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Most Electronics Being Banned on Certain US-Bound Flights

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Re: Most Electronics Being Banned on Certain US-Bound Flights

#311

Post by Const-me »

linkregister wrote: post #228
Const-me wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They might think airport security personnel at Amsterdam or Paris do their job better than their colleagues from those 8 Middle Eastern and North African countries. And/or they might think Netherlands and France is just as attractive for the terrorists as the US, i.e. the terrorists won’t bother taking that second flight. BTW, I think Russia should be the 9-th country on that list, as they have long history of sponso…

I'm ignorant of Russia's historical role in sponsoring terrorism; I'm only getting recent Ukraine / Syria links. Can you share some resources to learn more about it?

They are doing that at least since foundation of USSR.

Russians ordered bombings in Warsaw, Poland in 1920-s. Shipped weaponry to Irish Republican Army and Palestine in 70-s. Speaking about Palestine, some say Russians have invented plane hijacking as a terrorist tactic: http://web.archive.org/web/20130102051626/http://www.nationa...

Killed many political opponents abroad, Alexander Litvinenko in UK, Sulim Yamadaev in UAE, Stepan Bandera in Germany.

If you want more, read books and articles by Stanislav Lunev, Ion Mihai Pacepa, Viktor Suvorov. Those are high-ranking KGB officers who surrendered and were cooperative. Alexander Litvinenko also published stuff about state-sponsored terrorism in modern Russia, but he concentrated on domestic not international.

Re: Most Electronics Being Banned on Certain US-Bound Flights

#312

Post by saiya-jin »

GuiA wrote: post #207
KirinDave wrote: post #199

I see many people here trying to puzzle out why electronics are under a partial ban from cabins but not from checked baggage . It's a good question, since if there is a fire or explosion hazard on a plane the last place you want it is wrapped in a wad of flammable cloth and synthetics, even if it is oxygen starved. The only motivation I can imagine is: They want these devices in checked luggage because checked luggag…

This. And also people not having devices on their person means they can't quickly text friends/family if they get detained/mistreated/etc. It seems like we're getting closer and closer to being in a situation where people who can should avoid going to the US at all, and make their reasoning known. Ie, refuse to give talks, attend conferences, etc. in the US.

no conferences, never ever will feel the need to work in US since there are simply better places with true freedom out there (nordic countries, switzerland and so on) but we will vote with our wallets - unless political climate changes drastically, no vacation in US.

couple of thousands of bucks spent in local US economy over couple of weeks is a drop in the ocean, but hey, ocean is made of drops anyway.

Re: Most Electronics Being Banned on Certain US-Bound Flights

#313

Post by necessity »

int_19h wrote: post #294
andygambles wrote: post #268

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wipe devices before packing. Arrive in country then restore backup remotely.

Having a device that looks wiped is grounds for suspicion in and of itself these days. In some cases, enough to turn someone away (remember, they can always do that to non-citizens, and you have very little recourse if they do).

Care to cite an example where this actually happened? I've brought wiped devices countless times.

Re: Most Electronics Being Banned on Certain US-Bound Flights

#314

Post by lb1lf »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #303
lb1lf wrote: post #264

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure it does. To the cellphone networks. (Unless the aircraft carries its own picocell). The big problem with cellphones on planes is that they overwhelm the signalling networks on the ground - when the carrier tries to determine which cell is best suited to handle your call, it basically polls the neighbouring cells for the received signal strength from that particular phone. When you're on a plane, your phone is se…

I wonder, don't cellphone networks have ways to handle it? E.g. if they detect a phone that behaves as if travelling 13km up at 900km/h, couldn't they just tag it as "in flight" and ignore it for the next few minutes?

I don't know, to be honest - I do suspect the problem is much smaller now that 3/4G is a thing, though - higher data rates means smaller cells means more directional antennas, and presumably carriers will not waste energy beaming skyward - so maybe airborne phones don't see as many cells as they used to (if any).

It would be non-trivial to determine the phone's altitude, but you could make a pretty good inference from the number and location of cells reporting that they 'see' it - and the velocity should be a no-brainer to figure out with a reasonable degree of accuracy. Hm.

Just a semi-educated guess. (I haven't looked at cellular systems since I was in university 15-20 years ago.)

Methinks you are probably right.

Re: Most Electronics Being Banned on Certain US-Bound Flights

#315

Post by jsmthrowaway »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #304
jsmthrowaway wrote: post #292

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If bin Laden's victory condition was "many overly-reductive Americans bemoaning negative events in their nation's existence by parroting that the sky is irreversibly falling, throwing in the entire towel, forgetting or never bothering to study several existential threats to the United States in its brief history, and shrugging that our doom is all due to a Big Bad who managed to take down the world's occasionally mos…

Let's put it this way: 9/11 achieved exactly what was intended - it sent the US into a tailspin, and it's dragging the rest of the first world down with it. The current condition of US politics wrt. terrorism is best described as acute case of autoimmune disease. The damage of overreaction being much, much worse than the original attack. That doesn't mean Bin Laden won - history is not a game, the round didn't end ye…

Reframing the point from "sky is falling" to "tailspin" doesn't make the point correct. There is absolutely no indicator that the United States of America is in a tailspin and numerous indicators to the contrary. Just like there are people who believe our world supremacy to be unchallenged, others believe the challenging of our world supremacy is fatal and destroying the world. It isn't. Stop saying it is, or it'll start being true.

I am aware some feel that erosion of civil liberties in response to terrorism has destroyed what they feel to be America. We are still having a conversation about those very flaws and I'm not blindfolded before a firing squad for having an unacceptable opinion, so I think the rumors of America's death are greatly exaggerated by those who benefit the most from her continued protections. Before terrorism, it was communism^. We grow out of things because eventually sanity wins out. It always does.

Do not take that to mean it's time to kick back. Quite the opposite: sanity wins because people choose to be sane en masse.

^ The trend line on irrational national fears is interesting. After terrorism should be nice.

Re: Most Electronics Being Banned on Certain US-Bound Flights

#316

Post by necessity »

rangibaby wrote: post #206
Cyph0n wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure if you're joking or not... Regardless, the ban does not affect cell phones.

Joking for sure. When I flew domestic in China people were using their phones the whole time.

That's funny because in China it's forbidden to use it even on airplane mode.

Re: Most Electronics Being Banned on Certain US-Bound Flights

#317

Post by BrailleHunting »

virtuabhi wrote: post #212
hanspragt wrote: post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cell phones are excluded from the ban, according to the article.

For now. According to the article.

Trump will flip-flop on this mercurially 7x before breakfast while watching the "PDB" on TV (aka Fox and Friends).

Re: Most Electronics Being Banned on Certain US-Bound Flights

#318

Post by SmellyGeekBoy »

lucaspiller wrote: post #185
ergothus wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My personal pet peeve is when people say things like "we live in a dangerous world now". No, we don't. At least, not more dangerous than before (which is the implication). We might be breathlessly focused on some dangers, but those dangers are LESS than before, not more. I don't want anyone to suffer, and definitely don't want anyone to die. I'm not calling for turning our backs on every idea to improve safety. Just…

If you look at terrorism in the UK and Ireland, Islamic extremists are quite safe compared to the IRA. There were estimated to be over 10,000 terrorist bomb attacks due to the Northern Ireland conflicts.

And yet nobody seriously suggested deporting / monitoring all Irish people as a solution...

Re: Most Electronics Being Banned on Certain US-Bound Flights

#320

Post by uptown »

ctphipps wrote: post #116
BWStearns wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Almost no one outside the tech or business communities will really care about this (beyond individuals annoyed with not having iTunes on a 14 hour flight). I don't think it's attention fodder (nor do I think it's a valid means of protecting flights). Not sure what this is.

Or people traveling with kids (for whom iPads on board are a saving grace on long haul flights).

Saving grace for those traveling adjacent to those traveling with kids too.
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