6 Aug
2004
6 Aug
'04
7:34 p.m.
At 01:00 AM 8/7/04 +0100, you wrote:
On Aug 6, 8:32, Joe R. wrote:
I bought one of the first laptops on the market and took it with me to
Canada when I was working there in 1984. On the way back to the US security
stoped me and wanted to inspect everything. They wanted me to boot up the
laptop to prove that it was a computer and not just an empty case with
god-knows what inside. I got it out of the case and opened the screen and
turned it on. After it went througgh POST it tried to boot but there wasn't
a disk in the floppy drive so instead it said "Invalid Operating System,
Press any key to continue" or something to that effect. I thought "Oh Shit!
I'm going to have to fight with thse guys now!" but one of the security
officers saw it and simply said "Yeap, that's a computer!"
I went to a HP Calculator conference in
England about 6 or 7 years
ago
(pre-9/11) and I carried a LOT of calculators,
parts, accessories and
tools
with me. I was very concerned about going through
security and
customs but
had almost no trouble.
I've not had any trouble recently, but here are three instances from
the past. I used to fly regularly from Edinburgh to Belfast in
Northern Ireland, or to London.
On one occasion I was taking a pre-production Acorn Archimedes to demo
in Belfast, but since I was flying I didn't take the monitor. Needless
to say, that was the time security (actually, Special Branch) asked if
they could see it working to prove it was a computer (didn't look quite
like a PC), and eventually I had to dismantle it to persuade them.
Once (late 1980s) I was travelling to Belfast with just a briefcase and
small shoulder bag; in the shoulder bag was my toilet bag, spare shirt,
socks, etc. In the toilet bag was the usual toothbrush, etc and a
teaspoon and a small scalpel. The young lady operating the security
scanner took about a 5 millisecond glance at the blurry image and said
would I "mind leaving the scalpel behind, please." We compromised --
she kept the (detachable) blade.
My wife travels A LOT for her job. She and I are both blind as bats
without our glasses so one of the things that she carries in her purse is
one of the small eye glass repair kits with a few assorted glasses screws
and a TINY screw driver. You know the kind, the blade is about 1/8" long
and 1/64" wide. Last summer when she went through airport security they
searched her purse and siezed her screw driver since it was a "deadly weapon"!
Joe
Last one: travelling from London back to Edinburgh I arrived with just
a few moments to spare, only to be stopped by security who spotted my
small toolcase in my bag. All the tools were OK, though they insisted
on pulling most of them out, but they took everything out of the small
side pocket until they found a small ziplock bag containing the rather
grubby damp sponge for my soldering iron. "Would you mind telling me
what this substance is, sir?"
--
Pete Peter Turnbull
Network Manager
University of York