With its draconian rules, frequently cranky agents, and embarrassing security lapses, the TSA makes for an easy target. But let's give credit where credit is due: Specifically, the swift reaction on the agency's blog to the recent MacBook Air brouhaha.

Some quick background: Earlier this month, word surfaced that a traveler got stuck at a security checkpoint after TSA agents—who'd apparently never heard of the MacBook Air—grew suspicious of the ultra-thin laptop and its solid-state drive.

Screeners reluctantly let the traveler, programmer Michael Nygard, pass through the checkpoint, but not before he'd missed his flight.

At the time, I groused that the TSA needs to better brief its agents on new gadgets such as the MacBook Air—and according to the TSA's new blog, that's exactly what's happening.

After reading about the incident on the Web, "Blogger Bob" (a TSA supervisor at the Cincinnati-Northern Kentucky International Airport) wrote that he got his own MacBook Air to see what was raising red flags with screeners.

"The MacBook does look completely different than your typical laptop or DVD player," Bob wrote, noting in an accompanying video that the solid-state drive looks "very different from what we're accustomed to seeing."

"I can't get into specifics of course, but there were a couple of areas on the X-ray that could pique some interest for TSOs," Bob said.

Sure, it's obvious that the super-thin Air looks pretty different than your standard laptop—and why all the secrecy about the X-rays?

Still, kudos to Blogger Bob (who, judging from his video on the TSA blog, needs to do some tie shopping) for seeing the problem, not getting defensive, and taking action: To wit, he's making sure that pictures of the Air get sent to the TSA's 45,000 screeners. Well done.

Any MacBook Air owners still running into trouble at airport security?

Related:
Update: Bob Screens the Apple MacBook Air [TSA blog, via Ars Technica]