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I like to call laptops “highly portable easily damaged thief attraction devices”. I have a simple rule for purchasing any electronic device: multiply the price times two, because no matter how careful you are, no matter how much cushioning your bag or case has, you’re probably going to lose or break that device at the worst possible time. Just assume you’ll have to replace the device the next day.

I’m not a pessimist, and who said I was paranoid? I’m a realist. I started using computers in the late 1970s, and I’ve seen theft, damage, and other showstoppers that can grind users to a screeching halt.

In this post, I’ll focus on how to reduce the financial misery if your laptop oi stolen. Some of these tips also apply to other small electronic devices, like cell phones, iPods, and digital cameras.

If you’re searching for the business model here, it’s based upon risk and fear. It’s the same model that sells insurance. Most companies try to minimize financial and legal risk. Many users are afraid of what might happen if they lost control of the data on the computer.

There’s an old television commercial for automobile air filters. A mechanic would describe the expensive repairs that his customer’s car required, and how the damage could have been prevented if the customer had replaced the engine’s relatively inexpensive air filter on a regular basis.

The tagline was “You can pay me now, or you can pay me later.”

Let me repeat: if you own a laptop computer, you should assume that it will be stolen or dropped at some point. According to Safeware’s estimate of 2002 reports, 72% of laptop computer losses are the result of accidents. Only 15% are from theft.

Plan to spend some extra money buying one or all of the following items:

1. Insurance≈
2. Security software
3. Security hardware
4. A cushioned bag or case
5. Warranty or service plan

Laptop computers tend to have a much shorter service life than desktop computers, because of these issues and the inherent difficulties of upgrading a highly integrated elecronic device.

At the very least, record the serial and model numbers of your device, and store them in a safe place at home. Most homeowner’s and renter’s insurance policies will allow customers to add computers and portable electronics, although sometimes there’s an additional premium and a deductible. Some business insurers offer similar coverage for corporate equipment.

Safeware is one of several companies that offer insurance for portable computers and electronic devices. It can be expensive, but if you or your business depend on these devices and cannot afford to replace them out of pocket, it’s a reasonable option.

How do you find your laptop if it’s missing?

This article from CreativeTechs discusses three different theft recovery products designed for laptops. Two of the services, Lojack and PhoneHome, are available for Windows and Mac computers. PhoneHome sends an e-mail message to a preset account, while LoJack contacts a server.

One of the Mac packages, Orbicule Undercover, will take pictures with the Mac’s biult in iSight camera. Orbicule has a student version available for US$25 for today only. The regular verrsion is only US$29.

Of course, you have to purchase, install and activate the software in advance. If you wait until the laptop is missing, it’s too late to do much about it.

All three of these packages are useless if the thief doesn’t connect the laptop to the Internet. There is a large chop-shop market for RAM, hard drives, display screens, and other computer parts.

So the security software is nice, but physical security is essential. Most thefts are crimes of convenience, so anything that you can do to slow a thief’s progress will make you a less inviting target.

I carry a Kensington MicroSaver combination lock with my laptop. These locks are avaiable in keyed editions, but I prefer the combination model. I’m afraid I’ll lose my keys.

Almost every laptop computer includes a Kensington security slot, as described at http://www.us.kensington.com/html/1356.html. I’ve seen many LCD monitors that have these slots on the back, too. The slot is a small rectangular hole, usually on the side or the back of the computer’s case.

The slot is often marked with a trademarked logo that Kensington allows manufacturers to use free of charge. That’s a smart idea in itself.

Wrap the cable around an immovable object, and clip the lock into the secuurity slot.

A lock won’t prevent a thief from removing your hard drive or RAM. Of course, a thief could carry a big pair of cable cutters and use that to clip the steel cable. It is possible to rip the lock out of the Kensington slot, but that will leave a gaping hole in the side of the computer, and the required force might damage the display and hard drive. A good cable lock will make it inconvenient, noisy and obvious if a theif is steealing your laptop.

I place Stuffbak stickers on my portable devices. These self-adhesive stickers come in a variety of sizes, and each has a unique serial number, along with a toll-free telephone number and the Stuffbak.com URL. Just add the number, along with a description of your laptop, iPod, tennis racket, or whatever, tyo your Stuffbak account. If someone finds and returns the item to Stuffbak’s Colorado office, they’ll receive $20 in Stuffbak stickers. You can offer an additional cash reward if you wish.

Be careful when you place these stickers on your device. They use a very strong adhesive. It is possible to remove the sticker, but it takes some effort, and you might scratch the case. That’s part of the sticker’s design, of course.

Also, you should avoid placing the stickers on a wear point, or over a hole or ridge. I try to use the smallest size Stuffbak sticker that I can, although if space permits, I will break out the large format stickers and use them.

ESPN announced yesterday that it was shutting down its mobile virtual network, Mobile ESPN, at the end of 2006. See these articles in Forbes and Gearlog for details.

I was wondering if anyone was buying these phones or using this service. I’ve seen their advertisements on ESPN all year, but I’ve never ever seen anyone who used these phones.

The target market had to be 21 to 30 year old men, but most of them already have a cell phone.

One analyst noted that ESPN should have marketed the service for a few more months, at least until the end of the college and professional football seasons. Every additional month would bring ESPN more opportunities to promote the service, and provide more potential customers who were at or near the end of their mobile phone contracts.

Very few people want to pay for two cell phones, especially from two different carriers.

Granted, the target market I’ve identified includes a lot of gamblers. Gamblers will buy almost anything if they think it will provide them an edge. Mobile ESPN is an attractive service for these men, as the service delivered text and video content from ESPN’s television networks directly to the customer phone.

Keep in mind that ESPN didn’t operate the mobile phone network. It bought minutes and network management from Sprint, and resold the service to its customers.

Now ESPN plans to license its mobile applications to other carriers. Good luck! There are other mobile virtual network operators in the US such as Disney Mobile, Amp’d Mobile and Helio.

Helio is a joint venture between EarthLink and SK Telecom, led by EarthLink founder Sky Dayton, and partnered with MySpace as its core content source. It’s hard to argue with the man who built the second-largest ISP in the United States, or with the News Corp social networking juggernaut.

But Helio seems to be in trouble. I haven’t seen anyone who uses their phone or their service. Quite frankly, Helio’s teenaged target market has even less disposable income than the Mobile ESPN crowd. Helio does offer a tradeup program that lets customers sell their handset to Helio, but the rules are seem too complicated for most 16 to 25 year olds to follow.

Helio’s latest announcement is a combination EVDO-WiFi card, combining the fastest cellular data service in the US with 802.11 b/g access. Helio is also developing devices with built-in EVDO-WiFI access for release next year. The card is just a stopgap measure.

Imagine a Helio branded PDA or laptop that can access MySpace wherever there’s a decent cell phone signal.

I could imagine an ESPN branded device - but ESPN has thrown in the towel for now.

I found some poems today on PlagiarismToday, a blog that discusses content theft and copyright issues.MBA students don’t need to know this information, but we will discuss intellectual property law in a few weeks. It is relevant to an information systems course.Anything that helps students remember the basics - short of tattooing - is welcome. 

• Copyright law
• Patent law
• Trademark law

URL: RSS for Dummies

I’ve received several questions from students who ask what RSS is, and what is has to do with blogs. Mark Evans had a nice post yesterday that pointed to:

http://cravingideas.blogs.com/backinskinnyjeans/2006/09/how_to_explain_.html

This site has a good explanation of RSS, and includes the graphic below, which  was orginally posted at http://cravingideas.blogs.com/.shared/image.html?/photos/uncategorized/rssforoprah_1.gif

Another explanation is available at http://dir.blogflux.com/rss.php

If you look at the HTML version of this blog at http://hpu.sodeman.com/blog, you will see a subscription link. That page displays a number of web-based RSS readers, including Bloglines.com, the Web site that I’m using to post my blog and organize my favorite RSS feeds.

I set up an HTML version of the page on September 12 so that readers who are unfamiliar with RSS or Bloglines.com could check my content quickly. That page doesn’t list all of my blog posts - only the most recent articles. You can find all of my posts at http://www.bloglines.com/blog/wsodeman

I like RSS readers and recommend them to anyone who does a lot of reading on the Web. RSS allows you to set up one single place that lists or aggregates content that you want to read on a regular basis.

For students, professionals, and readers, RSS helps overcome one of the Web’s fundamental strengths - its distributed structure. Yes, I said “overcome”. We’ll discuss the client-server model in a few weeks, and don’t get me wrong - distributed computing can be a good thing.

Without RSS, you’ll spend a lot of time moving from Web site to Web site, reading your favorite columnists, newspapers and other content.

With a Web-based RSS reader, it’s very easy to read news, find new employment opportunities, track your packages, check the weather forecast, and more.

You might even be able to read your favorite RSS content on your telephone or PDA, depending upon its capabilities. Try pointing your mobile device’s Web browser to http://m.bloglines.com - but always emember that you’re responsible for any additional charges from your telecommuncations provider.

• Source Blog

From CNN: Berkeley Premium Pharmaceuticals, marketer of nutritional supplements such as Enzyte, faces a lengthy Federal investigation. If you watch sports on television, you’ve probably seen their “Smiling Bob” ads, which describe how a man’s life was transformed into a satisfying experience.

The US Department of Justice, working with the FBI, the US Postal Service, and other law enforcement authorities, claim that company executives and founders engaged in mail and wire fraud, money laundry and other activities that involved US$100 million in fraudulent credit card charges.

Customers would call or contact the company to obtain a free trial supply of a product. However, the order form required customers to provide a valid credit card number, as the trial offer involved a subscription delivery service.

Authorities claim that, even though the company promised that customers could cancel their subscription before the first shipment, customers were later charged for supplements and other products. Banks became involved as credit card holders disputed the charges. In some case, banks will take the hit on a fraudulent credit card transaction, rather than making the customer pay.

This incident underscores the value of identity security. I often run across offers on the Internet, newspapers, television and radio that seem too good to be true. It’s one thing to give a marketer your e-mail address - usually, the worst that can happen is some additional spam in your e-mailbox.

But when a customer willingly surrenders their credit card information, and receives no value in return, the problem becomes greater. Only the worst offenders get caught, when their volume becomes to great or customers file complaints.

There are still many consumers who don’t trust online shopping in the first place. Incidents like this don’t help.