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Comment by rammer | Hacker News Reader

No it is not ultimate it is a sad state of things that one is so worried about laptop bags being stolen that you have to hide it and make it inconspicuous in a paper bag.

It's really sad that SFO is now the car burglary capital of the world.

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Maybe you meant SF in 2022. Car break-ins are down 61% since then FWIW.

https://www.sfchronicle.com/crime/article/sf-bipping-car-bre...

The post doesn't say anything about worrying about it being stolen.

I think many are failing to come up with a more likely explanation for

> For me, the ultimate laptop bag is one that looks nothing like a laptop bag; it should look like nothing special at all.

Crime is probably the best hypothesis but the other one to consider is that they have some sort of minimalist aesthetic, and they genuinely like the look of grocery bags (and nondescript bags in general).

If this was a security through obscurity tactic, why would they publish this blog post?

Yes! https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45338980

You think laptop thieves will read the blog and start stealing brown paper bags on the off chance there's a laptop inside?

To me it seems like a pretty good strategy, with the downsides being you have to lug it around by the handle (no back or shoulder strap, which would spoil the camo effect), and it doesn't have pockets for small things like cables / dongles / etc.

I won't make that claim but I do think obscurity tactics are not normally publicized.

Well it's not for aesthetic reasons.

There's no accounting for taste!

I'm not even trying to be snarky! The author just says he's looking for the least flashy, most forgettable bag possible.

It's difficult to convey tone over the Internet, I get it.

it implies that "laptop bag is one that looks nothing like a laptop bag; it should look like nothing special at all. "

Why else try to hide that this is laptop bag?

When I was a poor college kid living in Rochester, NY I used to park my car on the street outside the little house I was renting with a bunch of friends. I would leave a sign on the car saying, "door is open, help yourself to whatever you find inside," in an attempt to at least keep people from damaging the car, as they were inevitably going try to break in about three or four nights a week anyway. There wasn't anything in my car worth anything to take, including the car itself really. Though I was a little annoyed when somebody took my crappy cassette copy of the "Happy Nation" Ace of Base album and I had to make another one.

>It's really sad that SFO is now the car burglary capital of the world.

The airport?

I meant the city as a short code I used the airport code.

Maybe it's more of an anecdote than based on facts, it looks like burglaries are actually down in San Francisco now

Maybe San Francisco wins California, but are you sure it’s higher than other parts of the world?

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