{"id":79,"date":"2014-11-21T05:57:34","date_gmt":"2014-11-21T05:57:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wisecontradictions.com\/blog\/?p=79"},"modified":"2014-11-21T05:57:34","modified_gmt":"2014-11-21T05:57:34","slug":"help-your-missing-mac-laptop-find-its-way-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wisecontradictions.com\/blog\/?p=79","title":{"rendered":"Help your missing Mac laptop find its way home"},"content":{"rendered":"

Laptops out at airport security? \u00a0What if you forget to put that laptop back in the bag? I know, you would never do such a thing. Nor would I, except that I did. Ran the Athens Marathon,<\/a> was doing the airport security routine. Asked the guard if I should take my laptop out. Guard said yes. Retrieved all other items, zipped up my bag and was on my way–without my laptop. It was only after I arrived home that it was missing. The good news is that the airport security folks turned over my laptop to the Hellenic Police and its on its way back home. I remembered a simple trick that would have saved me a whole lot of trouble and cash. Put a contact number on your lock screen. It takes only a few minutes. A good Samaritan could call, send a text, or email while you’re still sitting in the Lounge.<\/p>\n

Normally, your MacOS lock screen looks something like this:<\/p>\n

\"MacOS<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Sorry, we have no idea how to return this laptop to someone.<\/p>\n

Instead, your laptop could look like this:<\/p>\n

\"LockScreen\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Contact information right on the home screen. I know, you could also do something like put a label on the outside of the laptop<\/a>, but that would be too easy.<\/p>\n

Here’s how to do it:<\/p>\n

1. Download Cocktail<\/a>. \u00a0This nifty little program allows you to tweak many settings on your Mac. We’re going to use it for one thing: adding your contact information to your lock screen.<\/p>\n

2. You’ll probably have to “allow apps from unidentified developers<\/a>,” if you haven’t already.<\/p>\n

3. Launch Cocktail. Select Login tab. Enter your contact details. Press apply.<\/p>\n

\"Cocktail<\/a><\/p>\n

That’s it. You’ll have your mobile and email on your home screen.<\/p>\n

For extra credit, you should be sure to enable find my Mac<\/a>, for iCloud–that will help you find all of your iOS devices. I’ve recently started tinkering with Prey<\/a>\u00a0which is like Lojack for laptops…it helps you track things down in the event your device falls into less scrupulous hands.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Laptops out at airport security? \u00a0What if you forget to put that laptop back in the bag? I know, you would never do such a thing. Nor would I, except that I did. Ran the Athens Marathon, was doing the airport security routine. Asked the guard if I should take my laptop out. Guard said […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":81,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-79","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tech"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wisecontradictions.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/LockScreen.png?fit=500%2C375&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wisecontradictions.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wisecontradictions.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wisecontradictions.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wisecontradictions.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wisecontradictions.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=79"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wisecontradictions.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":83,"href":"https:\/\/wisecontradictions.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79\/revisions\/83"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wisecontradictions.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/81"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wisecontradictions.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=79"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wisecontradictions.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=79"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wisecontradictions.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=79"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}