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Thursday, March 24, 2011

A little bit of Safety goes a long way



I am a college student.  As many college students do, I own a laptop.  Sometimes it happens that when I am sitting in the computer lab, or maybe eating a quick bite at and on campus venue, something comes up where I need to get up and leave for a few minutes.  This could be a phone call, bathroom break, smoke break.  Sometimes you just don't feel like packing everything up for the 5 minutes that you'll be away from your computer.

Now.  There are hundreds of students, faculty, and staff walking around ALL the time right?  So it should be relatively safe to get up and walk away for a few minutes and trust that you're stuff will be left alone.  I have actually done this a number of times.  It is however, becoming more and more unreasonable to trust ANYONE (i really don't trust many people anyways) with anything so I've decided to install a little program called Prey.  Prey is a free, lightweight application that will track you're laptop or other device (works on windows, mac, linux, even android) if it is stolen through its wireless card and even use a built in webcam to take snapshots of the perpitrator for you.  As long as the thief does not plan on wiping your HDD before using the computer, you should be able to get it back.  Once your device is stolen, you can view any of the info including location and webcam shots through any browser you can get to and do several different things including setting off alarms and locking the user out remotely.

Sounds like win to me.  So just to be on the safe side, I'm gonna go ahead and install this on my laptop.  Never can be to careful.  It might just save me a few hundred dollars.

Check it out here.

37 comments:

  1. Maybe I should get it. Even though I am never leaving the laptop it might still be worth it. I mean, it is a free insurance.

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  2. Prey sounds really useful for people.

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  3. I might actually install that when i get my laptop, for now i just have a desktop, i doubt that i'ts gonna get stolen ^^

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  4. I'm going to download that for my Droid. Thanks!

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  5. Yeah, I have Prey installed. It is a really good idea. I don't know what I'd do if my laptop was stolen otherwise!

    Followed.

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  6. this is an awesome idea! totally gonna use this!

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  7. Thanks for sharing, gonna use it for shure

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  8. We need to start setting up bait laptops, and catching thieves. Haha

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  9. That is a very good idea. Is it activated remotely, or upon the wrong entry of a password?

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  10. nice alternative to taking my laptop wherever i go while on campus

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  11. sounds useful, i always thought about situations like this for my future life in college

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  12. Man, I still wouldn't risk it...I got my iPod stolen this way, when a friend was supposed to be watching my stuff...I recommend just packing it up yourself :\

    +followed, sounds like a coop program!

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  13. I need to send this to my friends with droids. +Following

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  14. Excellent call, though oftentimes IT departments can track your computer if it's stolen by someone who then logs onto the campus network using its MAC address.
    For the ipod touch/iphone, check out an app called "where's my ipod," it does pretty much the same thing.

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  15. Hmm i need to get this program!

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  16. Wow. That program is sick. I HAVE to get it

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  17. Nice link, my laptop def needs this

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  18. interesting,really felt the same about a lot of that.

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  19. I tried it now, really nice program. Free too!

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  20. DAMN thats a great program i needs me some of that.

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  21. Wow i've never heard of this. its so much win!! thanks for sharing!

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  22. Good idea. I never leave my laptop laying around unattended in a public place. Ever. However this would be good for those times where everything just seems to be working against you. Like someone breaking into your room/house.

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  23. Thats actually pretty neat. Thanks for share.

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  24. I never knew this existed. Thanks for sharing. :)

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  25. Nice program and indeed you can't trust to many people nowadays <_<

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  26. Hey a program to remotely access your web cam, at all times, from anywhere....

    There was a school that put a program like this on their laptops, laptops kids took home to use.

    http://boingboing.net/2010/02/17/school-used-student.html
    TL;DR
    "The issue came to light when the Robbins's child was disciplined for "improper behavior in his home" and the Vice Principal used a photo taken by the webcam as evidence."

    Spying on kids at home? What the hell.

    You sure you want this stuff on your computer?

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