When in a public hot spot you never know who might be lurking and trying to steal your data or the private information on you laptops.

You might consider buying the $40 SpotLock from jiwire. It provides Wi-Fi Security, secure e-mail delivery, a world-wide Hot Spot Finder, a Personal Firewall and a wireless connection manager. You need Windows XP or 2K and a compatible wifi card.

Certainly a good investment to protect your valuable data.

If your laptop is important to you then you should have multiple levels of security.

You should protect it physically as well as the data on the laptop. Use a secure OS, like Windows 2K or XP, not Win 98. Enable a BIOS password. Permanently mark the case with your name, phone number or put metal tamper resistent commercial asset tag on it. Register the serial number with the laptop Manufacturer, that way if the it is stolen and recovered the police can return it to you. Laptops have a Universal Security Slot (USS), so buy a laptop lock or laptop alarm. Back up your data. Use a personal firewall. Use a non-descript carrying case. You don't want your laptop to shout to thieves … laptop inside steal me. Keep it as close to you physically as you can.

So, the morale of the story is depending upon how important the laptop and it's data are to you the more time and energy you should spend protecting it.

An excellent article that covers in detail main of the ideas related to protecting your laptop.

Not a simple question to answer as there are many factors impacting the amount of time a laptop battery holds a charge. This really depends upon the application you are doing, the age of the laptop battery, the climate it operates in most of the time and what power setting you have in place.

If you are typing on the keyboard it uses less juice than if you are playing a DVD or using the wireless card. Batteries only will recharge 400 to 500+ times. So, if you have had the battery 2-3 years will definitely show it's age and will not hold a charge as long as it did when new. If you live in New Orleans then the battery will not last as long and hold a charge (over time) as long than if you live in San Francisco and it is a cold summer day. If you have turned on your power saving features (dim display, turn of when idle after 3 minutes, etc.) rather than forcing the display on bright all the time and the hard drive always on you will get the battery to last longer.

Sigh. Next time don't have your water or coffee or coke near your laptop. It will be most unhappy.

If it is water you will be more fortunate than if coke or coffee. If it is plugged in turn it off. If something is obviously wrong turn off the laptop. If the AC adapter got wet and the battery wipe them off. They may be damaged. Remove cards in the PC slot and dry them carefully. Clean the liquid off the display. Remove the memory module and dry it. If it is the keyboard remove the affected keycaps and dry and clean them. Once it is dry then turn it back on and see what happens.

You might be lucky and all the extra work might be a lesson learned and you might not allow liquids and your laptop to mix again by keeping them far away from each other. If not you might have to call your local laptop repair shop and spend the $60 to $70 to have the problem diagnosed. If you fried your motherboard you will be most unhappy as you might have to kiss your laptop goodbye. A $300-$400 repair might not be cost effective.

I hope you had your data backed up.