@ comments 1, 8, and 9:
Yes, the Open Firmware Utility will allow you to do this. Three caveats:
1. Most people don't know this and will never bother
2. Most thieves are dumb, so it's OK. They won't even think of wiping the hard drive.
3. MacBook Air does not have this feature, as there was not, last time I checked, an OFU available for the MBA.

If the solution described in the post sounds way too complicated, check out Undercover.

I've had mixed experiences with people who work at the Apple store. Most attempt to be helpful and some are exceptionally knowledgeable.

What's annoying to me is the checkout system, which can be summarized as "stand around looking ready to check out." There's no place to line up, and no clear way to indicate that you're in fact ready to hand over money.

When I went to buy my iPhone, I made eye contact with another guy who was in the same predicament - ready to check out, but having no idea what to do but look helpless. We discussed the absurdity of our situation briefly and tried to get the attention of one of the wireless checkout-thing guys.

Fortunately, it eventually worked, and we both got our cards swiped and purchases stickered within a few minutes.

Also, according to Wikipedia, LSD did not, as the comic claims, help "cure" Bill Wilson (founder of Alcoholics Anonymous) of alcoholism, though he did experiment with it as a possible cure for alcoholism to help others. Wilson was sober from 1935, well before the invention of LSD, until his death until 1971. He attributed his sobriety to a spiritual experience.

My favorite part is that Dr. Hoffman, after trying LSD for the first time, rode home on his bicycle. How many scientists today a) experiment on themselves, and b) commute via bicycle? The golden age is truly behind us.

Saw this one when it aired, and I thought Shirky did manage to get some points in edgewise, which as Ridstowe said is hard to do.

I did think it was odd, though, that he never looked at Stephen or at the camera when he was talking.

It just occurred to me that we have hood ornaments because that's where the radiator cap used to be. Huh.

I could see this possibly working for either magazines and books that you don't care about getting wet (such as Cradle2Cradle, which is made of plastic), or for non-book items as others have said.

It seems only basic common sense, though, that the top of the tub would have to have some kind of lip to keep water from running over the edges and down into the books. Even if you could tolerate having books in your bathroom on a permanent basis, this has got to be the worst possible way to store them. It looks as if no attention at all has been paid to the path water will follow after it inevitably gets on the top surface of the tub.

Clean lines may work well for the MacBook Pro, but on a bathtub, they're just stupid. On a bathtub that's also a bookshelf (a $17,500 one, no less), they're fatal to the form/function synergy that designers are supposed to, you know, be good at creating.

I'm a reasonable man. Get off my case, get off my case.

[sorry, couldn't resist the RH reference]

SmartFilter's criteria are ridiculous - my employer uses one of their products.

I've set up clean WordPress installs for static sites (using the popular blogging tool as a content management system), and found that they were automatically blocked, even with innocuous domain names and zero content. They block on the basis of backend software (probably as disclosed by the meta generator= tag), which strikes me as just silly.

I'm sure they filter because they're afraid someone will sue. Has anyone actually done this, though - said "you provided me with access to the internet, and now my eyeballs hurt!"?

Come on, Cory, Frauenfelder would never say art or an art-like product is too expensive. What are you doing living in the real world with the rest of us lowbrow consumers?

I like how no less than three different people have said "Obviously, it means..." and then made completely different interpretations of what you pay for and what you get. This only reinforces point of the original post - this ad is confusing as crap.

I knew Anita and Jack through the Seattle Weblogger Meetup (back when it was cool). She was a great person, a great organizer, and will be a great loss to the west coast world of geekery. She will be missed.

I can do one better than that. Check out this junk hauling and barber shop combo:
http://flickr.com/photos/justinbaeder/104288875/