It’s all come about since 9/11, increased security, increased fear and increased risk. Whilst there have been some ‘ridiculous’ rules put in place, the very notion of bringing more security to a frighteningly exposed business isn’t a bad thing at all.

Let’s look at the security aspect first of all. Ten years ago, sneaking a bomb or a weapon to wound, wasn’t so much of an issue, but despite this it was frankly very easy. So called ‘plastic knives’ came about, making the metal detector useless. These plastic knives are nothing like the cheap cutlery you get on aircraft nowadays. These were super hard plastic forms that were if almost as hard and sharp as the real thing. Sadly these weapons still exist today.

What about when you board the plane? Ever aircraft carries bottles of oxygen. Every aircraft carries chemicals, screws, rivets and electronic components that with the right hands could also be turned into a bomb. Lets also not forget that this small metal cylinder is under pressure when at altitude, and thanks to the advent of fly by wire technology and numerous flight simulators for the PC and Mac means that just about anyone who wanted to, could get into the cockpit of a 747 and fly it. Landing it is another matter of course. In fact, I would be as forward as to say that if I was plonked into a 747 cockpit, I could probably fly the thing well enough.

Yet when faced with the prospect of a security guard seeing your naked body to ensure that tools, sharp objects or even explosives don’t get on board these fragile machines, many passengers simply explode with rage.

Let’s not forget that every day, people are searched, strip searched and cavity searched. Whilst these procedures are necessary, many people can leave feeling undignified and violated. They shouldn’t, but sadly they do. So what exactly is so bad about someone seeing your naked form, a professional who is specially trained and will at all times be a professional, in order to prevent a flying metal tube with tonnes of explosive fuel turning into a weapon?

Yes, I acknowledge that security may well not be the only issue, many people are worried about their privacy, and of course they are right to do so. There have been a number of leaks lately of the two types of x-ray body scanners on the internet. These images of course were supposed to remain private and in some cases be deleted immediately.

Believe it or not, I disagree with this. Images, in my opinion, should be kept for a finite amount of time, say a week, or a month. If something were to happen on a flight, the first instance would be to reliably re-check the passengers for anything that might have been missed. They should however remain absolutely secure with zero risk of exposure. Perhaps store them in a file format that can only be read by a particular type of machine which in turn wont display images without a valid ID card approved for viewing the images. However it’s done, lets do it right.

Suffice to say, I believe we should keep these machines, but just make them a little more secure. After all, you don’t want to be the one who objected to them, only to find that a plane went down with a loved one because you protested their existence do you?

All of these are posted in a relatively logical order, but take some time to think about it because for this we’re going to use T3′s Gadget of the year, the iPad for this example.

Pride

Who of us hasn’t brought a shiny new gadget and can’t resist showing it off to our friends?

“Look! It’s still got that new gadget smell!” we shout as we proudly shove our new gadget in front of our friends, showing it off in all it’s glory above their cripplingly slow netbook or five year old laptop. But do we really need it?

“It can do all these wonderful things!” We exclaim as we try to justify our expensive purchase while in the back of our minds realising slowly that well, we could just lug our laptops around and have the same experience until we hit on that killer feature.

“It’s got multitouch!” We shout proudly, whilst at the same time realising that there are very few applications where we actually use it, yet suddenly realising that for a mere £20 we could get a multitouch trackpad to do much of the same

Envy

On the other hand, we could have just brought our shiny new iPad, happy as hell as we jump around thrusting it into everyones face until we suddenly thrust it into the pristine palms of someone who casually pulls out their brand new 13.3 inch MacBook Air.

Suddenly our attention is focused on the wafer thin piece of technology as we suddenly realise what a mistake we’ve made. For just a few hundred pounds more we could have brought THIS! So what if it only has a 64GB SSD, it’s got a full OS, multitouch and a bigger screen, with proper web browsing, flash and the ability to load almost any application we can think of, oh and it’s got a full sized keyboard and suddenly the world has wronged us as we realise that even with all of that it has better battery life. Suddenly our older more expensive and just as capable laptop isn’t looking so bad!

Anger

Of course with all of these realisations, our friend proudly exclaims “Look I can play flash games, run Microsoft Word, have proper photo editing and I don’t have to sync it with iTunes every day”

We stand back, shocked and appalled, angry that someone would dare say anything bad about our shiny new piece of technology. Of course the argument ensues

“My MacBook can run flash!”

“But my iPad doesen’t NEED flash, flash is dead”

and so it goes on, even though secretly in the back of our minds we come to the slow realisation that we really want this beautiful piece of technology.

Lust

Of course after this, we start lusting over the other persons new piece of technology, we slowly fall in love with it, desperately trying to justify the expense. We secretly hate our new iPad, and look longingly at the old MacBook, exclaiming loudly “but it’s old” even though it’s perfectly capable, perfectly powerful. In fact it’s probably better than the shiny new MacBook air, but still we start to lust after it.

Every time we see the new MacBook Air on the web, we start to wonder about selling the iPad.

Greed

We wan’t it all. Suddenly despite the fact we just spend £700 on an iPad, we want the £999 MacBook Air as well, we want both, we want the newest and greatest all of the time even though we can’t afford it. Sure what we have is more than good enough, but “THIS ONE’S BETTER!” using any excuse to squirrel away some money to try and save up for it. We have to have it, because we wan’t the newest and best, and because we somehow think it might make us better than the other guy. We somehow justify a need where none exists.

Gluttony

All the while we lust after the new product, but then we look around and see our iPad, our year old MacBook pro and our iPhone 4. It doesn’t take long to realise we have it all, we’ve indulged in everything we can and cannot afford. Somehow it doesn’t seem so bad, but there are gadgets sitting there that do all the same things yet we don’t use them.

We’re all swimming in technology, but we’re not using it, we can’t afford to go on but still we must, with the top of our wardrobes covered with bags and boxes from the things we brought, slowly getting left behind and neglected.

Sloth

Of course, with all of these gadgets around, we get lazy. The MacBook gets disgustingly dirty, covered in filth as we let it, to try and justify buying a new one. The iPad that we brought and loved only a month or so ago, lies there, hardly being used, hardly being wanted. We can’t be bothered to maintain them, all the while we’re slowly giving up hope of affording the new product, and leaving our other tools and gadgets in neglect. We’ve become lazy, repentant and remorseful. Our gadgets lie in the dust, un-used and unloved as our emotions drop and drain.

The moral of all of this of course, is we are, sadly, shallow people. We always want the newest product out there even though what we have already is perfectly good enough. Of course, it’s not very good for our finances.

So, as it comes up to christmas, the month where everyones finances are drained, do your wallet and your gadgets a favour, think twice about whether you really need something, or whether you can be content with what you have.

Don’t forget, your gadgets have feelings too!

Right, This is a rant. It wont make much sense, It wont entirely sound right but I need to get it off my chest.

Heres the thing, we as humans, we all seem to have these little… ‘rituals’ or ‘games’ like when a guy talks to a girl. You can’t just admit, however subtly that you like someone. You have to play the ‘hard to get’ game with a generous amount of ‘teasing’.

Of course the same goes with people you meet and maybe upset, or confuse or just say something slightly out of place. Instead of actually being told that you’ve done something wrong, or a nudge in the ribs with the words “that wasn’t the best thing to say” most of us have to sit around and actually wonder what on earth we have done.

Now, I stress here and now that I have not gone and upset someone, at least not that I know of, and nor is this a blog post crying for sympathy. It is simply me expressing some thoughts after a long week of contemplating just why I don’t get people. In fact the more I try to understand, the more confused I get.

Actually, let me tell you where this came from. A few days ago I went out with some friends, as you do. I sat in a pub, chatting away normally, and then a few minutes later, someone goes silent. Totally. But of course they say they are fine. It turns out that I had said something that related to a ‘personal issue’ from their past.

Now, what I said, was perfectly fine, it just happened to remind them of it. But unfortunately the game got played and instead of someone being honest, or just shrugging it off, the person just decided to go off on one. So when I say I don’t understand people, I really mean it. I don’t understand them!

I really do think I understand pets / dogs etc more than i understand people!

Right, rant over. Don’t know if that actually made sense but, I needed to do it.

Next post… Mac! Yes… I know!