Conference 7.286::digital

    
    I've never had to worry about the notebook theft problem (I've never
    been able to hang on to an Ultra very long before it was stolen by
    someone else in the organization for a putatively more important
    purpose).
    
    However, let me second the comment about the calling card.
    
    Last year I made one (1) business call while making a connection in
    LaGuardia airport.  3 or 4 days later, we got a call from Corporate
    Telecommunications, wondering if there was any particular reason that
    my card was running up massive calling activity to and between such
    places as Bolovia, Columbia, and Mexico.......
    
    Be careful.
    

    re .0: Well, that's pretty common knowledge here (in Germany, and
    Europe in general).
    
    I hardly ever carry my laptop with me on business trips (or any other
    trips for that matter) but I wouldn't let go of it before I can go too.
    (FWIW; it's my private one, not DEC's).
    

	According to a Note in POWDML::PC_SECURITY, the story in .0 is
	rumored to be an urban legend.
	
	Not that you shouldn't be careful when travelling with a portable
	computer, but there have been no "reported verifiable" cases.
	
	Jay

    
    a person in my group had to bring 3 laptops and alot of other stuff to
    a trade show - he ended up checking 1 of the laptops as luggage.  When
    we got to his destination - no laptop!  
      
    
    (this just happend 2 months ago)

    
    	But losing checked luggage is quite different from losing carry-
    	on luggage before you even get to the plane.
    

The story of laptop theft at the X-ray machine has appeared so often and from so
many sources in the last few weeks I assumed it is an urban legend rather than
fact.

Not that I haven't been more careful when traveling with my laptop, mind you,
but I'd like to know if there's any real cases of this happening.

At least I haven't gotten mail about the $250 cookies lately.

Paul

I've never seen anyone put their laptop on the conveyor for the X-ray machine -
everyone just hands it to the guard as they walk through the scanner.  There
is a problem that the guard usually sends the laptop along to a table waiting
for you to come by and power it on to demonstrate it works - the opportunity
is there for a thief.

				Steve

    http://www.urbanlegends.com/ (although it's not accessible just now)

    
    	RE: $250 cookies
    
    	Hey, watch it now ... Mrs. Fields is a friend of a friend of
    	mine.
    

>I've never seen anyone put their laptop on the conveyor for the X-ray machine -

I do it several times a month.  Much faster than turning it on at the table
and doesn't harm the equipment.

Anyway ...

***


                CURRENT URBAN LEGENDS MAKING THE ROUNDS

What follows are brief descriptions of the urban legends currently washing
up on the net.  Please note that some of these have yet to make their way 
into the official AFU FAQ as our beloved FAQ-keeper selfishly insists on 
his right to have a life offline as well as on.

Remember, if you're reading it here, it's an urban legend.  *Don't* post
the full text of it on the off chance we haven't seen it yet.

Stolen Laptops -- Computers passed through the xray machine at airports 
   are scooped off the conveyor belt at the other end by thieves.
Status -- Unproven.  Though email warning against this has been widely
   circulated, there has yet to be one reported verifiable instance of 
   this happening.  

The Biscuit Bullet -- Woman in car is hit by bursting biscuit tube; the 
   noise and the bits of clinging dough make her think she's been shot 
   and her brains are falling out.
Status -- False.  Brett Butler has told this as happening to her sister.

1994's Most Bizarre Suicide -- Intending to commit suicide, Ronald Opus
   jumped from the top of a ten-story building then was shot through the
    head by a shotgun blast as he passed the ninth floor (elderly couple
    who lived there were having a spirited disagreement).
Status -- Mostly false.  Mills did tell this tale in a speech, but it was
          a hypothetical situation and understood as such by his audience.

The $250 Cookie Recipe -- After having enjoyed a snack of cookies at
   Neiman-Marcus, the customer asked for the recipe and was told there 
   would be a charge of two-fifty for it.  Upon receiving the monthly 
   charge card bill, was shocked to realize they'd meant $250, and now
   in revenge is spreading this recipe far and wide for free.
Status -- False.  Old UL, has been targeted at many stores.

To get your very own copy of the official AFU FAQ:

*ftp/pub/usenet/news.answers/folklore-faq/part1 
  (be sure to ask for parts 2 through 5 as well)               or
ftp://ftp.urbanlegends.com/afu.faq                             or
http://www.urbanlegends.com/                                   or
http://www/panix.com/~sean/afufaq                              or
E-mail [email protected]: send usenet/news.answers/folklore-faq/*

    
	True or not, this is 1 of the better stories that I've read
    	in the last few years.
    
    	If I can find a copy I'll post the entire thing.
    
    
    
1994's Most Bizarre Suicide -- Intending to commit suicide, Ronald Opus
   jumped from the top of a ten-story building then was shot through the
    head by a shotgun blast as he passed the ninth floor (elderly couple
    who lived there were having a spirited disagreement).
Status -- Mostly false.  Mills did tell this tale in a speech, but it was
          a hypothetical situation and understood as such by his audience.
    

>I've never seen anyone put their laptop on the conveyor for the X-ray machine -
>everyone just hands it to the guard as they walk through the scanner.

You've apparently never been in Europe, where you don't have the option of
handing things to the guard.

Everything through the scanner.  Period.

/john

>The story of laptop theft at the X-ray machine has appeared so often and from so
>many sources in the last few weeks I assumed it is an urban legend rather than
>fact.

I assume newspapers are not into posting stuff like this as facts if they're
not true.  That said, the other day there was a story in the Boston Globe
stating something like 30% of all laptops are expected to be stolen this year
and cited the story about the 2 guys and the metal detector as an example of
how they're taken.

The fact that it was in the Globe gave it more credibility for me than something
that comes in via the Internet, but I have to admit the 30% seems extremely
high... 

-mark

  Even after I run my laptop through the scanner, I'm usually
  asked to open it up and unsleep it to prove it's really a
  computer, or at least a bomb with a sophisticated, GUI-based
  interface and an active matrix LCD display.

                                   Atlant

    
    	And when the only thing appearing on the display is
    
    	T- ??
    
    	you know you've got some explaining to do.  8^)
    

>I assume newspapers are not into posting stuff like this as facts if they're
>not true.  That said, the other day there was a story in the Boston Globe

I had to smile at this one...


re: -.1

I haven't had to turn on my PC in at least the last 6 months...maybe longer.
It seems that most airports will let an x-ray do the job.  Of course, this
is a PC and not a PowerBook.  Maybe the x-ray techs don't recognize the
inards to your box.  :-)

ac

Re: .13

Newspaper editors don't verify stories that come in.  I've seen some classic
urban legends/false stories printed in newspapers which really should have
known better, including "send business cards to Craig Shergold in Atlanta".

				Steve

> 	And when the only thing appearing on the display is
> 
> 	T- ??
> 
> 	you know you've got some explaining to do.  8^)
    
  Nahh, it's worse than that. First, the "Talking Moose"
  speaks "Three, Two, One...". Then, a picture of dialog
  box with a bomb appears on the screen.

  Good thing they let me push the "Restart" button.

                                   Atlant

    I once watched as someone handed their camcorder to a security guard at
    a German airport. Guard dismantled it a bit (just the battery, I
    guess). Guard and tourist then spent the next half hour trying to put
    it back together again; my plane left before the camcorder was back in
    one piece.

    Fearing (perhaps without justification)xray damage to data on hard
    drive, I usually remove the hard drive from my 425sl laptop and put the
    pc through the xray and hand the disk to the guard. The guard
    eyeballs the disk, then hands it back to me on the other side of the
    detector. Never been asked to bring the computer up and prove that the
    hard disk is a hard disk. This has been let through many a time in the
    USA. But I wonder, could  this be a security hole? Could not  someone
    pass an explosive  device built into a removable disk through security
    this way?  I Never thought of this before getting paranoid reading this
    notesfile.
    Bruce
    
    

    re .12: Correct.
    
    I live in Germany (Munich) and travel mostly within Europe.
    
    In Munich, they used to (though they've now stopped this practice) to
    weigh things like mobile phones, camcorders etc. (besides having to
    switch them on, _and_ X-raying them). They have a huge list of the
    equipment with the correct weight in it; if it doesn't match, you have
    some explaining to do.
    
    Another little war story: I know my phone weighs exactly 398 grams (the
    old one; I now have a lighter one...). Anyway, I once said to the guard
    weighing it at the Munich airport "It's 398 grams". He just happily
    said "Yeah, you're right" and handed the phone back without checking
    his list...
    

I guess the thing that gets kind of scary with all this is that people just
blindly assume if your laptop runs, there can be nothing else inside it.  Though
I've never looked inside the HiNote floppy wedge, I'll bet there's a LOT of room
in that little puppy.  I'd also assume someone could throw out the entire guts
of a moble media module as well and nobody would be any the wiser.  Who knows 
what others types of add-ons the future will bring?

-mark

    PCMCIA - C4  Sound BLASTER option.
    
    Contact Muamar Kaddafi Industries.  Tripoli.  888-BIG-BANG.   

    Once while departing Zurich, I gave the security folks my briefcase
    with a PC inside it.  They x-rayed  it and asked to look at the PC.  I
    said "Sure!" and offerred to turn it on.  They said "No thanks..." and
    then used a device to sniff for explosives...

    re .24:
    
    >then used a device to sniff for explosives...
    
    That's what happened here in Munich if the device was not on their
    list.
    
    A couple of years ago, I used to travel to Brussels every week,
    carrying a hard disk with me (with the SW we were developing). The disk
    was sniffed almoste evry time (it obviously wasn't on their weight
    list).
    

  And if the disk were on the weight list, would have it been
  its weight with all "1"s or all "0"s written on it?

                                   Atlant

    No, they'd insist on writing it full of zeros to reach the nominal
    weight...
    
    ;-)

    At the weekend I heard of the auditor who visited a seismology team in
    the desert - he was a real pain.  Just before he left someone cut the
    end off a stick of dynamite and wiped it over the outside of the guy's
    luggage.
    
    The sniffers went wild and yet there was nothing to be found.  He
    talked about it on his next visit but had no clue who had done what.