NASA: LoJack for your sax?

[Gandalfe]

FROM: Dr. Michael Cox, Associate Professor, Capital University Conservatory of Music
TO: North American Saxophone Alliance members

I usually don't forward these kinds of solicitations, but this is pretty
interesting, given the emotional as well as financial investments we can develop regarding our instruments. I am unaware of the article's origin, although it was forwarded to me by Dave Coleman, our trumpet-playing friend from Top Brass. Dave is often quite forthcoming with interesting and forward-thinking observations.

Read more at: http://www.saxalliance.org/mhonarc/msg01079.html

[Media Lint]

Interesting ... but will the public go for it? Are we not already paranoid about people making a map of our daily routine by tracing our cell phones, our electronic toll booth device, the GPS system in our rental car that allows them to track YOU (http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/03/06/eveningnews/main604461.shtml) and charge you for taking vehicles "out of bounds". Will they know if we are sleeping? Will they know if we're awake? Will they know if we've been bad or good? You betcha. Might track a stolen sax. But it's still tracking you.

[saxamaphonegirl]

I actually have Lojack on my VolksWagen Golf. It gives me peace of mind. In the Lojack Catalog they send after purchase, it explains in detail how it works. The Lojack itself is the size of a deck of cards, it's somewhere in the vehicle, and it's only activated after you report your car stolen. Lojack claims that it's not to be used as a theft deterrent and that it's to recover your vehicle unharmed/intact.
If the technology were smaller and cheaper, I think people would go for it. I would. :)
The entire "big brother" thing doesn't bother me much. I'm already profiled at the airport because my married (hyphenated) last name is Iranian, even though i'm cleary an American woman (6'3", blond hair, green eyes, fare skin). Conrad-Aliabadizadeh, try writing that quickly on a store reciept! My Mom said I was crazy to hyphenate it and sometimes I agree. :)
There's always "SSSS" marked on my ticket and I'm led off into the "special" line where the full bag and person search take place. It's like I'm being forced to ride the short bus all over again! :) :) I'm joking. :)
It's all good. With the great advancements in tehnology we have to take the pro's and the con's.

[Kareeser]

Wow, that really sucks, saxamaphonegirl... hope it gets better, :)

I'd get a lojack microchip for my saxophone if I had the time. I don't think it necessarily would be tracking ME especially, and after what saxamaphonegirl said, that only reinforces it.

But can't thieves just remove it? Say it never had one.. *shrugs*

Unless it's welded onto the sax itself, I see no other way of ensuring it stays on the sax. And with a welded deck of cards on your sax, I'm sure THAT would affect sounds, ;)

[Anonymous]

Maybe this lowjack device can be built into the CASE instead of the sax. I know some will say they will throw away the case but not likely. Mike

[Tim Rattay]

most of the saxes are stolen without the cases.

I don't know why, but check this out!

http://members.aol.com/wonrap/stolen_sax_list/list.htm

[saxomophone]

I was thinking about a saxophone tracking device a while ago and it looks like I'm not the only one. If they could make something like this:
http://www.brickhousesecurity.com/h0001.html
only small enough to glue into the under side of a key-guard. You figure, even if fellow sax players would know where to look, how many crooks are stealing horns because they actually know about them? Most of the time they end up a local pawn shop or hocked on the street.

If I was carting an irreplacable $8,000.00 MKVI around the city at 3am after gigs, it would be nice to know I would have a decent chance of recovering it if it ever got stolen.

[Chris S]

I realize that this thread is old, but saxonophone revived it, so I'll add a little something.

Y'all are confusing two different technologies here. GPS packs can be rather big and bulky, but an RFID chip can be very very very small. There are some stores that are embedding them in the fabric of the clothing that they sell, so you'd never know. The other difference is the range at which these things can be useful. The press release for the instruments says that they'll be using RFID tags, but I'm not so sure how that worked. RFID tags, IIRC, are generally used for short range things (this is the technology that toll passes are based on) and GPS is used for bigger range things (like LoJack).

IF anyone knows any more info about this company, I'd be interested to see what has become of them.