I love Daily Cup of Tech. A while back there was featured a “how to” on setting up a auto-executable in case your thumbdrive (or “flash drive”) ever decided to go walk-about. Very neat, and definitely something I’ve been wanting to play with.
One reader took that idea a step further:
A recent comment from Erik made my day! It seems that he has found a unique way to use the Lost Drive application that recently appeared in Popular Science. Erik writes:
This little program saved my wife and I a lot of of grief and emotional trauma while on vacation. Read on.
I am a PopSci reader and linked to DCoT via the mag. My family, which includes two VERY energetic boys, five and three, went to Disneyland for a little get-a-way. Before we went I told my wife about the ‘I’m Lost’ program that one can install on a jump drive.
We decided to buy three 32Mb drives, which are a dime a dozen nowadays, one for each boy and one for us with the same program and ’secret phrase’ on it. We also included our cellphone numbers. Two lanyards with dangling USB drives that had a ‘I’m Lost’ label adhered to them and tucked into their shirts later, we had two boys that if got lost would be found and be reunited with us quickly.
We told the boys to cry for mom or dad if they wander off or got lost and then give the USB drive to the person that found them.
Our three year old did just what we thought he would do – Disappeared. Within 13 minutes of being ‘lost’ though, my cellphone rang. My three year old whom we thought didn’t understand what we told him about the funny thing around his neck actually did what we told him. The account from our boys ‘finder’ was humorous and panned out like this: My little redheaded boy was SCREAMING for his mom. The ‘finder’ came to help him, the boy showed the ‘finder’ the labeled USB drive, the ‘finder’ then brought him to security, security plugged the USB drive in to his computer, saw the message and called me on my cellphone. When we went to retrieve our boy the security guard asked for our USB drive with the secret phrase on it. The USB drives performed just as set up to. It had my cellphone number, my boys’ first name (first name only!) to calm him down and his favorite treat.
To say the least, D-land security was very impressed and the ‘finder’ equally impressed and my redhead boy was wearing M&M’s on his lips and chin.
There it is. Not only can you retrieve lost USB drives with this you can also find lost kids. Thank you!
First of all, I’m really glad to hear that everyone is safe and sound. The biggest fear that I have is that something will happen to my kids. That must have been the longest 13 minutes of your life!
Second, that is a really cool way of using the application. I had never thought of it in that way but it is definitely something that I would consider setting up for my kids.
Third, this really makes my day. There are times when we all wonder whether or not we are making a difference in the world. Well, I sure don’t feel that way today! Thank you for sharing your story and I wish all the best for you and your family!
Great story! I wouldn’t be too surprised to see a similar setup sold pre-packaged to schools/parents using this kind of technology in the not-to-distant future.
Using A Thumb Drive To Find A Lost Child : “7.62mm Justice” â„¢
[…] of The Birthplace of the Process of Illogical Logic has a terrific post up about how you can use a thumbdrive to help get your child back. Go […]