What's the Proper Laptop-on-a-Plane Etiquette?

Earlier this month Gawker looked at coffee-shop laptop etiquette. Now that blogging is a bona fide career path (at least that's what I keep telling myself!), and bloggers show no sign of tiring of coffee shops, so the issue seems to be an increasingly relevant one. Furiously typing away, those "laptoptards" are everywhere, and that also includes 30,000 miles above sea level.

Whatever their altitude, laptop users love to complain about being bothered in public. Citing a freelance writer's question about how to avoid interacting with others in a coffee shop, Sheila at Gawker got all tough-love on the laptoptards, telling them to "suck it up." If you're in a public environment, you're by default inviting social interaction. But what does this mean for laptop etiquette on a plane?

We've all been there. Either you're banging out something in MS Word while the creep sitting next to you can't help but mindlessly stare at your screen. Or you've packed a DVD you'd love to watch but aren't sure its handful of nude scenes are going to go over too well with the 6-year-old (or his mom) seated in the row behind you. What do you do? Enter Design For the Computer Obsessive, which goes beyond the traditional Laptop Privacy Filter. This invention of Royal College of Art grad Joe Malia is essentially a hoodie for your computer, and it may in fact be the perfect solution. Just slip this baby on and dig in to all the porn you want while flying high in the sky.

Malia is also responsible for Public Private -- a scarf version created especially for cell phones. It would also suit a PSP or iPhone just fine. Privacy aside, I guarantee no one will try to talk to you once they've seen you slip into one of these things. Two birds, one stone. [via]