There, but for the grace of foresight and God, go I...
Destroyed Mac Laptop—Cringe—Ping!
If you want on or off the Mac Ping List, Freepmail me.
There, but for the grace of foresight and God, go I...
If you want on or off the Mac Ping List, Freepmail me.
What about the laptop? Has it recovered? Was it replaced by TSA?
Why would someone write about owning a Mac and its tragic death only to close with how horrible TSA and the Airlines have become and NOT tell us the outcome of the laptop? (out of breath typing long sentence).
It was raining on a jobsite one time, so, having finished my estimations, I tucked my brand new (days old) laptop on top of my front-left 42" Super-Swamper so it would not get wet as I talked with the contractor.
As we finished our conversation, I hopped up into the cab and drove away, completely forgetting about the laptop resting on top of the tire, inside the fender well.
An expensive lapse in attention, to be sure. : (
Heh... I just have to laugh at stories like this one. The last plane ride of my life was in February 2001. It was uneventful, but I will not be getting on a plane ever again. Whenever I flew the, “Is this the flight that goes down,” feeling that most people get and instantly dismiss always stayed with me until the wheels hit the runway. If you took a big revolver with 50,000 chambers and one bullet, and gave the cylinder a spin, I still wouldn’t put it to my head and pull the trigger.
No more planes for me.
In my experience, and as the details in the article point out, the airlines had NOTHING to do with the destruction of the laptop. It was TSA. Since 9/11, I have taken several national and international flights and the service I have received from the airlines has always been very acceptable at the minimum, and if I ever go back to South Korea, I'm flying Korean Airlines. The flights between Inchon and Atlanta are 12-14 hours non-stop, but a great professional aircrew makes a HUGE difference in the trip.
I always put a large 6 oz. bag of dessicant, a moisture absorber used to keep moisture out of large underground telco cable splices, in my camera bag. On one recent trip I forgot to remove the dessicant from my camera bag and I tossed the camera into my backpack. After arriving at the airport and getting my boarding pass, I removing my shoes, belt, and pocket change,I put my backpack on the converyor belt to be x-rayed. I saw the TSA guy do a double take then run my backpack through again. When he ran it through a third time I realized what he was looking at. I tried to grab my backpack and show them what it was but I was too late as all hell broke loose. They grabbed me and my backpack and shuffeled me off to a side room with about six other TSA people and cops, all wearing latex gloves and face masks. I managed to grab my backpack while they were talking to each other and open the camera bag a pull out the bag of dessicant. They all jumped back in fear as i ripped open the bag and dumped it out on the table. Then I licked a finger, ran it through the powder, and put the finger in my mouth. Then I acted like I was choking to death. The look on their faces was priceless. My flight was 30 mins. late taking off but I was on it.
happened to me after a hecktit day of sales orders. Pulled my laptop out of the car and BLAM!!!!
Computer was fine, except for he two lines that ran across my VAIO screen.
I was so sad. I loved this computer, despite having a battery that lasted only about 45 minutes.
I put up with a broken screen for a few months and then one day it died. I assume it’s demise came about because of the previous injury, when it fell so hard on the concrete.
I immediately performed triage and finally opened it up to find a cracked motherboard. No duct tape is going to fix that.
Ran down to computer store, picked up another VAIO and Voila! I had just performed my daily backup/sync and had no concern I would back up in the morning.
Started loading all my old programs, starting with Window Office 2003. Update, Update, Update.
Great no problems. Then I started loading my other programs and trying to connect peripherals. Who knew 65bit would not allow 32 bit progs.
Oh well, time for my old trick and downloaded a copy of Virtual Machine. After loading all my programs and doing every update possible I now had a base file, to take a snapshot of. Copied onto a disk.
The next time a drive crashes, all I have to do is load up the new computer with VM and withing a few minutes I will be running again.
VM saved me having to buy new software that would have run me thousands and I didn’t have to invest in a new color laser printer. I was very happy and am very happy with my Minolta Magic color 2300DL. It would have cost me $500 for another printer and another $100 for a scanner.
Anyway, that is my story.
Better yet, get one of these. Panasonic Toughbook.
The prospect of being forced to sit for countless hours bent like a pretzel in a tiny seat with absolutely no leg room so that a fat and greedy airline CEO can meet his profit forecast is the stuff that revolutions are made of.
JAL, which used to be superb airline to fly on is on the verge of bankruptcy.
All airlines are in the cross hairs of the global warming nuts and US government. Flying is now worse than having teeth pulled out. At least you get anesthetized when you have dental work done. I don't blame the airlines. There are still good ones out there. Singapore Air to name the best I've ever been on.
I might guess “homey security” is involved in this story.
The greenies don’t want us to fly. The government probably doesn’t think too much of the idea either.
Not to mention using the inner strap as well, which most laptop cases have.
In Nov. my Continental flight to Newark was delayed for 5 hrs. As a result we then missed our next flight to PA. So we ended up renting a Hertz car to get home and had a flat tire on Route 78 at midnight.
Huh? A TSA agent did not zip up his bag and he spends the last two paragraphs complaining about “the airlines” - sheesh...
I feel sorry for this guy, because I've fallen into similarly unfortunate (though not as expensive) circumstances. However, it was definitely his fault... and this is the exact lesson to learn, not "TSA is evil" (they are, but not for this).
This is where it is good to have a non-"TSA approved" laptop bag... I have to take the laptop out, then I am the one to put it in again.
Exactly.
The best gift you can give yourself every day is to keep your head in the game. Always be aware of what is going on around you and your person. You'll be amazed at what you'll see and what tragedies you'll avoid.
The airlines are only doing this because a majority of customers demanded the cheapest airfare possible.
Poor man. TSA set him up for failure. But he grabbed the bag without double-checking.