prog | (no subject)

Laptop back in my hot little hands, after exactly one day, with a new video cable and no skin off my nose (or out of my wallet). May St. Steve thricely bless the Helping Friendly Grogs underneath Vanderbilt Hall.

Finished day one of a three-day training thing. Perq of working for a wicked big & famous institution: you can apparently suggest to some company that an annual training thing which normally happens in Sante Fe should occur in Boston instead, because there exists a shiny new conference center directly across the street from the building that has jmac's cubicle in it (not in so many words, mind), and they're like, "OK." Anyway, I learned some interesting new things about the cheminformatics software we spend giant gobs of money on, so that's good. It's less boring than I feared, and since I have my laptop back (and wireless signal is strong in the conference room, ho ho) I don't fear the remainder of this exercise.

T is going to start with the random bag checking. Wow. When city services start acting like Circuit City, there is a problem. But it's not like I can take my business elsewhere. ... Deedle-dee.

I echo what some friends of mine wonder: Why is Boston the first US city to do this to its subways? I mean, if I were asked which city would be most likely to crap its pants and go into we-must-defend-ourselves-against-our-customers lockdown mode as a result of 3-11 (Madrid), Boston would not be my first guess.

Of course I wonder what I will do if (when?) I'm asked to unzip my backpack for the kind folks. I wonder if saying no and immediately leaving the station would result in shadowing and surveillance, or a call to the neighboring stations to look out for a fellow of my description, in case I try to walk over and board a train there instead. Um... shit.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Of course I wonder what I will do if (when?) I'm asked to unzip my backpack for the kind folks.

I've been wondering the same thing.

And in related news, Security Edition reported a substantial rise in orders from the Boston area after the announcement of the security policies.

Also, terrorist cells reported using cellular phones to report to each other where the only 4 drug sniffing dogs were so they could board at station that weren't there with their false bottomed briefcases and bombs built into the cases of old toilet seat shaped iBooks.

For any "evil doer" wanting to harm anyone in the Boston area could easily circumvent these simple procedures.

Procedures like this will only deter the simple shoe-bomb type people (and send them to other towns to "do evil") and inconvenience the innocent. And THIS, the slow erosion of freedom (read 4th amendment into that) is simply one thing that the "evil-doers" hope to accomplish.

BTW, if anyone orders the Security Edition cards, file down the corners else someone might think it's a sharp and dangerous weapon.

You were against a free trip to Santa Fe?!

My guess is that if you decline to have your bag searched, and attempt to leave the station entirely, they won't let you.