Slashdot Mirror
Doing the Laptop Drive of Shame
netbuzz writes "If you bring your work computer home with any regularity, chances are good that you've done the Laptop Drive of Shame. (Oh, c'mon, admit it.) It's happening more than ever ... and costing more than ever, too, what with the price of gas and all." I'll spoil it for you — they mean leaving your laptop at home. Yay, Monday news cycle.
Stupid unfunny slow news story. Not laughing 'cause it's like a lame stand-up-comedian-dont-you-hate joke. Get yer tomatoes out everyone.
This is the first time I wish I had been rickrolled instead of getting that awful article.
See my journal for slashdot ID's by year. Mine created in 2005. http://slashdot.org/journal/289875/slashdot-ids-by-year
Slow news day ... or no news day?
At the bottom of the
I leave my laptop chained to my desk at work.. Im tired of lugging that damned thing back and forth.
-db
On purpose, to avoid Monday.
I thought it had something to do with donating your porn laptop to the less fortunate or something. Well, it probably would have made a better arrticle.
I don't live that far away from work, so if I ever forget my laptop it's not too much of a trek. To be honest I'm more likely to "forget" my pass and then I have to go and temporary one from the lovely girls in premises (I'm not stupid you know).
Seriously though, I usually just put my laptop bag, with the laptop inside it (the most important bit) across my front door so that I have to pick it up to open the door. Obviously this only works if you're the first person out the door in the morning...
Summation 2
Don't bring your work computer home. It's unsafe (unless you are very cautious) and it removes the separation of work and recreation. If you're doing it to use the computer for private purposes, buy your own. The price has gone down a lot and owning your personal computer reduces liability issues. Besides, if any of your spare time computer activities ever becomes valuable, there won't be the issue that it was produced with company equipment and therefore belongs to the company.
I'm so tied to my computer that I've never left it at home by mistake. I forget my wallet or cell phone a few times a year, but my laptop is safe.
Go home you fanboys!
I'm sure there have been more than a few business travellers who have flown across many time zones only to realise they've left their laptop behind...
Why not just Tele-commute back home for the day. I do this on a daily basis with very usable results using RDP over an SSH tunnel.
If you're working for yourself this is actually the safest way to ensure your data is secure as it doesn't leave you home. I encrypt the critical stuff as well just to be sure.
Just keep driving. I've forgotten my laptop before, and if I worked as a company where forgetting one's laptop got one fired, I'd have been gone long ago for REAL mistakes, not just lapses in memory.
"As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly." A. Carlson
.
Well, during the "probationary period" I forgot it at home twice and had to do my hour commute home and my hour commute back. After that, I started leaving it at work. I think I talked about getting VPN set up so I could just log in from home rather than lugging the laptop around. Of course, I didn't last much longer at that particular job (Thank God), so it was kind of academic anyway.
I'm an absent minded guy so I figure out various tricks when I need to remember things and not lose things. However, it takes a while for me to set that kind of thing up.
"MIT betrayed all of its basic principles."
That's nothing.. it's even more shameful when you leave your laptop charger at home and you have to freakin drive 35km back home to go and fetch it just after you faced the heavy traffic (which have to face again).
First of all, shouldnt this be on idle.slashdot.org... since its a time-waster and all?
That said, I don't have to worry about leaving laptops since I rarely take one home. However, being a government contractor, I do use a CAC which allows me access to my laptop. Leaving that at the house is effectively like leaving my laptop at the house. There have been numerous occasions where I have left my card at the house and had to the "drive of shame". Within the last two or three months, though, I have been riding to work, so in that case I have to do the "ride of shame".
...and it should be known by now
I guess it makes a difference if you're walking or driving. On the other hand, I 'lost' my laptop several times in various bars/clubs after a couple of afterwork drinks. Fortunately, I always managed to get it back.
Didn't a famous violinist forget his 2 million dollar violin in a New York cab?
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
Sure, the article's not funny or enlightening in the least, but I've been there. I've never managed to get all the way to work without my laptop, but I've gotten a few miles before the D'oh moment.
Nowadays, I hang my laptop bag from the doorknob. Seems to do the trick.
--I'm so big, my sig has its own sig.
-- See?
Good God, editors, it's bad enough someone would submit this story, but you guys let it through?
Can we mod the editors out of office?
Would it be possible to add modding to the published articles? Can we prevent this submitter from ever submitting a story again?
Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong fix.
Decline the laptop, and the Blackberry, and the pager, and the company cellphone... If it's that important, call me at home and I'll drive in. It never has been, though.
My coworker (with the Blackberry) regularly gets called for trivial things. Like: Where's that log printout? Hmm? You put it on my desk, you say?
Why not just Tele-commute back home for the day. I do this on a daily basis with very usable results using RDP over an SSH tunnel.
If you're working for yourself this is actually the safest way to ensure your data is secure as it doesn't leave you home. I encrypt the critical stuff as well just to be sure.
Unfortunately, there are a lot of asshat managers who want their employees in the office.
Also, when you're not in front of the boss all the time, he doesn't really see your contribution, so when review time comes, you won't get the points that the folks who are there will.
Still, it's good to know my porn buddy will be there to remove my drive of shame when I die.
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=porn%20buddy
The reason I got a laptop in the first place is because it was relatively quiet - so quiet in fact I forgot it at home several times
Solution?
Got a basic/stock "business class" PC - a basic one that's not all pimped out and overclocked
does the job and it's quiet now too ...
---- "Logoff! That cookie shit makes me nervous!" - A. Soprano
I snagged an extra charger and even docking station so I didn't have to muck with plugging everything in to my kvm at home.
But I haven't left my laptop at home (yet). I have left my badge at home a couple of times. First and second times they make a temp for me to use. Third time I'm charged some amount ($50?). Fourth and subsequent times, I have to go home to get it and I get a talking to by my manager :rolleyes:
So far the two times I've left it at home have been because I have something to do first thing and I wanted to make sure I got to work on time.
And while I'm trying to get work to consider some telecommuting, I did work at IBM and telecommuted for a year. I guess I don't have that sort of personality as it became somewhat tense. It's hard to set up interpersonal team connections over the 'net (we were spread across the states). Add in the generally toxic environment and I had to quit. So some telecommuting is good (one or two days a week), I wouldn't want to do it 5 days a week.
[John]
Shit better not happen!
Cool! Now that way I can have my laptop and my car both stolen at the same time!
Slow news day or not, I find myself doing this at least once every other week. I swear, I really am losing my mind.
Although, I don't think I have ever shown up with no clothes on...
There are 10 types of people in the world. Those that understand this sig, and those that beat up people who do.
I don't know about some of you, but on a slow day I've used this to my advantage! OOOOPS!! I forgot the lappy at home! Nevermind the fact that it might take 2-3 hours for me to get it on this beautiful summer day. I might even get to spend some kid free QT with the wife while I'm at my house "frantically searching" for my data..if you can pick up what I'm layin' down
Your television will not tell you when to start the revolution.
Combine two hot office trends!
The worst thing to leave at home is my lunch, thats when I put my car key on my lunch in the fridge. I have however left the power supply at home and on occasion my phone, now that stings - you have to weigh up the distance traveled + lateness vs inconvenience of not having phone - sometimes quite liberating.
Speaking of liberating, once I forgot a change of underwear and only realised it half way through my lunch time workout - kinda weird but unexpectedly comfortable. Now locking your car keys in the car at work is a major annoyance (if you have an old car like me) so I keep spare car keys, a spare phone charger and a spare shirt at work, pretty handy. I'm considering leaving a laptop power supply at work too.
I am however getting more comfortable with no undies.
here-eth ends the rambling.
My ism, it's full of beliefs.
is the one you make to work every day, to a job that, by taking your laptop home, you have proven you can do from home. The shame is on the employer.
I scp stuff between my desktop at work and whatever I'm using elsewhere. More and more my stuff is done with a web based interface. It really doesn't matter if I totally lose my laptop forever, I don't store sensitive files on it anyway.
I can ssh through the employer's firewall because I'm one of the computer geeks. My boss, on the other hand, showed me how he uses an external internet based service to access his various computers remotely. (I'm a bit worried about the security of doing that though.)
What it boils down to: 'I don't need no steenking laptop. (most of the time)'
Being an old and proud Slashdotter, I'd gone many months with R'ing TFA, and somehow I picked this morning to try it the other way.
Yay me.
Here's looking forward to another long stretch of blissful ignorance.
Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?
Warning: walkhome.jpg is a 3072x2304, 2.2 MB JPEG.
I've never forgotten my laptop, but I have frequently forgotten my laptop power supply. The laptop itself is heavy enough that I notice if it's not in my messenger bag, but if I'm in a hurry and did work at home the night before, I frequently don't notice that the power brick is still on my coffee table.
Oddly enough, this happened to me this morning. My laptop normally stays in my car for the majority of the weekend but I keep it with me in case I'm needed for anything. This weekend I was helping people move though so I took it out of the car. Got to work at 7:30 or so and realized it wasn't there :-/
Sadly I did not get the option of working at home :(
If he tells ya up front a link's not worth going to, don't whine if it's not.
Luckily, the only time I've left my laptop at home it has been on purpose . . . .
Meh,
The 'My Documents' folder on my (Vista-based) laptop does an rsync via ssh to a server at work every 15 minutes so I don't have to worry about transporting my laptop to/from work + I can 'pick up' stuff if I 'forget' it.
I use Deltacopy for the syncing.
Works a treat!
AT&ROFLMAO
At work i'm one of the sysadmin, and so have a nice fat workstation and a few beefy "test" servers at hand.
But sometimes i bring my personal laptop to work (which, by the way, is my only machine at home that does have a display). Twice in the last two years i left it in my office after my workday. Given that i can't even watch TV without it, i have to return to work to fetch it. Luckily, it's only 2.5km between home and work and my access card is (naturally) a 24/7 one.
Nowadays, i always put my access card into my laptop bag when i took it to work. Without the card, i'm physically unable to leave the office (except in case of fire), so i'm very unlikely to leave my laptop behind...
Look, this thing is totally safe! Built it myself, you know. You just press that button like this and then turn that lev
Warning: walkhome.jpg is a 3072x2304, 2.2 MB JPEG.
And is apparently being served from a dial-up modem.
Fix Your Own TV - RiddledTV.com Avoid the Landfill
How about how Obama and McCain are both screwing us in Congress along with the rest of them?
We discussed that to death last week already.
How about Civilization Revolution exists for the XBox 360, Playstation 3, and NDS but not the PC or Mac?
Uh... dude. That's kind of the ENTIRE POINT! On the PC and Mac we have the far superior Civ 4, we don't need the stripped-down console version. I downloaded the demo for my 360, played for 5 minutes, and realized I'd have infinitely more fun playing Civ 4. Better interface, more facets to the game... I'm not sure why you'd want Civ Rev unless you don't play games on the PC at all.
"16MB (fuck off, MiB fascists)" - The Mighty Buzzard
Which sane person centralizes their information on a laptop? They have a reliability rate lower on desktops (counting temporary/permanent disappearance, damage, etc.) and are meant only for work away from the central location.
At the very least, they should get a copy of SyncToy (a Microsoft product) that's capable of ensuring the local and remote folders are up-to-date. That insures that if you've forgot your laptop somewhere, you won't be dead in the water.
But I've definitely forgotten my power supply, so I have about 2 hours to figure how to make that "drive of shame" without being noticed...
There is a fine line between being a cultivated citizen and being someone else's crop. - A. J. Patrick Liszkie
With all due respect CmdrTaco, if you think the article is a waste of time (as your comment implies), then why the hell did you post it?
It's official. Most of you are morons.
Where do you people who telecommute work? I've worked in few places that depite my having VPN access (b/c I manage systems) there is strict policy of "No working from home." And I don't know anyone personally who works from home.
Do not read this
Well, it does appear to be on a Commodore :D
[John]
Shit better not happen!
really---how did this get through....
The article ends by suggesting you leave your car keys on your laptop bag to not forget your laptop. What about the folks that don't want to look for keys in the morning so they leave them in the car?
Another little hole in the guys logic--if the walk of shame happens on Monday--does this mean the OP goes home on Friday and never uses his car to go out again? Just sits at home doing work on the laptop? Get a life!
My suggestion--leave your laptop in the car. Tell everyone you left the laptop at home. Jump back in the car and head to the lake for the day. Bring a old keyboard with you onto the boat. When the boss calls--turn off the boat, make sure everyone is quiet and talk to him while mashing random keys. When he asks a question you can't answer tell him the link/website/etc is slow and you'll call him back with the answer....
So it's such a routine that I cannot forget it.
Too bad that this doesn't apply for the power supply. Workaround: Now I have a power supply at home and and at work, so I don't need to worry about it. But that also comes with a side effect: Now I'm quite prone to forget the power supply when I have to go somewhere else but to the office as I usually don't need it ... guess I should place a 3rd one in the laptop bag and leave it there.
"Sometimes I forget things and have to go back to get them. Now I leave my work laptop at home, and people laugh at me when I have to go back home to retrieve it."
It's not even news. It's just a pale, pale attempt to do Andy Rooney type fluff columns.
So yeah, I now regret reading the whole thing. It was a Rickroll that was so lame it didn't even have Rick Astley in it.
I occasionally do this on purpose, especially during the warmer months, so that I can go on a nice bike ride to retrieve the "forgotten" laptop.
Nothing shameful about it at all...
of course, is when the laptop makes it to the car, just not in the car.
throw new NoSignatureException();
I take the tram, you insensitive clod!
My cell phone / wallet has stayed at home by mistake. Never my laptop.
Remembering the notebook is easy - it is heavy. The powercord, now that's different. With notebook batteries lasting all of ten minutes on an older machine the power cord and transformer block become vital to remember. True pro's will have two of these though, one for work, one for home.
Again, this can lead to problems - visit a company, fire up the PC for a presentation and where's the power cord? One left at home, another left at work. The best solution is to have the transformer built into the notebook - as per early Toshiba's - however that makes the notebook weigh more in the reviews (where the brick is conveniently not part of the review).
Get software like Sailing Clicker, then install a plugin (or write a script) that will call you when you've lost connectivity with your laptop.
I used to use such a thing to make my laptop screen lock when I left the room... I'm certain it could be updated to make a call or send a text message at least.
A fool throws a stone into a well and a thousand sages can not remove it.
I once took my laptop to work but left the power supply at home. Needless to say I had to do the "Laptop Tube Journey of Shame" - At the time I worked in Canary Wharf which was an hour journey on a good day!
N.
... I have VPN access and RDC, I don't want to have to haul a laptop around every day.
- R
If you've read this far I know what you're thinking: "How can I avoid doing the Laptop Drive of Shame?" (Or in some cases, do it less often.)
No, Paul, I never once thought that while skimming your article. All I ever thought was "How does anyone manage to forget their laptop at home?" I've had a company laptop for over a decade and never forgotten it once. Sounds like the problem is pretty unique to yourself their bud.
OK now that's 1 minute and 56 seconds that I won't get back... I'd better stop now.
I use unison. So I never need to drive my notebook to work.
Can I submit an article about doing the reverse? Why did I take my gym bag out of the car and bring it into my office this morning? No matter how hard work is today I doubt that I'll be breaking a sweat.
It is by the juice of the coffee bean that thoughts acquire speed, the teeth acquire stains. The stains become a warning
You did - by posting this stupid story.
...is that in these days of severe fuel price rises, and environmental awareness, that so many people who just sit in front of a screen and type for a living are still forced to commute somehow to go..sit in front of a screen and type. And it doesn't matter if it is in a gas hog SUV or by Prius or Tesla or bicycle or train or bus, commuting a human to do that sort of work is still pretty wasteful compared to commuting electrons over a wire. And then there's the actual time involved just for the commute. So maybe it is a better idea if you "accidentally leave the laptop at home" to just go to work there and be done with it.
When even the editor says not to read the article I take heed.
We had one employee who forgot his notebook several times. Good coder, complete flake otherwise. Let's say his name is "Ben". Forgetting one's laptop became "Pulling a Ben". He's no longer with us.
I've forgotten mine once or twice but normally just far enough away that going home to get it then driving into work made far less sense than driving home and working through the VPN. We're allowed to do that on occasion. But obviously we can't be trusted to work from home and actually work. ~sigh~
I was able to get myself a docking station for home as well as for work so that I don't need to worry about forgetting accessories. They're in the bag for working at a remote location but otherwise all I need is the laptop itself.
As to where it resides when at home, it sits with my purse and my 'bag of things' that I use to carry my lunch and such. I bring it home because I'm a system admin and may need to dial in to fix a problem during off-hours. Unless that happens it just sits where I leave it. I feel no need to fire it up and work during my non-work time because the work will be there tomorrow. Same reason I don't have a Blackberry or a pager. If they really need me they can call.
Back to the topic on hand, if it really can be considered a topic. If I blank enough to forget my notebook I really shouldn't be working that day anyway. I used to have nice mindless paperwork I could do on those days but that's been given to someone else so I have to find other work I can do that won't harm anything. Documentation is generally the way I do on those days since we all know no one reads the darn stuff.
I took my laptop to my parents' house 6 hours away by car one weekend, and discovered i left it there 6 PM Sunday when I returned home.... Had to have my Dad FedEx it to work for $60... cheaper then driving even when gas was $2 a gallon. Took 24 hours, but beat driving 12 hours straight.
Happens a lot to the execs and engineers at my work place. And some of them have their own non-standard laptops so we don't have extra power adapters to give them. They basically get 2 hours of work done before going home.
You mean you can't afford a $12 commute on your Boston IT salary?
I feel dead inside.
I have found that using VPN and Remote Desktop Connection to my office desktop is a fairly easy way to work from home.
First off.. as has been mentioned before.. The acticle sucks.. I think he forgot more than his laptop that day.
As I was saying this is exactly why I keep an old desktop alive and kicking at my desk..
It servers 2 functions.. One is a playground for testing new software hacks for suport issues.
If I nuke it it's easy to drop a new image.
It's 2nd job is as a backup PC when my laptop dies, gets tied up with another process or just gets left behind. It's also great for running long tasks that hog all the resources making it useless for other tasks.
If you think it's expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur. --Red Adair
You know what helps cut down on this Laptop Drive of Shame? Letting your employees stay the fuck home instead of having to come into your cramped noisy cubicle farm, particularly if your office is on the outskirts of human civilization.
Not only does this reduce the Laptop Drive of Shame problem, it also saves more gas.
Now, raise your hand if your company gives you a laptop. Hi, you guys are most likely middle managers, so blow me about your whining about your company laptop. The rest of us are still shackled to a desktop.
If this whole laptop and gas thing mattered, we'd stop making people trudge into mind-sucking offices every day for no good reason except to make it easier to corral and boss them around.
Terrorists can attack freedom, but only Congress can destroy it.
You'll never end up doing the Laptop drive/walk of shame if you take your laptop everywhere you go like I do.
I bring my laptop home from work every day and I take it back to work every day. I don't do any work at home though as the "work laptop" is essentially my personal laptop.
All my work is done at the office.
Uh oh. Sounds like somebody's got a case of the Mondays...
01110000 01010111 01101110 00110011 01100100
Why don't you sit down in an unused cubicle and use THEIR desktop.
All your important stuff is on the network, isn't it?
Isn't it?
Oh. Capital 'A'. I thought you were standing outside a greengrocer's. 'Cause it's well known that people who eat fruit don't get any sex.
I always keep a couple of older machines in my office for when this happens. I can boot an Ubuntu LiveCD and be up and running in minutes. No way in hell I'm driving 30 miles to retrieve my laptop...
Where I work, we have the option of monthly parking passes which are simply smart cards. The daily rate otherwise is $15.
If you are a monthly parker, and forget your smart card, however, you are STILL charged the full $15 daily parking rate, even though you paid for monthly parking.
I used to think this was simple extortion, until I realized that monthly parking is handled electronically, but daily parking is handled by a human and therefore actually costs more to implement. (why I can't just swipe a debit or credit card, as I can at many downtown unattended lots, I don't know).
Still, I'd think a montlhy parker who has forgotten his smart card should be refunded a good chunk of paying the daily rate upon presentation of a daily parking receipt and his active smart card.
Of course, don't get me started on automated car washes that don't warn in advance that (a) their debit card reader is down, and (b) their cash reader only takes exact change -- I was once stuck for 15 minutes in a car wash line with people honking behind me because the stupid reader with broken debit card handling wouldn't even take a $10 bill (and keep the damn change for a $7 wash). Automatec cash readers should ALWAYS allow an option to pay more for convenience if they can't provide change. Those that give receipts could easily indicate the overpayment so subsequent refund could be arranged.
The world is populated by morons. Some design stuff.
In Liberty, Rene
CmdrTaco needs to do the Slashdot Non-News Walk of Shame.
Am I the only one who is getting tired of the media drawing a line (even a really curvy and discontinuous one if necessary) between $ACTIVITY and putting money in big oil's pockets?
Don't do this because you're putting money in big oil's pockets. Don't do that.... don't do the other...
I dunno, it just seems like a pattern lately...
I've done it many a time. Of course, my office is about 100 yards down the hill from my house ......
So I guess its the walk of shame.
Have gnu, will travel.
I've taken the bus to work, then discovered I can't even get in the building because I left my badge at home.
That's embarrasing, 'specially when there is no bus going back the other way till evening.
If only it were a commute home and back. How about the realization Sunday evening that you've left your laptop at a friend's house 250+ miles away? The frantic call and plea to the friend to FedEx it the following morning, the promise you'll reimburse, the check you mail off for $65 as a lesson learned. And on top of that you have to tell the boss that you'll be working in the turn-around office for Monday and part of Tuesday until your computer arrives. Add on top of that the fact that you didn't really use the laptop over the weekend for any real work, but just wanted to make sure you could surf away from home over the weeknd. Yep, did that two weekends ago. And no I didn't try and turn the $65 expense in to my employer.
it's a little more important if you forget it, and thankfully it's also a little harder forget.
I've forgotten my computer at work only once, and of course it had to be on a Friday night. That was very annoying. OTOH I've never forgotten my computer at home, but did have to endure a week of time while it was in the shop getting repaired. Pulled the HD before sending it in and had that in a little fw carrier, so could just boot a host machine off it and be right at home.
I work for the Department of Redundancy Department.
It just figures that the one day I left the laptop at home since I got the danged thing, this shows up on /.
Karma: Bad is the liberal way of saying this guy won't drink the kool aid here on slash dot. I wear my Karma with pride
I was gonna tell a Canada joke but then I realized the dollar is worth less than all of them.
dammit. foiled again.
Why can't Canada just lay down and be our punching bag again? I miss those days.
subj says it all. My employers machine isn't locked-down, but might as well be. I keep nothing irreplaceable or even essential on it, given the horrible unreliability of both laptop HDs and our corporate [per]version of MS-win2K. Sure it's slow, but how would I notice? Everything is.
My email files and everything else is on the network. So when it is lost, this is _NOT_ my problem, and usually comes back after a day or three. Beyond that, real work is done with putty into a Linux cluster!
Actually I've never done that, but I tend to make sure I have everything before leaving. It takes like 30 seconds to go down the list. Keys, id card, lunch, laptop.
I know it's Monday, but still?
Heck, I think Miley Cyrus's phone being hacked is just about as tech-related, and slightly more exciting than this.
Why be dependant upon your laptop being switched on - check your files into source control (subversion / git / whatever the flavour of the month is) and then 'update' once at work. Doesn't matter where your laptop is, or where your desktop is. OK, it's not ideal if you are a graphic designer or a video editor but, for 99% of computer users, it means their files can be where they need them, when they need them, and not on a harddrive at home that's switched off.
That said, that was still one of the most boring TFA's that I've almost read.
No, because if it's truly urgent it will be marked urgent and they will call my phone. If a crisis is going on I know to check. If not, then then can track me down.
As for my work schedule, I agree to be on call and get paid very well for it. I just don't agree to jump every time someone has a trivial issue or question
Som Nam fucking Na,
I really sick of USians complaining about the price of petrol when its the same price as it was in Australia four years ago (we're currently paying over A$1.50 a litre, the US has just reached A$1.00 a litre). If you used less petrol and started fewer wars you wouldn't be in this situation, so really, som nam na (serves you right\you got what you deserved).
Now back to your regularly scheduled flame war.
Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
The coworker dropped his wallet when he was screwing the writer's girlfriend.
I've done the Power Supply drive of shame a few times, when I lived in an apartment and had a 1 mile commute to work. I had to go back and fetch the power supply, to be able to work more than one hour. Now I have a newer notebook with a battery that runs for two hours, but I moved to a house 30 miles to the north - hopefully I will never forget the power supply again!
Any sysadmin worth their nuts should be able to call home and have their significant other plug the forgotten laptop into a power source and turn it on to allow remote access from anywhere.
How many here would be talking to mom when they made that call? heh, thought so.
I thought the Laptop Drive of Shame was that unique moment where you stop the car, do a U-turn, and get out to go pick up your laptop from where it impacted after sliding off the rooftop when you peeled out of the parking lot.
Makes a hell of an advertisement for Toughbooks, though.