Yet another Slashdot Airport Security troll article.

You might as well just copy the comments from the last airport security article and paste them here. The same tired subject will elicit the same responses.

Security theatre this, TSA that, incompetent this, overpaid that, privacy violation this, strip search, x-ray, grandma searched, water/liquids... on and on... apply, rinse, repeat... oh, wait... no liquids!

Not that I disagree with most of it...

Riding an unlicensed cab is a very safe activity compared to having sex, riding a bicycle, skiing, or climbing a ladder.

All of which have some form of government regulation imposed upon them.

Maybe don't give your toddler your $800 cell phone?

How else are the little snowflakes supposed to stare mindlessly into the device in a zombie-like state? Interaction with the world around them? Please.

Twatpic ...meh, definitely taken.

You can be pedantic, but come on...I get it, language evolves, but a tech website like slashdot should get the tech vernacular correct, don't you think?

After all, "bus" is not foreign term to "nerds" now, is it? For example, the same term that describes "front side bus" also describes an electrical bus duct.

A fool's drivel repeated often enough will some day end up in the lexicon, especially in the moden age of instant mass communications, but that does not make it correct.

"Buss" is not a word, but because there was an electrical manufacturing company called "Bussman" that makes fuses, and people would often shorten it to "Buss Fuses", other illiterates have created a spurious spelling that uses "buss" instead of "bus". It's still incorrect however, in spite of the illiterates repeating it on the internet.

This holds true within the electrical trade, as many old-timers frequently write (not type!) "buss" -- I often see it on equipment labels, one-line drawings, etc.

That's what I'm talkin' about.

I don't give a shit about "bad publicity" or either of these two idiots -- the gate agent or the passenger. I have three upcoming flights with SWA. I'm not one step closer to calling to cancel based on this crybaby's poor-me story.

Next time, guy could just try doing as he's told by those in charge of the situation.

It seems simple enough to me: increased customer satisfaction (aka reputation in a captive market) means you can inflate your prices and/or reduce the quality of service with less backlash.

It's not quite that simple. Using PG&E as an example, they cannot just inflate their prices. Rate increases must be approved by the State of California Public Utilities Commission, as must rate increases for every other utility in the state.

And who cares? It's not like you have a choice, particularly with real utilities. You can't just get your power from somewhere else. In the Bay Area, PG&E in constantly running campaigns to improve their reputation, mostly associated with the San Bruno disaster. Why? Shareholder value? If so, I guess I don't quite understand what public reputation of a utility has to do with shareholder value. Perhaps state and municipal permitting related to system construction, rate increases with the PUC to fund said construction... ...thinking outloud here, it seems.

Any modern quartz-controlled watch that costs more than $10 is a status symbol and nothing more.

I don't know about that. My Citizen WR-100 is a very modest watch. My wife bought it for me about 8 years ago. $250. It's my daily driver... the nightstand watch. It's very special to me for many intangible reasons, but it certainly isn't a status symbol.

I get what you're saying, but there's a middle ground somewhere, too.