Track A Stolen Laptop Using Open Source

You might not realize it, but losing a laptop is a very common problem. In fact, according to a story in July of this year, a study by the Ponemon Institute shows that up to 12,000 laptops are lost at airport security checkpoints EVERY WEEK. How do you say “holy S**tballs” in geek?

But, there are solutions and, among them, is a free, open source option.

The solution is Adeona and I had the opportunity to watch a short presentation by these guys at Gnomedex only a short while ago. The project is coming out of the University of Washington. Here is how it is described:

Adeona is the first Open Source system for tracking the location of your lost or stolen laptop that does not rely on a proprietary, central service. This means that you can install Adeona on your laptop and go — there’s no need to rely on a single third party. What’s more, Adeona addresses a critical privacy goal different from existing commercial offerings. It is privacy-preserving. This means that no one besides the owner (or an agent of the owner’s choosing) can use Adeona to track a laptop. Unlike other systems, users of Adeona can rest assured that no one can abuse the system in order to track where they use their laptop.

How it works is pretty simple. You download the free client software to your laptop and install it. That client software will then begin sending encrypted information to servers on the Internet on the geographic location of your laptop. If the laptop every goes missing, you as the owner can log in with your username and password and view the information on where your laptop is. The software is free and it is using the free storage service OpenDHT to store the data.

As an added benefit, if you’re using a Mac, the software will use isightcapture to take a quick snapshot using the built-in Isight webcam and therefore send a picture of whoever is using your MacBook.

You might be wondering how it knows where the laptop is. The answer is: it doesn’t. Your laptop most likely does not have any built in GPS technology. Instead, the system logs the IP addresses used to connect to the Internet as well as any data on nearby routers. And as most geeks know, it isn’t usually hard to geo-locate an IP address. At the very least, you can report the information to authorities and track down the thief.

This is free and open source and, for that reason, lacks many of the features of the commercial services such as Lojack for Laptops or PC PhoneHome. But, the creators of Adeona were trying to solve the privacy problem. The concern with commercial services is that they could be used to track even the legitimate owner of the laptop. The overriding goal of Adeona was to make sure only the actual owner of the laptop could see the data.

Since Adeona is open source, we’re likely to see new features built on top of it. Anyone can take the source code and improve upon it. Perhaps we might even see Adeona adapted to the Iphone. That would make a very cool app seeing as the Iphone 3G has integrated GPS technology. The downloads page of the Adeona site says they are exploring the possibility of Iphone and Windows Mobile versions.

Adeona is available for Windows, Mac and Linux and is free to try.

How-To: Repair A Laptop LCD Monitor

[PREMIUM]- So you’ve got a laptop, really love it and don’t want to let it go. It’s still fairly new but just out of warranty and the LCD monitor on the monitor is busted. You’ve either got a flickering screen, solid-colored horizontal or vertical lines or “blocks” of colors, however when you output the laptop to a regular monitor you know the computer is still working.

Can you fix this yourself?

Yes.

You can order a replacement monitor and do the work yourself by ordering just the screen (and not the bezel), however this is a very tricky job. This tutorial will instruct you how to replace one of these screens properly. We’ve even got pictures to help you see what we’re doing.

10 ‘Awesome’ iPhone Applications

While I am not an iPhone user (I am still happy with my ancient flip phone), I am sure many of our readers here are. So for you iPhone users, I thought I would pass along an article on Wired you might want to take a look at: 10 Most Awesome iPhone Apps of 2008.

The article outlines different applications, most are free with the rest $3 and under. Most of the outlined items are applications, but a few games made the list. Another thing to note as well are the user comments which point to even more applications you may want to give a look.

Again, I’m not an iPhone user so I cannot personally comment on any of these applications, but considering most are free, what do you have to lose?

Meebo Notifier Breaks Out Of The Browser, Sort Of

Web-based instant messaging is something some people swear by while others (like me) still prefer the client.

Meebo, one of the better multi-service web-based IMs, now has a Windows app called Meebo Notifier that can run the service without having the browser running, sort of.

I say "sort of" because while it is a legitimate app that takes care of authentication, gives toaster pop-ups for new instant messages and so on, it still has to launch the browser when you want to actually chat. Even though that’s true, some of you out there may like this.

Meebo Notifier is small and installs itself as a small taskbar icon. It’s distinctive because it’s orange (but still looks decent, not to worry). When you have messages waiting/incoming or other events, the icon changes to an orange ring and flashes politely for a few seconds (i.e. slowly), then stays as the O until you clear notifications or double-click the icon to see the messages.

One of the best part is that you don’t have to use a Meebo account.

Here’s the login screen for the app:

I can choose just one IM service if I want instead of the Meebo account (which launches all IM accounts you have configured). In fact you don’t even need a Meebo account to try it - and that’s cool.

When logged in successfully you get a toaster pop-up:

Note the orange Meebo icon.

Above, when you get a message, the icon turns into an orange ring and a pop-up appears for a few seconds (or until you close it).

Above, right-clicking the icon gives you the option to clear notifications, set preferences, exit and so on.

Above, when you close the browser, you get this notice. Meebo is still logged in even with the browser closed.

Said honestly this is really good.

My biggest complaint? No sound options. It would be really nice if there were a small WAV you could choose when notifications come in. Other than that it’s tough to complain about.

Try it out, you may like it.