A quick search of just boing boing finds:

http://www.boingboing.net/2006/07/14/laptop-batteries-bur.html

and

http://www.boingboing.net/2006/07/28/dude-your-dell-just-.html

The logic of the rules is clear. There is a real fire hazard. If the fire takes place in the passenger compartment it will be noticed immediately. So the goal is to keep the fire small enough to be controlled without losing the airplane. In the luggage compartment it will not be noticed until it is much larger, and there is no good access to fight the fire. So checked luggage sizes are smaller to keep the potential fires smaller and controllable by the more limited firefighting facilities there.

In any fire the airplane will make an emergency landing, so fire size matters. If you can land and evacuate before the fire is too large, at least you save the passengers and crew.

The two simplest steps for bomb resistant containers are:
1) Make them out of very sturdy mesh. The blast goes out through the holes, but is weakened by the mesh resistance. Strong nested meshes are the best method for containing blasts. The open mesh also makes the interior visible, so that anyone can see the contents, which forces bomb makers to add a disguise of some sort.
2) Make the opening a difficult but usable shape. This is one reason that paper recycling uses narrow slots, etc. The slots are suitable for their purpose, but force any bomb to be an inappropriate or difficult shape. Usually the result is that any bomb that will fit through the opening is small enough that the mesh will greatly limit the damage area.

You see a great many such trash and recycling containers around the world.

Another approach that I have seen is the use of trash rings from which hang clear plastic bags. Again, these limit the possible bomb size and weight and ensure visibility. The vulnerability to vandalism and the weight limit make these less popular.