If You Don't Want Your Car Stolen, Make It Pink 390
pickens writes "A study in the Netherlands illustrates car thieves' preferences. From 2004-2008, the most commonly colored vehicle stolen was black. This may be because black vehicles look more luxurious. Following close behind black were gray/silver automobiles. Of the 109 pink cars in the study, not one was stolen. A bright and uncommon color, like pink, may be as effective deterrent as an expensive security system. Ben Vollaard, who conducted the research, wrote, 'If the aversion to driving a car in an offbeat color is not too high – or if someone actually enjoys it – then buying deterrence through an uncommon car color may be at least as good a deal as buying deterrence through an expensive car security device.'"
Hm... (Score:5, Insightful)
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Re:Hm... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Hm... (Score:4, Insightful)
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Both operating systems allow a user program to access, modify, and delete content in the users home directory; can automatically start background tasks at user login by modifying .profile or .bashrc or similar; and will allow external communications for user executed programs on high ports.
A trojan would work just as well with a person on Linux as it does for that same person on Windows but the odds of that person using Linux at the moment is lower and there isn't critical mass for it to spread.
I'm far far
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Re:Hm... (Score:5, Funny)
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The only pink cars I see are Cadillacs. I think there's some makeup company that gives them away as bonuses. And Bruce Springsteen wrote a song about them.
I've never seen a pink economy car.
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I've never seen a pink economy car.
You have to look back in time. My first car was a pink 1960 Dodge Dart Phoenix, which was the 2-door. It was sold as an economy car, but you wouldn't know it by looking at it. Those used to thinking of a 1963+ Dart as "a Dart" wouldn't recognize this monster, which was 6.5' wide, 19.5' long, and allegedly had a curb weight of about 4700lb. It got around really well though, with a big-block 318 Hemi and a 650 carter 4bbl, and about 12:1 compression (premium+octane booster/lead substitute FTW!) And it got ove
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Cool car. Shows how progress really isn't and how we're gradually getting poorer physically.
Try sticking a probe up the tailpipe and running an emissions test before you say that. This car was technologically advanced for its day. My 1982 MBZ 300SD is a diesel, probably gets similar emissions overall, and gets 30 mpg. A 1990s Golf TDI gets 50 mpg freeway and has even better emissions. It's not that it's not possible, it's that we're buyin' what they're sellin'.
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The only significant difference between Linux and the rest is how you get software. In Linux you get by far most of it from your distribution, on Windows you get most stuff from more or less trustworthy webpages, so it is much easier to catch something evil by accident.
In terms of actual security there really isn't much difference, as neither OS properly isolates applications by default and thus every evil tool has far more permissions then it needs.
Re:Hm... (Score:5, Informative)
As another example, consider the number of viruses that exploit buffer overflows in Windows Media Player. I have seen these files, played in another media player, and they display a simple message: to play this properly, use Windows Media Player. Would such a strategy work for a desktop Linux user? Well, again, which media player would you target? There is no one universally installed media player across different distros or different "flavors" of a single distro. Your trojan is going to be less successful if you need to force people to open their package manager and search for a given media player first.
These sort of things basically dull the impact of viruses. It is still possible to write viruses, of course, but it will be harder to spread a single virus as rapidly.
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Or Susie, or plain Debian, or slackware. From the Distrowatcher, Debian based distros are the mos common, they are 1/3 of them. Of course, saying "Debian based" isn't enough information for an attacker (unless he targets synaptic, or should he target aptitude instead?), the most used is Ubuntu (all versions of it) with something near 20% of the instalations. So, the best you can target at is 1/5 of the population. Also, Ubuntu systems are mos
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or that statistically, there are less pink cars out there to be stolen, so the rate seems low.
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Linux servers don't generally hang about in the average family home being badly managed by the average non-techy person like the average Windows box does :)
Linux servers are usually seen hanging out in specially constructed and managed server farms (a.k.a. dungeons), administrated by gangs of pale, bespectacled geeks and BOFHs and generally up to date with decent security.
to get slightly back on topic, the only pink cars I see in Holland tend to be bubblegum pink Nissan Micras, poverty-spec MINIs plastered
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Basically, regardless of the system running on a server,a virus-infected server will be removed from the network within minutes and the virus removed within hours.
Tonight in COPS! (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Tonight in COPS! (Score:5, Funny)
Oh please! He was driving 65 in a 30 zone while wearing a blond wig, lipstick, G-string, fishnet stocking and fuck-me shoes.
He wanted to get caught honey.
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Solution to theft (Score:5, Insightful)
Have stuff nobody wants.
Re:Solution to theft (Score:5, Funny)
this is why the patch cables I buy are purple....haven't lost a single one yet
Re:Solution to theft (Score:4, Funny)
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PURPLE? I've never even seen them that color.
I WANT ONE!!!!
My solution has always been to just use boots that are different colors from the cable itself. Nobody wants a blue cable with yellow ends.
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Re:Solution to theft (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Solution to theft (Score:5, Funny)
he loaned me a screwdriver...and it was pink.
Maybe it's some sort of code.
Re:Solution to theft (Score:4, Funny)
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"Is that a screwdriver in your hand or are you just happy to see me?"
Re:Solution to theft (Score:5, Funny)
he loaned me a screwdriver...and it was pink.
Maybe it's some sort of code.
Yeah, "Don't fucking steal my screwdriver."
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Re:Solution to theft (Score:5, Interesting)
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Many construction workers and mechanics paint their tools a specific color, so that they can tell who owns each tool very easily. My dad chose florescent hot pink -- he didn't lose too many tools over his career.
Re:Solution to theft (Score:4, Insightful)
Electricians I used to work with would replace the guts of their old broken power tools with the guts of the new shiny ones, leaving the old busted plastic casing.
To be funny, they would then put the old guts into the new shiny cases and leave them lying around for people to find and steal. Eventually people stopped stealing tools from their job sites because even their new pretty tools didn't work.
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Thanks. Now I'll never be raped.
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If you don't want your car stolen, buy a beat-up old pick-up truck. You know, the one with the cast iron bumpers. Then paint
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My dad drove a POS 94 Ford Ranger up until a few months ago and he never locked the doors. The only time it was broken into in the whole time he owned it was when kids were going around the movie theater parking lot stealing change out of cars. I bet they made a whole lot of money doing that...
Re:Solution to theft (Score:4, Insightful)
My dad drove a POS 94 Ford Ranger up until a few months ago and he never locked the doors. The only time it was broken into in the whole time he owned it was when kids were going around the movie theater parking lot stealing change out of cars. I bet they made a whole lot of money doing that...
I had a cousin who never locked his doors because if someone was going to steal his shit he didn't want them breaking his windows to do it. Eventually someone got into his car to steal his stereo, but even though the doors were unlocked they had smashed the driver side window.
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Also a solution to free beer or two at a pub. Well, relatively speaking.
Seems the same effect was present, at least in the past, with pink GBA and pink NDS; new ones, too. Hey, if people want you to have a beer on them...
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Maybe it's simpler than that. (Score:4, Insightful)
Perhaps the thieves prefer to drive something hard to pick out of a crowd?
Pretty easy to find the stolen pink anything. Not as easy to find the stolen blue Civic. If you have a choice of cars (and in most cases thieves do) you'd pick something you can get away with for longer.
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Maybe it's just harder to steal a car which usually has it's tires slashed.
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Actually... No. It is quite the opposite. (Score:5, Informative)
From TFA:
http://www.voxeu.org/index.php?q=node/5262 [voxeu.org]
It's resale value, not the fear of getting caught
Is it only resale value that drives the preference of thieves for cars in common exterior colours or does the probability of apprehension also play a role?
The recent history of car theft gives us some idea. Red is obviously a bright colour that attracts attention - including that of the police.
Red is also a colour that has fallen out of fashion since the turn of the century (Figure 1).
In the beginning of the 1990s around 25% of all new cars were red, now the number is close to 5%.
The decline of red doesn't only go for the Netherlands, but is a worldwide trend according data from DuPont.
If thieves are primarily interested in resale value and do not care much about being spotted in a bright coloured car, then we should see higher rates of theft for red cars in the 1990s.
That is exactly what we find. Figure 3 shows that, just with the colour silver/grey, the popularity of red in new car sales is tightly linked with the prevalence of red among stolen cars.
This suggests that car thieves do not seem to be particularly worried about being picked out from traffic by police.
Figure 3. Popularity of colour in new car sales vs. theft risk by colour, the Netherlands
http://www.voxeu.org/sites/default/files/image/Vollaardfig3.png [voxeu.org]
Source: CBS/RDW
Conclusion
Differences in theft rates between cars in common and uncommon colour suggest that resale value is on the mind of car thieves.
We find evidence that it is indeed the resale value rather than the fear of getting caught that is driving this difference.
If the aversion to driving a car in an offbeat colour is not too high - or if someone actually enjoys it - then buying deterrence through an uncommon car colour may be at least as good a deal as buying deterrence through an expensive car security device.
Or you could (Score:3, Insightful)
Drive a stick shift :)
Re:Or you could (Score:5, Funny)
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The risk is very negligible compared to the risk of doing, in the first place, armed carjackings.
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He was probably not planning to pull the trigger. Murder isn't easy to get away with.
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Indeed. Not to mention that in a public place the gun shot draws a lot more attention.
That's why if you can keep your wits about you, your odds are better if you NEVER, EVER leave with the thief. If they tell you to drive, you say no. Leave the keys in the car, leave it running, and get out.
For people who are willing to kill you, they are much less willing to do it somewhere like a parking lot. They don't want to shoot - at least not there.
So, by removing yourself from the car, they either take it and l
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Yeah, that's smart. Discharging a gun at a gas station, of all places. He really didn't think things through, did he?
I suspect most people who use firearms to try to coerce people don't actually intend to use them until alternatives have been exhausted.
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Right on.
I remember reading about a woman who pulled into her own driveway and was then "carjacked" by two guys that had followed her. But she drove stick, and the theives had no idea how to operate the car. She's rolling around on her lawn laughing her ass off while the two guys kept stalling the car. They eventually fled the scene in the car they had arrived in.
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Not in the Netherlands; and most of the world for that matter.
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Less control could still be irritating sometimes - when I see a stretch where higher torque at the wheels might get handy, I want to have it instantly at the push of gas pedal; hence downshifting in advance. Heck, with how often I use the engine to return steering wheel to "neutral" after a bend, I probably prefer to be sure that the gear ratio will certainly remain constant.
Now, if only people tought themselves to regularly brake with an engine; that's, I guess, a beauty of automatic - it kinda goes with i
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only stateside. In the rest of the world, car-thieves don't have a problem with stick shift.
Resale Value (Score:5, Insightful)
Attention (Score:2)
Repaint before selling.
I would think the bigger problem might be that you draw more attention from law enforcement. I've heard that red cars get more speeding tickets than other colors. I wonder what the statistics are for pink or yellow.
Only part of the story (Score:4, Insightful)
For example, pink cars might garner a greater degree of derision, leading to a greater incidence of vandalism. They might be pulled over more for speeding. Their owners might be more often victims of other crimes. Mechanics might inflate prices more.
What you want to look at is the "total cost of ownership" for the car over a period of time, as a function of color.
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IINM statistics say red cars get pulled over more often than any other color.
Top Gear already demonstrated this... (Score:4, Funny)
Here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VkWf4crJ9uI#t=2m18s [youtube.com] :)
This sounds familiar... (Score:2, Funny)
If you don't want viruses, run Linux!
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Sanrio's Next Wave of Products (Score:5, Funny)
The "Hello Kitty Car".
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The "Hello Kitty Car".
I heard an anecdote about someone who played in a comedy band and he plays a Hello Kitty guitar and his rhythm guitarist plays the Hanna Montana guitar. After a show someone broke into their van with all their gear and stole everything out of the van including the cases, picks, EXCEPT for the two guitars.
Can't look cool trying to sell those on craigslist, I guess.
Re:Sanrio's Next Wave of Products (Score:4, Interesting)
They [twolia.com] are way ahead of you. Outside. [blogspot.com] And inside. [blogger.com]
Mr. Pink (Score:2)
But you'll get crappy service at the Sonic because they'll assume you're a bad tipper.
My pink bike history (Score:2)
When I was in college, I had a halfway decent bike but vandals would remove any part not literally chained down. Lost several seats and wheels. Sometimes the vandals would find the wheels chained up and damage them instead. Othertimes they would just randomly remove screws and nuts, maybe in some half-assed attempt to steal something, but more likely just to damage the bike. Tires were regularly slashed too.
It got to the point where damage to the bike was costing me $50 to $100 every few months.
I then paint
Elvis's Pink Cadillac (Score:2)
If you're cool enough, you *CAN* have a pink car and be proud of it. Needless to say slashdot dweebs need not apply.
http://elviscadillacs.tripod.com/ElvisPinkCad.jpg
But... (Score:2)
I knew this since high school (Score:2, Interesting)
Back in high school, I mostly used mechanical pencils. But I kept breaking them: the metal tips snap off usually within a week of use. Maybe I press down too hard, or they just make shitty pencils where I live.
So I imported from Japan a few very well made--but obviously expensive--mechanical pencils. They have no problem taking my abuse. However, I ended up losing all of them over the course of the semester. I sometimes lend one to a classmate, but I didn't always get it back. I don't think they kept
I've used this tactic before. (Score:2)
In the academic library at which I work, we use student ID cards as stored-value cards to pay for printing in our computer labs. For people who don't have or forgot their student ID, we have some "loaner" cards that they can load money onto to pay for their printing session.
People were not returning the loaner cards after they were done using them, so I printed a new batch in bright pink. The return rate rose dramatically afterwards.
Pink cigarettes (Score:2, Interesting)
I've always thought that more people would quit smoking, if cigarettes were pink...
Child seats = problem solved (Score:3, Funny)
Two baby seats (twins) plus one child seat seems to have solved the car theft problem for me. These days the only lock I bother with on the car is the one that stops the little blighters from opening the doors from the inside.
If someone stole the stereo and the collection of children's song CDs from the car, I'd consider that a blessing. Well, apart from Lazytown, which sounds similar enough to Scooter that I might miss it.
Works on underwear too (Score:5, Interesting)
When my boys were growing up, they were constantly stealing my underwear. I made them do their own laundry but they didn't get to that chore as often as they should have so they felt free, despite my protests, to dip into my underwear drawer. Nothing worked until I died my shorts pink.
My girlfriend thought it was funny but I was just happy to be able to rely on having a clean stash of underwear.
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When my boys were growing up, they were constantly stealing my underwear.
For some reason, I assumed you were female until I read the whole post. It made that first sentence really creepy :)
Non-relevant statistics? (Score:3, Interesting)
With a mean probability of 0.1% of theft (at least it looks close to it in the charts, I do not have the study numbers), a sample size of 109 cars may be too small.
To put an analogy, think that a medical researcher goes to a city of 10.000 people and finds that there are 10 cancer patients, and when he goes to the village with 100 people then claims that there is some kind of cancer cure in that village because there are no cancer patients in it.... Hardly significative at all..
Already knew that... (Score:3, Interesting)
I drove for 4-5 years a pink car. It was a type of car likely to be stolen, in an area where cars are being stolen quite frequently, in a visible, big parking area, where practically no one was watching if there's a car being stolen.
Car was easy to steal type, many cars like that even a ice cream stick was enough of a key, on top of that the trunk couldn't be locked so you could get inside from there, and if that's not enough i frequently forgot to lock the doors. It was never stolen, or attempted even.
Not only that, but all the girls were curious about it always ;) It drew eyes like a magnet everytime i drove it around, and girls came talking to me at times just because how the car looked, yet the car had about nothing special in it's looks other than being pink.
Best color for a car, ever.
Re:resale (Score:5, Funny)
If only there was some way to replace the paint colors with colors of our own choosing. If only we possessed that level of technology...
from : http://leasticoulddo.com/comic/20100719 [leasticoulddo.com]
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I think it's the fact that it's pink. If I were a car thief I'd have no problem with stealing a bright orange Focus RS, because they're actually cool. Bright pink though? You think a thief's friends are going to be impressed by that? Please.
Re:How to fail with statistics (Score:5, Informative)
All of them. At least, new-ish cars in the Netherlands, in 2004-2008. ...you could have easily looked that up, TFA links to its sources.
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"LYNDSI", whoever that is, could have looked it up too. And perhaps written a few words about it, so that the article would have something approaching value. Strange as it may seem there is a difference between "Here is some data and here are the conclusions that I have drawn from it" and "Here are some conclusions and if you spend enough time clicking on random, completely unlabelled links to other people's work, which may or may not still be in the same state as it was when I last consulted it, then may
Direct link to the study (Score:3, Informative)
Here:
http://www.voxeu.org/index.php?q=node/5262 [voxeu.org]
I generally agree with you though, I'm not sure the conclusions are valid from what's given. It basically says 0.26% of black cars, the most stolen colour, get stolen, whilst 0.16% of red cars, the least stolen get stolen. Apparently there's something like 6.8 million vehicles in the Netherlands, but it's hard from the data to tell how many cars this actually translates to in practice, particularly as the graph given changes over time, and older cars will most
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Re:More lies with statistics... (Score:5, Informative)
Zero. There were exactly zero pink cars stolen. (The study, if you had bothered to look at it, includes all reported thefts of all cars less than 3 years old in the Netherlands from 2004-2008).
I really hate it when people start prattling along about errors with statistics when they don't bother looking at the actual statistics.
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I really hate it when people start prattling along about errors with statistics when they don't bother looking at the actual statistics.
Making informed statements!? Researching before you reply?! What is this blasphemy?! Next thing you know you'll expect people to read the actual summary!
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Well, if you really want to be pedantic (and this is /., so who doesn't?), the 95% upper confidence interval of 0 events out of 109 is 2.7%. This does not compare favorably to the average risk of car theft of ~0.25%. I'd need more data to calculate the confidence intervals for risk of theft for black or average cars, but it's likely to be much tighter than +/- 2.5% given the total number of car sold.
So the only think you can say from this study is that there's insufficient data to determine whether pink c
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I really hate it when people start prattling along about errors with statistics when they don't bother looking at the actual statistics.
And I really hate it when others start prattling about errors with statistics when they don't know when to take an adequate sample.
In the linked 'study' [voxeu.org], we find that the highest risk category is for black cars, with a theft risk of approximately 0.25% during the length of the study. We also learn that the number of pink vehicles included in the study is just 109.
If car thieves had an identical preference for pink cars and black cars (don't ask me why), then in a sample this size, there's still only a
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In late-breaking news, statisticians find that 8.2% of car thefts occur in June.
rj
Re:More lies with statistics... (Score:4, Funny)
Did you really just put this disclaimer in a reply to the post ending with "I really hate it when people start prattling along about errors with statistics when they don't bother looking at the actual statistics"?...
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Societal norms would quickly change anyway. Less than a century ago, in western culture, blue was the color for girls...and pink for boys.