wow! I'm surprised!
In my, now infamous, trip to and from Hawaii (didn't
even cross any countries...all within the United
States), I was accosted by paranoid, narrow-minded
ego-centric, bumbling idiots at every airport!
Dulles was the easiest. They just asked to turn it on.
In Dallas, they asked me if my spare rechargeable pack
was a bomb and placed me behind some armed guards
while they wiped the pack and my newton with one of
those cloths and tested for bomb residue. After
carrying my shoes in my hand and sitting down, I
turned my Newt on to make sure that everything was
still functional. A flight attendant harped on me to
shut down all electronic equipment (we were still
boarding...not even moving). In San Francisco, my Newt
beeped to remind me of my next flight (it was a 7 hour
layover). Unfortunatly it did so in line of the
checkin. The alarm perked the ears of a guard dog and
my bag and me were pulled from the line. After
assuring the people that this weird device which no
one has ever seen in their lives (doesn't help much
that no one there spoke anything but broken english)
was in no way a threat to our nation's security, I was
allowed on the plane...again, with my shoes in my
hand. In Honolulu, they just wanted me to turn the
Newt on...In Kaui, my Newton failed and I made every
attempt to revive it to assure the guards that this
was not an explosive device. After spending over 10
minutes in the x-ray machine, they agreed and I spent
the next 20 minutes filling out a damage report...
And that was just on the way TO Hawaii! it was even
worse coming home!
Ed
web/gadget guru
--- Prabhakar Ragde <plragde_at_plg2.math.uwaterloo.ca>
wrote:
>
> Cliff wrote:
>
> >Just a note to weigh in. I travel about 50K a year
> around the world with
> >my Newt (including a fair amount since Sept. 11),
> and I've never had to
> >take my machine out of its leather notebook
> case--or out of my duffel bag,
> >for that matter. If they ask if anyone in line is
> carrying a laptop, I
> >keep my mouth shut. I used to explain that I had a
> PDA, but stopped when I
> >saw that they weren't really that interested in
> anything but laptops
> >(which I *have* had to demo for the security
> folks). Now I just leave the
> >MP in my bag, and nobody ever looks twice as it
> passes thru the x-ray.
>
> I do this, but on occasion I've had to take the
> Newton out and turn it
> on. They can see it in the x-ray image. Last
> Christmas I left it at
> home while travelling, because I was having battery
> problems, and I
> wasn't convinced it was going to turn on when asked.
> --PR
>
> --
> Read the List FAQ/Etiquette:
> http://www.newtontalk.net/faq.html
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> http://www.newtontalk.net
>
=====
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