08-11-2006, 05:00 AM
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Executive Editor
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 29,160
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Pocket Goddess: Is Mobile Tech Grounded?
"Today�s events have turned the modern world of aviation on its head�news of a foiled terrorist plot involving British airliners headed to the US has led to chaos as trans-Atlantic flights are delayed or cancelled, security measures are tightened, and experts argue about what could happen next. I�m sobered by these reports, but I know that life can and will go on. I may be a bit more cautious when I fly, and know that I need to allow plenty of time to pass through security checkpoints�gone are the days of rushing to the airport at the last minute�but I�ll still travel just as I have before. Or will I? According to many reports, carry-on luggage has been virtually banned on flights originating in the UK, with passengers being allowed to take nothing more than their passport and cash. Evidently the suspected plot revolved around constructing some sort of explosive device in the air from separate components brought on a plane, and some experts speculate that an electronic device such as a radio or even the key fob from a set of car keys could have been used to set it off."
This is certainly sobering news for any tech-type who travels with gadgets (I imagine that would be pretty much everyone reading this site). Safety is important of course, but the thought of a long flight without music, movies, offline email, or my laptop for that matter...is a frightening thought. I enjoy a good book, and often read on flights, but I'm also the type of person that can't read while others are talking. I need to block out the world around me with music in order to not be distracted, and thinking about listening to a crying baby or loud talker for six hours is enough to make me not want to fly. ;-) The issue of carry-on luggage is also very concerning to me: I'm going to Hawaii with my wife for our 5th wedding anniversary, and I don't trust my expensive Nikon D200 to be handled by anyone but myself. Put it in my luggage? No way! Yet it seems I may have no choice. A laptop would be even more fragile, certainly not something you'd want to pack in a suitcase, yet I can't imagine going on a vacation and not having my laptop available to dump photos onto. Is there any chance most of these regulations will "blow over" in the next couple of months? :worried:
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08-11-2006, 05:45 AM
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Intellectual
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 194
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I am quite sure that this will be like this for a couple of days only, until they are sure they have caught the whole group.
After that maybe they will extend the list of forbidden items to include some other "fuels" that can be used for this purpose, but I am sure that most of what we take today will be allowed again.
Unfortunately there are still people in this world that think that going into a passenger's plane and exploding 200 innocent people is thing that will help them achieve their objectives..... what a culture.
Well, the only thing for consolation is that even in the muslim world some decent voices are beginning to be heard.... like the voice of this woman, Wafa, that had the courage to say what she said to Arab TV networks and be watched by millions in the Arab world.... the recording at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2WLoasfOLpQ
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08-11-2006, 07:40 AM
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Pupil
Join Date: Dec 2006
Posts: 37
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I like PocketPCThoughts a lot, and you do a great job on this and other sites. But - I think this post is in exceptionally poor taste, shows very poor judgement.
I think there are certain times when even if you're fascinated with mobile tech (or whatever other subject), you may want to put that fascination in context. It just sounds rank to hear your concerns about your expensive camera and your delicate laptop on a day when most of us are just thinking about how narrowly avoided a 9/11 scale atrocity was. How unsafe we probably all are every time we fly now. And just how depressing it is that those are the headlines we are seeing again.
Yeah, on days like these, I cannot work up any concern whatsoever for your expensive mobile devices, or think of any reason why you'd want to share those concerns right now ...
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08-11-2006, 07:57 AM
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Pontificator
Join Date: Apr 2004
Posts: 1,108
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Another silly overreaction from the league leader. We'll find out in a couple of days that this was, like every other report of its nature, grossly overexaggerated for PR reasons, and they actually arrested a half-dozen mentally ill incompetants with delusions of grandeur and no actual plans.
Just the nature of the supposed plot is ridiculously infeasible. Did anyone think to mention to the people who are so grossly overreacting to this supposed story that binary/explosive chemicals tend to be rather conspicuous in their own right? This isn't like mixing water and sugar to make a bomb--one of the classic examples of incompatible materials are gasolene and chlorene. On the news they're talking about peroxide-based explosives like TATP, but they fail to mention that while TATP can be made by combining the right liquids, it then has to FERMENT, which is a bit lengthy even for a trans-atlantic flight.
I suspect that the new restrictions will go away in a few days once all the PR potential has been milked from it. Preventing people from taking their water bottles and laptops onto planes is not going to be popular.
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08-11-2006, 09:57 AM
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Thoughts Media Review Team
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 599
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by ADBrown
Just the nature of the supposed plot is ridiculously infeasible.
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Is it? The TV stations don't seem to have any trouble finding independent security consultants who are on-board with it. There hasn't been anyone that I've seen on the BBC that has tried to diss this story.
Edit: I've found a Q&A on the BBC News web site with answers from a Dr at the University of Aberdeen - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4780391.stm
In addition, prior to this alert, anyone travelling to Washington by plane was subject to a very detailed baggage inspection and had to drink from any water bottles. Further to that, if you visit the Holocaust Memorial in Washington, they also make you drink from water bottles, and you aren't allowed to take any other drinks in.
--Philip
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08-11-2006, 10:02 AM
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Thoughts Media Review Team
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 599
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by patrickj
I like PocketPCThoughts a lot, and you do a great job on this and other sites. But - I think this post is in exceptionally poor taste, shows very poor judgement.
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I think that is a bit harsh. If you were to go over to the BBC's news web site, they have a "Have Your Say" section and there are plenty of people sharing their views in much the same way as Jason.
Quote:
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Originally Posted by patrickj
Yeah, on days like these, I cannot work up any concern whatsoever for your expensive mobile devices, or think of any reason why you'd want to share those concerns right now ...
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Because, as human beings, we have the luxury of being able to have intelligent discussion about matters such as this. It is headline news and it affects everyone who travels by plane.
Some people won't be inconvenienced too much by these restrictions.
Others, like Jason, have invested a lot of money into their personal belongings, or carry expensive business equipment with them. They have every right to be concerned about what might happen to that equipment if it is checked in. According to the BBC this morning, up to 1 in 100 bags goes missing. That is a very high figure considering the millions of people who travel.
Even further up the scale, you've got people who are concerned about their diabetic medicine and how it would be destroyed by the extremes of the hold conditions.
If the world we live in becomes a place where we cannot have this discussions, then that is a depressing thought and I would not want our world to sink to that level.
--Philip
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08-11-2006, 10:21 AM
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Thinker
Join Date: Sep 2004
Posts: 454
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The simple fact is that life goes on. We can't stop and do nothing but ponder over and over again how bad this event might have been. There's no purpose, dignity, or rationale to that.
Yes, perhaps material possessions aren't important relative to the notion of losing one's life, but I see my flatmate Bob, who was supposed to fly to Orkney this morning expressly for the purpose of taking photographs there, not travelling today because he could get no assurances from the airline that his expensive camera and laptop would be handled with any care.
So Bob's daily life, and his art, are disrupted by these events, and I think that's a worthy concern, equal to the gravity of an imaginary horror.
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08-11-2006, 11:46 AM
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Theorist
Join Date: Sep 2003
Posts: 307
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My guess is that the security services will use the current panic as an excuse to introduce measures which people will get used to over time, and which nobody will ever "get around" to rescinding.
But then I'm a cynic.
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08-11-2006, 12:21 PM
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Pupil
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 27
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flatmate
What's a "flatmate"? New kind of Pocket PC? :mrgreen:
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08-11-2006, 12:56 PM
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Theorist
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 276
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by Kevin Daly
My guess is that the security services will use the current panic as an excuse to introduce measures which people will get used to over time, and which nobody will ever "get around" to rescinding.
But then I'm a cynic.
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I'm even more cynical; I see a day you show up at the air port and go to a room and take off your clothes and put on a disposable jump suit. You put your clothes into your check in bags then go through security and be seated on your plane.
You put your clothes back on after you land and claim your baggage.
One further step would be to sedate everyone while they were on the plane. I hope things do loosen up a bit but I would not count on it, it'll get worse before it gets better...
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