Re: WAVES TLC - Theft & Loss Coverage - A new strategy

That's the weird hole in WAVES security system. No matter who got the dongle, they will have to gain access to the actual software from WAVES, probably in the exact version I had installed, then I suppose install and activate it in some way.

Surely WAVES has serialized the dongle in some way. So there you have it -- they meet their new customer! Maybe they can get him setup on WUP, sending them a check every year like I did. Buying upgrades (I went from WAVES Gold to WAVES Platinum to WAVES Diamond...)

I don't think so. The 5 dongles I lost in the laptop bag look exactly like a bunch of cheap USB memory sticks, the kind given away at trade shows. I would bet they were tossed into the trash.

In my real life, one hat I wear is IT Director. The worst part of my laptop theft was a data migration I had in progress, 750,000 customers and every interaction ever conducted with each one (email, phone, office visit). Our CRM is now on Salesforce.com.

I feel stupid to let my laptop get stolen ("It will never happen to me..."), but it is not like there were no precautions. I was obsessive about keeping backups, encryption, and all behind a non-trivial 12+ character alpha numeric logon password, and that behind a hidden user name. The only reason the laptop was in my car was because - Thanksgiving - too many kids loose with food & drinks at my sister-in-laws. Lucky I didn't also pack my 1TB Mirrored RAID external drive!

I am convinced nobody could do anything with that laptop except wipe the hard drive.

This experience is not something you would wish on anybody. As luck would have it, the thieves also got my Palm Treo, which contained a synced version of my extensive sysadmin passwords, also Blowfish encrypted. This they tossed out the window less than a mile down the road, where it was found a few days later. Long story.

Point being: no matter how well you think you are prepared with backups and encrypted passwords and redundancies and insurance, it is *never* enough when the crisis occurs.

BTW - another bad thing to report: Apple makes no effort to keep a clearinghouse database of stolen Mac laptop serial numbers. Duh...

Law enforcement on stolen laptops is a joke. The security video clearly showed the getaway car license plate. The cop ran it and it came back good, but "It is registered to an address on the other side of town. We don't have time to go check."

My brother-in-law, a Houston P.D. sergeant, watched the security video provided to me on CD by the retail store. He said it was obviously professional thieves, and likely the car was taken from a repair shop or would be discovered stolen by someone returning home after the Thanksgiving holiday.

Sorry to relate this sob story on this list, but maybe my tale of woe will be warning to others. A year later, and obviously I'm not over it yet.