My powerbook was stolen.

2

Comments

  • Reply 21 of 41
    crazychestercrazychester Posts: 1,339member
    Are you drunk?



    (That's referring to the extended AO rave not the following.)



    Quote:

    Originally posted by pscates

    I don't advocate exploding laptops - not yet - but I think it would be cool if you could rig a laptop up with some sort of massive electrical shock device, and anyone who doesn't log in properly gets a Tazer-level jolt or two.



    Death rays. I want death rays.
  • Reply 22 of 41
    scottscott Posts: 7,431member
    You got lucky it was in the car. Insurance will pay for it.
  • Reply 23 of 41
    pscatespscates Posts: 5,847member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by crazychester

    Are you drunk? (That's referring to the extended AO rave not the following.)



    Are you a humorless handwringer?



    One paragraph, done in humor (see, that's what those smiley/laughing faces mean) is an "extended AO rave"? Really? Interesting.



    Or are you referring to the completely out-of-line, wild-ass section where I advocate the radical notion of people not stealing shit that isn't theirs? The horror! The intolerance!







    Scott, that good news about the insurance. I was wondering about that, so that's cool.
  • Reply 24 of 41
    I feel your pain. Just had my other favourite silver thing, my bicycle, stolen last night.



    Commiserations.
  • Reply 25 of 41
    slackulaslackula Posts: 262member
    My wife just had her Palm and camera stolen a couple of weeks ago. Things like that get a person worked up enough that if there were a ballot issue to implement public hangings for such offenses, it would definitely get my vote.
  • Reply 26 of 41
    soulcrushersoulcrusher Posts: 587member
    I just realized my passport was in that bag.



    FUCK



    I want to kill myself.
  • Reply 27 of 41
    psgamer0921psgamer0921 Posts: 393member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by torifile

    Damn that sucks! I'm sorry to hear it. You weren't at Dook at the time? I was going to say "Durham..." but I guess it can happen anywhere...







    Classic...
  • Reply 28 of 41
    splinemodelsplinemodel Posts: 7,311member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by pscates

    I remember seeing a Bond film years ago - one of the later Moore ones, perhaps "For Your Eyes Only" - and his Lotus had a "theft deterrent" sticker on the window. Some goon commences to breaking window and the entire car explodes, taking goon with it.





    Yes, so they had to take the Citroen instead, hilarity ensues.



    Poor Lotus though.
  • Reply 29 of 41
    evoevo Posts: 198member
    Man, reading this thread makes me even more cautious about protecting my new 12" PB from theft. I'm very sorry your PowerBook got stolen. Hopefully your insurance will cover it.



    I keep my Home folder FileVaulted and require a password when waking from sleep, so if someone were to steal my 'Book, they won't get access to my files (easily, at least).
  • Reply 30 of 41
    giantgiant Posts: 6,041member
    Yeah, what's up with filevault? Does it work OK? I keep anything remotely linked to money on an encrypted disk image and I'd use filevault if I knew it was safe.



    soulcrusher, six years or so ago I lost a wallet/datebook and eventually just convinced myself it was life telling me to start over a little. Of course, I still look back every time I stand up from a seat to make sure I don't leave anything.



    I would certainly change credit cards, though, just in case.
  • Reply 31 of 41
    torifiletorifile Posts: 4,024member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by giant

    Yeah, what's up with filevault? Does it work OK? I keep anything remotely linked to money on an encrypted disk image and I'd use filevault if I knew it was safe.



    soulcrusher, six years or so ago I lost a wallet/datebook and eventually just convinced myself it was life telling me to start over a little. Of course, I still look back every time I stand up from a seat to make sure I don't leave anything.



    I would certainly change credit cards, though, just in case.




    Filevault works but only when you're not logged in. If you've got your computer set to log in automatically, you're SOL in that regard. Similarly, if you've got encrypted disk images, but have the passwords in your keychain and your keychain set to never lock, you're again SOL. There are things in place to keep our data secure, but the trade off in time and convenience often doesn't convince us to use them. :/



    The bottom line is that if you want to be safe, all the security measures in the world won't do a damn thing to help you if you're too impatient/lazy/etc to use them.



    -t



    ps - soulcrusher, I was in no way calling you lazy or careless. I was just commenting on the utility of these security measures. I hope nothing unrecoverable was lost.
  • Reply 32 of 41
    vandewaalsvandewaals Posts: 450member
    That does suck.



    In answer to the FileVault question, I actually decided to start using it a month ago. I know its initial implementation was buggy, so I waited a while. But so far it works fine. I can't even tell the difference in performance (from the on-the-fly encrypt/decrypt). I think it's a good feature. In addition, I have the following enabled:



    NO autologin. EVER. Whenever I carry it anywhere, I log out and sleep it.



    Enable the Open Firmware password. This prevents someone from booting off an OS X install CD and resetting the account password. In order to boot off ANY other disk other than the internal drive they have to crack the OF pass. If they try to take the drive out and boot it in another machine, then FlieVault should foil them.



    I also have it set that you need to enter the account password to change any important settings, but thats just so that no one can f-ck anything up if I let them use it for sec



    Using encryption on a laptop makes a ton of sense. Especially if it's your only machine (like me) and you use it for all sorts of personal business.
  • Reply 33 of 41
    burningwheelburningwheel Posts: 1,827member
    i have to ask since no one else did. why did you leave it in the car was it in the trunk or in plain view?



    man, i don't even leave sunglasses in my car
  • Reply 34 of 41
    cubedudecubedude Posts: 1,556member
    This is making me have second thoughts about getting a Powerbook.



    Monitor the DynamicDNS address, though. A friend of mine had his laptop stolen, and the theif booted it up at his house and he was able to call up the ISP and nail the asshole.
  • Reply 35 of 41
    giantgiant Posts: 6,041member
    So is it possible for me to access my encrypted home folder if I drop it onto another system?
  • Reply 36 of 41
    lucaluca Posts: 3,833member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by CubeDude

    This is making me have second thoughts about getting a Powerbook.



    This is part of the reason why, when I wanted a portable for mobile internet access and presentations for school, I bought a 233 MHz Wallstreet for about $250 instead of going for a laptop as my only system. I could have afforded to get a 12" PowerBook (or an older 15") as my only computer if I were to sell my desktop, but I didn't want to give up the power my desktop has, and I really didn't want my computer to be suceptible to theft in that way. That laptop of mine is certainly nice (thank god for the G3 processor, really helps things along in OS 9), but not nearly nice enough to make me want to shoot myself if it gets stolen. I know that if someone mugs me on the street and wants my laptop, I can just say "My life is definitely worth more than $250" and hand it over.



    The only problem is that it's still so good-looking (even by today's standards) that appearance really isn't a theft deterrant. Sure, it's a bit thick and heavy (2" and 7.2 lbs), but the curves and simple design are still attractive. You really have to go all the way back to the PowerBook 100-series or 500-series if you want an ugly PowerBook, but those aren't really useful for anything.
  • Reply 37 of 41
    resres Posts: 711member
    I feel really for you soulcrusher - my place was burgled a little while ago and the got my wallstreet G3, TV and stereo, PA system, mixing board, Nikon s90 and lenses, 8 track tape recorder, my roland A90, marshal speaker cabinets, and some other stuff. Truthfully it has F-uped my life and I've been walking around like a zombie ever since.



    soulcrusher, make sure you check out the pawn shops in the area, you might get lucky.
  • Reply 38 of 41
    newnew Posts: 3,244member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Hassan i Sabbah

    I feel your pain. Just had my other favourite silver thing, my bicycle, stolen last night.



    Commiserations.




    again?
  • Reply 39 of 41
    amorphamorph Posts: 7,112member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Res

    I feel really for you soulcrusher - my place was burgled a little while ago and the got my wallstreet G3, TV and stereo, PA system, mixing board, Nikon s90 and lenses, 8 track tape recorder, my roland A90, marshal speaker cabinets, and some other stuff. Truthfully it has F-uped my life and I've been walking around like a zombie ever since.



    That happened to a student teacher of mine while she and her husband were on honeymoon. They came back to a completely empty house. She came in for next morning's class looking half dead.



    One thing you should be really careful of: The people who pull that kind of theft know that you'll get a big insurance check and replace it all, and they'll wait five or six weeks for that to happen, then come back. If you have neighbors or someone else who can keep an eye on the house during the day (when house robberies almost always occur) tell them to call 911 if they see any trucks pull up to your address.



    Best of luck. I can only imagine what it's like to come home and find everything gone.
  • Reply 40 of 41
    nerudaneruda Posts: 439member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by CubeDude

    This is making me have second thoughts about getting a Powerbook.



    Monitor the DynamicDNS address, though. A friend of mine had his laptop stolen, and the theif booted it up at his house and he was able to call up the ISP and nail the asshole.




    I would never leave a PB unattended anywhere (ie car), but, que sera, sera.



    Has anyone used ISP tracking software?



    http://www.softwide.com/default.asp?ID3=5587



    I would seriously consider getting this if I had a PB.
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