by , 2:35 PM EDT, March 10th, 2008

Michael Nygard, a frequent flyer who takes great pains to make his flights less of an ordeal, missed his flight recently. The cause was a MacBook Air that bothered and bewildered TSA personnel.

In his blog, Mr. Nygard explained how the fact that his MacBook Air has no hard disk threw the X-ray technician and TSA screeners for a loop.

"There's no drive," one of the TSA people said. "And no ports on the back. It has a couple of lines where the drive should be," she continued, concerned about its design.

The unusual design of the Apple notebook made the TSA people believe that it was some kind of mocked up device. A younger, more knowledgeable TSA screener finally showed up and explained to the stymied gaggle that it's not a "device," it's a computer with Flash memory for storage, just like a camera.

The other TSA people didn't know what that meant. Mr. Nygard missed his flight.