🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <10938@polya.Stanford.EDU> kaufman@Polya.Stanford.EDU (Marc T. Kaufman) writes:
>In article <420009@hpbbm.HP.COM> bwolf@hpbbm.HP.COM (Bryan Wolf) writes:
>
>>Caveat regarding your data:   NEVER (EVER EVER!) put your
>>floppies through the X-ray thingie you have to walk through at
>>security;...
>
>This has GOT to be on the way to becomming a new Urban Legend.  First, there
>are no X-rays emitted by the metal detector.  Second, the electric field set
>up by the detector coils is far too weak to erase a disk or tape.  There is
>no appreciable magnetic field, and anyway, magnetic fields attenuate as the
>FOURTH power of distance.

    I carry a Jasmine external hard drive and several boxes of floppies
in my briefcase (standard-type briefcase, no special shielding) with me
as carry-on luggage, and have never had any data loss after putting them
through the x-ray "conveyor belt" detector. I have also had a floppy in
my pocket when walking through the metal detector "gate", and no data loss
there either.

    Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe it's always been photographic
film that people should be paranoid about putting throught the x-ray box,
not magnetic media.

-k


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