Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!apple!motcsd!hpda!hpcupt1!jacka
From: jacka@hpcupt1.HP.COM (Jack C. Armstrong)
Newsgroups: comp.misc
Subject: Re: Laptops and Airports
Message-ID: <6540010@hpcupt1.HP.COM>
Date: 17 May 89 23:34:14 GMT
References: <39382@bbn.COM>
Organization: Hewlett Packard, Cupertino
Lines: 15

I have no experience with lap-tops, but on trips where I carry magnetic media,
I have always transported them *to* their destination very carefully, i.e.,
inside checked luggage, (sometimes in a lead film bag if I'm more paranoid
than usual), or simply handed around (wayyyyy around....) the metal detector.

On the trip home, the disks or tapes of things I have copies of I simply put
through the x-ray or whatever they want.  Upon checking them on my
return, I have twice seen drop-out, in one case a totally scrambled diskette.
This was no scientific experiment, but I find it curious that both failures
occurred after passing through Heathrow, several years back, when they had
X-ray machines that definitely *would* expose film, and were posted with
warnings.  (I always wondered what happened to the operators who stood in
front of those things all day).  Given that a magnetized paper clip once
clobbered one of my diskettes, I'll believe some of those devices can do as
well.