🚀 go-pugleaf

I have carried my mac (plus w/Jasmine 80) to/from both coasts and several
places in between.

My suggestion for anyone who wants to undergo this living hell:  Buy one of
  Zero Corp's aluminum carrying case and ship the damn thing!

Stowing the Mac once on board:
a; perfect situation-- overhead compartment will take the Mac in the case with
  the hard drive.  This has happened ONCE!
b; almost perfect situation-- won't fit in overhead, so stuff it under seat.
  Now that it is there, where do I put my feet??  Not too comfortable, but not
  too bad.
c; almost perfect situation-- the stewardess/steward is being nice and allows
  me to stuff the mac in the garment closet.  The problem with this is getting
  it OUT!  Most of the closets are cramped.  This happens rarely-- most
  airlines require that all bags in that compartment be hanging.  FINE hang it
  by the shoulder strap-- nope, it must have a clothes hanger.  I'm tempted to
  attach a wooden clothes hanger to the top of my Mac bag.
d; bad situation-- Mac won't go in any of above.  Unpack mac and throw in over
  head compartment (w/less than an inch of clearance for the interrupt/reset
  switch and the rest of the case).  Provides no protection-- I have had a
  very sticky mess on the mac when someones bag had a childrens drink glass of
  grape juice in it that wasn't very spill proof.  The bag gets folded (which
  it doesn't want to do) and stuffed under my seat-- with the hard drive,
  mouse, mouse pad, etc.  in it.
e; bad in a different way situation-- Mac and bag get shoved into an empty
  row of seats on the floor-- this takes a considerable amount of muscle power
  to place/remove the mac & case.
f; worst case situation-- Mac won't fit anywhere.  Has to be shipped through.
  Arrives damaged at best, and completely fried at worst-- the carrying case
  will invaribly have some new and disgusting stain on it.  I have watched the
  tarmac workers carefully THROW my mac onto the loading ramp and have watched
  it gracefully SLIDE down and gently SLAM into the carousel wall.

Airport Security:
a; good-- 'hmm, a computer, ok.  go through'
b; pretty good-- hand check
c; OK and amusing-- XRay mac, hand check hard drive ('gee, what is this
    thing?')
d; OK and annoying-- XRay mac, hand check hard drive and have to turn it on.
   them: but it doesn't do anything.
   me: I told you that before I plugged it in.
   them: what is it?
   me: a hard drive for a computer.
   them: Huh?
   me: think of it as a gigantic floppy disk in a steel case.
   them: oh.
e; RF annoying-- hook up complete system and power up.
f; down right infuriating-- "I'm sorry, sir, but we have to XRay the hard
   drive".
   me: nope, no can do.  I know people who have lost information to the xray
    machines.
   them: it's only low energy xrays, it won't hurt it.
   me: I know that, but the belt motors WILL hurt it.
   them: no, the motors are in the bottom.
   me: I don't care where they are, I know people who have had hard drives
    corrupted due to xray machines, and I don't want to risk the data on my
    drive.  I am a programmer, and I have software on that drive that I
    can't afford to lose.  I simply cannot and will not risk it.
   them: well, I guess I'll have to call security.
   me: fine.
<35 minutes later; head of airline security shows up>
   them: ok, what is it?
   me: <standard routine: it is a hard drive for blah blah blah>
   them: ok, <fills out a form> sign here and write here the description of
    the device.
   me: fine.
the form basically states that the airline is aware that there is a strange or
  unidentified object on the concourse and airplane, but that, if anything
  happens to the airplane (explodes, crashes, etc), I take partial or full
  responsibility for this occurence-- I figured that sense I would probably
  be DEAD if anything happened, it was a fairly safe bet.  (It wasn't worded
  quite that harshly, but that was the basic gist of the paperwork).

I have also had them:
 - ask me to plug the hard drive in and showed me to a 220volt socket.
 - same but a dead and obviously burned up socket
 - same but unplugged the xray machine so I could plug in the drive
 - same but then forget to check the mac bag, my CD player or the bag of CDs
   I usually carry with me

What fun!

b.bum
wb1j+@andrew.cmu.edu