Open Source Laptop Recovery

Back when I used to work for Websense, there was a lady in the Marketing department (who shall remain nameless) that would go through laptops like you might go through underwear.

She would go to traveling shows, and conferences with her crew and she would often times come back saying that her laptop was stolen, or lost and she needed a new one. We often joked that we needed to start monitoring her eBay account.

In all seriousness though, what we really needed was something like Lo-Jack to track all of these laptops. If they were truly stolen, then we could alert the authorities to get the laptop back. That would be ideal if it weren't so costly. Perhaps that really isn't an issue in the corporate environment when losing a lot of laptops can add up to hundreds of thousands of dollars over time, but for the average user, it may not be that practical.

I have found a free solution though. It isn't the best, but it does beat not doing anything...Oh, and its free so why not?

You see, back at Toorcon I sat through a presentation on a free, Open Source tool that you install on your Windows, Linux, or Mac computer, and it periodically sends an encrypted file out the the service giving identifying information about the location of the laptop. All it needs is an active Internet connection. This software is called Adeona. Here is a brief overview from their website:

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.

Adeona is designed to use the Open Source OpenDHT distributed storage service to store location updates sent by a small software client installed on an owner's laptop. The client continually monitors the current location of the laptop, gathering information (such as IP addresses and local network topology) that can be used to identify its current location. The client then uses strong cryptographic mechanisms to not only encrypt the location data, but also ensure that the ciphertexts stored within OpenDHT are anonymous and unlinkable. At the same time, it is easy for an owner to retrieve location information.

Now the one big drawback (that pretty much everyone at the conference was thinking) was that this product assumes that if a laptop is stolen that the thief will not wipe the drive. The thief would have to be a friggin' idiot not to do that!

However, it did occur to me that most laptop thefts are probably done by "average user" company employees. They know they could take the laptop, and just report it stolen to get another one, and BAM! They now have a free laptop that your company just bought them. Whats more is that they may not be as smart as the thief, and will most likely NOT slick the drive. If that is the case, then this tool could prove useful by both getting your company's laptop back, and also firing shady employees who take expensive office equipment.

In conclusion, I look at this product as a nice to have, free-so-why-not, better than not having type of product. Other than that, if you truly want to get your stuff back at all costs, then you need to go with a more reliable solution like Lo-Jack.

Whats your opinion on this? I want to hear from you in the comments.

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Is the new Android phone from T-Mobile worth it?

The word is out on the streets. The first Open Source, Google based Android phone hit the market running in the United States Monday as T-Mobile announced the release at a press conference in New York. You can watch the press conference here: (Tmobile G1 Launch)

I was very excited to hear about the news. After all I am a huge fan of Open Source, and Android seems like a pretty cool platform to bring Open Source mobile software to the forefront. However, there two key features I look for when shopping for a PDA phone:

1. Microsoft Exchange Support
2. The ability to sync with Outlook

Sure surfing the net via handheld is pretty cool and useful, but when I carry around a nerd sized phone, it had better keep me up to date on my business emails, and calendar of events.

Here is a list of the features [Via Engadget]:

• HSDPA 1700 / 2100 plus quadband EDGE
• WiFi
• 3D graphics acceleration
• 1GB integrated storage plus microSD expansion
• 3-megapixel camera
• Android Market for on-device app purchases
• Amazon MP3 app for on-device music purchases
• Push Gmail support with full HTML client
• Bluetooth (but no A2DP)
• Google Maps with Street View
• No Microsoft Exchange support
• No desktop synchronization -- it all happens over the air

Still though, maybe I am being too harsh. For $179, this is probably one of the most affordable out there for the average consumer. I think I might try to talk my wife into getting one, but it might be a hard sell without Outlook support. Sure she uses Gmail, and the Google calendar sync, but that still does not sync all of her calendar info, and don't get me started with contacts.

What's your take? Are you going out to get a G1? Do you know someone who has one yet? Hit me up in the comments.

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Saving Your Waterlogged PDA/Phone

At my last company we had this one lady who shall remain nameless that used to drop her PDA cell phone in the toilet every other month. Funny, it always happened when we were issuing newer models of cell phones.

A few months back my buddy Karl talked about one method of saving your PDA phone on Ask The Admin. In his method, you remove your battery, and dry off your phone and battery with a towel, then place both in a bag of rice. You then leave the bag of rice complete with phone in sunlight, or another warm/dry place for about 24 hours. (Karl, if you are reading this, can you post a link to your article in the comments? I couldn't find it). I haven't tried his method so I can't comment on how well it works or doesn't work. If you have tried it let me know.

If you don't want to go the rice route, I found this really cool video on Howcast that tells you how to save your PDA phone without rice. All you need it a blow dryer, a Tupperware container, a towel and two silica gel packs. Here is the video:




If you try out this tip let me know in the comments. I want to know if it works or not.

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3 High-Tech Features Of The Apple Iphone

What's the big deal behind the Apple iPhone? It's expensive. It's revolutionary. But are its features worth the money?

With all the popularity, you can assume everyone's at least heard about it. What does the Apple iPhone feature and what can it do?

1) Multi-Touch Technology

The most outstanding feature is the iPhone's radical multi-touch screen. The MT screen allows any mechanical button to appear on this high tech toy. It simply allows you to use your fingers to operate it. This is contrary to any other phone today, which either have mechanical keyboards or a stylus.

By tapping the screen with your finger, you can navigate menus, dial phone numbers, write e-mail messages and likewise use the whole functionality of the popular gadget. The three-point-five-inch screen displays a keyboard for inputting text via multi-touch. Most consumers are seemingly skeptical about typing with the virtual keyboard, but Apple has predicted the common problems and has made sure the iPhone was constructed with features like automatic spell check and word prediction, not to mention an enhanced customizable dictionary. More so, the iPhone addresses the problems of typos commonly known to multi-touch usage by adding self-correction capabilities.

When scrolling, the usual wheel is not found at the side of the gadget. The multi-touch screen functionality allows its owner to scroll by dragging a finger in the desired direction. The speed of scrolling is designed to be proportional to the speed at which you drag your finger.

The multi-touch feature furthermore enables several more functions like multi-touch sensing for magnifying or reducing photos and even web pages. Using this feature, you can regulate object size simply by placing two fingers at the side of the object and then moving them, by dragging, either further apart or closer to one another. This feature does not distort images because images are initially scaled according to its original dimensions in the first place.

Hands down, the iPhone is more intelligent than any other phone today.

2) Revolutionary Sensors

The gadget's sensors have the ability to detect changes to the iPhone's environment. The sensors are minuscule yet absurdly powerful. The three major sensors include an accelerometer, sensor for ambient light, and a proximity sensor.

The accelerometer sensor conveys the ability to detect any changes in the iPhones positioning. ...The iPhone's screen display will actually rotate to portrait or landscape, while still packing its contents into the 3.5-inch screen. Because it changes the view according to ratio, images are not distorted among web pages, videos, or photos.

The proximity sensors.

These high-tech features detect the location of the iPhone with regard to the skin. When you make a call and hold the iPhone up against your ear, the display will automatically set to standby. This is important in that it serves two basic functions.

One, by shutting off the display when not necessarily needed, this saves your battery's life. More so, this avoids accidental touches to the screen, which would otherwise be sensitive. As soon as the cell is moved away from your face, the proximity sensors react in this way.

Ambient light sensor.

Through the AL sensor, changes in the phone's environment are detected and instantaneously adjust the display's brightness. Your iPhone's display will always be well adjusted in regard to lighting.

3) Mac OS X Operating System

The hype behind the Apple iPhone increased when Mac fans found out the Mac OS X would be included. The Mac OS X is the operating system inside the latest Apple computers. On the other hand, the electronic doesn't have the complete functionality of the operating system. The entire OS X is too large to fit within the 4GB or 8GB internal memory. The iPhone contains a 500 MB version of the operating system.


Author: Jason Parker

About the Author:
Visit electronics lover Jason Parker at What Features the iPhone Has Dot Com to read more about Apple iPhone features. Article Source: Articlesbase.com

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In Time for Black Friday: Tips to Becoming a Technology-Savvy Shopper

Many adults grew up in a world without the Internet, cell phones or personal computers, and often find themselves lost in the ever-changing realm of technology.

Today, students carry laptops and numerous gadgets that ring, buzz and sing, which leaves a number of adults at a loss when it comes to shopping for the younger generation.

So, in an effort to help parents and adults navigate the technology maze, we've compiled a list of buying tips.

• Cell Phones vs. Smartphones: With the ability to send and receive calls and the ever-popular text messages as well as take photographs and browse the Internet, both cell phones and smartphones have similar features.
  
  Smartphones, like the Blackberry and Treo, take things one step further by including full keyboards and software that tracks appointments, manages contacts and performs a host of other business-level functions.
  
  While smartphone software can be useful, it can also become a distraction for students. So, unless your student is a budding entrepreneur, a standard cell phone with a plan that includes both calling and texting is ideal.



• Mac vs. PC: Mac or PC? While PCs are more widespread, Macs are user-friendly and perfect for editing and downloading photos, music and videos. Macs also tend to be more secure because they are less likely to become infected with annoying viruses or spyware. PCs, however, are more affordable and have a wider variety of programs and games available.
  
  But who says you have to choose? You can get the best of both worlds by purchasing a Mac computer and downloading Parallels Desktop for Mac. The software enables users to run both Windows and Mac applications at the same time on any new Mac computer.



• Ask the Experts: Hopefully you're feeling more prepared to take a stroll through your local electronics store. If need more ammunition, you can also consult feedback from students and teachers.
  
  
  Each year, Project Tomorrow, through its NetDay Speak Up research project, surveys students in kindergarten through 12th grade, as well as teachers, to determine which technologies they are using. For more information, visit www.tomorrow.org. - (NewsUSA)

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Emoze - Free Push Email without a Blackberry - The true path to democratized, real-time mobile email.

Good Morning Ladies and Gentlemen,

This is your friendly Commodore 64 here to report on yet another useful, tech-improving, free service that is bound to improve any nerd's life fo sho.

This new service, which has solved a long standing problem, in my view, with send/receive, hates attachments, crappy, slow, sluggish, snap-crackle, pop3 email technology. The software is called emoze, which is a spin-off of a company called Emblaze.
We covered this service in one of our previous posts here, but now we've really gotten up close and personal.

Now we are not instant fanboys of anything or anyone here, but we are a bunch of wise(ass) admins, and we do know what's good for us, and any of our end users who are on the go, and email dependent. That person will attest to the fact that it sucks to have to send/receive on a schedule. Most people have their email send/receiving on an average of every 5 minutes, which makes for a very cumbersome convo, at best. If those convos are short and sweet, like most, they become exponentially cumbersome. So we know whats good, and after trying emoze with my corporate outlook mail, and using it's proprietary 'desktop to mobile push' clients for about a week now, we can truly say this a great service, and good for you too! Best of all, for a single end-user, the service is totally free, just the way we love it here at AskTheAdmin.

We had the pleasure of personally meeting with Neftali Shani, Chairman of Emblaze and Active Chairman of emoze, in a one on one pow-wow where we were really able to get a sense of his vision and mission for the company and the free service:

We are committed to enhancing the user experience, making emoze the world's most flexible and user-friendly push email and synchronization system...

All in all, emoze is the most efficient and effective way to keep up to date with emails, calendars, contacts and other data when on the move, no matter what mobile device or information management system you use.
We support Lotus Notes and Domino Servers, Microsoft Outlook and Exchange, POP3 and Web-Access, among others - democratizing push email and data for consumers and businesses alike.

The emoze program installs a client on your desktop that 'listens' to any new emails coming into your Outlook running on your pc. On the mobile side, a program running on your pda/smartphone listens to what the desktop client has to say, and integrates that with an email account that looks pretty much like your other mobile email accounts - with one caveat - NO SEND/RECEIVE!

The service, while connection dependent, works pretty invisibly, though it uses it's own notification to let you know an email has come in. I'm pretty sure thats the same notification that MMS uses, but I dont get enough MMS messages to tell the difference.

Messages come through to your phone almost as instantly as they do to your outlook, so I'd have to say this service is pretty tight.

The only gripes I have involve issues that, in all fairness, might not be the fault of emoze. These issues might actually be the responsibility of the hardware or OS manufacturer. For example, when starting up the phone, the emoze client takes a little long to load, sometimes taking more than a minute to go through it's syncing process. However this is most likely due to my connection speed. Also, while tethered to my laptop via bluetooth and internet connection sharing, it seems to want precedence over my shared connection so connection speed was pretty hampered. All in all, these are problems that would likely solve themselves in time, as connection speeds make their way up. Also as more hardware manufacturers adopt the HSDPA standard, this will do away with whatever lag time the emoze client unearths.

Also worth noting is that I can't be considered the average user. My HTC Hermes/8525 has ALOT of stuff loaded on it, besides the 4gb memory card i have blazing inside. I'm pretty sure that for the average business end-user, this service would be almost completely transparent and would invisibly provide someone with exactly what emoze promises - Free Push Email For ALL!
In summary, emoze is a wonderful service. Free push email for the masses is a big undertaking but the good people over at emoze have taken it upon themselves to try to improve the democracy associated with email.

Very noble.

_ThePushyCommodore_ (yup still the one you used to play Bruce Lee on)

Originally Posted on Ask The Admin By Commodore

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Your Own Personal Interpreter... or Rather, "Enterpreter"

A friend of mine, who wishes to remain nameless, just finished working on a very cool, and exciting new cell phone program, and sort of gave me the inside scoop as it were on what we will soon start seeing everywhere.

This little wonder is a new translation application that translates English to Spanish and back again, but this is no ordinary translation dictionary. The “Enterpreter” http://www.enterpret.net will produce accurate translation in seconds WITH AUDIO PLAYBACK! This is so close to a Star Trek experience, I can’t help but think that this will soon be the ultimate universal translator with speech to speech translation!

As a former Navy man, something like this would have been essential! I can't tell you how many times I spent in a foreign country trying to point at pictures, and doing some obscene form of sign language to get around. Do you realize how much easier it would have been to just say "Where's the closest bar?" into my cell phone have have my cellphone translate it for me on the fly?

The "Enterpreter" speaks over 600,000 words along with 200,000 useful phrases and fully conjugates over 20,000 verbs in English & Spanish.

What's more, it features "Word of the day" along with instant text translation with unique functions like a built in Thesaurus, audio playback and the ability to "save" your translations for future reference.

Enterpret's Mobile Translator is much more than just a two-way translator of general terms. This is the most comprehensive bilingual dictionary and thesaurus with over 600,000 translations and 500,000 synonyms, all packed into a user- friendly mobile format.

My friend also said that the Spanish to English and vice versa translation is only the tip of the ice berg. Next year they will be rolling out a European pack with German, French, Italian and more to follow.

Its unique interactive design and ease of use, together with the comprehensive amount of words it contains, make it a relational database with an innovative search and sort capability.


Enterpret Mobile Translator features user selected language modes for increased translation accuracy. You define the translation parameters by selecting simple language communication modes.

Product Features:

Translate entire phrases or sentences.

Dictionary functionality that provides related words and phrases.

Thesaurus, find a similar word and then translate that word.

Verb conjugation, conjugates all 17 verb tenses.

Saved translation feature allows you to store frequently used translations, and view at a later time.

Audio playback for correct pronunciation of the translation, with instant replay and volume controls.

Enterpreter Mobile Translator utilizes:

Ten thousand syntax rules.

Over one million significant markings embedded in the database.

State-of-the art artificial intelligence to produce context-sensitive, not literal, translations.

This whole thing is a subscription based package deal for just under $50 per year. You can download a free demo of the program here: (Enterpreter Demo) You can also check out some screenshots here: (Enterpreter Screenshots)

So travel without fear of the unknown! The "Enterpreter" is the perfect wireless translation companion for any tourist, business traveler or student learning a new language.

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