A battery in a P10 notebook computer apparently caught fire Sunday in Seoul, South Korea, company officials said. The machine had been in use for about three and a half hours while resting on a pillow. The bed and floor were burned, but there was no large fire.

The had been manufactured way back in 2002. There is no word yet on the brand of battery. A month ago, the battery pack in a Electronics laptop exploded while in sleep mode. It might be a good idea not to put your laptop on a flammable surface while in use. When not in use, turn it completely off.

While we are on the subject of laptops, how about a machine that cleans up after itself? U.K. company Virtuity has a service called Backstopp. If a laptop is reported stolen or appears to have been moved without authorization, the system will signal the notebook to wipe the hard drive clean, or at least remove all important data.

The communication can come over the Internet, Wi-Fi, GSM or even using RFID tags. Laptop theft is a big problem, especially for corporations. Prices for the Virtuity service start at $19 per month, per laptop.


Syd Tash is a noted computer security consultant and author of How to Protect Your Computer Online. He has been keeping Internet surfers safe and secure since the last century. Find out how he does it; protect your own computer with five layers of protection right here:
= > http://MyPCSecuritySite.com

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