Steve Jobs' Weapon of Mass Destruction

Fluff O' Meter - 1 out of 5
Winners - The blogosphere
Losers - The MacBook Air owner who missed his flight, TSA Agents, people who use airports


Yahoo! story link

On his blog, programmer Michael Nygard (by way of the Unofficial Apple Weblog) writes that during a recent trip through the airport, his solid-state MacBook Air stopped TSA agents—puzzled by its lack of rear-facing ports or a standard hard drive—in their tracks.

Nygard said the agents put him and his suspicious "device" in a holding cubicle as security staffers huddled nearby, looking at X-ray printouts of the sinister-looking Air and scratching their heads.

A younger TSA agent—who, apparently, was aware of Apple's newest laptop—tried explaining to the group that the Air uses solid-state memory in place of a traditional hard drive. The senior staffer, however, was still reluctant to let it go: "New products on the market? They haven't been TSA approved. Probably shouldn't be permitted," Nygard writes.

Finally, after booting up the Air and running a program, the agents let Nygard go, he said—but only after he'd missed his flight.

The Bigger Question: Am I supposed to be surprised that something like this occurred? Have you traveled through an airport lately? I had a 70 year old Filipino grandmother pat me down the last time I flew out of Oakland. I swear to God I noticed a faint smell of Depends wafting through air as I sat on the ground trying to maneuver my Stride Rite's back on. Don't ask me how I know what Depends smell like. That's my personal business...