SETI@Home Finds New Calling As Laptop Lojack

from the just-what-they-were-looking-for dept

The well-known SETI@home project has turned up goose eggs in its search for extraterrestrial life, and there’s been talk about the project shutting down. One volunteer is fortunate that the project kept going, since it helped him find a stolen laptop. After his wife’s laptop was taken out of their home, he realized it might still be communicating with the SETI@home servers. After confirming that the computer was still searching for alien life forms, the police were able to take its IP address to a local ISP and determine who was using the laptop. The computer was then returned to its owner, marking what is probably the first time that SETI@home has made a significant find. So if you’re looking for a cheap way to help secure your laptop, perhaps it’s worth signing up to volunteer for the project, and if you’re a thief, you might want to pay more attention to that weird screen saver that keeps popping up.


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