With the issues of people being forced to check in their laptops into their bags, DesignNews has looked at what various people in the industry suggest you do with your laptop. One of the more useful ideas is from dell which is to remove the battery from the device. From the article… Dan Gordon, the shock and vibration test engineer, doesn’t travel on planes, but he knows what he would do: “I’d either wrap my laptop back up in the original manufacturer’s packaging, or I’d build my own case out of some type of plastic foam, bubble, wrap, and corrugated.” Spoken like a true engineer..

A friend of mine has just been to the USA, and has realised that it is probably not a good idea to go onto airlines that are not associated with the other airlines you are travelling on that day. NorthWest Airlines is one airline he has promised never to travel on again, and many of my friends call it NorthWorst! It comes as little surprise then that the airline is suggesting to soon to be former employees that they should not be above looking inside dumpsters for stuff, and suggest dates involving walks on the beach rather than movies.

The SMH has a story on former IceHouse front man Iva Davies being inducted into the Roch and Roll Hall of Fame. What I find interesting here is that they mentioned that he did the music to Master and Commander. I didn’t know that…

And Schwepes is reducing the size of their softdrink bottles once again from 315ml to 300ml. They say they are doing this to meet the ergonomic requirements of a new bottle. But they are not reducing the price, leading most to suspect that this is being done just to save a tiny bit of money.