Macbook Saves Man's Life During Fort Lauderdale Airport Shooting (chron.com) 175
A 37-year-old credits his MacBook Pro laptop with saving his life during a shooting at the baggage claim of the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport. An anonymous reader quotes WPLG Miami:
He placed it in his backpack, but didn't think of it when he felt an impact on his back during the shooting... When the bloodshed was over, he said he went to the men's restroom and saw a bullet hole on the laptop. He gave it to FBI agents. And he was in shock when they found a 9 mm bullet in his backpack. That was when he realized a gunman aimed to kill him, but the laptop took the bullet for him. "If I didn't have that backpack on, the bullet would have shot me between the shoulders," Frappier said.
Old MBP (Score:5, Funny)
Good thing he didn't have the new MBP - would have been too thin to stop the bullet...
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and it's storage would of been harder to get back / have to pay apple shop pricing to use the there recovery cable.
Re:Old MBP (Score:5, Funny)
and it's storage would of been harder to get back / have to pay apple shop pricing to use the there recovery cable.
Just wondering if you're trying to get the largest number of grammatical/word usage errors in a single sentence possible...?
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and it's storage would of been harder to get back / have to pay apple shop pricing to use the there recovery cable.
As opposed to the old, socketed version, that would have just been blown to pieces.
And, pray tell, what is the Apple Shop price for data extraction using their magic cable?
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As opposed to the old, socketed version, that would have just been blown to pieces.
Unlikely, as the disk drive is about 2 square inches. With the new MBP, the storage is soldered on, so if there is damage to any of the motherboard, the whole system is junk. The only way to retrieve the data would be with some kind of special rig, or by desoldering the flash chips.
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As opposed to the old, socketed version, that would have just been blown to pieces.
Unlikely, as the disk drive is about 2 square inches. With the new MBP, the storage is soldered on, so if there is damage to any of the motherboard, the whole system is junk. The only way to retrieve the data would be with some kind of special rig, or by desoldering the flash chips.
Actually, if the owner was using FileVault2, the data is likely toast in either case, I believe.
But, because Apple makes it drop-dead simple (no pun!) to create and maintain backups with Time Machine (or, if you prefer, something like rsync), and considering the low cost and small size of portable drives, anyone who (especially) travels with their MacBook and DOESN'T have a backup really does deserve exactly what they get.
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Does Apple even offer official data recovery (beyond copying backup from icloud)? Afaik they dont.
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Of course they do.
Free of charge usually.
In what retarded world do you live?
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I have a deal for you, Ill send you 10 water damaged iphones, you will recover data from them thru Apple using this 'Free of charge' service I never heard about, and I will pay you $200 per phone.
Easy $2K, what do you say champ?
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We talked about MBPs, where the data is on the hard drive. Assuming it is a HD failure and not a water damage ...
What kind of moron are you? I can construct any case where it is either impossible or out of the "we do it for free out of fair dealing".
On the other hand, if you have $200 bucks over for data recovery fro a phone with water damage, I can do that for you ... facepalm. However not with a "free apple service" but a payed $50 per unit service ... hope you don't mind?
Re:Old MBP (Score:4, Funny)
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Maybe MacBook Pro owners could get together and sue Apple somehow for being responsible for the death of uh, some people.
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They make a $400 touchscreen tablet that will share data with your $2800 laptop.
Yep (Score:1, Flamebait)
I've often thought the metal on the MacBook Pro was thick enough to stop or seriously slow a bullet...
Where are all you Ive haters now? Six feet under, that's where.
On a side note, it shows why you always make sure you have a full backup before traveling...
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Far more likely is was a ricochet or was slowed by a book in his backpack, a direct shot with a 9mm at reasonable range would mean they were surgically removing macbook pro bits from the bullet wound on his shoulder/back if he survived.
MacBooks have been shown to stop bullets before (Score:5, Interesting)
a direct shot with a 9mm at reasonable range would mean they were surgically removing macbook pro bits from the bullet wound on his shoulder/back
It was only handgun ammunition probably from a good distance, and it's not like we have not seen a MacBook stop [obamapacman.com] a bullet [techpowerup.com] before...
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For a 9mm to do that he'd have had to be close range. It's got no real punch. Cops sometimes shoot people four or five times in the back and they keep running.
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Yep, that's why I carry a .45, 'cause I've seen 9mm bounce off windshields.
For those that don't get the reference:
http://www.imdb.com/character/... [imdb.com]
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Another side note (Score:1)
I've often thought the metal on the MacBook Pro was thick enough to stop or seriously slow a bullet...
Where are all you Ive haters now? Six feet under, that's where.
On a side note, it shows why you always make sure you have a full backup before traveling...
On another side note, this guy just voluntarily gave the FBI his laptop. Now they can rifle through his files and see if he's likely to have committed any crimes.
If he hasn't, and if there's nothing personal or interesting on his laptop he's OK, but they might just start a file on him and squirrel away the data for later use, "just in case".
He might have thought to remove the hard drive before giving it to them, but you tend not to think of these things in a tense situation.
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On another side note, this guy just voluntarily gave the FBI his laptop. Now they can rifle through his files and see if he's likely to have committed any crimes.
The article said it was a laptop issued by his school. Not likely to be anything incriminating on it, assuming the storage survived, which is perhaps likely given how small the drives are today.
What I was thinking about is that he just gave the FBI something he did not own. It's not likely the school is going to bother a shooting survivor over a few hundred bucks lost on a laptop, given that is now quite obviously destroyed and potentially evidence in a crime. A less public incident like this could be co
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IME schools treat them like the school books as in you break it or lose it or for some other reason fail to return it you get they charge you some rather large and arbitrary number of dollars to replace said item.
They will not press charges theft charges against a student.
Thankfully the law allowed us to press charges instead because they CBA to do it.
End result student with a felony because nobody wanted to repay $200.
The school could have stepped in and handled it or the student could have repaid the mone
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I thought I was doing so well too.
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Thanks for making it crystal clear.
Making what crystal clear?
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Thanks for making it even clearer.
Making what even clearer?
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What's breathtaking?
If you are speaking to someone retarded, obviously you must make your writing far more clear, breaking up the subject into a separate sentence plainly will not do! If this conversation is to work you cannot ALSO be retarded.
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The Ft. Lauderdale shooter self reported to the FBI. They were too busy to deal with him.
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Self-reporting such a thing is about the same as me reporting you to the feds for trafficking in kiddy porn... there is no evidence, so little cause/reason to move forward with any serious investigation/acts.
Go to the police and say you are thinking about harming yourself? Probably going to get the same result.
Really want to make sure you don't hurt anyone later? Cold-cock the cop and grab their gun in the presence of other people... that will get you locked up... or just go for more simple form of 'robbing
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Good thing he wasn't a danger to others, huh?
Re:Nope (Score:1)
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Yeah, go to Germany or France so you can get run over by a truck!
To appropriate the favourite argument of gun advocates: But those trucks were illegal!
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146million people in France + Germany, and last year 72 dead. My odds are 4.9E-7 of not getting hit by a truck last year.
389million people in the USA, and last year, and last year 15002 dead.
Please show me to the nearest truck. I have better odds there.
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https://www-fars.nhtsa.dot.gov/Main/index.aspx [dot.gov]
I know that you meant "run over on purpose by a truck", but let's keep the final result in focus.
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What country would that be, I have heard of no country that doesn't have anyone getting shot. Australia, an Island with strict gun laws still has gun crime:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
Heck, even the UK, the bastion of zero firearm crimes has some firearm crime:
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-eng... [bbc.com]
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Frankly, since this is the first incident of its kind, why would I ever be able to find something that doesn't exist.
Find me a single country where this happened before last week.
So, you characture a country based on one incident, and I am the one who has a diminished mental capacity?
tldr (Score:5, Funny)
For those that didn't read the article or summary, apparently the gunman hated the new MacBook Pro so much that he shot that instead of the man.
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For those that didn't read the article or summary, apparently the gunman hated the new MacBook Pro so much that he shot that instead of the man.
it was not the new MacBook, that one has the bullet resistance of paper. It obviously was a very uncool, non-current MacBook...
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it was not the new MacBook, that one has the bullet resistance of paper.
I take it you've tested this for some reason?
The article says it was the man's "school-issued MacBook Pro" - so it's safe to assume it was an older model.
Anti-Apple Extremist (Score:2)
For those that didn't read the article or summary, apparently the gunman hated the new MacBook Pro so much that he shot that instead of the man.
Airports... One of the few places on Earth where the Apples' are separated from the fan boys, BAM! the distorted anodised aluminium body of a Macbook Pro slams to the floor, a T420 preloaded with linux thrust into the shaking hands of the owner by the gunman, BAM! the spindly casing of a MacBook Air splits into layers and cartwheels down the x-ray conveyor belt like paper plates, a Dell XPS 13 is dropped into the now empty tray, BAM! BAM! BAM! a myriad of traumatised fan-boys litter airport security clutchi
Re:tldr (Score:4, Funny)
But what brand of backpack was it?
The San Bernadino gunman had an iPhone. The Fort Lauderdale rampage was foiled by Macbook. Coincidence? I think Apple are taking this product placement thing too far.
OTOH, I should be safe from a gun-related homicide with my 4 year old LG phone and 8 year old Toshiba laptop.
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Good thing Nokia is back to making phones, now you've just to make sure your purchase(s) cover all of your vital organs.
Silly gunman! (Score:1)
Didn't he know you can only put Apple approved bullets in a Mac? Same as regular bullets, but a proprietary shape and size, double the price, and needs a dongle to connect to the shell.
New version of cigarette case stories... (Score:3)
It are the same kind of (bullshit)stories as the deck of cards stopping the bullet, or the cigarette case stopping the bullet, or the bible stopping the bullet.
How many other people at the airport which got shot did have their macbook with them and didn't get the chance to use it as a shield?
Still, has uses (Score:3)
It are the same kind of (bullshit)stories as the deck of cards stopping the bullet..,
How is it bullshit if it worked?
What the MacBook has over most of those items is a greater area it offers protection for.
How many other people at the airport which got shot did have their macbook with them and didn't get the chance to use it as a shield?
Probably most, but think of it this way - it offers a concrete reason to sling your backpack over your back if you are running away from a shooting (or slinging it in front
Re: Still, has uses (Score:1)
A truly wise person will carry a Dell Latitude, or an older Thinkpad to the airport. Much better shielding. And in a conflict situation a potential hostage could probably bludgeon the terrorist to death with a Dell Latitude. Mine is quite heavy, and only a few years old.
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I have a 17.3" XPS. I'm pretty sure it could kill falling from a high shelf.
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How many other people at the airport which got shot did have their macbook with them and didn't get the chance to use it as a shield?
Probably 0-1, given the number of casualties.
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Including Trek actor James Doohan [startrek.com]
Re:New version of cigarette case stories... (Score:4, Informative)
I'm happy (and alive) because my grandfather's rum-flask took a bullet for him in WWI.
My brother has the dented flask in case anyone questions the legitimacy of the story.
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I question the legitimacy of the story. Flasks get dented every day. It could have been an intentionally inflicted dent. Also, they didn't have plastic flasks back then and the spiderman logo is also suspicious.
Re:New version of cigarette case stories... (Score:4, Interesting)
I was thinking how much fun it would be if the bullet shorted the battery...
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Yeah ... but it happens. Shooting in the street outside my house in SF sent 1 bullet straight into the window casing and another one deflected off the plate-glass window without scratching it, into the window casing in another spot. No, they weren't shooting at me (apparently a domestic dispute with collateral damage).
And here I thought (Score:2)
And here I thought Oracle was supposed to be "bulletproof". {rimshot}
No need to thank me, just throw money!
Solid object stops bullet. (Score:2, Redundant)
Seriously, did we have to hear the exact brand and type? A solid object that happened to be a laptop in a backpack is what stopped the bullet. In fact, a textbook or a small stack of magazines would have stopped the bullet equally as well. -_-
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In my mind the story is less about the MacBook and more about the near miraculous survival of the victim. Had it been a book, magazines, or anything else it likely would have still made the news. It just would not likely have made it to Slashdot, that is unless it was some other piece of technology like a cell phone or something.
Re:Solid object stops bullet. (Score:5, Insightful)
more about the near miraculous survival of the victim
Not miraculous in the slightest when you consider the five people who did die. If that's God's idea of a miracle, he's a bit of a prick.
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It would be if it was a pack of condoms. Trojans indeed.
Nokia (Score:2)
Makes me think... (Score:1)
Whenever I read a story like this it makes me consider getting one of those bulletproof clipboards to put in my bag, or get one of those bags with a Kevlar liner.
It also makes me think of how we've disarmed good people in "gun free" zones so that they cannot defend themselves against someone that violated that law on not bringing in guns. I'm glad that people are waking up to this and arming school staff, allowing armed citizens into more places, removing impediments to firearm ownership. It saddens me th
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>"It also makes me think of how we've disarmed good people in "gun free" zones so that they cannot defend themselves against someone that violated that law on not bringing in guns."
+1
I am sure this shooting has the anti's lined up to make propose more laws trying to strip guns from good, law-abiding people and create more so-called "gun-free" zones. Because, you know, that evil shooter in the airport really paid attention to the laws.
Re:Makes me think... (Score:5, Insightful)
The baggage claim area is not a gun free zone. It's outside security and literally anyone from the street could come in with a gun, in addition to someone who had a gun in checked baggage. I don't know if this shooter had actually declared his gun or just put it into his checked luggage (I thought they scanned all checked luggage these days).
The "solution" to this has nothing to do with gun control or kevlar underpants and everything to do with mental health care.
This guy walked into an FBI field office claiming the government was trying to make him watch ISIS videos. They thought he was deranged, so they passed him off to local PD who got him run through whatever cheap mental health screening they use for nuts off the street and then he was set loose again.
The sad story here is that nobody has dime one to provide mental health services for a person claiming the government trying to make them watch videos. This is quite literally tinfoil hat territory, and because there was no money behind him (insurance or private dollars) he gets a social worker with a form designed to satisfy some lawyer's idea of liability. Just how might this have turned out differently if he had been seen by a psychiatrist, talked into a 7 day in-patient evaluation and possibly been given some medication (even if it was just xanax) to get him closer to normal -- or at least seen long enough by trained people to see if he had a more serious long term condition? This guy had been discharged for being a fuckup in the military, so chances are he had a long-term problem.
So many of these spree shooters are people walking around with sign around their necks that says "I HAVE SERIOUS MENTAL HEALTH PROBLEMS" and we just don't give a shit because nobody will pay for mental health care, so they just roam free. We're not even smart enough to pay for the low-end therapy where they just sedate him in-house for a few days, it's literally a rush to get them out the door before they cost somebody money.
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Ditto for the area beyond 'security' as all literally anyone from the street walk in with a gun, open fire at anyone attempting to stop them from entering the 'secure' area.
There are also plenty of less obvious ways to get a weapon into that area, alas for you the dotted security line only provides security theater.
And that solution is...
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Interesting... your only complaint with my comment was who I credited... yet you didn't follow the logical course of actions to their conclusion.
I'm not sure if you are aware... but books or speeches do little on their own. Either they inspire legislation, or other action... like litigation, which is what happened and why involuntary confinement is so limited today.
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The baggage claim area is not a gun free zone.
Yes, yes it is. Florida law prohibits the carry of a firearm anywhere in the airport for self defense. People can and do travel with firearms on flights in and out of Fort Lauderdale but the firearm must be unloaded, in a secure container, etc.
It's outside security and literally anyone from the street could come in with a gun, in addition to someone who had a gun in checked baggage. I don't know if this shooter had actually declared his gun or just put it into his checked luggage (I thought they scanned all checked luggage these days).
Reports stated he traveled with his firearm in a manner consistent with the rules on bringing a firearm on a plane. It was unloaded, in a locked container, in checked luggage, and so forth. What he did though was illegally remove the firearm from the container, lo
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I agree in general this freedom makes sense, but if you imagine a scenario like this baggage claim. Let's say a well trained and well intentioned gun owner is nearby, and close enough to his baggage to safely whip out his gun in an instant to help out.
When the police come in and see not one, but two or more civilians engaged in a firefight, they will now be forced to make a split second decision who to shoot: Which one is the target and which is merely exercising his second amendment right to self defense.
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Yes, that does happen. This is a training issue for police, not cause to disarm the public. Are you saying that the reason the government should or does ban guns is because the police are too lazy, ignorant, or mentally handicapped to determine who is a threat and who is a friendly?
I remember hearing of a friendly fire incident in New York City. The police saw two armed men running down an alley, one chasing the other. The shot the pursuer believing him to be the threat. When they got to him and began
Re:Makes me think... (Score:5, Interesting)
The reason he was so successful in his mass murder is the rest of the people OBEYED THE LAW! In this case the "gun free zone" in the airport existed only on paper. Blood stained and bullet holed paper.
I thought the laws existed to keep us safe, no?
No, they don't. They exist to improve the chances of safety. They do not create total safety. Neither do guns. Black and white thinking is nearly always wrong. (See what I did there?)
And no, the reason he killed five people was NOT because the rest of the people obeyed the law. It was because the rest of the people were cowards, ignorant, or both, and ran, hid, or otherwise did 100% the wrong thing.
Run from a knife, charge a gun. If everybody within earshot dogpiled on him after they heard the very first shot, they could have cut the number of fatalities to as little as none. Maybe one. Maybe two. Definitely much less than five.
Shit, he was using standard hand gun magazines. He RELOADED TWICE. Stopping him before he used every round did not even require physical bravery. Anybody could have waited until he was reloading, then jumped him, with zero chance of getting shot. And any asshole who has played CounterStrike, or a zombie shooter, or shit, watched the fucking Lone Ranger knows that you can't get shot when somebody is reloading.
So no, the "gun free zone" is not the problem. Having guns everywhere is not the solution. Teaching people what to do is the solution. Bravery is the solution. The false bravery of a concealed carry "hero"? No, we don't need more of that.
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Unfortunately, even if you could get this message out to everyone, the natural human reaction to danger is to move away. From flinching away from pain to running from sudden sounds, it's hard wired in by evolution.
The only way to overcome it is with military style training, getting people used to gunshot sounds and running towards people shooting at them. I doubt many people will be willing to go through that.
A more practical solution would be free mental healthcare to prevent the shooters ever getting to t
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A more practical solution would be free mental healthcare to prevent the shooters ever getting to that stage.
Eureka!!!!
It always amazes me that the most simple thing we can do to stop all the violence committed by mentally disturbed individuals is to provide appropriate treatment and make sure all Americans have incredibly easy access to it. It would also help if we immediately took away firearms from the possession of anyone who is hearing voices pending a court hearing on the subject where the matter can be properly adjudicated.
If someone wonders how we will pay for it I would remind them that we spend abo
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Unfortunately, even if you could get this message out to everyone, the natural human reaction to danger is to move away. From flinching away from pain to running from sudden sounds, it's hard wired in by evolution.
The only way to overcome it is with military style training, getting people used to gunshot sounds and running towards people shooting at them.
That may be true, but there's no evolutionary response to gunfire. It hasn't existed long enough.
Yes, people are accustomed to gunshot sounds. Hollywood gunshot sounds. They are accustomed to gunshot sounds that sound a lot scarier than real gunshots. The pop of a real pistol or the crack of a real rifle are almost unrecognizable to most modern people. The T-800's gunshots in Terminator 2 were famously a combination of a manipulated sound of a .38 pistol being fired, a rifle being fired in a canyon, a
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Clearly evidenced by the subject of this article being shot in the back as he was fleeing. Only saved by the macbook in his backpack.
Re:Makes me think... (Score:4, Interesting)
The reason he was so successful in his mass murder is
because of lack of affordable mental healthcare and easy availability of guns.
It's the exact same thing every time in the US. Guy with mental health problems has access to guns.
Good guys with guns won't help much. It's an airport, there were cops and security staff with guns in the area. By the time they got there he had already discarded his weapon, laid on the floor and and was waiting to be arrested. If one of the civilians in the area had been armed, at best we would have maybe one or two fewer victims and a dead suspect.
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If you have free mental healthcare then people won't get to the point where they need 24/7 care so often.
Lost equipment paperwork (Score:4, Funny)
Now his nightmare begins; trying to get a replacement from the school he works for and not getting charged for breaking it.
The article seems to imply a PC laptop (Score:1)
And if this was not the intent, why did they have to use the laptop's brand in the title rather than just say it was a portable computer of some sort with an aluminum body?
Where's the story? (Score:2)
IBM keyboards have been able to stop bullets for about 40 years now.
sounds like the old pocket bible stories... (Score:2)
Big deal (Score:2)
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So what. ....This isn't some testament to the quality of macs.
No, but it certainly highlights one of their possible uses.
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Now TSA goons have a new reason to suspect laptops (Score:2)
They've always suspected body-armor [ar15.com] — if you have one, you must be up to no good [thehighroad.org]. And laptops always took extra scrutiny of their own — easy to conceal a bomb in one.
Now it is going to be double-trouble for anyone traveling with it...
I wonder if that's covered by AppleCare (Score:2)
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Some third-party extended "warranties" are actually more like product failure insurance. Microcenter will sell you a plan that covers the screen getting broken from dropping the thing. http://www.microcenter.com/sit... [microcenter.com]
Would I be a goner with a plastic Chromebook? (Score:2)
Shit, should have invested in a Toughbook. Or will plastic's viscosity slow bullet down to survivable speeds?
And now this breaking news (Score:1)
New MacBook continues to take flak...
Mac laptop toast? (Score:2)
Tempted to say: "and nothing of value was lost".
On the other hand, looks like we finally found a use for Mac hardware!
(I have on my asbestos underpants...waiting for the Apple fans to show up...)
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Nah, we're compassionate, we just smile superiorly at such ignorance.
And do you know that asbestos causes cancer?
Informed sources are claiming... (Score:2)
...the prosecution plans to use the gunman's slaughter of a Macbook as proof that he's sane enough to stand trial.
Survived a bullet because of a Macbook? (Score:2)
I might buy 2 macbooks, one for the back, and another for the torso.
Been saying it for decades... (Score:2)
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Sure - anyone would feel safer with one of the older, thicker MacBooks on their back. But to face a gunman with only a paper-thin new MacBook? That takes courage. And at Apple we will always have the courage to take those risks for you.
TC
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I thought Lenovo switched to just using plastic for the chassis?
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Really this just demonstrates the only good use for a macbook.
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Two telephone books (do they even print those anymore?) will (just) stop a 9mm. That's FMJ -- and a reasonably large metropolitan area telephone book. Even a .22 LR will penetrate a couple of inches.
Military rifle ammo won't stop for much short of a couple of railroad ties. (The old standard for 7.62mm NATO and similar was that it had to penetrate a steel helmet at 1000 yards. Modern 5.56mm (.223) stuff is a little wimpier -- but will still easily go through a car door at close range.)