Why to Never Steal a Laptop.

College Life
1

<p>We’ve all heard the horror stories about laptops being stolen from campus. Now it’s the thief instead of the victim who has the horror story to tell:</p>

<p><a href=“Dropout - Independent, ad-free, uncensored comedy | Dropout”>Dropout - Independent, ad-free, uncensored comedy | Dropout;

<p>Do you think [Professor</a> Jasper Rine](<a href=“Faculty Research Page | Molecular and Cell Biology”>Jasper Rine | Molecular and Cell Biology) is bluffing? See any flaws in his logic?</p>

<p>If you don’t can’t or don’t want to watch the .wmv, here’s the transcript:</p>

<p>

</p>

2

<p>That speach seems to have made the professor a bit of a running joke on the internet…</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.securitypipeline.com/policy_privacy/161600257[/url]”>http://www.securitypipeline.com/policy_privacy/161600257&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

3

<p>well i don’t know much about computer so i’m not sure if what he said makes sense or could be true.</p>

<p>however, if i had stolen the laptop (which i wouldn’t have) i would have been peeing in my pants. haha. if it’s BS what he was saying, then it was certainly clever and intmidating BS. </p>

<p>but why would he put such important info on a laptop he uses for his classes? hmmm. doesn’t make much sense. kind of careless of him.</p>

<p>and if everything he was saying about the “tracking” and “importance” of the info is true, i’m sure the fbi or whatever would have found the culprit already. i don’t know. </p>

<p>sniff sniff…smell that? smell like crap.</p>

4

<p>microsoft responding within 15 minutes to anything should be a sign of bluffing.</p>

5

<p>LOL very true</p>

<p>yeah thats gotta be an internet rumor… run it through Snopes and see - i’m too lazy to do so at the moment</p>

6

<p>that was kinda smart of the professor to actually think over that speech and memorize it</p>

7

<p>did dude get his laptop back?</p>

8

<p>Yeah… did he get his laptop back?</p>

9

<p>No. Everyone knew he was lying.</p>

10

<p>If it had been a true story, the professor should have been fired for having so much unencrypted information on such a vulnerable laptop…And if Macrosoft cared about every copy of stolen Windows, half this country would be in prison :)</p>

11

<p>

</p>

<p>EXACTLY …</p>

12

<p>Professor Rine even admitted he made the whole thing up.</p>

<p>regardless, he didn’t get his laptop back</p>

13

<p>What about the fingerprint biometric scanners that IBM features on new laptops now…are they deterring thefts? I thought I might put a little sticker on the cover of my laptop that says it cannot be turned on without a fingerprint scan. or can these fingerprint things be fooled???</p>

14

<p>i think those who want to steal laptops are going to steal one anytime the oppurtunity presents itself, no matter if it can be turned on with only fingerprints or not. i mean, thieves can always sell the parts and stuff. what do they lose? nothing. it’s only the person that left their laptop alone that loses.</p>

15

<p>of course there is a way around fingerprint scanners (like any other security messure).</p>

16

<p>according to an article on wikpedia

Also see an article at <a href=“http://lexicon.typepad.com/lexicon/2005/04/what_happens_wh.html[/url]”>http://lexicon.typepad.com/lexicon/2005/04/what_happens_wh.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>As to why someone would put sensitive data on a laptop and not protect it in some way (such was with a free encryption program like pgp), call it laziness. It is convenient to carry your work around with you in a laptop, and a lot of people are just too lazy to spend the extra minute it takes to encrypt the data, or decrypt it when they need to work with it.</p>

<p>But such casualness isn’t so unusual. Most people here are college students. Your computer (either laptop or desktop) has your papers on it, your homework, lots of other stuff you need. How many people back up their data regularly? Even once a week? And its easy to do so; at most colleges students have a free account with plenty of storage, so you should be keeping a copy of your work on it in case your hard drive dies or computer is stolen.</p>

17

<p>USC had a student safe pilot program last year. they invited 4 companies to install their product and let the students decide what they liked. University Safe Co was the overwhelming choice with it’s notebooksafe (<a href=“http://www.notebooksafe.com%5B/url%5D”>www.notebooksafe.com</a>) The safe mounts on the wall and only sticks out 5", has a drop slot for mail, CD"s ect and you can recharge laptops and cell phones while they are locked inside. It has a corkboard-mirror on the front and a digital keypad with no backup key to lose. The students and parents loved them and the company offered to install one for each student for $105.00 per yer per safe. They made the offer to the other colleges as well including the UC schools. all the housing people loved it so the company feels the dean of students at the schools stopped it from being implimented.</p>

18

<p>noah40day, no offense but you post the same message about the safe pilot program in almost every thread that has to do with theft. I don’t know if you’ve heard, but the company that did the program went bankrupt and also due to the lack of popularity, the program has been cancelled this year.</p>

19

<p>REDSKI, 59
no offence taken. As I have known a number of students who have used these safes, and not just at USC, I have taken the time to find out about the company and the pilot program at USC. You have said before that the program was unsuccessful, the students didn’t use them and now the company is bankrupt. I have no doubt that is what you have been told, why you have been told that is a good question. As I have seen the corespondence between the students and the company as well as between USC and the company, let me say this: The pilot program last year at USC was overwhelmingly successful for both the company as well as the school. as a matter of fact USC asked the University Safe Co. to come down from their $105.00 per safe price and USC would be willing to order 1,700 safes for installation, Although the company refused to lower it’s price so as not to compromise it’s service to the students, I would call that successful. I have seen the e-mails from the students who used these last year and when asked if they would like them removed every student said absolutely not. In addition they said they were using them from 3 to 5 times a day.As far as being bankrupt nothing could be further from the truth. They have turned down 4 colleges this year alone who wanted then to install the notebooksafe (<a href=“http://www.notebooksafe.com%5B/url%5D”>www.notebooksafe.com</a>) and direct lease them to the students. They didn’t think that would be fair to the students (unlike some other companies). They are currently in talks with 2 universities to have these installed and included in the tution or housing costs, which is how they believe it should be done. As they have patents on this safe (both issued and pending) as well as trademark and copyright protection and have been asked by more then one safe company for a licenseing agreement(turned down), I don’t think you have to woory about them going out of bussiness. However I would certaintly make sure of my facts before I posted some of the things you did about this company, I did.</p>

20

<p>noah40day,</p>

<p>Are you in any way affiliated with the company you are talking about? All of your posts seem to be a blatant promotion of this safe company.</p>