Actually... (Score 1)

I had thought of something like this - but not for laptops. I was thinking that portable MP3 players, iPods in particular, could use something along these lines. Why? iPods are less modification friendly than laptops. The odds are good a thief would be stupid enough to plug it into an internet enabled computer - hell, he has to plug it into some kind of computer to format it. Not that it's foolproof, but I think it would at least increase your chances of seeing your device again, particularly if the tracking software was very agressive. I was thinking, basically install malware on the thief's computer that reports back to you via email. Again, a technologically competant person would probably catch it, but there are plenty of people who wouldn't.