Laptop bags get security rethink
PUNTERS FED UP with having to take their laptops out of their bags for airport security checks might be relieved to know that change might be in the air.
The US Transportation Security Administration will now allow travellers to leave their computers inside bags that are registered as "checkpoint friendly".
The new rules, which will take effect on August 16, are intended to help streamline the X-ray inspection lines.
Apparently the TSA contacted bag manufacturers this year to design laptop cases that would provide a clear, unobstructed image of the computer as it passed through an X-ray.
Not surprisingly they listened and new bags will be in the shops this month.
To be 'checkpoint friendly', a bag must have a laptop-only section that unfolds to lie flat on the X-ray machine belt and contains no metal.
TSA-approved laptop bags are Mobile Edge, Skooba Design and Targus.
However no one has ever demonstrated how a laptop can be used to blow up a plane, or why a crystal clear image of one is vital to telling if one is faked and stuffed with Semtex. Like the airport fluids law, strange security rules which force punters to buy from a list of government approved retailers. µ
L'Inq
Sydney
Morning Herald
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I believe the INQ were the very ones who demonsrated how a laptop could blow up a plane, the Dell battery exploding fiasco should have been enough, no?

How to make a laptop bomb:
1) Find a second hand laptop with faulty battery
2) Take laptop on plane
3) Turn it on and enjoy the firework
one of australian airways was forced to an emergency landing in thailand last week.

the cause, a big hole in the left side of the body, where the baggages were supposed to store.

it is still under investigation what cause the hole.

maybe, a bad laptop goes wild.....
"1) Find a second hand laptop with faulty battery"

No... Take *any* device with a large Li-ion battery in a fully charged state. Short out the battery. More batteries, more fun.

All these "security rules" are mostly there to feed paranoia and line the pockets of the (in)security industry. They only have hope to stop amateurish efforts but they inconvenience millions of people. Meanwhile, governments love this stuff because it allows them to introduce dodgy laws, new, far reaching controls and invade your privacy. All of this just to protect you, of course.

I have to mess with and forgo my favourite liquids, dig out my laptop and cables, use plastic cutlery, take off my shoes etc., and pay extra $$ for having all this. Does this make me feel any safer? No. Only annoyed. 

The futility of all this is also shown how inconsistent the rules are in different countries. E.g. last time I travelled, the same airline offered full metal cutlery, metal cutlery with plastic knife or all plastic, depending on the travel destination. WTF?
I doubt just a normal Li-ion battery exploding would bring down a plane, Its just on onboard fire really, and Im sure it would be contaned with only burns to some passengers.

Well I don know how easy it is to get hold of Plastic explosives, but I would imagie that on an Xray image the battery which is just a lump of stuff wouldnt look to much different if it was 1 or 2 kilograms of C4 or something. and ofcourse the other electronics would be easy to spoof into a detonator.