Laptop theives should be drawn and quartered and dimed

[Japher]

I back up everything on snapfish and DVDs... kids don't know a DVD from a coaster.

[Julian Delphiki]

Sorry to hear that, even losing a cellphone causes so much trouble.

[Winston]

This is horrible. I'm so sorry for you, Ben Kenobi.

While in some ways one would hope that an act like this was random, you can't help wondering if it could have been someone in the immediate area, perhaps passingly acquainted to you, who knew you'd be away at that specific time? I know I had these thoughts when my mom's home was ransacked some years ago while she was away for a funeral, and I still believe it to be a certain grandson of some of her good neighbours who was the burglar. (It was never pursued though, with nothing than mere suspicion to work on.)

Just a thought. But it seems most likely that you will have to try to just move on, however hard that may be.

[snoopy369]

Sorry to hear that, Ben.

Do you have renter's insurance? Also, you can get an offline backup solution fairly cheaply, for small amounts of files (heck, gmail/google will do small sizes for you just fine - just email yourself the document @ gmail) .

[Japher]

If you don't have renters insurance you should get it for the future, it's really cheap

[Hercules]

That's real lousy Ben. Sorry to hear about it.

[Winston]

I got the impression it wasn't so much the monetary loss that was causing grief, but yes, of course you should seek compensation from any insurance that you have. Or get the insurance sorted for the future. Good advice.

[Whaleboy]

Sorry to hear that Ben. I use encryption on my Mac (Filevault) and PC (http://www.truecrypt.org) and back everything up online using Google Mail. It won't stop the hardware itself being nicked but at least personal info won't be accessible to a thief.

Might be worth looking into that?

[Ben Kenobi]

Do you have renter's insurance? Also, you can get an offline backup solution fairly cheaply, for small amounts of files (heck, gmail/google will do small sizes for you just fine - just email yourself the document @ gmail) .

Most, but not all of my photos were already uploaded just in case something happened. There's a few missing.

I have some of my writing portfolio up there, and some which I can have retrieved. And some of it is in my email back and forth.

My boss is going to go through all his mails, and restore as much of it as possible so I'll be able to catch up with my work tomorrow. Most of that is already uploaded too.

What really hurts is that backup harddrive. Everything that was on there was not already backed up online.

[onodera]

I wonder if the thieves were black or hispanic? Or cracker?

[chequita guevara]

You're tired of crime, so you're planning on moving to the most crime ridden state of a country which has crime far in excess of your own.

[Ben Kenobi]

I got the impression it wasn't so much the monetary loss that was causing grief, but yes, of course you should seek compensation from any insurance that you have. Or get the insurance sorted for the future. Good advice.

Financially this hurts, but I'm thankfully at the point where I can replace all this stuff. I bought a refurbished replacement for about 400 bucks, and my boss is going to replace his cell phone, which was his anyways, since I only need it for work.

It's not as good as what I had, but it will do what I need it to.

The other major cost is moving expenses and all, I'm just glad I found a reasonable place on short notice.

The major effect is that it means my budget for the month is ****ed up, and I'll have to put some other things off.

[Ben Kenobi]

You're tired of crime, so you're planning on moving to the most crime ridden state of a country which has crime far in excess of your own.

This is where I grew up and I no longer feel safe here anymore. You know how ****ty that feels? I'll go someplace where I can feel safe.

[Ramo]

Sorry, Ben. That's a raw deal...

I recently had my backpack stolen at a bar. All that was inside was a notebook containing the bulk of work I accomplished during the Summer. Besides the ~$10 backpack, completely worthless to anyone but me (unless the thief happens to be interested in the stability of convective roll solutions to the fluid equations).

[chequita guevara]

You are aware that is utterly illogical. You are still far, far safer in Canada than you are in the U.S. And you are far, far safer in most of the U.S. than you are in Texas. Texas, quite frankly, is one of the most dangerous places on Earth.