Interesting People mailing list archives
more on New Website: John Gilmore vs. 'Papers, Please'
From: David Farber <dave () farber net>
Date: Tue, 17 Aug 2004 11:30:26 -0400
Begin forwarded message: From: "Kevin G. Barkes" <kgb () kgb com> Date: August 17, 2004 11:23:46 AM EDT To: dave () farber net Subject: Re: [IP] more on New Website: John Gilmore vs. 'Papers, Please'
by now every major domestic airline is allowing people to
print their
own boarding passes on their own printers, that are
checked only for
consistency against some identity document -- which allows anyone with any of a few hundred
legitimate-looking
govt issue photo ids and a bootleg of photoshop and a
printer to
go to any gate at any time! [ actually PIT now checks again ID at the gate at least
they did one
day djf]
PIT requires you to keep your boarding pass (but not id) out and visible while you go through the x-ray and magnetometer, which seems kind of strange when you consider you have to provide the pass and id to an agent immediately before you enter the screening area. I'm not complaining, though... the PIT TSA folks have always been professional, efficient and friendly, unlike the surly bullies at other locations. I use self-printed boarding passes all the time. So far, I've only been requested to show ID at the gate one time... at PIT, about two months ago. But I was wearing dark glasses and a baseball cap. Here's another interesting incident... I was stuck in Newark last week waiting to get back to PIT. The gate agent announced our flight would be arriving from Pittsburgh, but that it hadn't taken off yet. Newark has wireless internet ($6.95/day, not free like PIT), so I logged on to one of the flight tracking sites and discovered the flight had indeed left, was at 27,000 feet, and was 140nm out of Newark. I and my fellow strandees amused ourselves watching the flight proceed to Newark, while the gate agent kept announcing it was still on the ground. One passenger seemed extremely upset that I was able to somehow "hack into the FAA" to get this information; I thought she was going to call TSA on me. Of course, the question here is not why I am able to access realtime inflight data at the gate area, but why USAirways can't. Regards, KGB ----- Kevin G. Barkes Email: kgb () kgb com | Web: www.kgb.com Eff the Ineffable, Scrute the Inscrutable: http://www.cafeshops.com/kgbstuff.9211569 KGB Report: http://www.kgb.com National Temperature Index: http://nationaltemperatureindex.com DCL Dialogue on line: http://www.kgb.com/dcl.html Random Quotations Generator: http://www.goodquotations.com Over 11,500 searchable quotations. ------------------------------------- You are subscribed as interesting-people () lists elistx com To manage your subscription, go to http://v2.listbox.com/member/?listname=ip Archives at: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/
Current thread:
- more on New Website: John Gilmore vs. 'Papers, Please' David Farber (Aug 17)
- <Possible follow-ups>
- more on New Website: John Gilmore vs. 'Papers, Please' David Farber (Aug 17)
- more on New Website: John Gilmore vs. 'Papers, Please' Dave Farber (Aug 17)