Lost my laptop. Backups saved the data, but not the sticker history.

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neminat@reddit

i hate it for you, but i definitely cannot relate. I dont do stickers etc on my devices. I like clean aesthetics personally. Hope you get to do some travelling and get your new laptop back to where you love it. Dont rush the process. you dont want subpar stickers like bad tattoos LOL

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zombie_overlord@reddit

I have stickers that I like, but don't want them on my devices either. I have a refrigerator in the garage that I'm putting all my stickers on.

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HotTakes4HotCakes@reddit

I used to be this way, until my partner convinced me to put a sticker on mine they found that reminded them of me (their laptop is covered in stickers). Ever since then I've been more relaxed about it. But personal laptop only, obviously not work machine.

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MattAdmin444@reddit

For my personal mobile gaming devices I have a singular sticker stuck somewhere underneath their cases so if they're stolen it's easier for me to identify. Come to think of it I probably should do that to my phone to...

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Uncommented-Code@reddit

>But personal laptop only, obviously not work machine. Users putting stickers on work laptops will never not be annoying to me. Though I guess I'd rather have users put easily removable stickers on their laptops than other... stuff that I have seen... or smelled, in the case of perfume. Never got that specific laptop to smell normal again.

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agoia@reddit

I hate when we get machines that need to be aired out in a different room for a couple of weeks before reissuing them. And stickers with paper backings that are a bitch and a half to remove. And that time someone covered their webcam with a used band-aid, blood spot and all. The absolute worst, though, is the people that put those mouse pouches on the lid that are so hard to remove that they can bend and pop the lcd panel when trying to get them off.

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Uncommented-Code@reddit

>mouse pouch Never seen that before even with 1k+ users and now I'm thankful I haven't.

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thehightechredneck77@reddit

I'm a ways of from the level of person who has to clean that stuff off, but I remember BS enough that I clean and de-sticker my laptops before replacement. I get it clean, I return it clean.

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zombie_overlord@reddit

I have 1 sticker on my personal laptop that my kid stuck there that says #1 dad. That's my only exception.

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JoCaldPT@reddit

I got surprised with Peppa Pig stickers on mine. This is my life now :)

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Taftimus@reddit

I’m the opposite, I won’t put stickers on my personal stuff, but my work encourages us to ‘customize’ our laptops, so I have a ton of stickers from vendors and stuff all over it.

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ReadyAimTranspire@reddit

> I like to set pleasing images as my desktop background I've always just gone with a plain black background for easy visibility. I've had some backgrounds where I had to move icons around to be able to read them. Old eyes and shit.

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samzi87@reddit

My stickers are on my work from home desk and I got plenty. I have one on my personal laptop too, but that one's just to hide the big ass manufacturers logo. I would never put a sticker on a company owned device and I especially despise the person that put a metal (!) Sticker on the back of a leased company smartphone. It was a pain in the butt to remove that and I hope your stupid shakra sticker comes back to hunt you in your dreams one day, Dave.

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WorthPlease@reddit

Definitely not stickers on work laptops except for the one the service tag, property of company X, and our Service Desk # My personal one though has a its always DNS sticker on it. Its like my nerd mating call.

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Ziegelphilie@reddit

The only stickers I have are on my bin-of-stuff-that-will-save-the-day-sometime.

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Fallingdamage@reddit

Stickers are for my garage fridge and my hydroflask.

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hasthisusernamegone@reddit

i.e. stuff that is actually yours.

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Striker2477@reddit

What’s your GitHub homie? 👀

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stufforstuff@reddit

Not being a 12 year old girl, can't really relate.

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AFlyingGideon@reddit

I think stickers are somewhat silly... it is similar to the consumers or vendors who believe that the color of the computer's case is important. I will admit to one exception, though. There's a staff member in our school district who has either a full-sized sticker or a case which causes her laptop to look like one of those black and white composition notebooks we used as kids or in labs. As far as I'm concerned, that should be standard for all district devices.

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mgdmw@reddit

I use the stickers for my suitcase. I don’t see them as making my case look great though, I see it as making my case clearly distinguishable so that I can recognise it from a distance and so nobody else mistakes it as theirs.

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AFlyingGideon@reddit

I use very vibrant luggage tags for this (as well as those BLE tiles).

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theservman@reddit

I'm halfway through a laptop refresh and have at least a week of sticker removal in the coming weeks.

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discgman@reddit

Sorry OP, I hate stickers on devices. Especially ones that get turned in after an employee leaves or switches devices.

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SharpDressedBeard@reddit

A plastic razor blade and some goo gone is a 5 minute solution. Let people have fun.

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j9wxmwsujrmtxk8vcyte@reddit

Then the employee can do that before they hand in the device.

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VariousLawyer4183@reddit

Thats five minutes, the person could have spent on something which doesn't drive them insane. 5 Minutes / per returned device add up pretty fast, so please stick your stickers to stuff that is actually yours.

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discgman@reddit

Sounds like you never cleaned a laptop before

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Happy_Kale888@reddit

Correct and it sets a very bad example i.e. do what I say not what I do

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bingblangblong@reddit

I judge people as inferior for having loads of stickers on their laptop.

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Xned@reddit (OP)

Why on earth would you do that? I attend quite a few conferences and talks, and I have even been invited to speak on occasion. Many thought leaders in our field have laptops that look like high school poster boards. To people who are part of the culture, the stickers can even give you an idea of who the owner is. If I see 10 years of DEF CON stickers or badges from completed wargames, that tells me this person is probably an old-school security guy. If I see Microsoft, Azure, and Copilot stickers, that may say something about their background and current path. why on earth would you look down on that?

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bingblangblong@reddit

Looks shitty

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nyckidryan@reddit

IYHO...

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Cry_Wolff@reddit

Thankfully you're a nobody.

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bingblangblong@reddit

Oh, well Bertrand Russell famously hated stickers on laptops too.

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blarknob@reddit

Adding my voice to the chorus of sticker haters. As someone who has to re-use and re-deploy laptops sticker people make my life harder.

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mgdmw@reddit

And the people who insist on putting heavy dark tape over the webcam. Use the built-in shutter you stupid conspiracy theory nuts.

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OppositeStudy2846@reddit

Vinyl sticker > paper sticker Vinyl stickers easily peel off in seconds, even after years. Paper stickers will get e-recycled with the laptop.

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agoia@reddit

Even with solvents and scrapers, it's a whole lot of time that shouldn't have been needed to turn around old gear.

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hasthisusernamegone@reddit

It's not YOUR laptop. Having had to reassign laptops after the previous occupant had stickerbombed it, I absolutely hate the things. The new occupant doesn't want any trace of them and they never come off cleanly.

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Dekklin@reddit

> and they never come off cleanly. GooGone exists.

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Big_Booty_Pics@reddit

Still makes it a hassle to recondition a laptop if it needs to be re-issued.

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SharpDressedBeard@reddit

It really doesn't.

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Big_Booty_Pics@reddit

Let me know when you have to recondition 1500 laptops in <2 weeks and 400 of them are sticker bombed taking an extra 5-10 minutes each and then you can let me know if it's a royal pain in the ass or not.

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SharpDressedBeard@reddit

Eh this is a workforce resource management problem.

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mgdmw@reddit

You go to management and say we need to hire an extra person so we can pull off these stickers. See how that goes.

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Big_Booty_Pics@reddit

I agree, but that doesn't mean it still isn't my problem and a pain in the ass to remove stickers.

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NiFiGaS@reddit

We just give laptops to new users with stickers. Blame old owner, huh. We were hired to work as IT specialists—not as sticker scrubbers or something.

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Dekklin@reddit

Fair. But don't you clean them up anyways before giving it to someone new? Might add 5-10 minutes to the cleanup anyways, unless you like giving grungy PCs to new people.

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Individual-Train-821@reddit

Let the person turning the laptop in waste their time with the razor and GooGone.

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hasthisusernamegone@reddit

Worst one I had was a very expensive MacBook Pro that had been left by a guy who was fired for substance abuse. In the three months he was there itt had been covered in stickers for - among other things - various Soho tattoo parlours.

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ajscott@reddit

Doesn't help if the top layer of plastic, paint, or carbon fiber peeled off with the sticker.

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Dekklin@reddit

> Doesn't help if the top layer of plastic, paint, or carbon fiber peeled off with the sticker. From a laptop? It's solid plastic, there shouldn't be any paint involved, and where would carbon fibre come into the picture? Don't recall seeing that on anything less than G4M3r_420_RGB computers, which you won't find in /r/sysadmin.

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ajscott@reddit

Dell Rugged Latitude 5430 models had carbon fiber tops with a rubber layer on top. Stickers peel it right off. The silver Dell Precisions and Pro Max models are a dual layer paint instead of solid plastic. I have dozens of various models with damage from stickers.

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SoylentVerdigris@reddit

Got a whole stack of Dell laptops under a year old relegated to loaner only because stickers peeled the paint off. I hate to take the side of the corporation over the employee, but it's not their shit. Keep it clean and put your stickers on something else.

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TheShitmaker@reddit

Hand Sanitizer (Purell specifically) works great as well.

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Dekklin@reddit

Nice.

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OppositeStudy2846@reddit

Vinyl sticker > paper sticker Vinyl stickers easily peel off in seconds, even after years. Paper stickers will get e-recycled with the laptop.

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psiphre@reddit

reissuing laptops, ugh.

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hasthisusernamegone@reddit

Don't be that guy. There are plenty of reasons why laptops might get reassigned.

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I_cut_the_brakes@reddit

Not only that, one that had been in use so long that the previous user had time to cover it in stickers. I feel bad bad for orgs that hand crappy used laptops to new hires.

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agoia@reddit

We at least try to limit it to <2 yr old devices that get reissued. Anything older than that becomes loaner/trainer/punishment laptops. It's just part of nonprofit life.

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I_cut_the_brakes@reddit

Non-profit absolutely gets a pass on this, gotta do what you gotta do.

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agoia@reddit

It helps that they're Thinkpads, we just had a 9 year old T570 get returned to us that was a spare/training laptop at a remote site. Still works fine, just couldn't go to 11 so it got swapped out for a 2022.

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levir@reddit

It sounds like this isn't a standard issue laptop, but more like a personal device the work place paid for. Sounds to me like OP'd keep it if they quit.

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WorthPlease@reddit

How did you just lose a whole laptop?

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nv1t@reddit

I disassembled my backplate and build a lamp out of mine :) kept all backplates from all my previous laptops.

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techdog19@reddit

If it is your personal laptop I feel bad for you. If it is a company machine I despise people that do this to work machines.

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MightyPirat3@reddit

How long do I have to stay at the company to prove my worth before I'm allowed my first sticker?

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exercisetofitality@reddit

Founders only.

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braytag@reddit

It's not per sticker, it's per sqinch. 1 year per inch

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Weird1Intrepid@reddit

Squinches

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PsychoGoatSlapper@reddit

Depends, do you own the company?

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OppositeStudy2846@reddit

Vinyl sticker > paper sticker Vinyl stickers easily peel off in seconds, even after years. Paper stickers will get e-recycled with the laptop.

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GenderOobleck@reddit

Pro Tip: Put down automotive vinyl on the lid first before sticker-bombing. When it’s time to retire the laptop, you can peel the whole thing off at once and save the stickers for posterity. You can then stick the whole vinyl sheet on a small canvas and hang it on your wall.

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OppositeStudy2846@reddit

Damn, that’s a great idea. Thanks!

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Xned@reddit (OP)

Yeah, someone else mentioned something similar. I feel kind of stupid for not thinking of that myself before. Thanks for the suggestion. I’ll take it to heart for my new machine.

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Bio_Hazardous@reddit

Only sticker that goes on a work laptop is it's machine ID, why would you be putting anything else on them???

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I_cut_the_brakes@reddit

So that some poor guy in IT has to spend an hour taking them off one day.

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OppositeStudy2846@reddit

Vinyl sticker > paper sticker Vinyl stickers easily peel off in seconds, even after years. Paper stickers will get e-recycled with the laptop.

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levir@reddit

I have a label with my name on it too, on the underside, to keep it from getting lost (and make sure it gets back to me quick if it does).

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Arudinne@reddit

You must not have devs on your payroll.

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Swamplilly@reddit

I definitely understand I buy two of each sticker for this reason. I am also the one that takes them off of work machines. Considering how much gross stuff I have received back using the heat gun for stickers is no problem.

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IntrepidDig1581@reddit

so the sticker thing hits different, honestly, because those arent replaceable the way configs and dotfiles are. every sticker is like a timestamp, a specific con, a specific ctf you stayed up til 3am to finish. the data coming back is great but yeah, no backup strategy covers that layer of the machine

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sp-rky@reddit

I love stickerbombing my personal laptops. I feel you 😭

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Daphoid@reddit

As a person I feel for you. As the IT guy who used to refresh laptops if you left, I hate you and your stickers. But goo be gone works pretty good. I don't sticker my gear personally. I bought some posterboard from a craft store and framed it. Stickers go there.

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simAlity@reddit

I am surprised by the sticker hate. Most of my end users where I work do not use stickers, but some do. Honestly I don't mind the stickers. Nearly all are work related (employer branded and/or employer funded event) a they make the laptop easier to distinguish from the other machines.

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Klutzy_Possibility54@reddit

Agreed, a few people on my team have stickers on their laptops and I've never heard anyone say a word about it including our desktop support team. I did have a few work-related stickers on an old work, but I removed them before I turned it back in even though the laptop went straight to e-waste because I thought it was fair to return it in the condition it was given to me. I really wouldn't be surprised if people took better care of their laptops after putting stickers on them to make them feel a little more personalized.

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Prestigious-Past6268@reddit

Every laptop at my school has a 15 amazon plastic shell. Teacher s plaster them with stickers. It is their identity. The resist getting new laptops just because the shell won’t fit newer laptops. That $15 shell is worth $hundreds (per laptop) in savings by delaying the refresh cycle. Then when the get new laptops they are happy when the are told they can keep the old shell as a souvenir. It has become artwork for their identity. I’ve started saving stickers for the future when I may get a new laptop someday.

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Brilliant_Cattle_602@reddit

I feel you. I used to hate switching to a new laptop because of the sticker loss. Now I look at it like a chance to start a new chapter. I also get a clear laptop cover and put the stickers on that. Now I can pull it off the old laptop and use it as wall art by my work area. We started doing this for every laptop we hand out and now it makes it easier to repurpose laptops without having to remove the old stickers.

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SharpDressedBeard@reddit

I've been waffling on buying an 8x4 sheet of stainless for stickers and magnets.

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Xned@reddit (OP)

I love the idea of the clear cover and keeping it as wall art when you have to cycle devices. I will absolutely steal that idea. Thanks for the post!

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Top-Perspective-4069@reddit

One of my help desk people does this. My boss freaked the fuck out when he saw it the first time until it became clear that it was a skin that was covered in stickers.

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_thekev@reddit

I would have lost my Tubeasco (a vacuum tube tabasco bottle) sticker if I didn't have a cover for that thing. This is the way.

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Brilliant_Cattle_602@reddit

You are very a welcome! I stole it from my boss. She is a smart lady.

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MidnightBlue5002@reddit

//It was part of my identity. Some of those stickers had even been transferred from 2 or 3 laptops back in time. That's ... a mental problem.

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bruhgubgub@reddit

Mr dismissive over here

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Sin2K@reddit

I know exactly how you feel, I had a camera bag stolen once and thankfully everything was insured... Except for the camera strap that belonged to my grandpa =(

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Secret_Account07@reddit

I thought you were talking about sticky notes and was going to walk you through how to transfer from backups lol Physical stickers 😂

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fattes@reddit

Thank you I thought i was going crazy here.

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Dal90@reddit

>Feels like I lost a part of my own history :( >Am I just weird(er), or is this a thing anyone else can relate to? 2021 took a Jeep trip out west; outside of Sante Fe hit a puddle on a dirt road with the top open. It must've been the right puddle at the right angle -- western mud, unlike New England mud, tastes salty. And it wasn't a little mud -- it was an entire wave coating everything in the front seats. Still have that mud on the sound bar that sits above and just behind the front seats and no intention of ever cleaning it.

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TheWrightMatt@reddit

That's why you gotta take a picture and add it to https://stickertop.art/ From their about page > Laptop stickers are more than decoration, they’re a form of self-expression. Each one is a snapshot of a moment, a place, and an attitude. But they’re fleeting; when the technology becomes outdated, the laptops along with the stories stuck to them often end up in the waste pile. I thought it was a shame for something so personal and creative to just disappear, so I created this site to preserve them. Here you’ll find laptop stickers I’ve spotted on my travels and ones submitted by others, saved here long after the hardware is gone I hope you enjoy it

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Xned@reddit (OP)

I had no idea something like this existed. This is really cool! Thanks, stranger. Today I found something new and interesting to explore :)

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TheWrightMatt@reddit

Yeah it's something I ran across on HackerNews and thought it was pretty cool as well! Glad to share something you found interesting!

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EduRJBR@reddit

Shame on you: I always get three of the same sticker, and keep one of them at someone else's house.

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YellowOnline@reddit

I burn users who put stickers on their device at the stake.

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0verstim@reddit

Absolutely feel your pain. Framework needs to make this a selling point in their marketing.

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HappyDadOfFourJesus@reddit

I have allowed my four children to sticker all my devices, so yeah, I get it.

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the_mandalor@reddit

Wow. So many sticker haters.

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ManintheMT@reddit

I work at a ski resort, everything here including laptops and desktops gets tagged with stickers. When a machine comes back I can typically guess what department it came from by the stickers.

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Ssakaa@reddit

Last thing I want as someone with a fair bit of access, infosec responsibilities, etc is a bunch of stickers painting a target on my laptop. Hell, I hate even carrying a "nice" looking backpack that screams "steal me" for my laptop. Stickers are loud, and as you should already know... the quieter you are, the more you're able to hear.

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Xned@reddit (OP)

Sure, I would not bring an “I am a hacker” sticker-covered laptop to a covert pen test. But as you surely know, stickers are also a way to signal that you are part of the community, and maybe even indicate which part of it. I have had quite a few random fist bumps and interesting conversations at events because someone recognized a sticker on my laptop.

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WhatsUpSteve@reddit

Look on the bright side, blank canvas to slap on new stickers! And new machine!

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Jasonbluefire@reddit

I feel you, my laptop has many stickers on it. I always think of a new laptop as a new page in life, it gets a new set of stickers. I take a picture of the old one though before it goes to e-waste!

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AustinGroovy@reddit

I've used the thin plastic covers for Macbooks and Dell computers I've had over the years. All my stickers go there. IT teams would be mad if I put my stickers on the lid, so I used the covers. Over time, I've got a collection of old lids.

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cosmin_c@reddit

I would never sticker the actual laptop. My MBP has a lot of "high value" stickers but all of them are on the shell, not on the metal. My "car laptop" is similarly sticker bombed but there is one layer of CF sheet going directly on the metal because that I know comes off easily enough.

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MonkyDeathRocket@reddit

I have the exact same kind of thing going on and just today I learned that I too will miss the stickers. I've never actually moved them from one machine to another though.

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cerialphreak@reddit

One of the benefits of moving to a framework laptop is I can keep the stickers when I upgrade.

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CrackedMouseBall@reddit

I worked at an apple shop and someone came in with a broken screen to be replaced under AppleCare. It was covered in stickers and it was a complete display replacement. Not dissected like laptops in the past. They came in and were so upset that all their stickers were gone and left a bad review. Like a widdle baby

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shimoheihei2@reddit

I'm weird and put my stickers on a metal cabinet at home. I don't own a laptop tho so it's not like I could put them there anyways.

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M4niac81@reddit

My normal laptop is clean, but the laptop I use with my DJ equipment is covered having been very well travelled and I'm going to miss that patina when I eventually have to upgrade it.

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CeC-P@reddit

This is why before I start using a software solution, I check how it works. That's why I hesitated to use ToDo, as I wasn't sure if it was cloud synced or not.

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Bogus1989@reddit

LMAO, my buddy upgraded from windows 10-11 and LITERALLY had important financial stuff in sticky notes and it didnt rollover. THANKFULLY the data was still there 🤣

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Xned@reddit (OP)

Stickers as in the silly things you put on the laptop :) Software and environment are secured and recovered. It is just my silly stickers that are lost, and apparently I valued them more than I realized.

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g-rocklobster@reddit

I don't think OP was talking about Sticky Notes - it was actual stickers on the laptop cover.

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Bogus1989@reddit

okay, i can kinda see where you are coming from. used to be a skater and id have my deck fuckin covered in stickers. id hate when i snapped my decks. damn you made me think way back. nowadays i like shit clean and standard.

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baw3000@reddit

How'd you lose it? I feel like as a sysadmin if I lost a laptop it would be a hard conversation with my manager.

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Xned@reddit (OP)

Lost it on a long train ride when I was traveling. Was napping and when I woke up someone had nicked it from my bag. Sure its not great but I never logon with any high perm accounts on the local machine and do most of my admin/security work from a secure bounce host so even if they get any data from it there will be no seasions or local cred cash that is of high value.

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unbuttered_toast3939@reddit

IMO, losing something being robbed are two very different things.

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Xned@reddit (OP)

It being stolen resulted in me losing it, as in it is no longer in my possession :) English is not my native language, so I apologize if the phrasing is/was off.

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