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My Laptop!

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As many of you know, my theme throughout my books and speeches revolves around the adage “Do As I Say, Not As I Did!” Over the years I have tried to have fewer and fewer personal lessons around that saying, but I’ve recently joined the club again with a war story involving a stolen laptop.

About a month ago I took the plunge to the “other side” and joined the world of Mac lovers by buying my first Mac laptop. I could write an entire blog on the interesting transition of a 20-year Windows veteran to the world of Apple Software…but after a few painful weeks, I fell in love with both the computer itself and the whole Apple platform. As a matter of fact, I liked it so much that I wanted to take it EVERYWHERE with me. It’s very portable!

This past Friday I put it in my front seat and raced off through a snowstorm from Boulder to Denver. After an enjoyable evening with friends, I got to my hotel and imagine my dismay when I realized my laptop was nowhere to be found. Yikes! The only thing that could have happened is that I VALET PARKED MY CAR. I guess it sitting on my front seat (albeit in a black bag) was too tempting for either the valet parker or someone who managed to get in my car because perhaps it was left unlocked. Apparently Macs get stolen more frequently than PCs. Regardless, it’s gone and no one seems to want to take responsibility (imagine that!).

So, the worst thing about this whole event is that I had not backed up my new computer EVEN ONCE since I purchased it on October 15. I kept saying “Oh, I’ll get around to it. It’ll be fine for now.” Now an entire month’s worth of work is gone-baby-gone. E-mails, photos, Word docs, spreadsheets…poof! I was so desperate to get my data back that I told the valet company that I would be willing not to report them to the police AND give them a reward just to get the laptop back with my data intact. That didn’t get me anywhere, so I will be filing a police report tomorrow.

Lessons Learned:

• Don’t leave valuables in your car when valet parking. Even if it’s not the parkers who take things, they may unwittingly leave your car unlocked. The maximum liability of the Valet Parking Company is $250, as stated on my valet ticket.

• BACK UP YOUR DATA ON A REGULAR BASIS! Don’t think this won’t happen to you. I had that attitude for a long time until this weekend. After this episode I could probably write an entire (but not very exciting) blog post on back-up options. A few sites to check out are online services Carbonite for $6.00 a month and www.idrive.com for about $5.00 a month. These online services allow you to back up data without having a separate drive and both programs look quite simple to navigate.

• Protect your laptop with programs such as Laptop Cop and Undercover. These programs will geographically track your laptop and even allow you to remotely access your stolen’ laptop’s files. This will GREATLY increase the odds of getting your computer back because 97 percent of non-protected laptops are never recovered.

• Pay with an American Express – they will reimburse the deductible for thefts or vandalism on purchases made with an Am Ex card within 90 days of the loss.

• Facebook is so much more than a “here’s what I’m up to” venue. After posting about my loss yesterday, I had seven immediate replies—some offering a sympathetic ear (nice!), and others offering tangible suggestions on what I should do next. If you aren’t using Facebook or Twitter to post requests, ask for help, and look for new ideas, you are missing out.

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