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(apologies to Jonathan Swift) Please take this as only half-joking. While it is eminently do-able, the question is would it be ethical? Other than stirring things up on a Monday morning, I'd also love to hear alternative solutions others have brought to bear on this problem. We circulate laptops bundled with hotspots, and as expected we've seen too many of them fail to return. Of course, we disable the hotspot when it fails to return, but that doesn't always result in the return of the bundle. What makes matters worse is that in the spirit of combating digital inequity, we do our best to accommodate those who are homeless, who have no permanent address other than a shelter, who have no cellphone and have no credit card. Other than Scalefusion MDM software which we're evaluating, I had a wonderful, deliciously evil thought: suppose, upon checkout, we started a clock ticking on the laptop. Three days after the due date, our very own branded ransomware kicks in. The patron sees a message: to recover your files, return the laptop. It'd be like a prisoner exchange; they return the laptop and we return their files. Of course, this only works with those who actually create data files that they value. So who's in on this (he asks tongue in cheek)? John Lolis Coordinator of Computer Systems 100 Martine Avenue White Plains, NY 10601 tel: 1.914.422.1497 fax: 1.914.422.1452 https://whiteplainslibrary.org/ *“I would rather have questions that can’t be answered than answers that can’t be questioned.”* — Richard Feynman <https://click.fourhourmail.com/5qure95xkf7hvvo93wh2/7qh7h8h05vr4zrtz/aHR0cHM6Ly9lbi53aWtpcGVkaWEub3JnL3dpa2kvUmljaGFyZF9GZXlubWFu>, theoretical physicist and recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1965