“A couple of nights later we were raided including armed police and the cyberdecks, materials, electronics taken.”
Also, take battery safety seriously, kids! " the police are trying to claim off us for damage done when a box of lithium batteries caught fire and damaged some storage. Each battery was individually sealed and packaged in protective impact resistant material. The police pulled them out of the protective cases in the raid,"
This comment is telling, and there are several like it: “I had to look up “cyberdecks”. They’re basically computers kitted out to fit a specific aesthetic which looks a lot like the sort of thing Hollywood would have us believe is a bomb”
I’m thinking twice about taking one on a plane, now!
I’ve taken mine looking like this though the airport twice, they only made me take it out the case. Didn’t say anything about it. I got a few funny looks on the plane from other passengers though.
I took mine to a local bar the other day, and the fine gentleman next to me asked if it was a portable typewriter. I’m not really sure if he was right or wrong.
Rule 0. Be very skeptical of “current events” you read on the Internet.
No citation? Utter lack of details? “FOAF” or otherwise anon? Yeah…that didn’t happen.
As described, this thing seems like yet another thing which didn’t happen, among a sea of things that never happened. Didn’t bother reading the whole thread (ugh), looked too silly, but if there was any IRL citation of location, or other real-world-searchable details, I didn’t see any.
Reddit can call itself the “Heart of the Internet” all it wants, but IMO it’s more the “truth-impaired” seven-year-old bratty sister of the Internet, on it’s very best days.
The key thing to note about this story, assuming its true, is that they aren’t claiming they got raided because of owning a cyberdeck. They run a business making amateur cyberdecks from parts, and supposedly a delivery person saw their workshop and became suspicious they were up to something nefarious.
Noting that some amateur cyberdecks look like they have more in common with IEDs and military equipment, it’s a plausible story. But in contrast, the uConsole is a tidy unit that looks industrial, like something you’d see in a flight deck or in the pocket of an engineer. I wouldn’t be afraid to carry mine just based on this tale.
This… the build of the uConsole is one of the reasons why i chose to get it instead of trying to build one. That said, i have had airport security looked at my PalmIIIxe and demanded to know what that is as they have never see one before… i had a really hard time trying to explain to these youngsters what it is.
I’ve not yet taken my uConsole through airport security. But if asked I’d probably call it electronic test equipment. Because that is what it looks like…
