Reid Burke

Reid Burke

  • Protecting Your Laptop with Undercover 2

    Undercover logoUndercover, a theft recovery solution for Macs, has been updated to 2.0 and is free to all existing users. This release includes a new “Plan B” feature: if you Mac is disconnected from the internet for two months, the Mac will become unusable until reconnected. This release also includes support for Leopard and takes up less resources.

    In the event your Mac is stolen, Undercover transmits iSight pictures, screenshots, and network information to Undercover’s servers, where the information is given to law enforcement to help recover your computer. If this doesn’t work, Undercover simulates a hardware failure to encourage the thief to either sell the computer or take it in for repair. Because Undercover knows when network information has changed, they can determine when the computer changes hands. When it does, they then tell the computer to display a “this computer is stolen” message and make the computer unusable.

    Fast User Switching menuPersonally, I have my MacBook setup with my personal user account and a password-less “Guest” user account with Fast User Switching turned on. (Note that this Guest account is not the “new” Leopard-style guest account: it’s a normal account that won’t delete data on logout.) When I want to put my MacBook to sleep, I select “Login Window” from the Fast User Switching menu extra, and then click the Sleep button at the Login Window.

    If my computer is then stolen, the thief won’t know the password to my user account, so they will have to use the Guest account. The Guest account will retain data, which will be helpful as further evidence when the computer is recovered. If the Mac is then connected to the internet, Undercover will activate and begin sending mugshots of the thief using the computer and screenshots of what the thief is doing. By using a firmware password, the thief won’t be able to wipe the disk, and he won’t be able to stop Undercover, even if he knew it was installed, because he won’t have the privileges as a standard user to do so.

    I wish this “Plan B” was adjustable to a shorter timeframe for even greater security, because my MacBook is connected to the internet at least every 2 days. Nevertheless, it’s a welcome addition, and with an upgrade price of free, it makes it even better.

    Undercover is $49, and they offers a $10 discount to students, which is nice if you’re in college like me.

  • A Look Inside Yahoo!

    Yahoo! Building D

    The second day I was in California, my friend Dav Glass gave me a tour of the Yahoo! campus in Sunnyvale. The appearance and general vibe I received while I was there took some getting used to: everyone seemed excited to be there. They had good reason to be: they have their own beach volleyball court, live music, restaurant, game room, and I’m just scratching the surface here. Here’s a video of a “virtual tour” of Yahoo! if you’re interested:

    The next day, I met up with Matt Hackett and visited “Summer Jam ’07” for web developers, which was really cool: they had live music from Yahoo! (and Lockheed) web devs!

    Jamming

    There are many more photos from the event on Flickr. I met some really cool people there who were actually interested in web development! (Imagine that.) Plus, the music was very good.

    Matt and Reid

    I’m really glad I had the opportunity to experience Yahoo! and a big thanks to Matt and Dav for showing me around!

  • California Day 0: Great Food, Weather, Hotel…

    Yesterday my mom and I started our vacation in California. The trip here was very long, taking several hours flying from St. Louis to Orange County and finally to San Jose. But after staying here for only 1 night, all of that was definitely worth it.

    Valencia Street View

    First of all, the weather difference is night and day. Coming from Southern Illinois where high humidity is the norm, the climate here is great. We are staying at Hotel Valencia Santana Row, an upscale hotel which is jaw-dropping beautiful. We had dinner a block away at The Counter where you are given a clipboard and pencil to literally build your own burger (which tastes amazing). This morning I ate breakfast at Citrus which was just as good as everything else here.

    The Counter: B.Y.O.B.

    So far, the only negative has been finding a place to park, but what can you expect in California?

    Today, I’ll be taking a tour of Yahoo! with some of my friends who work there and then hopefully go see some of the other area attractions.

  • Phantom Vibration Syndrome

    Ever get the feeling that your cell phone is vibrating, but it really wasn’t? Hello, Phantom Vibration Syndrome.

  • My Problem With Facebook Platform

    Facebook Overflowing Requests
    I’m getting tons of these junk requests every day. I wish Facebook would provide a mechanism to “ignore future invitations” so I wouldn’t have 5 new iLike invitations whenever I login. (Besides, I already use Last.fm.) Otherwise, my requests page is becoming just as bad as my MySpace.

    Other than annoyances such as this, Facebook’s Platform is a great concept. I hope that Facebook further refines their Platform to accommodate for situations like this.