Most services can send a command from their servers to the device to disable it—or do something more dramatic. When the thief connects to the Internet, the program can erase or encrypt personal data, sound an alarm, or even snap a photo of the thief using the device’s camera. The software also logs the IP addresses that the device has connected to since the theft and attempts to determine its location based on its Wi-Fi, 3G or GPS connections.

That location data is useful, but most tracking services won’t actually work with the authorities to try to get the device back for you. For assistance with the recovery process, use a service such as LoJack for Laptops (from $40) or, for iPhones and iPads, Undercover ($5). Once the owner has alerted authorities to the theft, agents from these services give them the computer’s probable location and the likely identity of the thief. Some laptop makers, including Dell, offer track-and-recovery services with personal assistance as well.

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• 6 feet of sch40 1″ PVC.
• 10 – sch40 1″ PVC elbows.
• 2 - sch40 1″ PVC endcaps.
• 2 - sch40 1″ PVC tees.
• 1 - sch40 1″ PVC cross.
• 1 – 6″ 1/4″ carriage bolt.
• 1 – 1/4″ flat washer.
• 2 – 1/4″ nuts.
• PVC primer and cement.
• Black, plastic-friendly spray paint.
• Foam insulation for 1″ pipe.

See the full gallery on Posterous

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Man claims Google owes him $500 billion. Here’s why.

Google may already be fighting a very important lawsuit filed against it by Oracle, but we believe the search giant will have no problems seeing off a man named David Stebbins, who believes that the company owe him $500 billion.

Techdirt unearthed this magical piece of litigation, which highlights Stebbins’ argument that YouTube’s Terms of Service say that the company can change the terms at any time and give notice of those amendments. With that in mind, he thought he would change them himself:

[YouTube's Terms of Service] state that the terms can be unilaterally modified at any time. If the other party does not wish to accept the new terms, they may sever the contractual relationship.

On March 22, 2011, I took YouTube up on that generous offer and sent them an email announcing my own modifications of the Youtube Terms of Service.

What were his new terms? Check this out:

If you do not accept my invitation to arbitrate within 24 hours of receiving it, I automatically win the relief request, regardless of the merits. No actual arbitration award need be entered; I simply win, automatically, without having to go to arbitration. However, this will only apply to me. If you attempt to arbitrate with me, and I do not accept it, you must obtain an order to compel arbitration.

Techdirt notes that Stebbins’ also includes the clause that if YouTube “even so much as attempt to litigate a case with me, even if that attempt is unsuccessful you automatically loose that case”.

We wonder what happens if you “loose” a case?

Because YouTube didn’t cancel his accounts within 30 days, the claimant states that his modified contract was “accepted” by Google, which also also failed to respond to his arbitration request with 24 hours. As a result, Stebbins says Google owes him $500 billion and apparently the court has no choice but to comply.

It’s not the first case Stebbins has tried to levy against a giant company either:

Last time we’d checked in on Stebbins, he had been claiming Walmart owed him $600 billion, using some dubious claims which still don’t make much sense. But it involved something with a “contract” he put on his website, which he apparently emailed folks at Walmart about, and when they sent back a boilerplate reply saying he had contacted the wrong department, he demanded they settle their “legal dispute.” Walmart ignored that, and he declared that they now owed him $600 billion (with a b) as an arbitration award.

YouTube’s terms will have been overseen by some of the sharpest legal minds, something tells us Google has nothing to worry about – especially as the terms quite clearly state only YouTube can amend them.Image Credit

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Get a closer look at the plans for Apple’s sweet Grand Central store in NYC

The Metropolitan Transit Authority has released a basic floor plan and high resolution renders of Apple’s proposed store in New York City’s Grand Central Station, reports The Mac Observer. The details include a floor-plan and renders that show some new angles of Apple’s proposed plan.

While some renders had been released previously, when the store was announced, these new jobs are high res and show additional details. I am loving this view of the front of the store showing the main entrance. The Apple logo makes a statement there for sure.

Another new render shows the interior of the store populated with a few photoshop puppets. I’m loving the huge display on the right hand side of the space as well. I’m sure it will be one of their standard backlit panels, but it would be an ideal animated display opportunity.

The floorplan released shows that the store occupies and L-shaped space, much of it on the East Balcony. As we understand it, large areas of the space will be dedicated to ‘rear of store’. This is where storage and service areas will be located.

Apple paid the current tennants of the spot, the Metrazur restaurant, $5 million to leave their slot early and will pay $1.1 million a month in rent. The store will occupy 24,000 square feet in the terminal, one of the most highly trafficked in the world.

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Apple adds Facebook and Twitter sharing to online store

Apple has added links to allow people to share products via links on Twitter and Facebook, reports MacRumors. The upgrade to the store appears to be the reason behind its downtime this morning.

The links appear via a drop-down menu that appears when you click on an arrow next to the ‘Select’ button on a product page. Currently only the Mac Pro product section has the new sharing buttons enabled, but it seems likely that this will be made a site-wide change shortly.

Currently Apple’s iTunes Store offers similar sharing options when viewing a song, album or video, and the App Store also offers a similar ability to link to Facebook and Twitter.

Apple has been making moves to embed social sharing deeper into its products, with the integration of Twitter into its iOS software at a system level a prime example.

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Watch this Anne Hathaway video, it’s about to go viral.

Anne Hathaway supposedly enjoys channeling her agression by rapping and was kind enough to share a sample verse on Conan.

It’s simply a must see.

At first you’ll feel slightly embarrassed for her but by the end of it, you’ll be wanting more.

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44% of companies track employees’ social media use in AND out of the office

A new survey has just been released that shows how companies approach social media in the workplace with some pretty surprising findings. When you work in a more open and flexible company, it’s easy to forget that many people, particularly in larger organisations, are subject to fairly intense monitoring or policing of access to social networks. And, somewhat worryingly, the policies adopted towards use of social media don’t just apply to the workplace, but outside of it as well.

In the companies surveyed, 44% said that they had policies in place for use of social media that covered use both in and out of the workplace. Further to this, less than half the businesses in the survey said that they gave access to social media for all employees. While this is a difficult subject to broach and there is by no means a right and wrong answer, it nonetheless contributes to an unfair split in the level of access to information and connections.

71% block social networks in the workplace

To show just how extreme monitoring social networks has become, a staggering 70.7% claimed that they actively blocked social networks in the workplace. This is a huge figure and is somewhat surprising, given how pervasive social media has become in our daily lives. And while many may see this as justified, viewing social network use as something purely private, such blocking seems almost archaic:

The issue here is not so much in considering social media as a place to chat to friends, but in viewing it as a valuable source of information. Yes, restricting access to chat with your friends on Facebook is one thing, but restricting access to Twitter for example, is quite another when you consider the role that it plays in the circulation of information and news.

Who owns your content?

Where this gets even more interesting is that such a large proportion of companies have policies that cover use of social networks outside of the workplace as well. This is a difficult reality for many people and it’s an outcome of what’s private becoming public. Where once you used to leave work and have your private life to yourself, for many, that private life is now broadcast online, as you choose. For organisations however, this poses a risk if you are linked to your company in any way. Anything you say or do online could indirectly implicate your employer and you can understand the risk here.

But surely, as social media becomes more pervasive in our lives, this line of thinking can only go so far. We are only going to become more public and share more information about ourselves, so how far can the policing go? What’s needed instead of even more policing or moderation, is a step change in society that ultimately changes the relationship between employee and employer. Your job is your job but your life is your life. There will need to be a shift in thinking across society that what individuals do or say online (as long as it’s legal) should in no way affect your position 9-5. The alternative is a more policed society where the employer/organisation has absolute control and can enforce restrictions as they decide is best.

The need for anonymity?

This brings up an interesting issue of anonymity, which has been brought to the forefront since Google’s decision to ban users who don’t use their real names on Google +. Now while this is completely Google’s decision – their network, their rules – when you consider this approach in line with how organisations are monitoring social media, it makes things rather difficult. If by default you are forced to use your real identity online but you know that your employer could be watching, it takes away a huge amount of freedom that everyone should have access to. The extent to which you have freedom and access to information online can be determined by your employer, which is a worrying thought and a fairly sobering view of the future.

Why a networked employee is a good employee

Companies that restrict employees’ access to social networks, ultimately have a differing view to the benefits of social media. It’s clearly seen as something that can impinge on day to day working lives, as opposed to something that can enhance it. This, again, is a somewhat archaic approach. Sure, a significant part of social media is about purely connecting with friends from a social perspective. But it’s also about building connections, establishing authority and discovering new information. This can only be beneficial to an organisation. A networked employee is ultimately a better employee as it opens up the lines you have to information and the connections people build extend beyond being purely social and can benefit organisations by creating new opportunities, access to ‘influencers’ in your area and possible lead generation. Nearly 71% of companies are actively restricting this.

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DIY Solution to Annoying TV Celebs Mutes Your TV Whenever Charlie Sheen Is Mentioned

The Enough Already, as it’s called, gathers and parses through the TV’s closed captioning feed using the Video Experimenter Shield, a toolkit for messing with video with an Arduino (check out more of what the Arduino can do here), searching in real time for the mention of any of those undesirables you’d rather ignore. It can even search for several keywords, which is probably for the best, as once you realize you don’t have to listen to everyone, you may want to listen to hardly anyone.

The Enough Already sends an IR command to mute the TV for 30 seconds whenever it sees one of those keywords in the closed captioning. After 30 seconds, it’ll turn the volume back on–unless it sees the same name again, which it just might. As the Enough Already is made with all open-source hardware and software, you can make one of your own very easily. Check out the video below to see how it works.

[MAKE]

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Apple’s proposed Third Promenade store features a glass roof and front

Curbed LA brings word about the proposed design for a new retail store on the Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica that looks like nothing you’ve even seen before the granddaddy of all Apple Stores.

The impressive rendering features an entire roof and the front of the 8,084 square foot building made out of sheer glass and will be replacing a three-story Borders that currently occupies the position. The proposal has been filed for consideration in front of the Santa Monica Planning Commission by ASB/Blatteis Promenade Holdings, LLC, which purchased the property in September 2010. One look at the renderings, however, and it’s clear that we are looking at an Apple Store.

The proposal also states that the company will be setting up a program to encourage use of alternative means of transport among its employees to get to the store. It will offer all retail employees at the store a monthly transit subsidy to the tune of $100 and a $20 monthly bicycle reimbursement subsidy. If passed by the planning commission, this will be Apple’s second store on the Third Promenade. The more the merrier, we suppose.Mac Rumors

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A Camera With the Processing Power of a Computer

A camera with a single-core image processor must expose the image and then record it and display it, a process that leaves a several-second lag between taking a picture and seeing it—plenty of time to miss the next shot. The dual-core E-P3 (the followup to last year’s PEN E-P2) can record and display images simultaneously, all but eliminating the lag. That same speed applies when adding art filters, such as fisheye and gradient effects, or pumping up the color. In fact, the E-P3 can churn out four different versions of one shot in only a couple of seconds.

Olympus PEN E-P3

RESOLUTION: 12.3-megapixel stills, 1080i video
SCREEN: 3-inch OLED touchscreen
PRICE: $900 (with lens)
MORE INFO: Olympus

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