MacBook Air confuses airport security
updated 12:00 pm EDT, Mon March 10, 2008
MacBook Air confusing
The MacBook Air's thin design is causing some confusion for the technically ignorant, according to one blogger who says that the ultra-portable caused him to miss his flight. When going through the TSA airport security checkpoint, blogger Michael Nygard was held up as security staff gathered around his MacBook Air, trying to make sense of the slender laptop. One of the less technically knowledgeable staff points out the lack of standard features as cause for alarm.
"I'm standing, watching my laptop on the table, listening to security clucking just behind me," Nygard recalls of the situation. "'There's no drive," one says. 'And no ports on the back. It has a couple of lines where the drive should be,' she continues."
Nygard was made to wait until a younger agent came over to the gathering to inform his comrades of their error, that it is indeed a laptop and not a "device". After making three attempts to describe the concept of a flash-based hard drive, security lets Nygard through the checkpoint, only to go back to the service center to rebook, as his flight had since left.






Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Apr 2001
Bad sign
If these trained apes can't recognize a laptop because of such basic ignorance, how are they supposed to recognize a bomb? We aren't made safer by these "security precautions", we are just inconvenienced into thinking someone is trying to make is safe.