Wilson Ng
Wired Desktop

WHEN I first heard that over a mil-lion notebook computers are lost every year, I could not believe it. But apparently, it is true. A study commissioned by Ponemon Instiute showed that in the United States airports alone, 12,000 notebooks are lost every week.

Luckily, I have not lost a notebook, but I have lost three cell phones over 10 years.

Fortunately, notebook prices are going down every year, and losing one does not cost an arm and a leg now. Ten years ago,
a good notebook computer would cost almost a third of a small car. Now, for the money you spend on a small car, you can easily buy 20 notebooks. And these 20 notebooks would all be better and faster—having more storage and memory than the one 10 years ago. That is how the price of technology have fallen vis a vis the car.

But there are two reasons why losing a notebook hurts. One, you lose your data. When you lose your notebook, make sure you have a great backup. To do so, you need an external hard disk where you can safely back up your files so when you lose your computer, you’ll still have your data.

If external hard disks are a major drag, you can back up your data on a thumb drive. You can carry the thumb drive anywhere, and 4-gigabyte thumb drive cost less than a thousand nowadays.

The other painful thing is the realization that you may have valuable data that will fall in the wrong hands. If you have such data in your computer, you better have your hard disk encrypted—which is offered for free when you buy Vista Business or Ultimate edition.

Another solution is to get a notebook with anti-theft protection, which the latest Lenovo Thinkpad T400 series claims to have. This technology was developed by Intel and adopted first by Lenovo. It is a series of technologies that allows an enterprise department to easily manage various notebook computers assigned to different people in the company.

Information technology (IT) departments can set policies for laptop security. For example, if a notebook is disconnected from a central server for a long period of time or if it detects a certain number of log-in failures, the laptop could be set to shut down.

Also in conjunction with security software like Computrace, the IT department may be able to track where a notebook is at a given time, if it is used to log into the Internet. When it is traced, the IT department can also send a message that will disable the computer so that it can no longer be used.

Since the software can be put on the firmware, it will still be activated even if the thief reformats the hard disk.

Of course, the thief can still use the computer and go undetected as long as he or she never logs into the Internet. But then, most computers are almost useless when you cannot use it to surf the Internet.

Apparently, human error abounds - and technology aids human error. A study conducted by the University of Utah found that there are more traffic accidents nowadays because of cell phone usage.

Of course, it is dangerous to text or even dial when you are driving; people who use hands-free phones or speaker phones are not exempt. Even when drivers are using a hands-free cell phone, driving performance can be compromised because the driver is unable to pay full attention to the wheel and the road.

I can testify to that. I once bumped the rear of the car before me because I was texting. So learn from my mistake, don’t text and drive.

(www.ngkhai.net/bizdrivenlife)

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(December 4, 2008 issue)
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