All three of my original drives are "in the field" now. I just received four more today and I'll be scattering those about as soon as possible.
I found a "travel bug" in my brief geocaching adventures after dropping off the second drive. For those of you who aren't familiar, it's a small dog tag with unique number on it. Geocachers pick them up and move them from cache to cache. Since it was already on a keychain, and because I wanted to increase the probability that I would at least hear something about one of my drives, I attached it to the third before dropping it off in a cache.
Anyone interested in tracking the tag (and possibly the drive, assuming they remain together) can do so here.
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
I'm going to need more drives.
I started with a 3 pack of flash drives that I picked up during lunch today. My first stop was a Barnes and Noble - I figured that would be a decent place to leave one so that a sufficiently curious person might find it, and there are always a few people sitting around reading or fiddling around with their laptops in the cafe area. Unfortunately, it was fairly devoid of life, so off to *shudder* the mall.
There's a Gloria Jean's dead center in the mall. It's not a shop, more like a kiosk in an atrium area with a lot of traffic, so I dropped #1 there and wandered around for a bit to see if anyone would snag it. It was only about three minutes before the server began cleaning off tables. She picked it up, looked at it, put it down again, picked it back up, pocketed it, and cleaned the table. I'm considering that one MIA - it will likely end up in a lost & found bin, never to be heard from again.
I decided on the drive home that my best bet will likely come in the form of geocaching. There's one fairly near where I was that I've looked for in the past but was never able to find (I'm not a "geocacher", really, but every now and then I'll poke around when I'm bored). Despite the dark and the light drizzle, I figured I'd go look for it one more time.
Success! I can't believe I missed it before. It's right there. I expect this one will get a response, as the log for the cache indicates that it's fairly frequently visited, and geocachers seem like the type of folk who would be inclined to play along.
One drive left, but I've already ordered a handful more from newegg.
I labeled the drives with the url for the blog, mainly because I was worried that people would be too paranoid to plug them in. I was hoping that they would at least visit the blog, see what it was about, and then check it out. I think I'm going to label the next batch "porn" - that, I think, will be more effective, even if it is a bit disappointing for the finders.
There's a Gloria Jean's dead center in the mall. It's not a shop, more like a kiosk in an atrium area with a lot of traffic, so I dropped #1 there and wandered around for a bit to see if anyone would snag it. It was only about three minutes before the server began cleaning off tables. She picked it up, looked at it, put it down again, picked it back up, pocketed it, and cleaned the table. I'm considering that one MIA - it will likely end up in a lost & found bin, never to be heard from again.
I decided on the drive home that my best bet will likely come in the form of geocaching. There's one fairly near where I was that I've looked for in the past but was never able to find (I'm not a "geocacher", really, but every now and then I'll poke around when I'm bored). Despite the dark and the light drizzle, I figured I'd go look for it one more time.
Success! I can't believe I missed it before. It's right there. I expect this one will get a response, as the log for the cache indicates that it's fairly frequently visited, and geocachers seem like the type of folk who would be inclined to play along.
One drive left, but I've already ordered a handful more from newegg.
I labeled the drives with the url for the blog, mainly because I was worried that people would be too paranoid to plug them in. I was hoping that they would at least visit the blog, see what it was about, and then check it out. I think I'm going to label the next batch "porn" - that, I think, will be more effective, even if it is a bit disappointing for the finders.
Where's My Drive?
So, I have a handful of flash drives that I'm going to "forget" in various public places. I've labeled them with the URL for this blog, so if you found one and it brought you here: neat!
Each contains a letter/instructions (text below) and a folder to add content to. Let's see if anyone finds/responds...
Text of the letter:
To whom it may concern:
You have found a drive that belongs to the Where's My Drive Project. This drive is one of several that have been dropped in various locations and, hopefully (with your help), will continue to travel the world for some time.
You can think of them as traveling digital time capsules.
I would like to ask three small favors of you. You are not, of course, obligated to do all, or any, of these, but it would be wonderful if you did.
1) Most importantly (since, if this is continually done, at least a few people will do the other two), I would appreciate it if you could leave the drive somewhere yourself or even just pass it on to a friend, family member, or co-worker if you're not interested in participating yourself.
Obviously it would be best if the precise location where the drive is left is both highly visible and unlikely to result in the destruction of the drive (outdoors is bad, of course).
You are welcome to keep it - I wouldn't have done this if I wasn't comfortable with that as a probable outcome, but I'm hoping that those who find this will think the amusement factor of passing it along outweighs the roughly $5 retail value of the drive, even in the present economic recession.
2) Leave a little bit of yourself! Please add something to the drive (thus helping it to fulfill its role as a time capsule) for others to see - a picture, or a letter/poem/lyrics/general musings, songs, etc. Time-relevant content, such as pictures that were very recently taken, would be best, but it's not required. You should probably refrain from including anything copyrighted.
You are also welcome to make additions to this letter, although I would appreciate it if you could leave the original content unchanged and only add to the bottom of the file.
If you add content to the drive, please be resopnsible in doing so. No keyloggers, malware, rootkits, porn, illegal material, etc. so forth. Those viewing any other content on the drive should, of course, do so with caution.
***IMPORTANT***
PLEASE only add any new content to the "Content" folder so this letter doesn't get lost in the midst of a swarm of other files. If you found the drive with other files on the top level, please move everything except for 'READ ME.txt' into the content folder.
***************
3) This isn't as important as the first two, but I would be deeply grateful if you could send an email to wheresmydrive@gmail.com with some or all of the following information. Feel free to omit anything you're not comfortable sharing.
-Your name
-Which of the three drives you have found (This is drive 1)
-Where you found this drive (specifics would be great, city/state/country would be fine)
-Where the drive is now (city/state/country - NO addresses, please)
-Whether or not you intend to pass the drive on or keep it (It's fine if you keep it, I'd just like to know that its journey is at an end)
-If any additions have been made to this file below the "End original" line below, please attach this file as well. I would love to see what was added.
If the mood strikes you, feel free to include a picture of the drive, kidnapped-lawn-ornament style.
One final note: I've created a blog to keep track of where the drives have been. I will update it with information any time I receive an email about the drives. If you're interested in seeing where your drive has been and where it went after you had it, you can visit the blog at:
http://wheresmydrive.blogspot.com
If you do not want your information published in the blog, simply say so - I'm a pretty big privacy advocate and will adhere to your wishes.
End original
---------------------
Each contains a letter/instructions (text below) and a folder to add content to. Let's see if anyone finds/responds...
Text of the letter:
To whom it may concern:
You have found a drive that belongs to the Where's My Drive Project. This drive is one of several that have been dropped in various locations and, hopefully (with your help), will continue to travel the world for some time.
You can think of them as traveling digital time capsules.
I would like to ask three small favors of you. You are not, of course, obligated to do all, or any, of these, but it would be wonderful if you did.
1) Most importantly (since, if this is continually done, at least a few people will do the other two), I would appreciate it if you could leave the drive somewhere yourself or even just pass it on to a friend, family member, or co-worker if you're not interested in participating yourself.
Obviously it would be best if the precise location where the drive is left is both highly visible and unlikely to result in the destruction of the drive (outdoors is bad, of course).
You are welcome to keep it - I wouldn't have done this if I wasn't comfortable with that as a probable outcome, but I'm hoping that those who find this will think the amusement factor of passing it along outweighs the roughly $5 retail value of the drive, even in the present economic recession.
2) Leave a little bit of yourself! Please add something to the drive (thus helping it to fulfill its role as a time capsule) for others to see - a picture, or a letter/poem/lyrics/general musings, songs, etc. Time-relevant content, such as pictures that were very recently taken, would be best, but it's not required. You should probably refrain from including anything copyrighted.
You are also welcome to make additions to this letter, although I would appreciate it if you could leave the original content unchanged and only add to the bottom of the file.
If you add content to the drive, please be resopnsible in doing so. No keyloggers, malware, rootkits, porn, illegal material, etc. so forth. Those viewing any other content on the drive should, of course, do so with caution.
***IMPORTANT***
PLEASE only add any new content to the "Content" folder so this letter doesn't get lost in the midst of a swarm of other files. If you found the drive with other files on the top level, please move everything except for 'READ ME.txt' into the content folder.
***************
3) This isn't as important as the first two, but I would be deeply grateful if you could send an email to wheresmydrive@gmail.com with some or all of the following information. Feel free to omit anything you're not comfortable sharing.
-Your name
-Which of the three drives you have found (This is drive 1)
-Where you found this drive (specifics would be great, city/state/country would be fine)
-Where the drive is now (city/state/country - NO addresses, please)
-Whether or not you intend to pass the drive on or keep it (It's fine if you keep it, I'd just like to know that its journey is at an end)
-If any additions have been made to this file below the "End original" line below, please attach this file as well. I would love to see what was added.
If the mood strikes you, feel free to include a picture of the drive, kidnapped-lawn-ornament style.
One final note: I've created a blog to keep track of where the drives have been. I will update it with information any time I receive an email about the drives. If you're interested in seeing where your drive has been and where it went after you had it, you can visit the blog at:
http://wheresmydrive.blogspot.com
If you do not want your information published in the blog, simply say so - I'm a pretty big privacy advocate and will adhere to your wishes.
End original
---------------------
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