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Wifi and Laptops Adds Up To Theft 329

Posted by Zonk from the i'm-being-stolen-right-now dept.
Ant writes to mention an SFGate article about the increase in laptop theft in the world of ubiquitous wifi. From the article: "San Francisco police statistics show a disturbing trend. Just 18 laptop computer robberies were logged in 2004, but the figure jumped to 48 last year. There were 18 as of the end of March, a pace that could surpass 70 crimes this year. 'It's a changing culture, and crime is following it'"
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Wifi and Laptops Adds Up To Theft More

Wifi and Laptops Adds Up To Theft

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  • Or it could just be... (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward
    That there are more laptops, being stolen at the same rate. What does wifi have to do with it?

    • Re:Or it could just be... (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Loconut1389 ( 455297 ) on Monday April 10, 2006 @09:12PM (#15102803)
      TFA points out that people congregate with laptops at hotspots. This is true. Thiefs know they can find one or many at such a place.

      Before I RTFA'd, I had the same thought. Afterwards, I still have the contention that people would still sit at starbucks and work on excel wireless or no.

      More laptops does = more crime. Hotspots may be a factor, but not nearly like they make it out to be.

      • TFA points out that people congregate with laptops at hotspots. This is true. Thiefs know they can find one or many at such a place.

        Makes sense...that's one premise behind the convoy antisubmarine tactic in WWII. By concentrating the supply ships in a smaller area, you knew (roughly) where the submarines had to be in order to attack.

        By concentrating the wireless laptops in a smaller area, thieves know where to go to steal them. Same idea, but working in favor of the thieves.

        • Same idea, but working in favor of the thieves.

          So why not concentrate a few plain-clothes cops in the same areas and tip the balance the other way?

          • So why not concentrate a few plain-clothes cops in the same areas and tip the balance the other way?

            Police budgets being what they are, the cops aren't likely to be hanging out at coffee joints - there's always people screaming about how the cops have the wrong priorities. The police won't be spending much time on these "yuppie" property-type crimes unless someone dies, and then only due to the publicity.

            • ... like the Q-Ships of WW1 [firstworldwar.com], the cops could deploy a few laptops that, when attacked by a thief, would deploy Taser darts....

              ... to be followed by lawsuits, of course.

            • ..the cops aren't likely to be hanging out at coffee joints..

              So, where does your city find its cops hanging out? Around here (granted, it's the Seattle area) it's hard to find a coffee shop without a uniformed cop in it. And we have a fair shitload of coffee houses. Of course with our cops it's not a doughnut and a Farmer Brothers.. it's more like a grande Ethiopia Sidamo (soy, please) with a lemon bundt.

      • TFA points out that people congregate with laptops at hotspots. This is true. Thiefs know they can find one or many at such a place.

        This sounds like a Discovery Channel documenatary on the lion and the gazelle. "The lion knows they can find one or many gazelle at a watering hole", except replace lion with thiefs, gazelles with laptops, and watering hole with "wifi hotspot". Unless perhaps you're talking about wifi in a crummy bottled watter cafe, then i guess watering hole is an ok description.

        oh god did
    • I think it is caused by the cost of gas. As the gas price goes up, laptops get stolen.....

      Or maybe it is global warming...

      The real reason is most likely that there has been a big upswing in the use of private laptops. The number of laptops has increased, so more get stolen. Further, in the early days, laptops were mainly exec toys and were well cared for and probably well guarded. Now they're very common and being lost/stolen more often.

  • FUD (Score:5, Insightful)

    by babbling ( 952366 ) on Monday April 10, 2006 @09:09PM (#15102790)
    Attacking someone for their laptop isn't really any different than attacking them for anything else. This isn't new. Whenever you reveal in public something of particular worth, there's a possibility that some moron is going to attack you in the hopes of stealing it from you.

    • Re:FUD (Score:4, Insightful)

      by DerGeist ( 956018 ) on Monday April 10, 2006 @09:34PM (#15102922)
      Exactly -- this same kind of FUD came out with cell phones too, people were saying if you carry too nice of a cell phone, it'll be eyed by thugs who hang out in alleyways with various blunt metallic objects and you'll die. They'll completely ignore your Prada bag, fur coat, 5 carat diamong ring, and 24-karat gold watch.

      My point here is, like the parent poster, you need to keep your eyes open when you reveal that you have something of worth. A wifi hotspot is just a better excuse to pull out your laptop in public.

      Don't stare at the screen intently, keep your eyes out for anyone who doesn't look trustworthy. It's not that hard to spot, crimes like these are generally crimes of opportunity (in TFA it sounds organized, though, but note they still picked an easy target) Don't make yourself an easy target, stay in plain view of many people, watch your back (try to sit against a wall if possible, it makes you virtually impossible to sneak up on).

      If someone shady approaches you, prepare yourself, if they continue and you don't trust them, make a scene. Even if you look like a jerk (or even insane) you'll be alive and keep your laptop. Most importantly, do NOT take a long, dark path to your car. This is key; many times criminals will "stake out" a place for customers carrying a thick wad or valuables, then mug them on their way to their car. Under your car, behind it, and behind nearby objects are favorite hiding places.

      The number one thing criminals hate is attention. Keep in mind the thoughts of a criminal and you'll be fine:

      * Quick grab, quick escape
      * No witnesses
      * They do not necessarily want to kill you or anyone else (most criminals try not to add time voluntarily) but are most likely armed

      • Re:FUD (Score:2, Insightful)

        by walmartshopper67 ( 943351 )
        You're forgetting one of the most important aspects of criminal behavior - ease. Don't be the easiest target. The other 2 conditions you mentioned are part of it, but it simple things like carrying your keys like they are brass knuckles, making a lot of noise, or just giving off an "aura" of "i'm not a victim". I'm serious, criminals don't want to get caught, so they are looking for the weakest victim, so they don't. If you look like you can run fast or have a big flashlight, they'll go elsewhere.

    • Need to Know. (Score:3, Informative)

      by twitter ( 104583 )
      This isn't new. Whenever you reveal in public something of particular worth, there's a possibility that some moron is going to attack you

      That's why you need to know that some moron thinks your laptop is valuable. This has not always been the case. Paw shops have traditionally shied away from computers because they are tricky to fix and their value falls too quickly. Ebay has changed that. The reality of the situation is not as important as what the dirtbags think. It's a trend and it will spread as th

  • There is a shopping center in the SF Bay Area (Score:5, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 10, 2006 @09:12PM (#15102804)
    in Milpitas (McCarthy Ranch) that thieves have been targeting. They do there during lunch and right after work, and do "smah and grab" style robberies on cars. The target: laptops in bags left unattended while the victim shops. Police have had to issue special alerts to shoppers.

    Put your laptop in the trunk when you leave your office, so that potential thieves don't see you place it there when you arrive at the mall.
    • Put your laptop in the trunk when you leave your office, so that potential thieves don't see you place it there when you arrive at the mall.

      Or leave it at the office. Why are you bringing your laptop to the mall on your lunch break?

      • Why are you bringing your laptop to the mall on your lunch break?

        Ask that to the idiots who leave archive tapes on their passenger seat which are full of much more sensitive data than you'll find on the average laptop. Or, better yet, ask the idiots who let employees take home those sensitive tapes.

        Perhaps this is after work though... you won't be able to hit much more than the food court at a mall during a lunch break, and surely there's some cheaper, better food available closer to the office than wha

        • you won't be able to hit much more than the food court at a mall during a lunch break, and surely there's some cheaper, better food available closer to the office than what's at the mall food court.

          I currently work near McCarthy Ranch. It's more like a giant strip mall with a BUNCH of standalone restaurants - and except for it and another mall on the opposite side of the freeway it's nearly a services-dead area for miles in all directions. (MIlipitas proper has a few restaurants in the old downtown. But
          • I currently work near McCarthy Ranch. It's more like a giant strip mall with a BUNCH of standalone restaurants - and except for it and another mall on the opposite side of the freeway it's nearly a services-dead area for miles in all directions. (MIlipitas proper has a few restaurants in the old downtown. But the bulk of them are in those two malls and a third one a few miles away.)

            My god... you make it sound like pretty much the most depressing place on earth. Is this really what silicon valley is like?!?
          • Hmm... I think you missed my point: why bother uprooting your laptop for an hour's lunch break just so you can leave it in your car where it's much more likely to become stolen (quite possibly resulting in a fairly pricy car repair bill) or damaged in some way. Well, that plus the general idea that 'mall' isn't a typical lunchtime target. Varies by location, apparently.
    • West Philadelphia to be more precise. I've seen cars broken for much less valuable stuff ... (like a pack of softdrinks, if you can believe it). Living your purse in a car in a conspicuous place is simply dumb around here.

  • Really? That's it? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by theheff ( 894014 ) on Monday April 10, 2006 @09:15PM (#15102815)
    If you consider that San Francisco consists of millions of people... is 18 really a lot? I mean sure, stolen property it stolen property, but the figures sound rather minute.

    • Re:Really? That's it? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by ScrewMaster ( 602015 ) on Monday April 10, 2006 @09:17PM (#15102830)
      Presumably that's just the 18 that bothered to fill out a police report. The true number is probably much higher.

    • Re:Really? That's it? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by neurojab ( 15737 ) on Monday April 10, 2006 @09:26PM (#15102879)
      >If you consider that San Francisco consists of millions of people

      While the metropolitan San Francisco Bay Area consists of millions of people (exactly how many depends on what you consider the bay area), SF itself houses only 744,230 (give or take). The most populous city in the bay area is San Jose, with 945,000.

      But your basic point is right. Oakland (another bay area city, smaller than SF at 412,318) has had over 30 murders so far this year, so 18 laptop thefts isn't exactly a crime wave.

      • How many folk come to the city during the day? DC is similar census pop is 500k but it swells to more than a million when everyone gets to work from the burbs.
        • I lived in SF (proper) for most of my adult life. I actually only worked within SF about a third of that time. Real estate in SF is astronomical (always has been, boom or bust), and many companies have moved to places like Emeryville and further south to Fremont. The local governments there have made it very attractive for businesses to move to some of the smaller bay area cities.

          Fremont is particularly attractive right now because it's easily accessible from both San Jose and SF, if you don't mind the

      • SF itself houses only 744,230 (give or take).

        And only circa 300,000 of them are in coffeeshops working on laptops at any one time.
      • But your basic point is right. Oakland (another bay area city, smaller than SF at 412,318) has had over 30 murders so far this year, so 18 laptop thefts isn't exactly a crime wave.

        Yes, but geeks would prefer to be shot dead than have their laptop stolen.... So this story is indeed a grave concern for slashdot readers.
    • Just a note SF is Less than 1 million by a long shot ... only about 2.5 Million in the entire Bay area.
    • If you consider that San Francisco consists of millions of people... is 18 really a lot? I mean sure, stolen property it stolen property, but the figures sound rather minute.

      Spoken like a true American. I think if anything this level of apathy about crime in the States is more than half the problem.

    • And also, I bet there are more laptops. I'd surmise that the ratio of (laptops stolen):(total laptops) is probably largely unchanged. More items, quantitatively, means more quantity available for theft.

      ~W

  • Percentage of Laptop Sales (Score:3, Interesting)

    by SlashdotOgre ( 739181 ) on Monday April 10, 2006 @09:16PM (#15102824) Journal
    As laptops become more common, an increase in the number stolen ought to be expected. I didn't find it in the article, but an important number to note would be the percentage increase in laptop sales over the same period (2004-2005).

  • Now I understand! (Score:5, Funny)

    by MyLongNickName ( 822545 ) on Monday April 10, 2006 @09:17PM (#15102834) Journal
    In a recent speech Negropante [slashdot.org] said: "You see. When I said we were building $100 laptops for developing countries, you people assumed I meant Africa. What I was referring to was Caliifrnia. Have you been to some of the neighborhoods in LA? You can get killed for your shoes. In order to make it safer for folks in cities like San Fracisco where, let's face it, they cannot defned themselves, I developed this idea. Give them an etch-a-sketch interface, and an off brand of Linux, and NO self respecting thief would even bother.
    Sure, thre will be the occasional bully who takes your cheap computer just to break it and watc you cry. That is life. But there will be no secondary market for these computers. EVAR!
    I fully expect to win a Nobel for this."

  • That's it? (Score:5, Funny)

    by cdrudge ( 68377 ) on Monday April 10, 2006 @09:18PM (#15102837) Homepage
    18, 48, and 70? In San Francisco? I would have guessed that number to be several times that.

    Hmm...actually, for 2004, there was nearly 5 times as many murders as there were laptop thefts. Moral of the story is that if you carry a laptop, you are 5 times less likely to be murdered!
    • I was going to get a laptop to decrease my chances of being murdered, but on the way to buy it I was hit by a bus.
    • Yeah, that must be number of laptops stolen from the LAPD only...

  • Here's the problem that I have with this story.... (Score:4, Interesting)

    by 8127972 ( 73495 ) on Monday April 10, 2006 @09:20PM (#15102846)
    While it is unfortunate that one person got stabbed for their laptop, I have to wonder if this is somehow being blown somewhat out of proportion. Yes there has been an increase in this sort of crime (at least in the SF area), but how long before Starbucks gets cameras and the like to make these environments less appealing to thieves? My guess is that it won't take long. After all, the laptop user is a user who is willing to pay for their coffee, which means that they want to keep that cash rolling in.

  • Actually, (Score:2, Informative)

    by AWhiteFlame ( 928642 )
    I'm thinking that its just because there are more laptops in general. Five years ago, laptops that I saw were not exactly mainstream, they were for business people, or people like me who can't leave a computer screen. (There are exceptions, as always, but.) Maybe because wifi wasn't as developed and people's main interest in computers is the internet, or maybe just because laptops are traditionally not as powerful as desktops. Now, it seems that when someone buys a computer, having a laptop is seen by most

  • duh (Score:4, Insightful)

    by tacokill ( 531275 ) on Monday April 10, 2006 @09:23PM (#15102864)
    Did anyone happen to consider that, since there are MORE laptops in the world, there might be more thefts?

    Correlation doesn't mean causation and all that jazz.


    (wtf - this is news now?)

  • See my reasonably priced notebooks on EBay! (Score:5, Funny)

    by InsMonkey ( 324276 ) on Monday April 10, 2006 @09:27PM (#15102884) Homepage
    Please check out my reasonably priced notebooks on EBay!

  • A simple precaution (Score:5, Interesting)

    by ortholattice ( 175065 ) on Monday April 10, 2006 @09:29PM (#15102898)
    I have my browser home page (in both Mozilla and IE) set to a web page on my server that no one else knows about. Unsophisticated thieves, when they get home or to their fence's place, will probably try it out to make sure it works, before reinstalling the OS or whatever (if they're even that competent). One of the first things they'll typically do is fire up the browser. Then their IP is captured in my server's web log.

    I'm not saying this is the only precaution one should take, or that it's guaranteed to work. But it's easy to do and increases the likelihood that some evidence will be captured. It depends on the stupidity of the thief, and those kinds of people often just aren't that smart.

    • Of course, that presumes that they immediately wire it in to their fences broadband network - or have a neighbours wifi to bounce through.

    • Re:A simple precaution (Score:3, Interesting)

      by EvanED ( 569694 )
      Why not just add a program to the startup sequence that does it?

      I've actually thought about doing something like what you suggest but have been repulsed by the notion of not having a password required for sign-on.

      Ah well, I don't have a laptop anyway (yet -- I plan on getting a tablet next winter) so it doesn't really matter.
      • I've actually thought about doing something like what you suggest but have been repulsed by the notion of not having a password required for sign-on.

        Solution: spoof screens! The desktop is really a log-in screen (or vice versa?) that only YOU know where to click and access anything. You may need 2 layers of spoofing, the fake password and a fake desktop after that, followed by the real password prompt... I'm messing all of this up, but I think the idea is sound.

      • Just have "sudo -u joeuser wget -O /dev/null http://www.yourwebsite.net/ [yourwebsite.net] &" in rc.local. Can do something similar in Windows, perhaps in autoexec.bat. No need to live without a password for that to work. Executes before the system gets to the password prompt. Just have to be sure it's after dhcp enables the network.
    • Then their IP is captured in my server's web log.

      Great, now you know the other Starbucks they went to.
    • Never thought of that one. Another thing that is a must is identification on your machine. Anyone who has ever gone to retrieve stolen property at the local P.D. Knows that one of the thing that will be asked of you is Can you identify it. I identified mine by painting my name and DOB, A combination that is highly unique, inside the battery bay, on the mother board, hard drive and engraved into the back cover. All out of sight. In the off chance my laptop is located ether m me or the police I will need
      • Take it one step further, get a custom paint job, at that point the laptop
        is pretty much un-sellable. Of course it can be parted out, but it might stop
        it from getting taken in the fisrt place if it's got your personal logo painted on it.

    • Re:A simple precaution (Score:5, Informative)

      by PoitNarf ( 160194 ) on Monday April 10, 2006 @10:54PM (#15103290)
      Clever idea. Here's something a bit more advanced, but it costs money ofcourse. It's called Computrace and it's available on just about any laptop (they even have an OS X version). Their tracking agent attempts to make a call out to their servers every 24 hours. If it doesn't have an active internet connection, it will attempt to dial out through the modem if a phone line is connected. Newer Dells and IBMs actually store the tracking agent in the systems BIOS, so unless they plan on changing the motherboard out they're out of luck. We use this at my workplace quite extensively now, and have even used it to track "missing" laptops successfully. Check out their website for more info: http://www.absolute.com/ [absolute.com]

      • Re:A simple precaution (Score:2, Interesting)

        by pruss ( 246395 )
        This isn't quite as secure, but I run a VNC server together with dynDNS on this laptop, so if it gets stolen and connected to the internet, I should at least be able to login and watch what's going on if they don't reformat the drive.

    • Just don't buy it. (Score:3, Insightful)

      by twitter ( 104583 )
      One of the first things they'll typically do is fire up the browser. Then their IP is captured in my server's web log. ... those kinds of people often just aren't that smart.

      That's way too much credit. According to the article, the kind of person who's going to stab you in the chest for your laptop is going to sell it on the street for two hundred bucks. The article did not say so but they are junkies. They are not going to take the time to turn it on, much less check that it works. There are other d

      • That's way too much credit. According to the article, the kind of person who's going to stab you in the chest for your laptop is going to sell it on the street for two hundred bucks. The article did not say so but they are junkies. They are not going to take the time to turn it on, much less check that it works. There are other dirtbags out there, the kind who steal textbooks and sell plasma. They won't stab you but will steal your laptop just the same.

        I'm pretty sure that whoever buys it is going to

  • Just 18 laptop computer robberies were logged in 2004, but the figure jumped to 48 last year. There were 18 as of the end of March, a pace that could surpass 70 crimes this year.

    Maybe if the city would figure out a way to get the 14000 homeless people in San Francisco off the street, there would be less stolen laptops. Priorities, priorities, priorities.
    • Maybe if the city would figure out a way to get the 14000 homeless people in San Francisco off the street, there would be less stolen laptops. Priorities, priorities, priorities.

      Ahh, Soylent Green powered laptop fuel cells. Some problems just solve themselves.

  • Biometrics = increase in forced amputations! (Score:4, Funny)

    by Itninja ( 937614 ) on Monday April 10, 2006 @09:39PM (#15102936) Homepage
    I have a Thinkpad (pre-Lenovo, so it'a good one) with wifi, and a biometric figerprint scanner. Can I assume that I am at a greater risk of being robbed and having my finger(s) cut off?

    That would really be the only logical conclusion.

  • Stolen Property Registry (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Detritus ( 11846 ) on Monday April 10, 2006 @09:44PM (#15102966) Homepage
    I'd like to see the creation of a publicly accessable stolen property registry, to make it harder for thieves to sell their loot. Auction sites, like eBay, could require sellers to list the serial numbers, if any, of all items that they are selling.

  • Robbery != Theft. (Score:5, Informative)

    by vhold ( 175219 ) on Monday April 10, 2006 @09:46PM (#15102976)
    Once again I think the summarizer has confused the words and thus the discussion.

    The key word here is robbery, which means violence or intimidation being used to steal the property.

    I'm sure the number of laptop thefts is vastly higher. I worked at one company in the south of market area a few years back that was broken into several times and lost nearly 10 laptops alone.
  • Hmmm...

    "So far, San Francisco appears to the only major Bay Area city to be hit by the problem. San Jose has been hit by laptop thefts, but it has yet to experience many of the robberies. "We haven't seen it yet,'' said Sgt. Nick Muyo of the San Jose police."

    I doubt there's a correlation, but SF recently voted against gun ownership. In theory, everybody in SF is now unarmed, but there's a chance for legal carry in SJ.

    More laptop thefts in an unarmed city?

    - sitting back to watch the fireworks...

  • PC Phone Home (Score:4, Informative)

    by Ungrounded Lightning ( 62228 ) on Monday April 10, 2006 @10:03PM (#15103045) Journal
    Seems to me there's a couple things one could do as a precaution:

      - Load an application that would have the laptop occasionally contact a server to see if it's been reported stolen, and if it has been, start reporting IP and MAC addresses it hears on WiFi in its vicinity, connections it has made for landline internet, perhaps taps on email going through it, and so on - and turn on the WiFi transmitter to broadcast the occasional "Here I Am" packet for direction finding.

      - Record the WiFi MAC address of the PC and sniff for it once it's stolen.

      - Record whatever info the PC will use to identify itself to Microsoft if/when somebody tries to register/authorize a fresh load of one of their products. (Here's where Microsoft could do the law abiding a service by reporting IP address and date/time to law enforcement when a stolen machine is reauthorized.)

    Sort of a software LoJack.

    If the theives don't eload the software the PC will "phone home" once the ultimate recipient starts running it, and it will be trackable. If they DO reload it the may call the cops down on themselves directly - and even if they do workarounds they still need to leave enough identity info on the machine for it to be usable - and forgeries in a global namespace also leave tracks.

    Wardrivers could do a service by reporting approximate locations of reported-as-stolen MAC addresses, as a starting point for a direction-finding bunny hunt. A public-service distributed application (in the same vein as SETI-at-home) could do the same - or could blanket userland with beacons of known location for a WiFi-only replacement for GPS that would let the phone-home software identify its own location (if it can't do that adequately via currently known WiFi beacons such as hotspots.)

    Recover a few (and identify and question the people who got them, with the threat of a "receiving stolen property" bust if they don't cooperate) and police can work back up the reselling chain to the thieves.

    And yes I'm QUITE aware of how such systems could be abused.

    Note that some of these can be done privately and in a moderately secure fashion. (For instance: open source phone-home app with strong encryption, using an owner-generated key to enable its reporting functions.)
    • Seldom does the MAC address get past the router. Dynamic IP's take care of the rest. Your best bet is the Windows GUID.

  • Are they shitting me? 48 laptop robberies last year? They had 96 homicides in the same period - I doubt this %266.67 increase in laptop robberies (a rate of increase that hasn't continued, mind you) is at the top of their priority list.

  • Use your brain (Score:5, Informative)

    by Y-Crate ( 540566 ) on Monday April 10, 2006 @10:23PM (#15103151)
    I work at a large book retailer that has a well-established network of coffee bars outfitted with wireless hotspots.

    This company loves for customers to hang out for hours (and truth be told, many hang out all day and night several days a week) because they invariably buy more stuff the longer they stick around. The longer they stay, the more relaxed they become. When it comes time to get a new book, many will simply get up and walk away from their unattended laptop for anywhere between 1 and 20 minutes (don't get me started on table camping). Many days I've stood there during slow periods in amazement at the amount of very expensive hardware just left in the open with no one to watch it.

    It's inevitable that thieves will begin to exploit this as I've seen the same level of carelessness at similar retailers and sister stores in several states. There really isn't much I can do about it other than make friendly reminders when talking to customers - which risks offending the all-too-common customer with the over-inflated sense of self importance who finds any suggestion that they alter their behavior in any way (even if it will benefit them) as a severe insult.

    I try to keep an eye on things, even though it's not my responsibility, and I'm usually too busy to notice what's going on in the seating area unless there is a major disturbance (in other words: never).

    "Casual" laptop theft is going to increasingly be a problem, but not one that I fear to any great extent as in most cases it can be defeated with the help of common sense which itself is a rare commodity these days.
    • Hate to say it, but as good as you personally are with looking out for your customers, it's only a matter of time before one self-important jackass gets his laptop stolen, and sues you (the company, not you personally) for not babysitting his laptop when he goes off for a jaunt. Common sense is as rare these days as personal responsibility.

      Then again, it's just better protection for those of us who DO practise common sense. Security by minority/obscurity does somewhat work in this case.
    • I try to keep an eye on things, even though it's not my responsibility, and I'm usually too busy to notice what's going on in the seating area unless there is a major disturbance (in other words: never).

      You know, a simple deterrent would be a large, visible NON-functioning (or randomly functioning) camera that would ward off the stray thief. How this impacts business with regulars is up to you, but advertising it as a service to deter theft would be a good way to keep them on-board.

  • 40? (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Ethan Allison ( 904983 )
    40 people died in the time it took me to log in and post this. More were born, probably. Think about it. Not big in the scheme of things.
  • I have two lappies. Neither are newer than 2000. One's a clamshell iBook, running Mac OS X "Panther." One's a ThinkPad 600x, running Debian Sarge Linux with a smidge of Sid for spice.

    If you want a really nice computer, keep it on your desktop. Don't take anything with you you can't replace.
  • Here are some tips for theft and loss protection for laptops and notebooks [tuxmobil.org]. This article is dedicated to Linux users, but some of the tips are applicable to other operating systems as well. Some of the techniques work for other portable electronic equipment (PDAs, mobile phones, et. al.), too. But note: some devices which are offered to provide physical security can be by-passed easily. For example there are different approaches for hacking laptop and notebook cable locks [repair4laptop.org].

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