This doesn't surprise me, because I was once 'randomly' selected for 'secondary screening' at an airport in Houston, Texas. The TSA screener glanced through my carry-on without saying a word, outside of just friendly banter. But the screener locked onto the USB thumbdrive on my keys, and seemed almost afraid to remove the cap on the end; he demanded to know what it was immediately. I told him it was a USB thumbdrive, for a computer. He looked puzzled and started looking at me like I had said it was a knife, so I rattled off every name I could think of for a thumbdrive - flashdrive, jumpdrive, memory stick, etc., etc. He still didn't get it, so I told him it plugged up to a computer and stored photos. He said "Oh, well, can you turn it on and show me?". I told him no, it didn't work unless it was plugged up to a computer - that seemed to satisfy him and he gave me my keys back and waved me through.

I can understand (maybe) how someone could be ignorant of what a thumbdrive was, but how could a TSA screener at a major US airport get through his job without ever seeing a USB thumbdrive before?! This was a fairly common brand/model, too, it wasn't anything unique or rare. And this occurred in the past year or two, it wasn't like thumbdrives were new on the market at the time.

Scary stuff, so I'm not surprised at all that the new MacBook Air is causing trouble at security checkpoints; it seems like the TSA isn't training their people on what laptops and other technological devices should/should not look like, as well as what the latest developments are. Considering how commercially successful Apple has been and how many people consider the latest Apple products a status symbol, I'm floored that the TSA hasn't issued some sort of bulletin to their screeners about the new MacBook Air.

If you're one of the lucky few that's scored Amazon's new e-book reader, the Kindle, look out if you try to fly with it...I'd love to try to explain that one at security. "No, it's not really a computer, it's basically an electronic book..."

(b) A state agency that provides wireless Internet access on state property may not allow access to obscene materials through the use of that wireless access.

That means that the state is required to block obscene materials. The problem is that according to the Supreme Court, adults need to be able to turn the filter off. If it's not feasible to let a grownup turn off the filter, then the requirement seems unconstitutional.

Every product that I've ever bought from SonicBlue has been malformed and returned to sender.

The technology sounds cool, but I'll probably wait until it's available from another vendor.