A tongue-in-cheek dig at fellow columnist Sam Biddle by Adrian Covert in Gizmodo actually raises a very serious question. Just how do you safeguard your laptop in Starbucks or Caffe Nero when you need to visit the loo and want to keep your table? This is one of the big conundrums of the modern age and there is no ready solution to hand.
Covert suggests a rather fierce-faced Biddle could babysit your laptop via Facetime and, I’m sure, the scowl is enough to see off all but the most determined thief. But it’s all wishful thinking, of course.
Simply there is no way to safeguard your laptop, keep your place and still visit the toilet. It’s a problem that grows more acute the older you get because, of course, a cappuccino or two work in mysterious ways. What we need is a friend or a minder to tag along to babysit the growing coffee-shop workforce. Or perhaps Starbucks could employ minders who, for a dollar, a pound or a euro would sit in for a few minutes and mind the shop.
Alternatively, Mr. Starbuck, please introduce a MacBook Air-friendly shelf in your restrooms so I don’t risk giving it a dunking, having left less valuable belongings to mind the table.