The MacBook Air: Here, There, Everywhere...Nowhere?

Washington Post columnist Steven Levy may have accidentally thrown away his brand-new MacBook Air - or maybe not. He's just not sure. In today's "The Technologist" column, "Vanished into Thin Air," Levy reports the details of his unsuccessful search for his MacBook Air. His prime theory: it may have been mixed up in a pile of newspapers and accidentally recycled!

Why I'm Buying His Theory

Although Mrs. Levy (who is apparently responsible in the Levy household for clearing away Mt. Newspaper when it gets too high) isn't buying the theory, I do.

I remember a business trip I took to Washington, DC in the mid-1990s. I brought a couple of railroad magazines and the Washington Post back to my hotel room one evening. After enjoying the magazines and finding out what was happening in the nation's capital, I piled the whole shebang together and left it for the hotel cleaning staff to haul it away the next morning. They did their work with efficiency - but only after I came back to the room the next evening did I remember that my magazines had also gone out with yesterday's news. Ouch!

When you figure that a MacBook Air is about the thickness of two or three typical magazines, I think Levy's theory is all too plausible.

So, How Can You Avoid Losing Your MacBook Air?

The comment thread on the Endgadget review of the MacBook Air back in January reveals that a number of potential users have also wondered how easy it would be to lose one. So, what can you do? Here are a few random suggestions:

• - Install an RFID tracking system in your home or office. The University of Washington - Seattle is currently testing RFID for tracking students and their belongings. Of course, now you need another computer to keep track of your MacBook Air!
• - Don't fly commercially with your MacBook Air unless you don't mind missing your preferred flight. Blogger Michael Nygard's MacBook Air baffled TSA airport security recently. Its lack of a hard disk and ultra-thin form factor had some of the less-technologically astute guardians of the airways convinced it was a mysterious "device," not a real laptop.
• - Don't use the Mac-"recommended" manila envelope to store your MacBook Air. As the 123SortIt.com website recommends:

Avoid using manila envelopes for storing items in a filing cabinet, except in the case of maintaining past tax records. A manila envelope for any other reason means "out of sight, out of mind." (emphasis added)

• - If you insist on using an envelope to store your MacBook Air, don't mix it up with the envelope you're using for your Nintendo DS.
•  - Don't leave your MacBook Air in front of a powerful fan. How powerful a fan would it take to send a MacBook Air on a short one-way trip? I don't know - but I'm waiting for the first announcement of test results. 

But seriously, folks, it sounds as if the best way to avoid losing a MacBook Air is to make sure it has a place to go when you're done using it - and gets put back there every time. After all, most of us aren't as lucky as Steven Levy; his employer's ponying up for another MacBook Air!