Airport security [no such thing]

[Ed Falk]

> As most readers probably know, laptops are often subject to manual
> scrutiny. From my non-representative sample, about four out of five tote
> bags clearly containing laptops will be manually searched. Typically, the
> attendant requires that the laptop is powered up. In none of the 20+ manual
> searches I witnessed did the security personnel wait past the RAM check
> before clearing the passenger. I could not help but contemplate how much of
> the insides of the laptop could be replaced while still obtaining an
> identical display.

Almost all of them.  I saw the keyboard of an IBM thinkpad flipped up
at a party the other day and was flabbergasted.  It's all empty space!
You can add & remove innards all you want.  Disk drives, batteries, etc.
are all removable.  The actual computer itself is so tiny I couldn't
believe it.  You could pull out the CD-rom, floppy disk, spare battery, etc.
and have a nearly empty box that still runs windows and unix.