Unfortunately, Dell didn't quite see things that way. He writes:

Last week I called Dell Technical Support about my Dell Studio 1537 Laptop and a DVD drive which was making loud noises and ejecting all cds. I had the basic "mail-in" warranty which required I ship them the laptop back. After my phone conversation with overseas tech support I received an empty box with a prepaid packing slip to mail the laptop back. A couple days ago I received both an automated email and phone call that my laptop was coming back to me. This morning, Fedex delivered a refurbished hard drive - yes just a hard drive.

I began my calling spree this morning and spoke to 7, yes 7, different Dell reps who transferred me between technical support, customer service, and back to technical support. After about 90 minutes of phone calls, hold music, and redialing I'm stuck with a 250gb hard drive but no laptop. Who do I call for help?

Adam could start by shooting off an email to michael@dell.com. The address goes to a Dell executives relations team and has helped people solve problems before. Any other suggestions?

(Photo: 60 in 3)

After a technician began looking through the computer, images of naked 10- to 13-year-old girls in suggestive and explicit poses were found, according to court documents.

...

Court documents show Miller came into the store Sunday afternoon because his Power Mac G5, a high-end desktop computer, was pulling photos from its hard drive and using them to overwrite thumbnails of other pictures in his photo libraries.

When an Apple technician told Miller they would need to keep his computer overnight he refused to let them keep it because he needed to pay bills with the computer, court records show.

At least we know that the technician had a valid excuse to see random folders full of image files on the computer, and didn't go randomly looking for porn. Illegal material found during the process of computer repair is admissible in court.

Move over, Chris Hansen. Catching a predator: there's an app for that.

Fairfield man arrested after Stamford Apple store worker allegedly finds child porn on computer [The Advocate]
Apple Genius Finds Child Porn on G5 In Need of Repair [Gizmodo]

RELATED:
Delete Your Porns: Court Says You Have No Right To Privacy When Your Computer Is Repaired

(Photo: Stamford Advocate)

I run a small computer repair and troubleshooting shop in Alexandria, VA and have been doing all kinds of computer/ networking jobs for more than 12 years.

Yesterday, I received a call from a very nice (elderly) couple who were having connectivity issues with their new Comcast 3 in 1 package installation (Phone, Cable, Internet). Basically, they were not able to connect to any internet sites after the installation, though; they had no issues prior to upgrading their service with Comcast. The service technician that came out and upgraded their service installed the new hardware and "helped" connect their computer, but was unable to do so. The couple said that the technician attempted to establish a connection for more than 2 hours but at the end failed to do so. All the while telling the couple that he was actually a contractor for Comcast and actually does computer repair/ troubleshooting as his primary job with his own little company.

Anyway, the Comcast technician finally told them that the issue was with their computer and that the operating system (Vista Home Edition) needed to be reinstalled. Here is the catch, the technician told the couple that he could do this for them but that it would not be part of the Comcast service contract. He offered to help provided they called him after he got off work for the low price of $199.99 (hmm... I've heard that before). The couple told him that they appreciated his effort and would consider doing so but wanted to try and get help as part of the Comcast service contract. They are on a fixed budget since they were retired.

The couple then contact every customer support number they had for their equipment to include the computer manufacturer, Router manufacturer, and Comcast once again to resolve the issue. Alas, none were able to assist since none could connect to their system and Comcast emphatically denied that it was an issue with their modem.

As a last resort they called me as I was recommended by a neighbor and asked if I could take a look at their computer. I agreed and made my way over that afternoon. Once I arrived I talked to the husband for a few minutes to get an idea of the issue and started my preliminary testing. This is how it went down:

1) I verified that the devices worked properly. Blinky lights — OK

2) I connected my own laptop to the modem. Everything was OK there too. I got an IP with no issues (68.86.X.X — I am making this number up since I do not recall the exact IP)

3) I connect to the Router (Linksys). Everything was OK there too. I got another internal IP (192.168.1.101) with no issues.

4) I verified that the Router was getting an IP from the Modem. OK there too and I was able to cruise the internet. So it must be the computer.

5) I checked the computer's security settings (Firewall & Anti-Virus) — Everything looked OK there too.

6) I check the IP that was given to the computer from the Router via the command console by typing "ipconfig". 10.1.10.1/ 24 — Screeech— What the heck? This isn't right! It should have been 192.168.1.X something. Let's see here—the network connection was assigned a static IP. Hmmm. I asked the husband if he had changed the connection to a static IP. He didn't know what I was talking about so I went back into the Router to check that the router didn't reset itself. It hadn't, all the original configuration settings that it originally had were still the same (Wireless name was the same and didn't default to "linksys", DHCP was enabled and the IP address scope was 192.168.1.100 - 200).

7) So I reset the Connection to receive an IP from the router dynamically and low and behold, everything worked.

Now here is what makes me sick to my stomach. I had the same exact issue with another customer a few weeks prior no more than 2 blocks away from the current residence. They were also not able to connect to the internet after an upgrade and were also offered to have the problem fixed for a price. I wasn't aware then that the technician was selling his reported services by piggy backing off of Comcast service calls at that time so I wasn't able to connect the two events immediately since I believed that the price was an actual Comcast service quote.

I am definitely not a conspiracy theorist, but, the similarities between the two events were just uncanny.

1) The same issues after an upgrade

2) The same price to fix the problem

3) Within walking distance of each other

4) The same misconfiguration of IPs on both systems

5) The real Comcast service call prices were nowhere near the price that was quoted by the technician

6) Both customers that I helped were elderly and limited in their computing knowledge (not trying to sound arrogant)

It is my belief that there is one rogue individual who is contracted by Comcast that is exploiting Comcast customers by intentionally misconfiguring computers to put a couple extra dollars into his pocket. This is entirely unethical behavior and probably illegal. It makes me ill to think that some sleazy technician is exploiting elderly in such a way.

In any case, I wanted to make you and your readers aware of what has recently transpired in the hopes of warning any future customers from getting suckered that live in the Burke area of Virginia.

Thanks, Rick! We hope you shared this information with the couple and urged them to contact Comcast to complain. But if not, posting it here should get the message out.

(Photo: Justin Marty)

Several readers also contacted us to point out that HP extended the warranties on a number of models recently due to motherboard failures, so John or other readers may have more options than they initially thought.

First, to satisfy everyone's curiosity, here are the motherboard prices John found. As some of you speculated, the $150 he originally mentioned was for one on eBay, not from HP:

Here you go. Actually, if I return the broken board they will sell me a refurb for $133 and a new board for $228.95. The $150 boards were on eBay. And you know they'd send HP the defective board for the "core credit". AND you know that Best Buy would NOT pay near what I'd have to pay for the board being that they are the only licensed HP reseller in my area.

http://h20141.www2.hp.com/hpparts/Search_Results.asp?mscssid=BB31E5F3F21343B380DA714B5C2DCD3A&SearchInc=PartNumber

A reader named Mark read the post and wrote in to tell us he recently had his own problems with an HP laptop, and discovered the extended warranty news:

My HP laptop just went down as well and after a tech support rep at HP told me it would cost $50 for ANY phone support, as my laptop is out of warranty, I did some searching online.

Please check out:
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/Document.jsp?&objectID=c01087277

It details a trend of motherboard failures and a two year warranty extension for this specific problem.

(Thanks to IT Insider, Erick, and everyone else who also sent in this info!)

Finally, we got some interesting inside info from John, a former CompUSA repair tech who offered an explanation to why Geek Squad's quote was so high:

I just wanted to let you know how it is from the service side of things. I worked on the repair side at CompUSA. Generally this is how it worked, we would order our parts from a third party. They would refurbish the parts and put a limited 30 day warranty on the part. When we order parts from them, Motherboards would generally cost between 500-1000 for laptops. I don't know how Best Buy has it set up, but I would venture it is similar. This takes the cost of doing the business of finding a part and knowing that it will work off of the retailer. And if the part was bad we could send it back and get another part at no additional cost to us. So if we were to go on ebay we would probably have to pay shipping for a part that we have no clue if it worked. It makes sense to me that this is how Best Buy does it too.

Here's John's story. The first paragraph is really more about how Best Buy screwed up yet another easy sale by failing to offer the bare minimum of service. Paragraphs two and three are about the motherboard.

My wife's laptop died about a 2 weeks after the 1 year warranty expired. We paid about $1000 (including tax) for it from Sam's Club. We contacted HP on the off-chance that they'd be cool about it and cover it anyway. No luck. So my wife, desperate to get her laptop working, decided to take it to The Geek Squad. First, they told her that they couldn't diagnose it there that they'd have to send it away to do so. She uses this as her work computer, even though we bought it ourselves, and couldn't wait to get it back. So she said she'd buy a new one then and there and have them transfer the data to her new laptop. I'd already found one that would be good for her while she was at the Geek Squad counter and we went over to it. We couldn't find a store associate anywhere. So my wife went up to the counter to have someone come over to help us. We told them where we'd be standing/waiting and they said they'd send someone right over. We waited, and waited, and waited. No one. My wife was fuming at this point and she went back up the counter and demanded that they give her back her laptop, and told them that they just lost out on a guaranteed $1200+ sale then and there.

But it gets better.

So, desperate to get her laptop working, she had me take it back the them the next day. They sent it in ($89 just to look at it, btw) and 2 weeks later the diagnosis is that it needs a new motherboard. I looked online and a new HP motherboard for this unit costs $150 to a consumer like me. This means, they're charging $650 minimum to install a motherboard. Being a year old, I could buy a brand new laptop that's almost twice as good for that same price!

We found this "Ask a Geek" article from a year and a half ago that says you should expect to pay anywhere from $250 to $500 for a new motherboard, but that's including the cost of the motherboard, a new operating system license to replace the one your computer came with (which likely is not licensed to work on the new hardware), and 3-4 hours of labor to swap out the part and reinstall everything. Opinions? Advice? Suggestions on better places to go for this sort of computer repair?

"The Cost Of Replacing A Motherboard" [Ask a Geek]
(Photo: tarale)

Here's Janssens' take on the law:

According to a lawsuit initiated by the newly-established Texas Chapter of the Institute for Justice, the Texas Private Security Board, a state agency, is interpreting this as including simple computer repairs such as malware removal.

The law provides for punishment of up to one year in jail and $4,000 in fines, and up to $10,000 in civil penalties. Additionally, any customer knowingly enlisting the help of an unlicensed computer repair person (that is, without a PI license) is subject to the same punishment.

Matt Miller, Texas Institute for Justice Executive Director and lead attorney on the case, notes that "it makes no sense to require a computer repairman with 10 or 20 years of experience to get a degree in criminal justice just to continue working in his occupation. This law will drive up the price of computer repair for everyone, and that’s exactly what the private investigations industry wants."

Janssens points out that "to get a PI license, one needs either a criminal justice degree (with all associated costs) or a three-year apprenticeship under a licensed PI."

But the Daily Times says repair technicians' fears are unfounded, and that the lawsuit is in part a publicity stunt by the organization that filed it:

The author of the bill, Rep. Joe Driver, R-Garland, told the Houston Chronicle that computer techs are misinterpreting the law and that the lawsuit is simply a publicity stunt by The Institute for Justice.

The lawsuit marked the launch of the group’s Texas chapter.

Rep. Harvey Hilderbran, R-Kerrville, agreed the new law probably is being misread.

“It needs some tightening up and some clarification, but I have been assured that they will be very cautious about enforcing it,” Hilderbran said. “(Driver’s) intent was that this rule only be used when analyzing data for investigative purposes.”

An e-mail sent to Hilderbran from DPS states that “only computer forensics officials must be licensed under the Private Security Act” and that those who only retrieve information from computer databases and pass it on to another person are not subject to the new law.

We just can't get over the idea of Geek Squad members all carrying around P.I. badges. Beyond the obvious concerns that over-eager Geek Squadders will abuse their power to, um, "privately investigate," the Texas Best Buy stores will have to remodel their in-store zones to provide a door with a frosted glass window for customers to walk through.

"Geek Squad, P.I.? Computer Repair Uproar in Texas" [ITPlanet.com] (Thanks to CaptZ!)
"Computer techs fight private-investigator law" [Daily Times]
(Photo: Joost Assink)

1. Every Saturday night we would be forced to "preinstall" half of our laptop inventory for Sunday, which would be the beginning of our new sales week. We would have to preinstall maybe 20-30 laptops in one night. When customer come in on Sunday looking for a laptop, the sales associate is trained to only offer "preinstall" laptops even though we have new ones still in the box. This is what consists of preinstall: Open up the laptop box, power up the laptop, and go through the Windows installation screens, once the desktop loads, install all the critical windows updates, and your done. Firedog charges $100 for this service on top of the cost of the laptop. They say that the laptop has been "optimized and ready to go". And i'd say half the customers fall for this tactic.

2. We would have to help the sales associates put out new price tags for laptops and desktops every Saturday night, the price that is listed online and in the flier gets hidden behind "B Tags". "B Tags" are the same as the original price tags, but the price is jacked way up. The laptop is offered with an Full In Home Installation option. For example if a laptop costs $800, the $800 would get you the laptop and your out the door, no firedog installations, no warranty, no nothing. The "B Tag" would list the same laptop for $1149 with the "everything installed firedog package", and it would be covering the original price tag. Consumers who did not research the laptop or did not look in flier are tricked into paying more. If consumer did not want any Firedog installation, the sales associate would tell them that Circuit City was all out of stock.

3. Firedog techs are deprived of the correct tools to get the job done, we do not get supplied with soldering irons, screwdrivers, glue guns, we get nothing, we would have to bring all the tools from home, as far as software tools, you may be fired because it is against policy to use any kind of software that is not provided by Circuit City directly. All they supplied us with was a trail version of Spyware Doctor and CCleaner. If you were caught by a District Manager using different tools you were fired. I personally used my own arsenal of tools, but the other guys that I worked with used the ones supplied by the Circuit City, all I can say is we had alot of customers come back for re-work because their computer still did not work. We are not provided with any data recovery tools incase your harddrive is malfunctioning, our store had to use a BestBuy Diagnostic CD that we found in a customers computer. How sad it that?

5. Once the customer signs the Firedog work order, they sign their computer away, on the back of the work order are the legal terms, basically telling the consumer that if Firedog lose or damage your laptop or desktop, Firedog is not responsible, if any data gets lost, Firedog is also not responsible.

6. If a computer is left at Circuit City for more than 60 days, it is considered abandoned and by the legal terms, it becomes Circuit City property, the firedog technicians do not keep their promises when they tell consumers that the computer will be ready by such and such a time. 8. Average turn around time for a computer is 1-2 weeks, 2 weeks especially if the Firedog technician does not know how to fix the problem, maybe even more. Firedog had computers from 6 months ago.

7. Circuit City will hire anyone to be a Firedog Technician, the Hiring Managers dont know anything about building/repairing computer hardware or software, if a person of the street came in and made stuff up and sounded like they knew what they were doing, they would be hired by the clueless hiring manager.

8. 95% of the work done by Firedog Technicians is Windows Operating System reinstalls, HP supplies us quarterly with recovery disks for every laptop/desktop system that we sell. If a consumer comes in with a simple problem, the computer is reformatted. Firedog offers data backup for $100, plus another $100 for the reformat. What is so hard about putting factory supplied restore disks in a computer? If a consumer does not have a recovery disk available, Firedog will install a retail copy of Windows thus resulting in the loss of all OEM software.

9. Firedog works strictly on Windows platforms, no Mac or Linux

10. Warranty work is done though a third party. If consumers buy a Circuit City warranty, their best bet is to take care of it themselves by calling the Circuit City repair service. If a customer brings in a laptop for hardware warranty repair, Firedog is not authorized to fix it, it must be fixed by the third party, even if a key fell off a keyboard, if the customer wants us to send it out for them, we have to put a claim with the service provider, the warranty company would have to review it, send us a prepaid box, we recieve the box, ship it back to the warranty service and then we get it back supposedly fixed, Firedog had a couple that came back still broken, customers are looking at a minimum wait time of atleast 4 weeks for laptop warranty repair.

11. Firedog services are not refundable, if a consumer brought their computer in for a diagnostic, and the Firedog technician told the consumer what they already know, they will not get a refund.

For more Firedog confessions, click here. Wanna play Firedog tech for free? You can download CCleaner here. It's a nice little program, and the new version is thumb drive portable so you can take it over to grandma's house and delete her cookies while you're eating her cookies.

(Photo:wingless girl)

Reader Michael watched incredulously as a Staples tech tried to convince a senior citizen that his computer wouldn't work properly without repairs costing almost $400.The senior, who had been lulled into Staples for a free tune up that suddenly cost $39.99, didn't understand why he needed to spend money on a "diagnostic screening ($49.99), virus removal services ($150), and more RAM (~$150)." Michael intervened and offered to look at the computer free of charge. He couldn't believe what he found when he popped open the computer.

He writes:

Thought your readers might find this information useful. While making a return at Staples (800 Lexington St, Waltham, MA), I happened to hear an elderly gentleman disputing a service charge. He had brought his PC in for a free "tune up," and now was being charged $39.99 for that service, plus the service technician was explaining that he needed to purchase a diagnostic screening ($49.99), virus removal services ($150), and more RAM (~$150) to get his computer working. His PC had four viruses, the technician explained, but they would need to run the diagnostic to determine the extent of the infections and to determine if any hardware needed to be replaced.

Having done PC repairs for pizza money in high school, I couldn't stand to watch a senior citizen get bilked that much to simply have anti-virus installed, run, and then (presumably) removed since it was just a "service." I stepped in and offered to take a look at his computer for free, though I couldn't make any promises about fixing it. The technician glared at me, but when the gentleman took me up on the offer he left us alone. I made my returns and followed the man to his house to see what I could do (OK, maybe I'm too trusting but I figure at 6'3" and 230, there's not much and 70 year old can pull on me).

He explained that his computer had worked well enough for e-mail and web surfing, but after he took it in for the free diagnostic it wouldn't start up anymore. Sure enough, we plug his Gateway in and nothing: The monitor doesn't even flicker, even though the power button turns green. I insert a live CD I'd brought along, and still no luck. I double checked that everything had been just fine before taking it in: He hadn't dropped it on the way to the store, hadn't ever opened the case up. He said the technicians had told him he'd need to have virii removed and more RAM added; he suggested he might as well get a new computer if they were going to charge him $300. Seeing how not even the BIOS was showing up, I was starting to worry he was right.

I opened up the PC, expecting the worst: A melted motherboard, fried circuits, or worse, nothing visible at all. I poked and pushed all the parts, making sure everything was tightly pushed in. Everything seemed alright, until I came to the RAM: His DRAM had been partially ejected from its slot, which only could happen if the buttons that held it in place had been pushed. Since he had never opened the PC case up, there was only one explanation: While rummaging inside his computer, a technician had (accidentally or on purpose) hit the button and caused the damage that they were now trying to charge him $390+tax to fix.

I can't see why a "tune up" would require opening the case, except to check and see how many open DRAM slots were available so they could push Staples products. Whatever the case, taking advantage of the elderly by throwing terms like "computer virus" when a hardware problem you caused stops you from even turning on the computer is downright dishonest, if not quite actionable. I even went through Staples pricing sheets afterwards, and none of the services they tried to upsell even appeared on the list.

Anyways, just a warning to your readers to watch out with Staples services. Probably no better or worse than any other big box assistance, but at list in this instance more than a little odious.

It should be noted that several Staples techs have chimed in the comments here and on Digg to dispute the prices Michael reports. Here's a comparison of Michael's prices, the price Staples charges for in-store tech service, and the price Staples charges for at-home repairs.
It's possible that the Diagnostic was rung up in-store, the virus removal was done at the on-site price and he got the number slightly off, and the tech was recommending Edge 2GB Kit PC3200 DDR Desktop Memory. So we can say Michael misremembered or misrepresented the prices, the tech was trying to meet quarterly sales goals, or the tech was new and mistakenly punched it the wrong price for the virus removal. The only weird thing under a "newbie/incompetent tech" scenario is that the tuneup price. Staples used to charge $39.99 but it was dropped to $29.99 mid-2007.

(Photo: Getty)

The problem is that management at these places typically aren't that tech literate and the techs are underpaid skeezy comp-sci majors. One guy actually resold to amateur porn sites with what he found. A 4-year degree for 9.50 an hour and that's the kind of "great attitude" you end up with.
benpopken: Precisely the scenario I envisioned, reselling to amateur sites.
hashand: Yah. 11 years at these places. Geek Squad didn't start it. It's the industry.

benpopken: Was it a national chain or just local?
hashand: Regional chain. 42 locations. To be fair, this is a relatively "new" problem. Maybe in the last 8 years. But yeah, we had a whole 2TB server + directconnect hub. If there was enough good stuff, we'd rip your drive and replace it with a refurb. Keep the drive and just tell you we wiped it
benpopken: Hot.
hashand: I didn't do repairs, i worked on the database and that's how i found out about the server.
benpopken: What place was it?
hashand: I really don't want to name names. My managers were good and it's a good company. The people who did this ultimately got fired.
benpopken: This was in the states, though?
hashand: Yeah. I worked in the flagship store with the owner. Doing database management for all the locations. But 21 year old underpaid "professionals" are going to do whatever they want. And if they set up entire p2p networks with firewalls and blacklisting of corporate and government snoops, they can hide data stashes in a largely unmonitored internal network easily. If they don't just use thumbdrives, there's always a server stack and there aren't enough hours in the day to audit what every little black box with lights is doing.

My best advice to anyone sending their computer in for repairs is find a shop that'll take it without a hard drive. We would, if you asked. It;s easy to slot in a blank drive, run knoppix, and format it. We just booted to a separate partition anyway, so its not even like we needed your data.
benpopken: Pretty much the only way to guarantee safety.
hashand: Or, if they won't let you do that, go buy a new drive. Put it in, reinstall your os, then ship it off.
benpopken: Unless the problem exists on the hard drive.
hashand: Well, yeah. But at that point, do you really want someone you don't know "recovering" your data for you anyway? If there's a hard drive problem, they're just going to send you a refurb drive anyway. So if replacing the drive fixes the problem, you just saved yourself a huge headache anyway. Sketchy untested drives aren't worth it. Storage is so cheap these days.
benpopken: Was checking out the content on the blinking box a group activity?
hashand: It's hard to say. But it was endemic to at least 30% of our stores. Primarily the ones located near college campuses.
benpopken: That would figure.
hashand: You can see a real demographics trend in where these problems are.
benpopken: Basically wherever you find horny young cocky boys who think they're invincible?
hashand: I won't go that far. It's the sense that they're disposable. In the it industry, you're nothing if you don't have an ma or phd and 10 years on the job. Entry level it is no better than working at target.
benpopken: So it's more of if you don't care about me, i don't care about you?
hashand: They get fired and there's another job. They're a dime a dozen. And no chance for advancement. Or if you do advance, its not even worth your time.
benpopken: Is porn-stealing then a form of insubordination and acting out?
hashand: Well, more a sense of "I want what I want and there's no good argument for not having it" i.e. mp3 sharing. We literally paid less than a job at Costco, and the benefits were a joke.
benpopken: You would think the rewards would be greater. Handling technology and what not. At least that's what the Devry commercials tell me.
hashand: Devry's a whole other scam. Going to community college or devry for computers gets you basically nothing. An AS in computer science is worth less than just being earnest about technology and having used linux in high school for a couple years. When you get out of school and find out you're 20 grand in debt and your job prospects are nil. What do you expect of someone? People just need to treat computer repair the same way they'd treat a home contractor or anything else. You want to meet the person who'll be overseeing your work and you don't want that person to be 22 years old and wearing a pot leaf shirt.

But yeah, this goes way back. Even working at AT&T in the 90s, this all existed. Just not on the scale it does now. It's bbs [bulletin boards] culture projected onto a much more savvy generation.
benpopken: Why do you think it only started 8 years ago?
hashand: Combination of the dot com boom and 80s babies graduating. Kids who grew up with computers but were teenagers in the 90's. Napster, bbs', warez culture. IP [intellectual property] in general means less to people these days than it did back then. For better or worse.
benpopken: What did ip mean back then?
hashand: Well, the rise of things like the gnu [a free version of the Unix operating system] have instilled a certain consciousness about it within long time computer users. Your work is always attributed and you get credit for it. Period. People who break the gnu invariably disappear because no one trusts them. When you're a hacker and your code gets stolen, you have a better appreciation for why you shouldn't take things from other people without permission.

benpopken: So, since the kids don't have to create any intellectual property in order to use computers, they have less appreciation for other's intellectual property? And the bar is lowered?
hashand: Essentially. Two clicks and you have the new t-pain record. And no one seems to care. There are some niche music communities, for example, that have gotten proactive about calling out people amongst them who steal. Side-line.com is a magazine that hosts forums And many of the musicians whmo the magazine covers post there. And there was a recent thread where a guy was file sharing from work. Three of the bands he was pirating ganged up, tracked up his ip, got his real name, and called his employer.
benpopken: That's impressive.
hashand: It's interesting. It stinks of vigilantism, but the guy's gone from the torrent sites he was on and, as far as has been revealed, has been fired from his job. And that's what the coding scene used to be like and still is. Because for these musicians, they're happy to let mp3 blogs and internet radio stations post or play their stuff for the public.

As with putting your record out in stores and crying when it gets stolen, the best protection is to keep stuff you don't want people to take out of their hands. Data on your drive, music you've written, anything. Either that or publicize it to the point that it's worthless.

My personal data storage solution is that i have a 40 gig drive in my actual desktop and 500 gigs of network storage for business records, etc. All on usb devices. It's better to treat your personal setup as a series of legoblocks where every piece is interchangeable, but the whole thing functions as a whole without every little bit.

But even drive encryption on your home computer is worthless. Because, again, these are trained computer professionals with years of college schooling and nothing better to do than crack whatever encryption or protection you've set up. And snagging a drive out of the refurb pile is no big deal. These guys routinely build new PCs out of "spare parts." I'm sure you could write a whole doctoral thesis as to why all of this is.
benpopken: Right, but it's still a barrier. Since it's a crime of opportunity, won't some protections increase the likelihood they will pass on to the next one?
hashand: Well, definitely. But short of having your computer repair cost 3 grand, nothing's going to be done about it. Lowest bidder wins. Capitalism has its shortcomings.
benpopken: By the same token, the personal file pilfering can be combated if its costs are raised. Like if individual people, local news stations, or kids for science fair projects start doing their own honeypot missions and published/broadcast the results.
hashand: Yeah, but will it change anything? Probably not. Like auto mechanics doctoring your bill. One guy gets fired, two more get hired. You're not going to convince computer repair to start paying double the wages to get people who actually care what they're doing.
benpopken: I suppose not. There's been all sorts of jiffy lube investigations and people are still getting screwed by car repair.
hashand: Yeah. It's systemic.
benpopken: But if we get people to take their computers to other places, or to local outfits, maybe... I've been talking to a reporter in Canada, and she's interested in the story because they're going to do a piece asking whether computer repair needs to be regulated and require official certification before you're allowed to work on computers. So maybe some day the other option will be to send your computer to Canada. Free socialized computer health care.
hashand: I would *welcome* official certification. Computer engineers should be bonded just like contractors and have insurance. I'm a registered libertarian and I think there needs to be *some* regulation. Take that how you will.
benpopken: I would take it that if even a libertarian is supporting regulation, than you know they're serious about it.
hashand: Totally. Bonding is a nice non-governmental way to go about it.

(Photo: Getty)

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