Somebody volunteered to ecomod my car (Grrrr)

[Clev]

Originally Posted by Piwoslaw

I think what JasonG meant was the people who later buy stolen items.

A laptop with tons of passwords can still have its drive formatted and sold with a fresh OS. Or sold for parts.

Gotcha. Sorry about that, JasonG.

On my main laptop, I'm upgrading the drive, and will do TrueCrypt whole-disk encryption. BIOS passwords will effectively brick most laptops, but don't do anything to protect the drive.

[honestabe]

This is why I keep almost nothing in my car at all times. By having items visible in your vehicle you entice criminals into breaking into your vehicle. I've had my first Geo broken into and ended up losing my GPS and backpack, both which were in plain site.

[JacobAziza]

Someone broke into the truck when there was nothing valuable in sight.

They took my iPod charger apart, kept one half and left the other!
They also removed all the papers in the glove box and dumped them on the floor - and then left the iPod which was hiding under them behind!
They took a jacket from the seat, and left cash which was sitting under the jacket.
Cash! They broke it, and didn't take the cash.

It was annoying, but its hard to get too angry. With that level of intelligence, they probably have a lot of trouble getting a job.

[blade]

got to hate a thief

[mcrews]

While reading this thread, I had a couple of thoughts.
1. If someone does get my laptop or it crashes i use carbonite as a backup. Really works well...I've had to restore two chrashes.
BUT that led me to think.
since Carbonite 'knows' to backup anything new when I first get on the internet. Couldn't carbonite or some shadow software that is internet-based, send a 'mission impossible' 5 second meltdown???
So in my senario, my laptop is stolen. I logon to my carbonite(or whoever) account and tell it to "FRY" my old laptop the next time it logs on the internet??
The person stealing it is usually not a hack....he's a thief. He's not going to see if I have the "FRY.COM" software......He's lookin to make a quick buck.
Same for the person buying it. He's no genius.....

[rmay635703]

Originally Posted by mcrews

While reading this thread, I had a couple of thoughts.

Couldn't carbonite or some shadow software that is internet-based, send a 'mission impossible' 5 second meltdown???
So in my senario, my laptop is stolen. I logon to my carbonite(or whoever) account and tell it to "FRY" my old laptop the next time it logs on the internet??

Same for the person buying it. He's no genius.....

Yeah, the pawnshop or guy smiley will just get the HD wiped and reinstall the software.

[Thymeclock]

Originally Posted by honestabe

This is why I keep almost nothing in my car at all times. By having items visible in your vehicle you entice criminals into breaking into your vehicle. I've had my first Geo broken into and ended up losing my GPS and backpack, both which were in plain site.

Good advice. No burglar in his right mind wants to break in an find nothing to steal. The risk to reward ratio is too high.

Other good defenses are having and using a car alarm, the louder the better. Having an irritable, easily aroused dog in the car is also a deterrent to theft.

[JacobAziza]

My mother used to cover the stereo with a a piece of vinyl covered cardboard that matched the color of the dash trim, so it would look like it wasn't there.

She got car jacked once, and when the cops recovered the car a few days later, the stereo was still there.

[Arragonis]

Originally Posted by nemo

Had some one break in to my car once. They didn't get what they were after but damaged the car. I was pissed. Another time I came out of a restaurant found someone with my car door open. He said he was just looking. Ragtop never locked it was afraid someone would cut the top to break in. Some real winners out there.

Not quite a steal but a few years ago I had an MG Midget convertible. We took it for a run one weekend and stopped for a drink (soft) at a pub. Nice day so it was parked with the roof down and we sat outside across the car park.

A few people wandered past it and looked, all OK. Then one couple took a close look, and to my surprise the bloke actually climbed in, settled himself into the driving seat and had a "brum brum" play.

Somewhat amazed I wandered over and asked what he thought he was doing ?

He seemed genuinely amazed that I would be perhaps annoyed at a complete stranger wanting to check out my car ? He thought I should be honoured. I never had a problem letting people have a close look or even have a sit in or in some cases a wee drive if we had a chat and got on. Not this joker.

+1 for Truecrypt - I use it for all my machines to protect stuff if they go walkabout. They are netbooks / laptops so they do quite often.