New Scientist says :

A new way of making silicon explode could mean anyone trying to use a stolen laptop or mobile will be confronted by this message: "This machine is stolen and will self-destruct in ten seconds ... ".

A couple of years ago, just after I left Monash Uni for the city job I'm still at now, I went back one afternoon to drink with a couple of old friends. I ended up following one of them into the city to have dinner with some of his friends. We got there by taxi. Fine. Somewhere along the South Eastern Arterial (when he knew we had no way of escaping, I guess), the taxi driver launched into a long tirade about the USA and their computer chips, and how they knew if you were doing any anti-american stuff, in which case they'd blow up and stop working. Now, I dunno about you, but when I'm drunk and stoned it's pretty damn hard not to laugh. But this guy sounded serious, in that a-few-slices-short-of-a-loaf kind of way. We held it in. My friend sniggered a little bit. The driver turned around and stared at him - "you're not laughing at me are you ?" "uh. no. no..." We managed to survive the rest of the journey.

I wonder what this guy knew ? :)