T O D A Y A cabin in the woods? A tropical beach? Dream about the perfect retreat in Table Talk Road Warrior Are airlines delivering sexist service in first class? (12/08/97) Tip of the Week Road Warrior tips on staying and playing around the world (12/08/97) R E C E N T L Y Mondo Weirdo By Lori Makabe When bed bugs attack! (12/05/97) Surreal Gourmet By Bob Blumer Herbed olive oil holiday gifts (12/05/97) Maya Color Photographs by Jeffrey Becom Jeffrey Becom's passionate pix (12/04/97) The man who loved books in Turkey By Lisa Michaels An encounter with a book-starved shopkeeper in Turkey provides a new perspective on literary packing (12/03/97) Italian affair By Laura Fraser The author finds a passionate healing on a post-breakup trip to Italy (12/02/97) - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Browse the Wanderlust archives - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Your virtual travel agency - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -		I N F O R M E D_S O U R C E S - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Don't use that laptop on this plane! Last week Wanderlust received an e-mail concerning an aircraft problem we hadn't heard of before -- magnetized tray tables apparently corrupting a laptop hard drive. The e-mail is reproduced below. Have any of you road warriors experienced this problem? Let us know, and we'll pass along the alert! Write to wanderlust@salonmagazine.com. Recently, two colleagues were traveling to Belgium on Sabena Belgium World Airlines. They were seated in row 6 of the plane, where seats contain the tray tables in the armrest section of the seat. They set up their tray tables and proceeded to use their laptop computers. During the flight, both their PCs began experiencing problems, and soon they were unable to use their PCs. Apparently the tray tables were magnetized, so that they would not jostle and make noises while stored in the armrests. The magnetized trays corrupted the hard drives of both laptops. On this particular Belgium flight, the aircraft happened to be a new Airbus 340, which explains why this problem has not surfaced until now. The problem seems to be with a specific European aircraft seat manufacturer. As far as I can determine, USAir, Northwestern and United have no plans to utilize these magnetized trays in their new Airbus aircraft, and Boeing and McDonnell Douglas also have no plans to use these magnetized trays in their new aircraft. There have been no reported cases of other types of aircraft experiencing this problem. The purpose of this notice is simply to make travelers aware of the "potential" problem, especially on Airbus aircraft built for European-based airlines. If the tray table appears to be magnetized (use a paper clip to see if it sticks), then I would advise people not to use their laptop computer on these trays. SALON | Dec. 8, 1997 Return to Road warrior