i hate computers, but this is really cool

so it turns out there is more to life than food. more boring stuff generally. anyways, i'm having some complex computer dealings of late -- i'm taking a class in Houdini so that I can learn something and one day shake off the coil of being a lowly techie and not a digital artist. it's a fine class, the teacher is really good (and an old coworker), and i'm learning a lot. however, my computer at home is a mac. a cute little ibook that i love dearly, and that, generally, serves me very well. the fine people at side effects software do not make Houdini software for a mac. this, for me, is a Big Bummer. windows? yes. 500 different flavors of linux? yep. mac? nah. grr.

fortunately, my dad has kindly lent me his windows machine. which is incredibly generous and such a lifesaver! however, after procrastination had run its course and it finally came time to get cracking on my final project... guess what? blue screen. no kidding. battery issues, evil windows issues, woe is me. this is where the computer hatred comes in (i mean.. one of many places...).

so, last night, after i let the battery run all day so i could reboot, i finally got everything in order, downloaded houdini, all is good! woohoo!

I still hate computers.

BUT: This is really cool. Leave it to the Belgians:

It's theft protection software for Macs, it's made by some people named Orbicule (cute!), and it's called Undercover. As your thief surfs the web, it traces their activity back to the network they're on, giving clues as to where they are located. It takes screenshots every few minutes, that may reveal emails, chats, forms being filled out, etc. AND! If your computer has an iSight camera built in, it will periodically take pictures -- so you can see the thief in his surroundings. It also fakes hardware failures and makes loud noises. INGENIOUS! I love these people.

I also like this bit from the FAQ:

Is Undercover available for Windows?

No. We focus all our software development efforts on Mac OS X.

Teehee -- take that, Side Effects!


(wonder how many people i alienated with this post...)