4 ms·

I was an 'MIS assistant' back in the 90s and RAM / video card theft was a real issue. A stick of RAM was a month's salary or more and easy to conceal. There w

I was an 'MIS assistant' back in the 90s and RAM / video card theft was a real issue. A stick of RAM was a month's salary or more and easy to conceal. There were clever RAM swaps where someone took a 4MB stick from the work computer and substituted it for a 1MB from home. Locked cases basically eliminated that loss.

jlg23 7y ago
That does not speak for your users... Even when one was too lazy or inept to just pick those locks, a collection of just a few different keys was usually enough to open any of the typical tubular locks. Source: Did this a lot when I was young and stupid, not to steal but to annoy teachers... As soon as I was not young enough to walk free (but still just as stupid), I got caught and had to help with maintenance of the computer cabinet for the rest of my school career ;)
- atoav 7y ago
  A lock is increasing the effort someone has to take to steal. Even if the lock is utterly useless from a real security perspective, psychologically it presents a small hurdle to people who are not hardened criminals, but opportunistic thieves. In many cases that small hurdle is already enough to make a significant impact on the outcome.
  - hvidgaard 7y ago
    As they say, a lock is not there to keep the thief out, but to keep honest people honest.
- deepsun 7y ago
  Law can be different for "theft" and "break & theft".
ido 7y ago
When, or more importantly where, in the 90s was a stick of ram worth a month's of salary? IIRC they were in the several $100s range of price and surely sold for less used.
- dingaling 7y ago
  In the UK in the mid-90s. I was well paid at the time on £10k or thereabouts gross, so about £650 net per month An office PC was at least two or three times that price. Despite being a 'computer whizz' I only had a Spectrum 48k at home until 1995. PCs really were high-end goods.
  - ido 7y ago
    I'm surprised, my first job was in 2001 (so only a few years later than you) in Israel and despite being an 18 year old earning roughly minimum wage my salary was similar or higher (~4000-5000 ils gross per month, according to today's exchange rate that would be ~£800-1k & at that level I paid next to no income tax). A "good wage" even in the late '90s/early '00s would be at least 2x as much (programmers were commonly earning 20k ils per month in the late 90s). I would have guessed UK wages were higher than Israeli ones.

jlg23 7y ago

That does not speak for your users... Even when one was too lazy or inept to just pick those locks, a collection of just a few different keys was usually enough to open any of the typical tubular locks. Source: Did this a lot when I was young and stupid, not to steal but to annoy teachers... As soon as I was not young enough to walk free (but still just as stupid), I got caught and had to help with maintenance of the computer cabinet for the rest of my school career ;)

atoav 7y ago
A lock is increasing the effort someone has to take to steal. Even if the lock is utterly useless from a real security perspective, psychologically it presents a small hurdle to people who are not hardened criminals, but opportunistic thieves. In many cases that small hurdle is already enough to make a significant impact on the outcome.
- hvidgaard 7y ago
  As they say, a lock is not there to keep the thief out, but to keep honest people honest.
deepsun 7y ago
Law can be different for "theft" and "break & theft".

ido 7y ago

When, or more importantly where, in the 90s was a stick of ram worth a month's of salary? IIRC they were in the several $100s range of price and surely sold for less used.

dingaling 7y ago
In the UK in the mid-90s. I was well paid at the time on £10k or thereabouts gross, so about £650 net per month An office PC was at least two or three times that price. Despite being a 'computer whizz' I only had a Spectrum 48k at home until 1995. PCs really were high-end goods.
- ido 7y ago
  I'm surprised, my first job was in 2001 (so only a few years later than you) in Israel and despite being an 18 year old earning roughly minimum wage my salary was similar or higher (~4000-5000 ils gross per month, according to today's exchange rate that would be ~£800-1k & at that level I paid next to no income tax). A "good wage" even in the late '90s/early '00s would be at least 2x as much (programmers were commonly earning 20k ils per month in the late 90s). I would have guessed UK wages were higher than Israeli ones.