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

December 27, 2009 - 1:04pm — Bibliofuture

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

Ebooks

Comments

December 27, 2009 - 2:36pm — Walt

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.]

December 27, 2009 - 5:11pm — Anonymous

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 "

December 27, 2009 - 8:14pm — Walt

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.)

December 27, 2009 - 4:38pm — Anonymous

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-internationa...

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