[CNN] Stolen Laptops and lame 'solution'

[geeman at best.com]

reproduced under fair-use:

>                     PC, phone home
>
>                     Industry aims to stop
>                     theft of laptops
>
>                     June 10, 1997
>                     Web posted at: 11:45 p.m. EDT (0345 GMT) 
>
>                     From Correspondent Greg
>                     Lefevre 
>
>                     SAN FRANCISCO (CNN) -- Expensive, compact and
>                     frequently out and about, a laptop computer makes an
attractive
>                     target for thieves. 
>
>                     But the computer industry has devised some ingenious
ways to
>                     counter theft, including invisible software that
knows when the
>                     computer is in trouble. 
>
>                     "As soon as the thief plugs that machine into a phone
network, it
>                     will phone home," said John Livingston, chief
executive of
>                     CompuTrace Service. 
>
>                     The call goes to a Canadian office
>                     that in turn phones the cops. So far,
>                     it has a 100 percent recovery rate. 
>
======  100% of WHAT?  Systems with it installed which are stolen?   How
would you know what systems do NOT call in?  
It's like the question the clerk asks at the airport: "Did anyone put
anything in your luggage you don't know anything about?"

Now that the word is out, of course, the wily thief will eschew pluggin in
until the hard drive is reformatted and installed
with a clean OS.  As usual: the stupid will be caught.