Geek woman news story of possible interest...

[Tyler Aviss]

Ditto here. I remember travelling to Aus via the US about a year about
the 9/11 incident. I was carrying with me a mini-ITX unit in a custom
box which was basically folder/bent sheet-metal with a lexan top and
front. Lots of wires sticking out, and of  course the motherboard etc.

I actually expected to be questioned quite a bit about this, as it did
look somewhat suspicious. The personally really didn't care much about
it though, and didn't require that it be powered up or anything of the
like.

Amusingly what they did ask me about when I hit Aus was a present I
brought with me. A stuffed beaver with a few wires/circuits inside
that danced and sang "I am Canadian." The Australian airport security
got me to play it twice, once to demonstrate and another to show to a
bunch of other staff because it was cute :-)

I think that sometimes the most distinguishable thing that you "bring"
with you to the airport is your attitude, not the items on your
person. A little politeness and a quick talk with the airport staff
inquiring about the shirt probably would have avoided the whole issue.

On 9/23/07, Robert Brockway <robert-5LEc/6Zm6xCUd8a0hrldnti2O/JbrIOy at public.gmane.org> wrote:
> On Sat, 22 Sep 2007, Jamon Camisso wrote:
>
> > That, and I'll pose the question: what is wrong with what she did? Were
> > it the street, why would the cops have been more or less justified in
> > their reaction since the law is the law regardless of location?
>
> Hi Jamon.  I'm not commenting but the legimacy of her arrest (as I haven't
> look at the story properly yet) but as a former police office I just
> wanted to make one point: Many laws are indeed specific to physical
> location.  I've seen special laws that exist for airports, borders,
> shopping malls, parks, government buildings, and lots of other
> places.  Some laws are even specific to certain locations at certain
> times.
>
> I once travelled from Australia to Canada (via the US) with the insides of
> a computer in my brief case.  The motherboard appearing in the x-ray
> caused a few funny looks and I was really helpful and open with all of the
> security guards about what I was transporting and why.  As a result I had
> absolutely no problems.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Rob
>
> --
> "With sufficient thrust, pigs fly just fine..."
>         -- RFC 1925 "The Twelve Networking Truths"
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