The Unthinkable!

An empty glass of wine?!! Stain on your new outfit? No, it's worse... a missing or stolen laptop. According to Entrepreneur Magazine, business travelers lose 12,000 laptops annually while on the road. I know of three people to whom this has happened. A former Vice President and boss left one in a bar in NYC and luckily got it back. A colleague deplaned without his laptop and thankfully remembered after a few moments. And a small business owner left hers on a plane -- and unfortunately, it was never recovered.

While these three instances represent a mistake on the part of the laptop owner (probably due to the exhaustion of business travel lifestyle or too much beer), theft is another problem. Losing business data, exposing your personal information and major psychological and financial hassle all result. So what's a tired traveler to do? Prevent it -- there are a few good choices:

1. Adeona is a free open source software developed by WSU that can be installed on your system to track it. It's free of charge and they are about to launch a new version incorporating improvements.

2. Companies like Absolute Software and Brigadoon offer paid tracking services with annual fees.
3. Manufacturers like PCLocs sell actual leashes that may be used when in a hotel or cafe.

Wine pairing: Hmm... a safe wine? A technological wine? Nothing really comes to mind so I'll splurge on a Gigondas from France's Rhone Valley. Peppery, fruit forward, and deliciously complex. It can be a little on the pricier said, say around $20 or so, but you've potentially prevented a loss of $1000+ with laptop security so go for it!