Terrorism crackdown to crimp e-book usage on international flights?

Kindles, Nooks and Sony Readers, along with other e-book gizmos, might not be usable on some international flights to the U.S. At least that’s the case if we extrapolate from a Gizmodo post discussing the new terrorism crackdown. For six hours aloft, will you have to suffer airline magazines and other “diversions” in place of a Project Gutenberg classic or the latest bestsellers?

Blog entry at Teleread

December 27, 2009 by Uncategorized 4

You may also like...

4 Responses

  1. Walt says:
    December 27, 2009 at 6:36 pm

    Or, you know, you could read a (gasp) book.
    “For six hours aloft, will you have to suffer airline magazines and other “diversions” in place of a Project Gutenberg classic or the latest bestsellers?”

    Only if you’ve given up on print entirely for some bizarro reason, noting that Teleread’s founder doesn’t even go that far.

    (Actually, I usually catch up on science fiction magazines in flight–after reading American Way, which is frequently well worth reading.)

    [Although I agree that the suggested restriction makes no sense–at least for Sony Reader and other readers with no communications capabilities.]

    Reply
    • Anonymous says:
      December 27, 2009 at 9:11 pm

      Communications
      The communications capability of the Kindle has nothing to do with it. To detonate a bomb with an electronic trigger you need a battery and some wires. If you put batteries and wires and explosives in your bag security will hopefully catch that. If you conceal the bomb inside an electronic device and use the batteries and the wires of the device to mask that you have a bomb. The bomb that took down Pan Am 103 was thought to have been hidden in a Toshiba Bombeat radio cassette player.

      A Kindle is a small device to hide a bomb in. A multimedia laptop with lots of room in the case is a better choice.

      If you want to take down a plane the thing to do is to use a large multimedia laptop. You remove the guts of the laptop and replace them with the guts from a small netbook. You connect the netbook components so that the laptop works. If security doubts that you have a laptop you can turn it on and show them that it boots. With the empty space inside the case from putting in smaller components you put in plastic explosives an electronic trigger and use the battery of the laptop to run the bomb.

      Freedom has a price. To be free we should have no security checks at all at the airport. Terrorist will always find a way around the security. Since that is the case we should just give up on security. If we lose a few planes a year that is the price of not having to deal with security at the airport. As Jefferson said, “The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots ”

      Reply
      • Walt says:
        December 28, 2009 at 12:14 am

        My mistake
        Anonymous is right in this case–but, as noted, there’s a *not* less interior space in a Kindle or Nook or whatever than there is in a boombox or laptop.

        It would seem to me that if someone can turn on an ebook reader, that would demonstrate so little available space inside it that it couldn’t be much of a bomb…but then, what do I know?

        (Oh, and referring to another comment: I don’t think anyone is waiting for me to acknowledge that e-ink is a big improvement in readability, and I noted the improved resolution and likely improved readability in April 2008… I really don’t write about ebooks much anymore, in part because of this sort of silliness.)

        Reply
  2. Anonymous says:
    December 27, 2009 at 8:38 pm

    Place for both E and P–on ground and in the air
    Yep, Walt. Just tweaked first graph to make that clear, thanks. Ready to acknowledge all the progress in e-book displays, lol? And that Amazon moved more e-books than p-books on XMAS day, amid all the Kindle-hardware buys? Happy New Year. DR / TeleRead.org

    http://www.teleread.org/2009/12/27/terrorism-crackdown-to-crimp-e-book-usage-on-international-flights/

    http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=176060&p=RssLanding&cat=news&id=1369429

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

LISNews Archives