Last night I was pulled in by an action adventure story – but it wasn’t unfolding on a movie screen, by book, or by radio – it was happening before my very eyes on Twitter.
For Sean Power (@seanpower) , a local author and consultant, what started as an evening shopping for an IPad2 to replace his laptop that was stolen on a recent trip to New York City, ended as an evening where the laptop would be returned to him. This happy ending wasn’t a result of the NYPD, but instead because he had installed open source software by PreyProject called ‘Prey.’
PreyProject.com describes Prey as software that “… lets you keep track of your phone or laptop at all times, and will help you find it if it ever gets lost or stolen. It's lightweight, open source software, and free for anyone to use. And it just works.“
Um, ya. It certainly DOES work. In a turn of events that felt more like an episode of 24, Sean’s laptop was turned on by a suspected thief, and as soon as it was connected to the internet via WiFi, Prey quickly began sending screen shots and pictures back to the Prey service. Prey was also able to use the WiFi connection on Sean’s laptop to detect which WiFi access points were close to his PC. The service then sent a request to a location service which was able to pinpoint the actual physical location of Sean’s laptop! Sean was alerted, and then Sean started tweeting.
Over the course of a few short hours last night we learned the name of the alleged laptop theft suspect, his alleged location, photo, email address, etc. all because of the information being captured by Prey (You can see a summary of Sean’s tweets for the night here) I’m telling you, I hit refresh more on my twitter feed last night than I have in a while.
Prey is free for home use, and is currently available for Windows, Mac, Ubuntu and Linux computers, as well as Android phones. It’s a small install that runs a tiny agent in your computer or phone. It sits and waits for a remote signal to tell it to wake up, then begins sending messages through the Internet or via text messages.
@seanpower, I'm happy you got your laptop back. And whether this was real (I think it was), or a guerilla marketing campaign, you better believe I installed Prey first thing this morning.
Ok, so it’s been a crazy 48 hours in the nerdiverse. A few pretty cool announcements have come up , and here they are in this weeks Tech-Bytes.
Microsoft buys Skype for $8.5 Billion
Microsoft confirmed here that they are set to purchase Skype for $8.5 billion. (For those of you who don’t know what Skype is, it’s a video conferencing application that is most widely used via computers. Apps for iPad and iPhone are expanding their market space however, and making it easy for anyone to ‘Skype’ from many different platforms. )
What will this acquisition mean for our free video conferencing? People are speculating that Microsoft will roll Skype into the Xbox 360 application set – which would mean that you could Skype directly from your couch via your 360 with Xbox Kinect.
I’m hoping the mighty Microsoft can see it in their hearts to keep the online app free, the Geekling has been enjoying video conferencing with our family overseas!
Sony says it will restore the PlayStation Network by the end of May
Oh Goodie. Sony says the network we’ve all grown to mistrust may be fully restored by the end of May. You may recall me writing about the Sony debacle here . Since then, a group of lawyers in the United States have filed a lawsuit against Sony for “negligent protection of personal data and failure to inform players in a timely fashion that their credit card information may have been stolen.”
To set your mind at ease, there have been no reported cases of identity theft because of the breach as of yet, and Sony may have to put their money where their leak is, as this lawsuit in the US may end up being a class action lawsuit. Hopefully the companies that we know and trust are taking note and will be better guardians of our personal data.
Google set to announce ‘Music Beta’
Hot on the heels of Google’s expected announcement of their new music player for Android enabled smartphones, reports are surfacing that today, Google will also be announcing the launch of a new service called “Music Beta by Google.” This new, free (for now) service will allow users to upload their mp3’s to a personal online location, from where they can stream and download files from Internet connected devices. Think Dropbox , but for music only.
If you’re interested in checking it out the ‘Music Beta’, I have bad news for you , it’s invite only (you have to request an invite at google.music.com), for US residents only, with priority given to those with the Motorola Xoom tablet. Let’s hope they open it up to a more general group soon!
And finally –
Could Groupon increase ticket sales?
Ticket promoter Live Nation has partnered with daily-dealers Goupon to create GrouponLive.
GrouponLive will launch soon, and will sell tickets sold through Live Nation to targeted areas using Groupon’s local audiences. You can click here if you’d like to sign up. (I have a sneaking suspicion that if you're already a member of the Groupon lists you’ll start getting the emails for concerts coming to your inboxes soon.)
So that's it for this week - Until net time (see what I did there??)
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I have a love hate relationship with Google.
I love it because I’ve become a master of search terms, and can find anything I need within seconds.
I hate it for the same reason.
I’ll take you back a few months to January of last year. I started having severe cramps in my gut, below my right ribcage. A quick Google search led me to believe it was gallbladder related, I cut down on fatty food and waited to see the Doctor until the next attack – and she was also convinced that given the symptoms it was gallbladder related. She sent me for an ultrasound which – came back negative. Joy.
So, left with no answer other than an “It really seems Gallbladder related, but it isn’t” I went back to my daily routine of searching Google for support forums that would have someone – anyone – who is going though the same thing as me.
Over the next few months the attacks continued, getting worse and worse. I finally got in to see the doctor again, and her decision was to send me to a Gastroenterologist. I went home happy to have an answer coming to me. No more Google … Until … she called and said she wanted me to have blood work ASAP. I forgot to ask what the blood work was for, so when I went in the next morning I took a peek at the requisition and wrote down everything I could.
There it was on the paper – Check AST, ALT for LFT. I didn’t even bother asking the nurse about it, I grabbed my BlackBerry and Googled it. Liver Enzymes … liver disease … cirrhosis … Crap.
I called my Doctor on the way home and she confirmed, she has a suspicion that I have liver disease.
Liver disease?! It can’t be! Nobody in any of the forums I found mentioned liver disease … or did they. Back onto Google, searching again for someone who would have good news for me. There was a mix of positive and negative stories. Double crap.
In the weeks following, I see the Gastroenterologist who pokes around, tells me my liver feels fine, the levels in the blood are elevated, but not enough to cause concern for now. The real issue is that I probably have Crohns or Colitis, or potentially colon cancer and a colonoscopy will confirm.
I grabbed a stack of pamphlets on the way out, but as you can guess from the theme of this story, they ended up in the recycle bin as I went home. I grabbed the iPad and Google’d my way through the stages, symptoms and life with the diseases. I tried to pretend that I wasn’t bothered by the potential of having any of the C words presented to me, but I couldn’t tear myself away from the frantic search for information about all of the diseases.
The symptoms matched. EVERY symptom matched. I’m actually sick.
Before I went to bed every night I watched videos of colonoscopy’s on YouTube so I would know what I should be watching for while they did the test, then I cried myself to sleep worried about what the test would reveal. I thought I was being brave – I was using Google to ease my mind so I wouldn’t worry the people around me.
I had the colonoscopy last week . There were biopsies taken, but the gastro doc is fairly sure I have Ulcerative Colitis. It’s not Cancer. And what do I do – I tweet about it so that hopefully when someone does a search this will come up: “It’s Not Cancer!!!!! It’s just colitis! Squeee!”
The moral of my story is this : Google is a powerful tool. It helps you find information in seconds. It’s a blessing and a curse all wrapped up into one convenient, term suggesting, search bar. I found helpful stories, and scary stories. And although I’m a Google search master, I’m not going to use Google as my medical dictionary anymore.
Sometimes knowing ‘just enough’ is quite enough.
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