It was the obvious use case (TechTalk)

One of the first things I did when I got wifi working in my parents' house back in 2001 was send an email from the can. People acted like I was some kind of weirdo, but now it has become socially acceptable. Ah, progress. The only hazard is hot laptops on naked flesh...

The bathroom is where it's at. Once I get the F out of the DC area and accumulate enough money to get a house built, my bathroom is going to be a funland. HDTV, DVD, iFraud dock, surround sound, internet access, refrigerator/kegerator, etc.

Flawed Security Model?

Season's Greetings from Down Under!

Last Monday, I flew from Sydney to Cairns (a city on the Eastern coast of Australia near the Barrier Reef). My dad had previously booked the flight using some frequent flier miles, so I just needed to check in. In the US, I have had some difficulties in the past using the automated check in when the flight was not booked by me. I decided to try the machine anyway and see what would happen. The only information that I was prompted for was my name. Once I supplied that, the machine spat out my boarding pass and all I had to do to check my luggage was show a Qantas representative the boarding pass. At no point during the process was I required to show a photo ID of any kind. Fast forward to this past Saturday (Christmas Eve) and I was on my way back to Sydney from Ayer's Rock. At the Ayer's Rock airport, not only did I have to show a photo ID to get my boarding pass, I also got 'randomly selected' (1 brown guy with a little stubble and 74 whitefolks, and the brown guy gets selected - go figure) for an explosives test.

Let's examine the two cities. Sydney is Australia's most populous and well known city - an ideal terrorist target. Also, many international flights pass through Sydney daily (a good entry point for terrorists). Ayer's Rock is a town in the Northern Territory that sprang up because of Uluru and Kata Tjuta. There's really nothing to it besides a few hotels and the airport. The nearest notable city, Alice Springs, is 445 kilometers (~276 miles) away with only a single diesel gas station on the way.

Given the current security procedures, it appears that the Australians are worried about a terrorist attack originating from the middle of Outback. Apparently, they weren't notified that the planes used in the September 11th attacks on the US took off near the cities they attacked. As evidenced by the train bombings in Spain in March of 2004 and the London Underground attacks this year, any country participating in the 'coalition' in Iraq needs to be wary of terrorist attacks. Sydney's security seems woefully lacking.