17" MacBook Pro Stolen from Living Room
Almost 3 years ago, I bought a 17" MacBook Pro. This laptop served me well for several years, mostly as a home computer. A few months after I bought it, I started working at LinkedIn and got a brand new laptop as part of my first day on the job. After working with LinkedIn's 15" for almost 2 years, I grew to love the form factor and purchased another one almost a year ago. I found the 17" was too big for planes and the 15" fits me perfectly.
Fast forward to last night.
I attended the first half of the Ignite talks at DOSUG and left around 7. When I arrived home, I suspected something might be out of whack when my front door was unlocked. Julie had come over to pick up Abbie's dance shoes around 6, so I figured she must've forgot to lock the door on her way out. When I got inside and saw my coat closet open, I justified it by thinking she grabbed one of the kids coats out of the closet and forgot to close the door. When I walked into my living room and saw my space heater's remote in the middle of the floor, busted open with batteries out, it clicked that a stranger was in my house. The first thing that jumped into my head was "Where's my laptop?" As I looked at the bare mini-desk in my living room, I realized it had been stolen.
I called Julie and asked her if she left the front door open. She said no, but when she arrived at my house (and came through the back), the garage's light was on and my back door was wide open. I asked her if she saw the busted remote on the floor or if the closet door was open. She said no. Putting all the pieces together, it appears that the burglar was actually hiding in my closet when Julie came into my house. Naturally, she's a little a freaked out by this, but she also saved the day by scaring off perpetrator before they took anything else.
This isn't a new trend for me and this incident is mostly my fault. I left my backdoor unlocked. Two years ago, my truck's stereo was stolen and there's a good chance I left the doors unlocked (and didn't turn on the alarm). Last year, my bike was stolen and the lock was still there, indicating I missed the frame when locking it up. So getting robbed in the first part of every year seems somewhat par for the course.
With my truck's stereo, it worked out well because the rig needed a new stereo. My bike last year? There wasn't any silver lining to that incident, so I made myself earn a new one. With this laptop incident, there is a silver lining in that I've been thinking about getting a 27" iMac for a home computer. Other options include a Mac Pro for my office (and use my laptop for traveling/home use) or a Mac Mini for home and hook it up to my TV with a wireless keyboard and mouse.
The home iMac seems like the best option, but I'd also be interested to hear what others recommend. Of course, I'll be keeping my doors locked from now on. 
Posted by Sebastien Arbogast on February 03, 2010 at 10:58 AM MST #
Personally I like to use my MacBook home and away. With the cinema display it's easy too. I don't much see the point of a MacBook and iMac, unless you need two computers at once.
Besides, new MacBooks are in the cards in the next couple months, I'd find it hard not to go for an i5/i7 series MacBook with their superior virtualisation performance.
Sorry to hear about the burglary, it's rarely the theft that hurts but the sense of one's home space bring invaded.
Posted by Aaron James on February 03, 2010 at 11:00 AM MST #
Posted by Bryan on February 03, 2010 at 11:22 AM MST #
Wow, Matt, that's a crazy story... Sorry to hear about the burglary but I'm glad everyone is safe!
I have a 13" MBP (perfect for my needs) and recently purchased a 27" Core i7 iMac for home. The performance of the iMac is absolutely amazing, especially with 8GB of memory, and I'm using it as a storage server (via my Drobo), VMware host (Fusion), and web development box.
What sealed the deal, though, was the fact that I can use the iMac as a 27" external display for my MBP... The idea of getting a larger-than-24" external LED Cinema display plus a blazing fast machine for less than the price of the Mac Pro was a no-brainer for me. :)
Good luck, and let us know what you decide!
Posted by Andrew Stott on February 03, 2010 at 11:27 AM MST #
I like having a MacPro at home, but that basically has to do with:
As always, it depends on what you use your home machine for and on how much you are willing to spend to have it.
Have Fun!
Posted by Paulo Gaspar on February 03, 2010 at 11:56 AM MST #
Posted by Tony on February 03, 2010 at 12:00 PM MST #
@Sebastien - As Bryan said, thanks for the link. Looks like a nice tool - would be interested to hear success stories from using it.
@Aaron - Good to know about new MacBooks coming out. My desire for two computers is largely because I regularly commute via bike or running and it's nice to be able to leave one machine at the office w/o carrying it back and forth. I tried doing one last year while commuting via foot and it was a real pain in the ass.
@Andrew - I didn't know that you can use the iMac as an external monitor, that's very cool. I have a 30" at my office and I'd love to have a similar setup at home. The major reason for an iMac over a Mac Pro seems to be price. Performance from iMac definitely seems to be good enough.
@Tony - I could use a space heater in my remodeled guest room. Sounds like the iMac might actually help with this. ;-)
If I get enough insurance $$ to cover a Mac Pro, I'll consider it. However, I thinking an iMac might be better, mostly because of the built-in video camera.
Posted by Matt Raible on February 03, 2010 at 02:00 PM MST #
@Andrew .. have you had any of the screen flicker or yellow tinting on the 27" iMac? I was planning on getting one to replace an old G5 in the home office (and also a PC with a VM running on the iMac), but heard Apple is trying to fix some issues first.
-steve
Posted by Steve Brunton on February 03, 2010 at 02:09 PM MST #
Posted by Chris on February 03, 2010 at 03:41 PM MST #
@Tony - Mine isn't that warm in the front or on the sides, but the top rear certainly gets hot due to the vent. I'm crossing my fingers that the internals don't melt slowly over time... :)
@Matt - My thoughts exactly!
@Steve - I seem to be fortunate (or lucky) but my 27" screen is perfect. No cracks on delivery, and no flicker/tinting/corruption in the past 2 months. I did apply the graphics firmware update in December, but haven't done the recent display firmware update yet.
If you don't need a new Mac right away, it might make sense to wait a bit until any outstanding issues get resolved. Actually, it looks like there is a 2-week shipping delay anyway, so "waiting" unfortunately might not be an option...
Posted by Andrew Stott on February 04, 2010 at 06:17 PM MST #
Posted by sreeram koneru on February 07, 2010 at 09:12 PM MST #