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By: Patrick Nelson
 a reply to I Lost My Laptopby Patrick Nelson on Jul 25, 2008 - 02:30 PM read 56 times Source: http://www.wikinomics.com/blog/?p=1775#comment-155114 |
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Hi Will. Nice seeing you the other day.
There are tools and tricks available to help users find their lost laptops, but they are invariably preventative. An easy trick is just to put your phone # in the default username. Put “REWARD: $$$$$ if found” as the password hint. That takes care if you simply lose it.
If you’re worried about theft, there are several tools that give away the location of the device if its turned on and connected. These tools work by relaying the IP address of your computer to a central site. You’d need the ISPs IP->Address information if you wanted to move on that, but at least you’d know whether the perp was a Rogers or Bell subscriber.
Most of these tools, however, have serious privacy issues and cost $$. Adeona (http://adeona.cs.washington.edu/index.html), meanwhile, is both free and privacy-friendly. It should be noted that the tool is easy to uninstall, and it won’t survive a format.
It does have neat feature directly related to Macs that you in particular might find interesting - the ability to do a remote camera capture. If you’re lucky, you can piece together where the guy was and do some detective work. At the very least, you’ll know what the bastard looks like.
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