Free util to sound alarm when your laptop is grabbed by thief

[mouser]

Did you ever hesitate to leave your laptop for a few minutes in a public space like a library? Afraid that someone will take your laptop? Now there is a simple and free solution to this problem! Laptop Alarm will ring a loud alarm whenever someone tries to steal your laptop!

• The alarm will ring when someone tries to log off or shut down your laptop to take it with him.       
• When the laptop is disconnected from AC-power (someone pulls the AC adapter plug out) the alarm will go off!   
• When your USB mouse is pulled out the alarm will go off! If someone wants to take your laptop he will definitely pull your mouse out. 

http://www.syfer.nl/download.html

from http://www.all4you.dk/FreewareWorld

[icekin]

Okay, this also shuts off your sound completely for some reason.  That too, without using the mute. It took me 5 minutes to figure out what had happened to my audio out.

Solution is to lock the computer using the program, then activate the alarm and kill the program's process using Task Manager.

Anyone else experience this problem?

[Dr-Leech]

Uhm.. Nice find..
I'll try it soon..

[Laughing Man]

What if the person just closes the laptop lid to put it in sleep or hibernate? Though I think if a person is going take your laptop if the alarm starts they'll just run faster lol.

[Grorgy]

there is really no practical way to stop a professional thief, i think that these sort of things are good for the casual / opportunistic thief and should be seen in that light.

[icekin]

Okay, the sound being shut off upon unlock was a bug apparently. See http://www.syfer.nl/ for the new 1.13 which fixes the bug

[icekin]

Out of curiosity, I visited the website again and now they have added a feature of letting you know by SMS when someone picks up your computer. You have buy credit for the SMS though. A neat business idea?

But as mentioned earlier, a good thief will simply find a way to disable power altogether, turning off the protection. Out of curiosity, I wonder if it would be possible to power an alarm using the 3V Coin Cell Battery on the mainboard. Will probably drain the battery and might not be loud enough.

[Ralf Maximus]

I foresee a form of urban camoflage for laptops, where the brand new PC you order from the factory comes looking like an old 386 nobody would steal.

Or all corroded and discolored, like it'd been used in medical experiments and never cleaned.

Or melted, burned, and riddled with bullet-holes, with a giant "Forensic Evidence" baggie to carry it around in.

[icekin]

I foresee a form of urban camoflage for laptops, where the brand new PC you order from the factory comes looking like an old 386 nobody would steal.

Or all corroded and discolored, like it'd been used in medical experiments and never cleaned.

Or melted, burned, and riddled with bullet-holes, with a giant "Forensic Evidence" baggie to carry it around in.

-Ralf Maximus (November 09, 2007, 10:26 AM)

I'm ahead of the game then, mine has more visible scratches and discolorations than I can count. It helps that Acer laptops have cheap coatings on the surface, at least mine does. And I also have another laptop made in 1999 that looks too old school to make it work stealing, except as an antique.

[Curt]

If it is stolen anyway, it would bee good if LocatePC already was installed.

If the worst happens to your computer and it is stolen then usually there's no way to track where it is. That's where LocatePC comes in.

LocatePC sends you a secret email message from your computer containing vital information that can help you and law enforcement track a stolen computer, and eventually return it to you.

LocatePC is free software, and runs unobtrusively on your computer, with no icons, popups or saved emails. If your computer is stolen then the thief will not even know that LocatePC is running, and as soon as they connect to the internet a secret email is sent to you containing the details that you need to track your hardware.

-LocatePC

- or get it from SnapFiles

PS! Check out Today's Deal at the same site: Cute Context Menu at merely $4,75 
- they have several interesting programs as well. http://www.iconico.com/daily-deals/

[Deozaan]

If it is stolen anyway, it would bee good if LocatePC already was installed.

If the worst happens to your computer and it is stolen then usually there's no way to track where it is. That's where LocatePC comes in.

LocatePC sends you a secret email message from your computer containing vital information that can help you and law enforcement track a stolen computer, and eventually return it to you.

-LocatePC

-Curt (November 10, 2007, 02:17 AM)

Didn't mouser make something like this for the NANY last year? Phorp?