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Thief Returns Stolen Laptop Contents On USB Stick
While it's true that Sweden is responsible for unleashing IKEA and ABBA on humanity, not everything they produce is terrible. Their thieves are some of the most considerate in the world. An unnamed professor at Umeå University received a USB stick with all his data after his laptop was stolen. From the article: "The professor, who teaches at Umeå University in northern Sweden, was devastated when ten years of work stored on his laptop was stolen. But to his surprise, a week after the theft, the entire contents of his laptop were posted to him on a USB stick. 'I am very happy,' the unnamed professor told the local Västerbottens-Kuriren newspaper. 'This story makes me feel hope for humanity.'"
This story makes me feel sad for humanity.
which is totally what she said
10 years of work on his laptop without a single backup?
Someone stole a 10-year old laptop? How much is that worth on the black market? More than the thumb drive possibly. Or maybe he just really needed a machine on which to test DSL.
Tic-Tac-Toe, Global Thermonuclear War, and relationships all have the same winning move.
my butt! I'd feel it too if he had backed up his hard drive at home and wasn't commending a criminal who just stole his freaking laptop!
Is that considerate, or really creepy ? First you get your laptop stolen, then you get proof that the thief was rifling through your data and evidently thought some of it was important enough to back up and send to you at their own expense. I don't know if 'hope' is the right word to express what I'd be feeling.
See, I don't see that as any specific kindness. Honestly that sounds like the thief was less dickish than they might of been but there is nothing kind about stealing your property.
Now if say he broke into you car and all he took was the bag of groceries out of the trunk you were on the way home with well, we might say they must have been hungry and it was kind of them to do the littlest damage possible, I guess, but there is nobody who "needs" a CD changer, that is just theft and vandalism and I really don't feel much need to excuse the guy the perp.
Repeal the 17th Amendment TODAY! Also Please Read http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/right-to-read.html
im 35 years old, i listened to iron maiden at their prime, listened to metal for my teenage years, yet i didnt see any problem with abba even then. good music, is good music, regardless of genre.
Read radical news here
This could also be serving self-interest of keeping a low profile. Smashing a window attracts a lot more immediate attention than fumbling with a lock.
It will be immediately obvious that the car has been busted, the police might get called sooner, resulting in a catch of the thief still nearby
There's a surprising number of people who will classify entire genres of music as crap without considering that talented musicians can make an appearance anywhere. (Example: Prince. Once of the most versatile and talented musicians around today - largely disdained because his music is "pop" ). The funny part is that the same people will listen with steadfast determination to their own chosen genres, apparently deaf to the fact that the ratio of crap to talent is the same there as well.
What he failed to notice is that the file where he keeps students grades have been slightly altered!
Would the professor have been so kind to a student that didn't think to back up a semester's worth of work, much less 10 years' worth?
but have you considered the following argument: shut up.
That goes to show that we fear social networks sharing this same kind of pictures with the world, because it is like a one-way looking glass into our life for an interrogator's anonymous perspective.
A thief's anonymity protects them, while we feel compromised never knowing how this thief could return to our life, and how they'll exploit weaknesses found by their original break-in. That is the true reason why we reinstall Windows when spyware hits our internet connected PC's --er, besides the predominant "man-hours saved" mentality.
Contacting your victim sounds risky to me. Could report you to the police. Then the cops can put your fingerprints in some database. Then they can maybe trace the mail you sent, and start asking your neighbors about people who would fit the profile for doing this. (20s-30s, white, Swedish)
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
Now if the thief had mailed the actual laptop back, with $100 cash for pain and suffering and then killed himself to make sure he never did it again, that would be progress.
If you are not allowed to question your government then the government has answered your question.
Agreed but I don't know if I would admit it to the insurance company. They might use it as an excuse not to pay!
I think a better phrase is "slightly less deserving of being drawn and quartered" rather than "morally superior".
TWO textbooks?! Do you know much those things cost? Damn man, those guys hit the jackpot. I'm so sorry for you.
He had 10 years of his work on one hard drive and didn't ever do any backups?
Wow.
It seems you can be really stupid and still become a professor.
The reason for throwing the wallet in the post box is that it prevents it from being found until the thief is gone. Post boxes are secure. It's nothing to do with ethics.
Intron: the portion of DNA which expresses nothing useful.
Why would you think that anyone who hadn't backed up 10 years of irreplaceable data would see the danger in plugging in the USB stick?
I prefer rogues to imbeciles because they sometimes take a rest.
Often, the data on the computer is worth more to you than the computer. The data is irreplaceable, the laptop is just hardware.
As much as they stole his property, they gave him back the only thing he cared about. I'm not saying it was kind, per se, but it was fairly thoughtful (for someone who has just stolen things from you).
Wasn't there a story only a few months back here on Slashdot where a lady had had () stolen and basically said she didn't care about the laptop, but wanted her data back?
Lost at C:>. Found at C.