Wait a second, now that I think about it, that guy did have both of his hands on my shoulders as he was doing the body cavity search!
Whatever they were called back then, they sure didn’t like my otoscope being in my carry on bag.
Sorry. Meant grognardt.
Sounds like a great way to get a free Air haha
<< diligent TSOs >>
Our newest oxymoron.
I’m not sure how a MBA would look any different in a 2-dimensional x-ray than any other laptop. I mean, it has virtually the same footprint as other laptops.
In 2-d everything is flattened. The circuit board, the screen, the battery, the drive are all flattened. The only possible difference is the SSD, if you have one, and not everyone has one, and the stories we’ve heard so far, are not just SSD MBAs being stopped, but the first MBAs being stopped. And, it’s not like TSA hasn’t seen a SSD before, is it?
I mean are they stopping people with Asus eeePCs?
“I mean are they stopping people with Asus eeePCs?”
Don’t be silly. Those people can’t afford to fly.
@Cubert:
“Hey, I may be from Cincinnati …In my travels, the Cincy TSA is the toughest in terms of scrutiny.”
They used to be flamng posterior orifices at VPS … probably ticked off at all of the arrogant USAF Fighter Jocks that pass through there, but I have seen them working over an 80+ year old WW-II vet.
I don’t know what happened that they finally got Religion and became more civilized, but it was shortly after I got hassled there for which I came within an inch of reporting them to the TSA.
My hassle came after I specifically asked if I had to remove my shoes .. .they said No, but then immediately pulled me aside for the full treatment because I was supposedly a ‘higher risk’ for not taking off my shoes – – – and they could tell that I wasn’t happy about being so deceived.
They became quite frisky when their wand detected a metal object in my shirt’s breast pocket… “AH HA!” they thought.
The offending item was the silver 20 year service pin on my Federal ID.
It was as if the School Yard Bully who had picked up a little nerd off the ground by his belt…had just realized that that the little nerd’s belt was a Black Belt in Karate.
-hh
Golly Gosh Everyone,since we’re all so busy trashing the TSA for being so dumb and ASUS owners for being’poor’lets not forget the delusions of granduer MAC fanboys (ooh look at me,I overpay for slick marketing,what a snobby little tool I am)who spout their elitist self important bullshit at every opportunity!Oh well,they never get laid,let em have SOME fun…Oh excuse me,you buncha mean kids in the sixth grade,I thought this was dumbpoorPCusers.com…a thousand pardons