Catch Our (Upside Down) Smile–TSA
Anyone who remembers the airline PSA (a regional airline later assimilated by US Air in the 1980s) might be amused at the title of this post since it is a take-off on their slogan.
Normally when I travel, I leave my phone turned on while in flight. Usually I have the phone turned on in “offline” mode. Newer Nokia smartphones such as the Nokia E70 have this mode and it allows all of the functions of the phone to be used except it turns off the transmitter. This allows me to, for instance, take a picture with my phone, write a message, and put the message in the outbox so it will be sent when I land and can put the phone back online. All while listening to episode 278 of “The Tech Guy” Podcast from Leo Laporte. (Sidenote: Cali Lewis from the GeekBrief.tv video podcast was a caller on this episode. She was asking a tech question of Leo, but talk about a way to get some exposure for your show!)
Meanwhile, I had went into my bag to put my dayplanner away and noticed one of my other phones was not powered off and, more importantly, not in offline mode. I noticed this at 37,000 feet. Did we die? Well if you don’t see this posting, probably. 
Seriously, we all lived.
I don’t even want to get started on the stupid anti-liquid policy there is on flights anymore. What do you bet they don’t screen the liquid that comes on the plane via the food service? This policy is designed to make us feel secure without actually making us secure. I’d rather see the system implemented they were discussing on Science Friday recently–similar to what they use in Israel.
This new policy makes it nearly impossible to travel without checked luggage. The only issue I had was styling cream for my hair. Screw it, I’m spending three days with techies. They won’t care so much. For my regular trips to California, I will be keeping a supply of toothpaste and hair gel at the office.
Anyway, I will have landed in San Francisco when this shows up on the blog. Off to Baltimore next, but at least I’ll get to enjoy it in first class. Given it’s a 5 hour flight, it will be worth it.
