No, James... I like the GPS idea.. in fact I was figuring that the GPS would have to be part of the design. Please look into it. We use a GPS module in our radios for the military... very useful and extremely small. Another idea that floated to me from my friend is making it act like an electronic leash... if the laptop got more than say... 100 yards from you... it would set off an alarm... that could be done by just sending a repeating timed reset code to the WiFi LAN receiver if you knew how to detect it.. All it has to do is stop receiving it.... bam, the alarm goes off... Many Laptops are wireless LAN capable, or you can get a PCMCIA card to do that function... which most Laptops can accommodate. Being that the Laptop is already a computer, the software options are very broad... I can envision automated transmission of a lot of data... Plus automated encoding or destruction of sensitive data to prevent access by unauthorized persons. Sort of a 'lockdown' mode that would prevent access to the ability to format drives or anything... It could make it more difficult for them to get any use out of it. I see to items, the trigger mechanism and the tracking/retrieval mechanism being very important and that's where the ideas help, coming up with potential methods to accomplish those functions. Best regards, Bill Brooks - KG6VVP PCB Design Engineer , C.I.D.+, C.I.I. Tel: (760)597-1500 Ext 3772 Fax: (760)597-1510 http://www.dtwc.com http://pcbwizards.com -----Original Message----- From: James Jackson [mailto:[log in to unmask]] Sent: Tuesday, October 19, 2004 12:29 PM To: (Designers Council Forum); Brooks,Bill Subject: Re: [DC] Warning... when attending events Well, it looks like 'Trackit' would do what Bill is wanting. I guess I was going along the lines of being able to GPS the laptop - and track it real-time. A bit of a different direction. Regards, James Jackson Oztronics ----- Original Message ----- From: "Brooks,Bill" <[log in to unmask]> To: <[log in to unmask]> Sent: Tuesday, October 19, 2004 2:22 PM Subject: Re: [DC] Warning... when attending events > There you go... see, it didn't take them very long... (LOL) > > TrackIT - http://www.trackitcorp.com/ > > That actually looks like it would do the job for most of us, as long as it > was in the bag... and they stole the whole thing... > > Not bad. Thanks Tom... > > > Bill Brooks - KG6VVP > PCB Design Engineer , C.I.D.+, C.I.I. > Tel: (760)597-1500 Ext 3772 Fax: (760)597-1510 > http://www.dtwc.com > http://pcbwizards.com > > > -----Original Message----- > From: Hybiske, Tom [mailto:[log in to unmask]] > Sent: Tuesday, October 19, 2004 12:16 PM > To: '(Designers Council Forum)'; 'Brooks,Bill' > Subject: RE: [DC] Warning... when attending events > > There's already a product out to ensure your laptop doesn't "get legs". > It's called TrackIT. Costs around sixty bucks. > > Thomas Hybiske > Bose Corporation > The Mountain > Framingham, MA > > > Cool! Maybe we can collaborate on a design that incorporates it... > > > > Just make sure they credit the DC and these great designers for the > > ideas... > > Some contributions to the DC in the form of royalties would be very > nice... > > Heheh... A new laptop wouldn't hurt either.. LOL > > Just kidding.. :) > > > > Let me know if they think it's a viable product to use in the tracking of > > things like laptops or PDA's and cell phones.. etc... It might be just the > > thing for this sort of product... If it's pricey, maybe they could make a > > low cost version for consumer products... I was looking up some circuit > > diagrams for remote car alarm systems, there are a lot of published > > circuits > > available for devices like that... > > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------- > DesignerCouncil Mail List provided as a free service by IPC using LISTSERV 1.8d > To unsubscribe, send a message to [log in to unmask] with following text in > the BODY (NOT the subject field): SIGNOFF DesignerCouncil. > To temporarily stop/(restart) delivery of DesignerCouncil send: SET DesignerCouncil NOMAIL/(MAIL) > Search previous postings at: www.ipc.org > On-Line Resources & Databases > E-mail Archives > Please visit IPC web site http://www.ipc.org/contentpage.asp?Pageid=4.3.16 for additional information, or contact Keach Sasamori at [log in to unmask] or 847-615-7100 ext.2815 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------- > --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- DesignerCouncil Mail List provided as a free service by IPC using LISTSERV 1.8d To unsubscribe, send a message to [log in to unmask] with following text in the BODY (NOT the subject field): SIGNOFF DesignerCouncil. To temporarily stop/(restart) delivery of DesignerCouncil send: SET DesignerCouncil NOMAIL/(MAIL) Search previous postings at: www.ipc.org > On-Line Resources & Databases > E-mail Archives Please visit IPC web site http://www.ipc.org/contentpage.asp?Pageid=4.3.16 for additional information, or contact Keach Sasamori at [log in to unmask] or 847-615-7100 ext.2815 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------