Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!csri.toronto.edu!wayne
Newsgroups: comp.sys.laptops
From: wayne@csri.toronto.edu (Wayne Hayes)
Subject: Re: airport x-ray machines/laptops
Message-ID: <1990Feb5.194019.2569@jarvis.csri.toronto.edu>
Keywords: laptops, eproms, x-ray
Organization: University of Toronto, CSRI
References: <6325@rice-chex.ai.mit.edu>
Date: 6 Feb 90 00:40:19 GMT
Lines: 36

In article <6325@rice-chex.ai.mit.edu> tmb@wheaties.ai.mit.edu (Thomas M. Breuel) writes:
>... 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.

I'm not at all familiar with airport procedures and the legalities involved.
Obviously airport security should come first, but if this happened to me
I'd be pretty pissed off.  Is there any kind of recourse available to
the flier if say, his $17,000 SPARCSTATION laptop was zapped at the
airport by the machine?  Can you sue / complain to anybody?  What are
your chances of getting some compensation?

	On the other hand, like I said, obviously airport security comes
first.  I would much rather have my laptop zapped than get blown out of
the sky by the guy behind me with the 6 kilos of high explosives hidden
in his HP28C.  From a technical standpoint, what are the chances of
manufactures eventually taking things like this into consideration and
somehow sheilding vulnerable parts?  And could this sheilding generate
further security holes / complications?

	Or is this just too small an issue?

-- 
The 'C' programming language is, at worst, the second best language for any
given application.  Usually, however, it is the best.  --  anon

Wayne Hayes	INTERNET: wayne@csri.toronto.edu	CompuServe: 72401,3525