I guess stolen laptops with OS X are a lot more likely to be recovered simply because there are fewer (pirated) OS X install disks laying around, so the thieves eventually cave in and just let them boot up.

Seen this elsewhere but:

a) There is no point in the video where the guy that started using his computer /after two years/ is confirmed as the theif, even after the police finally got involved, and;

b) The speaker violates the concept of privacy that is supposed to be a 'hacker value' but not only posting everything he can on this unconfirmed thief (including dick size jokes) but also by posting naked pictures of uninvolved third parties.

This hacker is an arsehole, no two ways about it. The BOFH is funny... when it's fiction.

Despite the ethical discussion as to how to this hacker should have treated the guy using his stolen computer, it seems that as with anything there are some important lessons worth paying attention to.

Interestingly and counter intuitively, the fact that it booted into single user mode and had ssh/vnc installed were the keys to getting his computer back.

I know I'm definitely going to go install some software with this in mind :)