From: "Phil Payne" 

"Rich Gauszka"  wrote in message
news:44e32292{at}w3.nls.net...
> Some of the *alternate* laptop proposals for airlines leave much to be
> desired. Rented airline laptops? Can one say trojan city?

Thin clients running on the existing individual video displays - perhaps a
MkII for a bit more comfort.  Rent a keyboard from the stewardess. 
Remember those pocket foldout keyboards for Palms? Rollerball mouse or
IBM's little red thingie in the armrest.

Satellite Internet to your own server or space rented on a commercial
provider like Google.  Adapter for every known memory card somewhere too -
4GB Microdrives are not expensive.

No - you can't use an iPod - they'll be banned too.

Laptops are heavy and every flight across the Pond carries at least fifty.
Replace them with a revenue opportunity and claim it's for
"safety".

I must admit that the issue would worry me when flying.  I flew hundreds of
times - perhaps well over a thousand times - in my PCM support days.  219
times into Berlin Tegel in one 18-month period.  Everything but hijacking
an explosions.  Struck by lightning (broke the stewardess' legs), spun on
ice on landing, engine fires, stuck undercarriage, fuel emergency, you name
it. None has ever put me off flying - the main objection is terminal
boredom.

(Pun intentional)

But this spontaneous fire issue worries me.  Several hundred serious
overheats have been reported, and a number of actual fires and exploding
cellphone handsets.

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