Love your laptop? 4 ways to keep it safe
Keep your laptop safe from thieves
Here’s my own happened-to-a-friend-of-a-friend urban myth:
A man’s using his laptop on a train – sitting in the seats that face others across a table. As the train pulls into the station, the man turns to his briefcase to put his iPod away. Before he can realise what’s happening, the respectable-looking man seated across has snatched his laptop & sprinted off the train.
Far-fetched? Not if we believe TechWire’s story. (And I’d never underestimate the appeal of a perfect, shiny Macbook Pro).
When working in public
As a San Francisco cop asks in this article,
“Where else do you have a thousand-dollar item sitting on a table in a coffee shop?”
Ding ding ding!
Keep your laptop tethered with a steel cable lock*. I have a few. I keep one in my favourite suitcase, another in my let’s-go-to-Starbucks backpack and one in an oversized handbag. Whatever I leave the house with – I’ve always got a laptop lock with me.
When staying in a hotel
If it fits, lock your laptop in the safe whenever you leave your room. Otherwise, lock it to a piece of furniture with a cable lock. This can be tricky with hotel furniture – but the laptop attached to a heavy chair will look far less appealing than the one left on the desk next door.
At the airport X-ray machine
Another horrible hypothetical:
Thieves working as a pair stand in front of their victim in line. After Thief 1 goes through the metal detector, Thief 2 sets the machine off and holds up the line as he gets searched. Meanwhile, Victim’s laptop has already gone through the X-ray and Thief 1 helps himself. He presumably beats a hasty exit out of the terminal – the ‘Catch Me If You Can’ details are fuzzy.
Better safe than sorry? Hang on to your laptop until the last second – putting it on the conveyor only when the path is clear to walk straight through.
1 more laptop safety tip
Staysafeonline cleverly advises to pretend your laptop is a wad of cash (a very thick wad, in most cases). Treat it likewise.
*Laptops have a security slot into which a combination lock with steel cable fits. Loop it around something heavy (e.g. a table leg), insert into the slot & lock. It’s a theft deterrent only – they can be ripped from the laptop casing but ruin the thief’s chance of selling it.
A million girls would kill for THIS job
Greetings from the outside world! I’m writing this outside in the sunshine, there’s an apple + blackberry crumble in the oven and I couldn’t be happier (until the crumble’s in my tummy, then I’ll be much, much happier).
A great many of my friends are stuck inside, in office jobs they hate. They’re wasting their youth (their words, not mine!) to achieve X years of experience before they deem themselves capable of pursuing their real dreams.
Today’s my favourite kind of freelance day. It’s the ability to really enjoy life right now, summed up in the freedom to enjoy nice weather and take a baking break between tasks. It’s pure gold. It’s exactly why I jumped from (so-called) corporate safety at the age of 24 straight into risk, roller coasters and really hard work.
A lot of my clients and people I meet freelancing (online and off) are likewise happy bunnies. Many are small business owners doing what they love in the unlikeliest of places. Some are retired, some my age. We enjoy ridiculous highs and lows, but we’re each doing what we love and I think it shows.
Before my cliff-jump, I read a lot (a LOT) of small business and entrepreneur books. I mostly skipped the chapters about perseverance (I knew I had it), gunning straight for the “skills”: accounting, sales, web design…. Inevitably, not very long after opening shop, the need to keep going clashed violently with the flight instinct. “Holy mother of god! What am I doing?!!” was a common refrain while trying to sleep. It was scary out here. I remembered those sage words I’d barely read.
“Keep trying, then try harder” is a cliché, to be sure, but effort and long hours (the persistence I knew I had) is all that separates me from then and now. I think back to when I was climbing the walls of my cubicle-cage, knowing I belonged elsewhere. Out on my own, the highs are higher and the lows lower, yet they’re mine to solve.
Helping along the way, throughout all my sales and networking efforts, have been fellow freelancers, ‘solopreneurs’ and small business owners. Without fail I’ve found them to be the most generous and helpful of sorts – to a degree never found back in corporate land. Back there, HR departments have to set up official mentor schemes. Out here, people just help each other out.
Somewhere, a world away from my quiet patio table, suits are vying for promotions, accolades and recognition. Freelancers and small business owners can choose to define their success any number of ways, but the glorious afterglow of a black and white corporate victory might elude them. If we win a bid, we wonder about next month. If we crack Google, we wonder how long it will last.
Out here in the sunshine, I’m simply celebrating being here. For having the courage to jump in the first place and all the progress made since.
Does the same apply to you? Please, spend your weekend doing likewise – and don’t scrimp on the gin. Let me know about your victories – in whatever size they come.
The best remote office: send Santa my love
I had a lifetime first recently: the Arctic rang.
I’d been playing a dreaded game of phone tag for a few weeks with a potential client. She seemed so interested, but I couldn’t get hold of her. After yet more silence, the phone rang. Out poured profuse apologies, citing her crazy schedule.
“Yea, yea, yea” I thought, “no need for excuses”.
“I’ve been dogsledding up here in the Arctic. I’m just now getting my remote office set up in my tent.”
Oh. Well, yea, um….yea, that’s a pretty good excuse.
Three cheers for the technology that enables this go anywhere, do anything lifestyle. I always knew that the cube and I wouldn’t be friends – this phone call confirmed we’ll never have to be.
(The love of my global life? Skype).