
Brace for Chaos If U.S. Expands Airline Laptop Ban - ptoniato
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-05-15/brace-for-chaos-if-u-s-expands-airline-laptop-ban
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dang
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14311073](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14311073)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14312210](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14312210)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14345574](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14345574)

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rdtsc
Somewhere there is an airline in-flight entertainment manager rubbing his
hands greedily "Aha! We'll rent approved devices and make people pay for shows
on those devices".

In Langley, VA someone in a dark office is also excited "Aha, we'll grab the
laptops when they are checked in and root their firmware. It is almost too
easy".

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bluejekyll
Serious question. At what point is it an airlines responsibility vs. the FAA?
I mean, private planes aren't required to do this. Then there are the shared
(I forget the name) private plane companies where lots of people are in a pool
of users of the planes. Where is the line between private plane, where the
pilot/owner decides the risk, and public airline and FAA decide the risk?

We need some sanity somewhere.

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krasin
Finally, a business use for a Cardboard VR headset: it has no electronics
inside; just insert your TSA-approved mobile phone.

On a serious note, I hope they will get a serious pushback.

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toyg
Can thin batteries really cause huge explosions? Can't they just ban laptops
thicker than a certain amount? "TSA-approved size" would become a line in spec
sheets, and things would get back to normal in a few months.

The alternative is a serious hit to worldwide commerce flows.

The more I think about this, the more I feel like "As long-established trade
routes become unsafe, the empire slowly crumbles..."

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redthrowaway
The thinking I've seen is about batteries being replaced by explosives.

Even so, the US isn't the first to do this. China won't let you take Li+
batteries beyond a certain mAH in your carryon.

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gumballhead
This was already true for the US as well. You can't fly with a laptop battery
larger than 100Wh.

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bryanlarsen
The 2015 MacBook Pro had a 99.5Wh battery, suggesting that it might have been
slightly larger if not for the 100Wh airplane limit.

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moron4hire
Chromebooks-delivered-at-the-arrivals-curb-as-a-service

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chevas
The only constructive thing I can say is that there is no constructive
criticism for the TSA. When are we going to put an end to this security
theater that has been proven over and over again to do nothing? I stopped
flying years ago. Not every one has this _luxury_.

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hristov
This has nothing to do with the TSA. It comes straight from the Department of
Homeland Security. The TSA would have to enforce the ban of course, but it
ain't their idea.

The whole campaign against the TSA is idiotic and it is entirely based on some
people's nefarious plans to replace the TSA at various airports with private
companies that will be able to extract monopoly fees from airlines and
passengers. Let's not confuse the two issues.

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wahern
The TSA has permitted use of private companies from the very beginning:

    
    
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Screening_Partnership_Program
    

I don't think either airlines or airports wish to get rid of the TSA entirely.
The TSA provides a nice excuse for extracting security fees and subsidies from
the public. They just want looser rules on screening so they can pocket more
of the fees rather than fork them over as wages to screeners.

And in any event, the security theater will remain as cover and a scapegoat
for politicians, airports, and airlines in the [inevitable] case of a security
breech.

That said, the screening at San Francisco International is managed by a
private company and they do a pretty good job, avoiding many of the really
stupid problems exposed at airports elsewhere. It's still security theater,
but done relatively competently.

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dragonwriter
> I don't think either airlines or airports wish to get rid of the TSA
> entirely. The TSA provides a nice excuse for extracting security fees and
> subsidies from the public.

More importantly, it transfers liability for failures from airlines to the
public, which is the major reason the function was nationalized.

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jacques_chester
Personally I'm bracing hopefully for cheaper business-class airfares.

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mkmk
Maybe iPads will be a growing market segment, after all...

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GuiA
iPads are part of the ban, as are Kindles.

[https://techcrunch.com/2017/05/12/heres-how-the-laptop-
ban-w...](https://techcrunch.com/2017/05/12/heres-how-the-laptop-ban-works-on-
flights-to-the-us/)

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bluejekyll
Kindles too?! Seriously???

Edit: I'm pretty sure the battery in my phone is bigger than the kindle, btw.

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wbl
Someone has mastered the art of casting and forming explosives into shapes
that look like batteries. Put a small battery in to turn device on, and al-
Qaeda indulges its love of planes.

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bluejekyll
What happened to the turn on test? Or something. Or background checks on the
passenger manifest. Or some other article of clothing that can be 'shaped'.

Pretty soon we'll need to ride naked.

If I were a conspiracy theorist, I'd start thinking that this isn't out of
concerns for safety, but instead an attempt to stop international travel; stop
the free flow of thought and people.

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wbl
Turnon test is easy to fool. Background won't catch newly radicalized unknown
to services.

