Xref: utzoo comp.sys.laptops:212 comp.sys.handhelds:377 sci.physics:11340 rec.travel:10308
Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uunet!snorkelwacker!ai-lab!tmb
From: tmb@wheaties.ai.mit.edu (Thomas M. Breuel)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.laptops,comp.sys.handhelds,sci.physics,rec.travel
Subject: airport x-ray machines/laptops
Keywords: laptops, eproms, x-ray
Message-ID: <6325@rice-chex.ai.mit.edu>
Date: 4 Feb 90 11:33:53 GMT
Followup-To: comp.sys.laptops
Organization: MIT AI Lab, Cambridge, MA
Lines: 26

I have just bought a Toshiba T1000 and travelled with it to Europe.
American security check-ins at airports seem to be satisfied if the
computer works (i.e., if you can turn it on), but in Germany, they
insisted that I run the computer through the X-ray machine. They
assured me that it was completely harmless and that they ran
"hundreds" of laptops through the machine daily.

[Airport security personnel was also extremely rude there. They were amused
and unconcerned when I complained that they put my pack of floppy disks,
which contained a month's worth of work, on top of an X-ray machine
(I was concerned about stray magnetic fields).]

Unfortunately, right after running it through the machine, the disk
controller stopped working.

Now, I would like to know:

* what do other people do with their laptops when they travel?
* has anyone had similar problems?
* what is the photon flux and the energy used in modern airport
  X-ray machines? Do you know whether this is sufficient to erase
  EPROMS, alter static RAM data, damage chips?
* what are the magnetic fields inside the airport X-ray machines?
* what about the new neutron-activation devices?

					Thanks, Thomas.