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Laptops to Stay in Bags as TSA Brings New Technology to Airports

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Re: Laptops to Stay in Bags as TSA Brings New Technology to Airports

#111

Post by selectodude »

Fwirt wrote: post #31
narrator wrote: post #20

Just get TSA pre-check. It's so freaking easy and it makes airport security checkpoints not a big deal at all.

Unless there's low volume that day so they don't open the pre-check line. Or the airport is too "small" to have a pre-check line. When it works, it's great, but it seems to be luck of the draw whether they'll actually honor pre-check status.

I’m not the most frequent flier in the world, but I have never flown to a US airport without a precheck line. At worst, they’ve handed me a placard for the people manning the scanners saying I can leave my laptop in my bag and my shoes on through the standard metal detector.

Re: Laptops to Stay in Bags as TSA Brings New Technology to Airports

#112

Post by pishpash »

chrischen wrote: post #83
cocoa19 wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Buy TSA friendly backpack. Problem solved. Bought mine at BestBuy. Samsonite 5580680. The zipper goes all the way down so the bag is split in 2, a pouch holding your laptop and the other half holds the rest of your stuff. This lets TSA X-Ray equipment inspect your laptop only without cables, cellphone, and gadgets on the way.

Yea i Bought a backpack advertised as TSA friendly that can open completely. While in theory it works, the TSA agent still yells at you to take everything out.

TSA agents don't want to understand how their screening science is supposed to work (or not work). They just follow scripts.

Re: Laptops to Stay in Bags as TSA Brings New Technology to Airports

#113

Post by xvf22 »

dragonwriter wrote: post #87
btbuildem wrote: post #55

It's fascinating how the security theatre has gotten so big that now it basically just rolls forward under its own momentum. It's been around long enough that people accept it as normal, it serves no other purpose than to employ the unemployable and fill contractors' coffers, and it seems that no entity is able to stop or dismantle it.

> It's been around long enough that people accept it as normal, it serves no other purpose than to employ the unemployable and fill contractors' coffers It serves the purpose of removing liability for security from airlines, which is the major reason why it was created. It also serves the purpose of getting people used to progressively more intrusive government inspection during routine situations. > and it seems tha…

And yet if someone pockets a grenade in their rectum, the system fails.

Re: Laptops to Stay in Bags as TSA Brings New Technology to Airports

#114

Post by pm90 »

robertAngst wrote: post #89
btbuildem wrote: post #55

It's fascinating how the security theatre has gotten so big that now it basically just rolls forward under its own momentum. It's been around long enough that people accept it as normal, it serves no other purpose than to employ the unemployable and fill contractors' coffers, and it seems that no entity is able to stop or dismantle it.

The moment we experience government, we see the inefficiencies, yet some people want to see government get larger. I just cannot understand the logic.

It’s quite unfair to characterize the entirety of a huge organization based simply on certain functions at which it’s ineffective. Probably the most important thing it does is to keep the world from descending into a flaming fireball of constant wars between countries.

There are literally thousands of other things at which it exce.

Re: Laptops to Stay in Bags as TSA Brings New Technology to Airports

#115

Post by throwawayjava »

School-Cotton wrote: post #91
warent wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's always so strange to me that people seem to consistently have bad experiences with TSA. I've travelled more than the average person and have never had a bad experience with TSA. Maybe because I'm a young white male? Once I even accidentally packed a small toolkit in my carry-on rather than my checked luggage and they let me keep it!

How do you react to petty authority figures in general? How much did it bother you when, for example, elementary school playground monitors enforced arbitrary rules capriciously? It bothered me a lot , to the extent that I still have vivid memories of it, and I also hate the TSA with every fiber of my being. So I think it might just be a personality thing.

I've been thinking about this lately because I also hate the TSA way more than is even remotely rational.

Even for frequent fliers, the TSA is pretty far down on any rational list of complaints about government. I fly almost every week, but in the past 12 months I have probably spent a lot more time at city hall on a stupid residential parking permit than I did in (non-customs) airport security lines.

In addition to personality, a lot of people project much larger political ideologies onto the TSA. You see a lot of that even in this comment section.

Re: Laptops to Stay in Bags as TSA Brings New Technology to Airports

#116

Post by Moto7451 »

AlexCoventry wrote: post #105
monocasa wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've literally brought a pickaxe by accident. But one time I was trying to bring a fish, and had a next to impossible time trying to get them to agree that water was a "life sustaining liquid" as defined by their exemptions on the 3oz rule wrt to fish.

What exactly are they trying to prevent with the liquid prohibition, anyway?

https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/liquids...

A pretty good summary and a bonus foreshadowing of this article.

I have had a pretty good experience with the new scanners. I have global entry/Precheck and one remaining headache with the old scanners was remembering to take my double walked flask out and show the TSA that it was empty by removing the cap. The new scanners can see that it’s empty from inside my bag, which is very handy.

Re: Laptops to Stay in Bags as TSA Brings New Technology to Airports

#117

Post by School-Cotton »

throwawayjava wrote: post #115
School-Cotton wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do you react to petty authority figures in general? How much did it bother you when, for example, elementary school playground monitors enforced arbitrary rules capriciously? It bothered me a lot , to the extent that I still have vivid memories of it, and I also hate the TSA with every fiber of my being. So I think it might just be a personality thing.

I've been thinking about this lately because I also hate the TSA way more than is even remotely rational. Even for frequent fliers, the TSA is pretty far down on any rational list of complaints about government. I fly almost every week, but in the past 12 months I have probably spent a lot more time at city hall on a stupid residential parking permit than I did in (non-customs) airport security lines. In addition to…

Right, I'll be the first to admit that it isn't totally rational. I get much more upset about the TSA, since I see their petty authoritarianism face to face, than I do about things that affect me much more but only indirectly.

Re: Laptops to Stay in Bags as TSA Brings New Technology to Airports

#118

Post by Moto7451 »

cocoa19 wrote: post #73
simonsarris wrote: post #19

About a year ago I was at an airport (Boston? New Jersey?) outbound that had a sign or TV monitor saying "Great news, you no longer need to take your laptop out of your bag!" I read this sign as a TSA worker shouted every 30 seconds to the shuffling line about how everyone needed to take out all laptops, "ipads", cameras, etc. I wonder if it was a pilot program. Or more likely, just part of the constantly shifting fa…

Buy TSA friendly backpack. Problem solved. Bought mine at BestBuy. Samsonite 5580680. The zipper goes all the way down so the bag is split in 2, a pouch holding your laptop and the other half holds the rest of your stuff. This lets TSA X-Ray equipment inspect your laptop only without cables, cellphone, and gadgets on the way.

Unfortunately I’ve found that the new tray systems they’re installing make the backpack versions of this obsolete since they won’t open all the way inside the bin.

Re: Laptops to Stay in Bags as TSA Brings New Technology to Airports

#120

Post by adictator »

btbuildem wrote: post #55

It's fascinating how the security theatre has gotten so big that now it basically just rolls forward under its own momentum. It's been around long enough that people accept it as normal, it serves no other purpose than to employ the unemployable and fill contractors' coffers, and it seems that no entity is able to stop or dismantle it.

Nobody, I repeat NOBODY ever gets fired for adding more security, no matter how asinine or counterproductive it is. That is the unfortunate fact & it is not limited to Airport security.
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