
Woman gets laptop back in DIY sting operation - GiraffeNecktie
http://www.ottawacitizen.com/Woman+gets+laptop+back+sting+operation/5069377/story.html
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masnick
I am baffled why people still have _irreplaceable_ files stored only on their
local hard drive.

Forget having your computer stolen, what if your hard drive dies?

If you aren't backing up your critical files, there are a myriad of cheap
cloud-based options: <http://tarsnap.com> for geeks or the paranoid,
Backblaze/Mozy/Carbonite/Dropbox/Arq/etc. for others.

~~~
ltamake
Unfortunately, people don't think about this until it's too late. I learned
the hard way when my MacBook Pro's HDD failed unexpectedly, and I lost a lot
of music, movies, games, code, etc. (had some of it backed up, though).

I'm glad Mac OS X and Windows include "set-it-and-forget-it" backup solutions,
but users are reluctant to turn them on simply because they may not have the
time or effort to set them up.

~~~
masnick
There's really no excuse for not using Time Machine on Mac. I think it's one-
click setup (a yes/no dialog comes up the first time you plug in an external
hdd to a fresh installation, if memory serves).

If you are afraid you won't be plugging an external hdd in enough, I think
it's worth getting a Time Capsule (automatic Time Machine backup over wifi).

~~~
ltamake
There's a hack that allows you to back up to a shared folder on Windows, which
is what I do.

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16s
I've encountered this first-hand a lot. Police are too busy with other larger
crimes to work on stolen computer cases. Here's what to do to protect against
this:

1\. Buy or setup a good, reliable file backup service. (daily rsyncs)

2\. Use full disk encryption on the laptop hard drive.

3\. Buy an insurance policy.

This way, you keep your documents, your privacy and get a replacement laptop
when it becomes lost, stolen or damaged.

~~~
geebee
Great suggestions. For developers, I think there are a few additional things
to consider. While I completely agree that a file service backup and
encryption are a good idea, I think it's important for developers to be able
to recover quickly even without these things.

1\. Yes, use backup, but also use version control. Keep your commits
sufficiently up to date that you will able to get back to work quickly with a
fresh new computer. Consider it a bad sign if you have to get your new
computer restored to exactly the same state as your old computer to resume
developing.

2\. Encrypt, but just don't keep highly sensitive files on a laptop. I read
that 1 in 10 laptop are stolen, and keep in mind that many aren't stolen
because they never leave someone's apartment. If you travel around with your
laptop, you're in a higher risk group. Use dummy data and dummy databases.
Don't store external passwords to real systems on your laptop. Consider it a
bad sign if you can't develop to a local database populated with
inconsequential data.

3\. Definitely buy the insurance policy, if you'd have trouble coming up with
the money for a replacement. But they key here is to make sure that it's just
money we're talking about. Try to set up your development environment such
that the cost to you of a stolen laptop is the replacement cost of the laptop.

I'm a little worried this comes off as overly judgemental, so I just want to
be clear that I understand this may not all be within the control of the
developer. However, I think that an IT setup that requires people to carry
highly sensitive information or passwords on portable devices that are
frequently and easily stolen is a sign of a badly broken system, even with
encryption.

~~~
oconnore
Re 2: Why not? If your disk is encrypted, anyone stealing it might as well not
have any files at all.

~~~
geebee
Fair enough. If you're vigilant about it, this is safe.

I guess my only worry would be that the laptop is swiped while open, but i'd
admit this is an unlikely scenario.

As a development practice, it's good to be able to build up a dummy db, but
yeah, security isn't the big win here.

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chopsueyar
Glad that ended well and her neighbor didn't get his throat slashed.

~~~
raganwald
Wisely put. People who steal and fence the goods on the Internet are obviously
inept criminals who act impulsively without thinking through the consequences.
Inevitably, a DIY sting operation is going to end up with a criminal panicking
and trying to cover his tracks by killing the "witness."

It's an unlikely outcome, but imagine this as a reverse-slot machine. You get
one pull of the handle. Three of any fruit and you win a used laptop. But if
three skulls come up, you are executed.

How good a bet is this?

~~~
pavel_lishin
Is the slot machine located in a back alley, in a windowless van, or a
Starbucks?

I'd feel pretty safe pulling that lever in a Starbucks, as they did.

~~~
raganwald
Comparatively, some of these hypothetical slot machines are less likey to kill
you than others. But no location is truly safe, thus I contend they all have
three skulls waiting for _someone_.

If a used laptop is enough of a reward to wager your life, I admire your
courage, but when I think of it in financial terms, the thought gives me the
heebie jeebies.

~~~
khafra
I completely agree with all the other arguments you make here, which makes me
re-evaluate my disagreement on this one. But I think my interpretation still
holds up:

In 2010, Ottawa saw 27,446 property crimes, and 14 homicides[1]. In general,
about half of murders are committed by a friend or family member[2]. So even
if the other 7 murderers _all_ started out doing petty theft, there's still
only 1 in 3,920 laptop thieves who's going to kill someone.

Now, as a high-falutin' tech blogger for whom laptops grow on trees, that
still may be an unnacceptable risk/reward ratio for you. But if a laptop
represented a more substantial investment, its value might begin to approach
the value you personally would place on, say, 50 separate scuba dives. Which,
at a death rate of 1 per 200,000 dives, is about where the risk evens out.

[1][http://www.ottawapolice.ca//Libraries/Publications/2009_-_20...](http://www.ottawapolice.ca//Libraries/Publications/2009_-_2010_Crime_Trends_for_the_City_of_Ottawa_resize_1.sflb.ashx)
[2]<http://www.ncjrs.gov/ovc_archives/nvaa/ch16hom.htm>

~~~
raganwald
_In 2010, Ottawa saw 27,446 property crimes, and 14 homicides[1]. In general,
about half of murders are committed by a friend or family member[2]. So even
if the other 7 murderers _all_ started out doing petty theft, there's still
only 1 in 3,920 laptop thieves who's going to kill someone._

I appreciate what you're trying to say, and believe me when I say that if you
consider the risks and want to go get your laptop, that's fine and I'm not
arguing with _you_ making _your_ choice.

However, the statistics you quote above do not support your quoted odds. Since
the 27,446 reported property crimes did not all involve the owner confronting
the thieves, we cannot use the numbers to draw a conclusion about the risk of
a confrontation resulting in a murder, much less an attempted murder or
assault.

On the flip side, while I do not have statistics handy, deep diving, dry suit
diving, cold water diving, decompression diving, mixed gas diving, drift
diving, and other activities I have enjoyed of are thought to be associated
with slightly higher risks than the overall statistics suggest, although not
as high as the three big killers: Cave/wreck diving, rebreather diving, and
commercial diving.

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peteretep
I wonder what the ceaseless appeal of stories like this is. They seem to pop
up a LOT.

~~~
sedev
"Small agile group of clever people produces results far superior to large,
calcified, bureaucratic organization that ostensibly should be performing the
task."

That narrative is usually an easy ticket to the front page of HN.

~~~
raganwald
Oddly, such stories are often held up as examples of why we should have less
government and pay lower taxes, instead of suggesting that perhaps budget
cutbacks are the reason the police have to prioritize and can't send
investigators out to recover every laptop stolen from a car.

I'm not arguing the case either way, just suggesting that such stories are
often interpreted through the filter of our existing bias.

~~~
sedev
The State, like Twitter, is good at some things, and not at others. People
insist on using it for things in both categories. So 'give the police more
money' is not always a great idea for reducing crime - I'm from an area where
the police have enough money to buy very nice toys indeed, but that strangely
hasn't accompanied a drop in abuse of police power, police racism, or
prosecution of the abominable War On Drugs.

As for filters - I admire the woman in the story, because she is a great
example of the entrepreneurial mindset.

1: Attempt to achieve your goal by conventional means (call police).

2: Actually notice that conventional means will not get you what you want.

3: Come up with an alternate plan (DIY sting operation).

4: Execute fearlessly.

I argue that those four steps, broadly, are what a good startup founder does.

~~~
raganwald
I agree with all of those points, however that while she has things in common
with great startup entrepreneurs, here on Hacker News we usually contemplate
ventures that offer more upside than the return of a laptop and less downside
than death :-)

~~~
sedev
That is a good value of 'usual,' and I agree with it - but I think it's also,
sometimes, valuable to consider those characteristics in the small. I actually
have a specific person in my life to whom I'm going to repeat this story, with
the four-points explanation, to encourage them on the path to starting their
own company.

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lbarrow
My friend Peter set up a remote login to his laptop from his phone. When he
accidentally left his laptop in a cab in Manhattan, he was able to track it
down and get it back from the cab driver after about three weeks. He also was
able to monitor the cab driver's use of the laptop with his phone --
apparently the guy spent a lot of time on adultfriendfinder.

------
adnam
Submarine.

