151–160 of 266 posts
Interestingly (to me) the author used the phrase "on accident". I googled it and found this: http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/215/is-it-correct... As a British English speaker, this stopped me in my tracks. I'm wondering if it had the same effect on the American English readers of this article.
Having recently flown from the UK to Hong Kong and then on to Manila, I am suddenly struck by how much of an honesty policy we are expected to follow. The idea of tagging the laptop as in India is a step in the right direction, but at no point in my journey was my laptop tagged. It was placed in a bin with all my other valuable possessions (phone, wallet, camera) and it's only through practise that I manage to get th…
> Intentional or not, this is theft Theft requires intent, so if it wasn't intentional, it wasn't theft by definition (legal or otherwise).
http://apple.stackexchange.com/a/82707/145499
Done!
Having recently flown from the UK to Hong Kong and then on to Manila, I am suddenly struck by how much of an honesty policy we are expected to follow. The idea of tagging the laptop as in India is a step in the right direction, but at no point in my journey was my laptop tagged. It was placed in a bin with all my other valuable possessions (phone, wallet, camera) and it's only through practise that I manage to get th…
As a "tulip" (opt-out), the forced trust is even worse. You're not even allowed to ask for a pat-down before your things are on the conveyor. I've tried. Usually the timing works out OK, but sometimes it doesn't. My most infuriating TSA experience was at MIA. I told them I was opting out, and they instructed me to put my things on the conveyor. I did so, then proceeded to wait. And wait. And wait. After 10 minutes, d…
For the most part, TSA aren't actual security or law enforcement personnel, they are closer in training and function to low-wage service employees that you would find in the hospitality and retail industries. I'd imagine they meet with this type of hostility with a mix of amusement, annoyance, and general "oh man I can't wait for my shift to be over". As long as the hostility isn't directed at them personally - and sometimes probably if it is- it's just another aspect of the job.
The problem, of course, comes in when under-trained, undereducated TSA employees are expected to perform the actual functions of law enforcement. 99% of their security function is pulling bottles of water, toothpaste, and sunscreen from customers' bags, the other 1% is a crap shoot in terms of a competent reaction.
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Do you think people aren't trying to attack planes, or that the TSA has zero effectiveness in stopping those people?
The latter. The TSA screening process (a recent report had them pegged at 5% effectiveness[0]) is next to worthless and itself creates a security hazard/potential attack vector. The TSA screening process is also entirely reactionary -- shoe removal only became a thing after an attacker tried to hide explosives in their shoes. If the TSA was pro-active and had a reasonable degree of effectiveness, then I'd be more wil…
Systems are imperfect and we should always try to add nines but there's a "how can this happen to me?" bias to this stuff that is really, really uninteresting. These posts are no different than BuzzFeed -- pushing buttons, attaching yourself to a brand (in this case the TSA), desperate to get heard.
Like the Google couple who couldn't believe that their car dealership wanted a fingerprint when they tried to buy a $80,000 BMW with cash, not everything has to generate an emotion and attention-seeking essay. As in that case, once the smoke clears these posts usually do little but make the author look foolish.
I don't know about you but "couldn't manage to travel with a laptop" isn't something I want permanently attached to my name in Google results.
I can't understand why TSA won't follow such a simple scheme that greatly improves the incidents like OP's.
How this works in India. When you put your laptop in a bin, the security person puts one of two identical tags (pieces of plastic with identical numbers on them) into the bin, on top of your computer and gives you the other one. When you finish your patdown/metal detector etc screening and want to take your computer back, you give the security person at the other end of the line your tag, she looks around for the bin…
I can't attest to their effectiveness though (as a lack of attacks doesn't necessarily mean they're working)
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I use Arq - I can choose where I upload it and I can have multiple destinations.
Arq does not offer storage on the cheapest plan(I have no idea what you are paying for then), and even the $120/year plan only includes 250GB of storage. If I signed up with Crashplan I would upload literally all of my data to it - so 4TB of personal backups then.
E.g. I use Arq with my Office 365 subscription that costs me Euro 1.38 per month (four year academic discount) for 1TB.
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It's quite possible and likely that the two women were just opportunistic thieves, or at least the one who took the laptop was. Opportunitistic theft is not at all uncommon among our species.
If they can pull off an improvised act like that on such short notice, they are professional con artists. So why are they stealing laptops in an airport? They wouldn't: high risk, low reward. The way I see it, it was simply an error on the part of the TSA, as discussed countless times in other comments.
Or maybe she didn't realize for a while and by that point, a combination of laziness and desire to keep this shiny, luxury model computer that had accidentally ended up in her possession led her to just hold onto it.
I think the number of people who will decide to keep something they find (dropped wallet, misplaced laptop, etc) is much higher than the number who would actively go out of their way to steal something. The end result is the same but I think psychologically, it takes effort to go out and steal whereas it takes effort to track down an owner while keeping a found item just requires apathy and/or greed.