I have prey installed in stand-alone mode, but instead of having it check for a url, i just have cron running it every 30 minutes and emailing the photo and screenshot and other info to a gmail account i made. I figure if it gets stolen, I might not have time (or remember) to turn on the url before its too late.
I also have the firmware pw set (Macbook Pro) - not sure how easy this it to circumvent - if you can't circumvent it then you can't reformat that easily.
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2391
I've lost laptops before, and always called Apple to make a note of the serial number. What I'm not sure of is whether or not Apple would hold the laptop if it was flagged, or return it back.
I'm second guessing my decision to FileVault the entire disc on the MBA, because I think this prevents automated login. The honeypot account makes a ton of sense.
Actually, all you need to do is add or remove a stick of RAM and then reset the PRAM 3 times in a row.
More: http://www.davidjmoore.com/2008/04/13/bypassing-the-efi-firm...