Today, we'll look at a problem which started with the increased security at airports: more and more people forgot their laptops. But I have a solution for you: don't carry it.
First, the problem.
Tighter airport security in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks has travelers forgetting all kinds of personal articles at screening machines, including keys, cellphones and jewelry. But laptop computers have posed one of the biggest problems for lost-and-found departments at airports, since travelers must now remove the machines from their cases before putting them through the X-ray machine. Sometimes travelers retrieve the bag without the laptop or grab a stranger's computer by mistake.
At Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, 330 laptops were left behind between September and April, up sharply from only 7 in the comparable period a year earlier. And the problem seems to be getting worse: in the last three months, the airport collected 204 misplaced laptops. In Denver, airport officials resorted to posting signs at security checkpoints saying, "Got laptop?" after 95 computers were left in February alone.
Here is a picture of this sign.
And now, the solution.
Larry Armstrong gives it in the August 5, 2002 issue of BusinessWeek Magazine, in a story named "A Keychain Never Forgets."
Carrying a laptop has always been problematic in airports: While you're struggling with your wristwatch and cell phone or, these days, your belt and shoes, your computer is scooting down the conveyor toward parts--and people--unknown. I tried giving mine up a couple of years ago without much success. While I found I could handle most of my e-mail over a cell phone, BlackBerry pager, or wireless handheld, I never figured out how to carry all the files and data I need for day-to-day business.
Now there's a way. It's called keychain memory. A dozen or so manufacturers have come out with these pocket-size pods of flash memory, the same kind of semiconductor memory used in digital cameras and MP3 players. They snap into the USB port of any PC or Macintosh computer, where they act like just another hard drive. (They're also called flash drives.) When it's time to move on, you drag and drop your work -- PowerPoint presentations, Word documents, music files, and digital movies or photos -- into the portable memory, unplug it, and off you go.
Here is how looks like one of these devices, the DiskOnKey from M-Systems.
I purchased a 64 megabytes unit about ten months ago. I always have it with me. It's one of the most useful tools I ever had.
Sources: Jeffrey Selingo, The New York Times, July 25, 2002; Larry Armstrong , BusinessWeek Magazine, August 5, 2002 issue
6:01:43 PM
Permalink
|
|
