#Mac ROM theft
13 messages in this thread
Over the weekend at the local university a break-in of many offices
occured. The only thing taken was MAC ROMS and memory. The machines were
disassembled, the ROMS removed and then the machines reassembled so that
users could not tell the machines had been messed with. The only other
device taken was a retina reader/word chooser device priced at $50K that
was used by a handicapped professor to communicate.
Several hundred machines were thus vandelized in one night. I suspicion
that it is the Apple policy of not selling ROMS and the popularity of
emulators that require those ROMS that motivated the theft. If you see a
suspicous source of Mac ROMS or memoty pop up, please let me know so I can
pass the info on to local Police who are investigating. This crime has
not only left a handicapped professor in silence, it has also dirupted
many doctoral canditated thesese etc. Since Apple will not sell ROMs and
since the university does not have the budget to replace the machines
completley, the only alternative to many person-years of lost work is to
catch the b@$+@^)& that did this!
Please help if you can..
wmc – via Autopilot!
Sorry to hear about the loss.
I'd get in touch with Apple anyway….They might at the very least be able
to help out that professor. I'm not sure they'd help with the other
stuff, but they'd have to be pretty heartless not the help that prof.
Steve
Good idea, Steve.
wmc – via Autopilot!
I'm sorry to hear of the theft. The inconviencing of handicapped persons
like that is inexcusable.
I'll keep my ear to the ground and pass on anything I hear.
Hope you catch 'em.
Thanks,
Erik Flom
Thanks, Erik.
wmc – via Autopilot!
Man, I can't believe what some people would do.
I'll keep a lookout
Bob Comer — Cruising the nets on AutoPilot from Cheyenne, Wyoming
I suspect they might show up at one of these travelling computer shows.
wmc – via Autopilot!
Wayne,
I'm sure if the university contacted Apple directly, and explained the
situation and sent in a copy of the police report..that Apple would be more
than happy to replace the ROMs. Don't forget…Apple "owes" their existance to
the educational community..and are still heavily involved in providing
computers to educational institutions…so they don't want to hack off their
"friends".
Don
One would hope that would be the case. Actually, one would hope that the
fact that the chips were stolen and not the computers, that Apple would
wake up to the fact that not selling roms just hurts their overall sales
and does not sell more Macs.
wmc – via Autopilot!
Wayne,
Jim from U.U. says that in some countries (Germany for example) it is
illegal to sell computers without also providing consumer access to parts.
Therefore MAC roms are easily available over there. They might be able to
replace the stollen roms by purchasing them from an overseas source.
…AutoPilot Engaged…
-Paul-
Hmmm, interesting.
wmc – via Autopilot!
Yeah,
Jim said his German supplier has 10000 256K roms in stock! (Maybe he
typed one to many zeros, but that was the post) And since he also said
that they were working out a deal with C= UK to install an Emplant in
every 4000 sold, MAC roms MUST be easier to get over there. He also seems
excited by the fact that Apple has stated they aer now will to licence
there OS!
…AutoPilot Engaged…
-Paul-
Wayne,
I've got to agree there. Apple's paranoid attitude over the roms is hard
to understand. The people at Apple do not seem to realise that nobody who
wants a Mac is going to buy an Amiga and an emulator. It's just not cost
effective. On the other hand, There are Amiga owners prepared to fork out
some extra dough to have Mac capability. So, as you say, if the roms were
made available to Joe Public, Apple sales has to benefit.
Pete Jones, flying on AutoPilot from Brussels, Belgium