Gee, and here we thought the biggest potential concern about travelling with a PowerBook G4 might be some snags involving transporting supercomputer technology into certain foreign countries; instead, the real issue that might give road warriors pause is the possibility of inciting a bomb scare and shutting down an entire airport while security subjects you to a thorough body cavity search. Oh, and when they return your PowerBook, it might still be dripping from when the bomb squad dunked it in a bucket of water "just to be sure." (What do you mean, you didn't sign on for this kind of drama? You knew the risks when you took the Mac User's Oath, buddy.)

Okay, so we added in the bit about the strip search and the sodden PowerBook-- but believe it or not, folks, the rest is more or less true. Faithful viewer Glenn Pillsbury was the first of many, many people who forwarded us an article from Saturday's LA Times which documents the tale of a hapless traveler who managed to shut down a terminal at Burbank Airport for over five hours because security thought his laptop computer was a bomb. That's "a bomb," not "the bomb," although it certainly qualified as the latter; while the article never mentions a brand name, references to the unit's "titanium" enclosure make it clear that it was a PowerBook G4 causing all the ruckus.

The sad story unfolded when security officials first couldn't get a decent x-ray of the PowerBook's innards, and then resorted to a "swab test." No biggie; we've had the same thing done to our Pismo on a number of occasions. Security personnel just scrubs a little chunk of fabric over the surface of the questionable item and then analyzes the fabric for suspicious residues. It's quick, painless, and kind of a kick to watch-- assuming the test comes up negative, that is. Unfortunately, it seems that in this case the swab "came up positive for a chemical residue of concern," in all likelihood due to the titanium in the computer's enclosure. The result? The terminal getting closed, fire doors sealing the area, restaurants being evacuated, the involvement of the bomb squad and the FBI, thirty delayed flights, and at least one ruined wedding. Now that's drama!

We're going to assume that this was an isolated incident involving some poorly-calibrated security equipment, because if this sort of hubbub were standard operating procedure whenever anyone tries to take a PowerBook G4 on a plane, we're guessing we probably would have heard about it by now. Not that anyone lucky enough to own a TiBook should mind such minor inconveniences in exchange for the privilege of owning and operating such an exquisite machine, of course. In fact, we're starting to wonder if the PowerBook was ever really under suspicion at all; reportedly it took the authorities about six hours to verify that the thing was a computer and not a bomb. Six hours? That's one thorough examination. We strongly suspect that the security team really just wanted an excuse to play with the sexy laptop for a while. Who wants to bet that five of those hours were spent playing Quake 3 on the airport LAN?