As I was heading back to Seattle from WWDC, I was only traveling with a small backpack. I bundled the Apple Design Award into a t-shirt when I packed that morning, shoved it into my backpack, and forgot all about it when I got the airport. The backpack went through the x-ray machine and showed up as containing a perfect, black square.
The guy watching the screen from the x-ray machine called for another guy, and another guy, and pretty soon there was small crowd scrutinizing the image. The backpack came out, I sheepishly admitted to being the owner, and I was taken aside. When the TSA folks pulled the cube from my bag, it glowed.
Whispers passed over the crowd. After I explained that the cube is from Apple, the security folks reverently placed the futuristic artifact into its own plastic bin and ran it again through the x-ray machine. This time, the other passengers got a glimpse of what the commotion was about and, once again, it was the glow of the cube readily visible as it entered and exited the x-ray machine that sent a wave of whispers through the sizable gathering.
Eventually, the cube made its way back into my bag, but the curious gazes kept coming. I suspect I will be reading about “intercepted alien technology of unknown origin or purpose” on the blogosphere soon. What can I say? Apple knows how to design their products.
supportweb [at] gamecollage [dot] com