Forget Binary Liquid Bombs, Dell has those beat...

[christopher_wolf]

http://www.theregister.com/2006/08/23/q ... _measures/


My favorite quote?

Denny elaborated: "They stopped me at the security gate where I was told I couldn't use my Dell laptop on the plane. I told them it wasn't one of the affected units, but they said all Dell batteries had to be taped according to an agreement between Dell and Qantas."

Qantas was unable to say how long Dell users will be subjected to this humiliation, but a spokesman noted: "We are closely monitoring the situation as Dell's retrofit program progresses." ®

Could you imagine the headlines? "Dell laptop brings airliner down"

Ah, well...

This, however, brings up a serious point. What would stop them from considering *all* laptop batteries explosive devices? After all, one coulde rig a modest set of batteries to do such as thing and it would have been far more practical than the hollywood-like binary liquid plot that the British caught in time. Wouldn't that be a right pain?

[BillMorrow]

what worries me is not dell laptops or binary bombs..

if they start shooting hundreds of little brainwashed terrorists instead of a few at a time..
like the difference between a .45 automatic and an M14 or mini 14..

[daeojkim]

OMG it's "motherf***ing Dells on the motherf***ing plane!!!!"


Sorry couldn't resist..

[christopher_wolf]

A Snakes on a Plane reference, eh?

Bill, yeah...but the TSA could care less about that unfortuanately. They have the typical impulse response of most security agencies; OMG NEW THREAT DO SOMETHING!!!! Then watch as the paranoia levels go up way past what they should be at, then come down to dangerously low levels, then repeat. Basically, crtically damped oscillations with a rather large steady state error. All this happening whilst they pick the next Threat Advisory Level color out of a bag of M&Ms.

[DIGITALgimpus]

You know during the last presidential campaign, John Edwards plane had to land because a camera's battery started smoking (I believe it was his plane, but could be mistaken)....

Can we do this for cameras as well?

/calls TSA now...

[mfratt]

IED = Improvised Explosive Dell

[ParzanM]

OMG it's "motherf***ing Dells on the motherf***ing plane!!!!"

Future of Terrorism fueled by Dell. ** it could happen,not likely but it could happen**

Instead of terrorist grabbing a bomb they grab a dell. I could see it now

Terrorist: " Put down the hand grenades and grab those dells!!!"

[christopher_wolf]

No, seriously, this could happen. Batteries are *designed* to hold a large amount of energy in a small space, the difference is in how the energy is released. Moreover, nobody checks to see how people are using laptop batteries on aircraft and a simple short of a large bag of batteries could pose a real threat.

[mfratt]

So i guess we need our checkpoint security guards to have people throwing their dells into a bin before they board.