I decided to move to a laptop about a month ago, ditched my desktop completely. I’ve been on the move a lot lately (just started 3D3R Software Studio), and what can I say, Mobility wins. It’s a strong laptop so I don’t feel like I’m losing out on anything. I’ll shamelessly promote IBM’s T43, it’s a great laptop!
Anyways, This morning I found myself at a post-office. I was clumsy enough to forget my laptop (in it’s small grey bag) on the office’s floor and walk away. I noticed I’ve lost it only an or two later…
I ran like a maniac back to the post-office, to discover that my laptop was taken by the police.
I don’t know if you’re an Israeli or not, but it you aren’t you should know that people try to take security seriously around here. As in when they find a bag with no owner, in the middle of a crowded place, the police is summoned, and one of their little robots comes in, caresses the bag, AND SHOOTS IT to see if it was a bomb or not.
OH MY GOD THEY SHOT MY LAPTOP!!!
Yeah I was pretty down for some time, I wasn’t sure they were pulling a joke on me until I got to the police station to gather the wrecks.
That was the bad stuff, here’s the less-bad stuff:
- Bullet missed the hard-drive
- The state reimburses you in such cases (although it should be a long process)
To counter these two lucky points, let me point out that just 3 days ago I:
- Made a ghost-image of the laptop and decided I’m gonna incrementaly-update it every week or so.
- I insured the laptop, costs like 50$ a year.
My new laptop is already on its way and should be here by tomorrow. Hopefully enough I’ll be able to slip the hard-drive right into the new laptop for a seemingly continuous workflow. Who knows, maybe it will come back from hibernation and not even notice what happened, like a brain-transplant or something.
For all of you asking yourself ‘well is it working or not’, the answer is: it turns on, but that’s about it. I refuse to put the hard-drive back, taking no chances that any power-controling chip went berzerk and decides to fry the disk… You can’t see the BIOS but then again the screen is seriously fractured 
Once I get the new laptop and it all works (plz) I’ll have some time to play with it, or I’ll just give it to Netter & Yuval.
Here’s what I managed to recover from the wreck:
So, what have I learned ?
- Keep an eye on my stuff
- Backup, Backup, Backup
- Insure your stuff
What did you learn ? Hopefully the same
be cool
Update: Just popped in the old hard-drive into the new computer and all seems to work, phew
The kind Mr. Tim Pritlove has conducted a short invterview with me regarding hte shot laptop during Kinnernet 2006, you can listen to it here.
Wow that really sucks. You can be sure nothing like that would ever be tolerated where I live… people would go berserk if the police just shot at our property.
LOL, Great story and glad that everything is ok.
aries.. yeah, they’d go mad here too. I mean imagine someone blowing up my sports bag on the way back from the gym instead of the 50lbs of semtex left in the corner of the market.
I mean they should stop blowing up items left alone in suspicious places and let the 50lbs of semtex take out 50-100 innocent people.
Wake up to the 21st century. You don’t go leaving stuff in places where you shouldn’t. Mind you, you do live in the US where you don’t have to worry about too many suicide or terrorist bombers on your doorsteps. You give it a few years when terroism gets to the US big time, then you’ll know how daft your statement was.
At least Ohad realised and admitted his mistake.
lol, pretty much sucks…
good that you got a free replacement
great story! i was wondering… what replaced the laptop? was it the state or the insurance program. another thing, what insurance do you use? i’m thinking of getting a computer insurance policy.
You should buy a “Don’t shoot me!” label for the bag and the laptop
I can’t believe that they shoot a bullet into an unknown package… what if they do that one day and it actually is a bomb… do they do the shooting on scene? If so, wow, that’s out there… thanks for the story and the head’s up on the benefits of laptop insurance.
Shiner… I don’t think that terrorism is ever going to get quite as rampant in the US as it is in Israel. For one thing, the country is very, very large. I live in a town of less than 700. There are cities over 8 million and towns of 1 or 2! Just a little too big to have a freqeuency of terrorism in most communities, let alone most cities.
And beside that, with people like Bush in office, (while I still hate the man), It is a much less accessible place for jihadists or other terrorists.
read somewhere that in israel, unattended packages are detonated? so u’re lucky u’re not there
Don’t trust that hard drive… Get your data off, and go to the new hard drive. The banging it received is likely to significantly lower it’s life.
Thanks Goodness you had such a great experience and an extra memory module for “free”! To really enjoy your new machine go get a 7200 rpm harddisk
ARiES,
Russia is even larger than the US, and I can assure you: few major attacks in the large cities are enough to change people behavior throughout the country.
Basically, for everyone who doesn’t know about the policy in Israel – When someone notices an abandoned package, a place is evacuated, and the police keep everyone at least 100 ft away, then they put a fairly resilient dome over the package and shoot a bullet into it – about 99.99% of the time, if it is a bomb, it will go off.
The policy has virtually eliminated bombs that terrorist leave in public places, which used to kill dozens of innocent civilians a week. It also led to the adoption of suicide bombings by the terrorists.
BTW, I found this off of digg.com Cool story, even though it stinks.
A laptop is a great thing
It is a greater thin when toy are a soldier in the air force and you are a base-jail commander
And you go home weak-weak and you have cable TV (and internet) in your room
And of some manaik will think to shot my lab
I think I’ll just shoot him with my glilon first
free refurbished laptops
This is sad and really sucks.
At least you have a new one.
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Wow, pretty mad story.
Make sure your laptop is insured… this should cover you in these instances!
Go to http://cheaplaptopinsurance.co.uk
I am surprised that they’ll reimburse you for the thing. Granted, it’s totally nuts that they’d BOTH caress it AND shoot it, but if that’s the way things are done over there, you’d think they’d say “Tough Shizzy, Kid”. And good advice on the insurance, got me thinking.