[Pao|o]

Today my mom's bag was almost stolen in our store when one of our customers picked it up and ran for dear life. Good thing people were alert and we were able to collar him. That got me thinking that I should buy myself a good laptop lock/security cable. I do recall seeing a post on slashdot or gizmodo that mentioned that current security cables and locks are useless against BIC ballpens and straws.

What I'm trying to ask is what do you folks recommend I use? With prices of fuel rising people are stealing left and right.

[ghporter]

Your info is rather dated and incomplete. Certain Kensington-style cylinder-key type locks have been found to be extremely poor security and can indeed be opened with the barrel of a ballpoint pen. But combination-style locks were NOT compromised. Since they don't have a "keyhole" to mess with, they do not have the flaw that the compromised locks do. I'd go with a four-dial lock for real security.

Also, when you connect a lock to your laptop, make sure you fit it properly. Some locks need shims to seat securely against the side of the computer, and if you skip those, you're shooting yourself in the foot-this kind of physical security is only as good as the effort you go to to use it properly.

And NOBODY has an excuse to rob anyone else just because gas costs more now than it did last week. That's a bogus, "I'm not responsible" attitude that hurts everyone. The jerk in your store was trying to be a thief, and he managed to be a caught thief. No excuse at all.

[Pao|o]

ghporter what brands offer 4 dial locks?

You got no arguement from me concerning thieves being thieves but the incidents of theft increases as the cost of living rises.

[ghporter]

I've seen Kensingtons with four dials at BestBuy. I have seen others, but I didn't notice their brands. My best advice here is to shop around.

[WitchKing]

I have a Defcon 4 dial lock and it works fine. But keep this in mind: A dial lock can be cracked very easily by manually trying every combination between 0000 and 9999.

I had to crack my step fathers briefcase 4 digit lock when I was a teenager, and the combination turned out to be 0000 when I started at 0001 - go figure. It only took me about 10 minutes to go through every combination. Had the number started with a 2 or something, I would have been done in 2 minutes.

I would recommend a key lock for max security, specially if you will be walking away from the computer for a long amount of time.