Holy cow...

From: Vassilis Prevelakis <vp_at_cs.drexel.edu>
Date: Fri Aug 6 13:51:10 2004

Well last year I travelled (from the US) to Europe with a suitcase full
of de-commissioned computers (incl. a Sun Ultra 1 which filled most of
the suitcase) and spare parts (about 5-8 year old stuff). Since I
couldn't care less about eproms or other media, I just let it go
through the normal checked luggage check. The suitcase was not locked
(as per guidelines) and I know they opened it (not in my presence, so I
don't really know how much time they spent looking though it), but
nobody said anything to me about it, and the suitcase went through
without any problems.

If you are packing clothing with the equipment (as padding or to save
carrying a second suitcase) I would advise you to pack them in
transparent plastic bags, so that the checkers can go through them
without spilling them all over the floor. Also avoid small unpacked
items that can fall off the suitcase during the visual inspection
process.

Finally remember that the people carrying out the inspection will not
use the same care as you in putting everything back in the suitcase, so
leave some extra space to accommodate the (less efficient) re-packing.
If your suitcase is a jigsaw with everything required to be packed just
right for the suitcase to close, then expect to see a mess at your
destination.

I remember that while I was waiting to check in at the Philadelphia
International Airport I could see TSA staff trying to close an opened
suitcase. Now that was a royal mess, with clothing sticking out from
all sides and the suitcase refusing to come anywhere near to closing.
Eventually the just closed the two halves as much as they could and
used plastic wrap to keep the insides from spilling over. I bet the
owners would freak out, especially if they had clean and ironed
clothing


**vp
Received on Fri Aug 06 2004 - 13:51:10 BST