Berkeley professor made up story about data on stolen laptop

[Heisenberg]

Original thread

Article link

Redfaced professor made up scary story

Laptop thief called his bluff

By Nick Farrell: Monday 25 April 2005, 05:58
A BIOLOGY professor who attempted to scare the student who nicked his laptop into giving himself up may have exaggerated his story a tad.

Last week we told how University of Berkeley professor, Jasper Rine tried to put the fear of god into the student who nicked his laptop by claiming it had all sorts of top secret government data on it. He warned that almost every James Bond in the world was hunting that laptop. He also said he knew who the thief was.

Since we ran that story, it has been picked up by ABC News in the States and debated on bog sites across the world.

Most techies consider that anyone could see that the Rine was telling porkies. One of the ways that Rine claimed he identified the tea leaf was by installing the same version of Windows on another computer. If the professor had attempted to use the same key to activate a copy of Windows, the activation servers would have denied him access.

Some of the technobabble that the professor spouted to out the thief was impressive, but has not been found to work well yet.

He claimed that there were passive trackers embedded in the bezel of laptop screens beside the wireless transmitters. Technology like this does sort of exist, but is rare and not used by anyone outside the Department of Energy.

He also claimed that the wireless card in the laptop triggered some location data. This is possible, but pretty unlikely.

In fact a University spokesman told ABC that Rine had indeed made the whole thing up to scare the student into handing over the laptop. The story has for some reason now been pulled from the ABC site, but can be found here. There might be a bit of a clue as to the way Rine operates in an article here, in which he says: "Although I have unlimited respect for facts, and delight in their discovery and appreciation, I have come to the obvious yet almost blasphemous view that, with respect to teaching, the facts just aren't that important."

Despite all the exaggeration, and threats, the thief has ignored Rine and has kept his laptop. Still it was worth a crack. µ

/shamelessly ripped from fark

 

[Nikamichi]

No sh!t.

- M4H

 

[91TTZ]

"Although I have unlimited respect for facts, and delight in their discovery and appreciation, I have come to the obvious yet almost blasphemous view that, with respect to teaching, the facts just aren't that important."

Then what is he teaching?

 

[Toasthead]

hahah what a loser!

 

[captains]

hahahahaha

 

[dquan97]

<nelson> HAHA </>

 

[CRXican]

That's funny. It's likely the laptop jacker was one of us "computer people" and simply looked thorugh everything and determined it was just a normal professors computer.

Pretty funny that he thought that story would work.

 

[Rudee]

The Professor talks like a big dog but he pees like a Pup. I knew he was all talk all along.

 

[91TTZ]

Doesn't surprise me at Berkeley that a teacher would talk a big line with no fact behind it. Also he doesn't think that facts are important in teaching. That's probably how Berkeley got its reputation for being a blissfully ignorant liberal college. The teachers teach you their wacked-out opinions and don't put much emphasis on fact.

 

[DingDingDao]

:laugh: That's pretty funny.

 

[Ronstang]

Originally posted by: 91TTZ
"Although I have unlimited respect for facts, and delight in their discovery and appreciation, I have come to the obvious yet almost blasphemous view that, with respect to teaching, the facts just aren't that important."

Then what is he teaching?

He just sounds like some of the hippie liberal professors with an agenda I had when in college.

 

[Armitage]

So where is this bit?

Laptop thief called his bluff

 

[alexeikgb]

i will quote myslef from the original thread:
<alexeikgb>
That Prof. is full of sh1t....
</alexeikgb>

 

[Phoenix86]

He's a moron for keeping a laptop in plain view w/o a $20 security cable. At one company I worked for laptop locks were mandatory for all laptops, and 85% of the company ran laptops. We would go around the office stealing all unsecured laptops and wait for the user to report it stolen.

Good times...

 

[notfred]

You can go back to the original thread on this and see where I said he was bluffing.

 

[Nikamichi]

Originally posted by: notfred
You can go back to the original thread on this and see where I said he was bluffing.

 

[Stark]

put this in a memo and title it "[crap] i already know"!

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

That answers my questions. Wasn't as advertised. The technology stuff was pretty much BS, but he could have had lots of things on it. Not that uncommon. Good buff though 8/10 for those not familiar with the current state of technology. 9/10 for execution

 

[DainBramaged]

Originally posted by: Toasthead
hahah what a loser!

 

[DrPizza]

That's what I said in the original thread too.
The story was obviously phony. The information on the laptop was allegedly super-important, yet the prof was willing to allow the thief time to turn in the laptop before the FBI, CIA, and everyone else came busting his door down.

 

[Rudee]

And to all the bandwagon jumpers that claimed "PWNED" in the original thread, it appears the Prof was the one who got "PWNED" not the thief. haha.

 

[FlyLice]

Originally posted by: 91TTZ
"Although I have unlimited respect for facts, and delight in their discovery and appreciation, I have come to the obvious yet almost blasphemous view that, with respect to teaching, the facts just aren't that important."

Then what is he teaching?

dude, he's a BERKELEY prof...most of those profs are crackhead losers.

 

[FlyLice]

Also, why would the student attend lecture if he indeed jacked the final exam?

 

[ed21x]

Originally posted by: FlyLice

Originally posted by: 91TTZ
"Although I have unlimited respect for facts, and delight in their discovery and appreciation, I have come to the obvious yet almost blasphemous view that, with respect to teaching, the facts just aren't that important."

Then what is he teaching?

dude, he's a BERKLEY prof...most of those profs are crackhead losers.

nope... most of BERKELEY professors at least know how to spell.

Originally posted by: FlyLice
Also, why would the student attend lecture if he indeed jacked the final exam?

the lectures are webcasted: http://webcast.berkeley.edu

 

[FlyLice]

Originally posted by: ed21x

Originally posted by: FlyLice

Originally posted by: 91TTZ
"Although I have unlimited respect for facts, and delight in their discovery and appreciation, I have come to the obvious yet almost blasphemous view that, with respect to teaching, the facts just aren't that important."

Then what is he teaching?

dude, he's a BERKLEY prof...most of those profs are crackhead losers.

nope... most of BERKELEY professors at least know how to spell.

Originally posted by: FlyLice
Also, why would the student attend lecture if he indeed jacked the final exam?

the lectures are webcasted: http://webcast.berkeley.edu

Hey man I graduated from UCLA, that's what pubic school edumucation brings you. Esp from a UC.

Why would the student watch the webcast if he has the final?