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creepy posts

Filed under: TUAW Business, Podcasts

Talkcast reminder: Macs that go bump in the night! 10 pm ET

by Michael Rose (RSS feed) on Oct 25th, 2009


It's the Sunday before Halloween, and that can mean only one thing! No, not that you should have set your clocks back an hour -- that's next weekend. Tonight is about scary tech and the users that love it: Apple's most frightening products of all time. Whether the fuzzy-scary iPod Socks or the just-plain-scary Performa series, there are plenty of bonechillers out there... pick your favorites over at Apple History, the Apple Museum or Wikipedia and bring your nominations to our chamber of terrors tonight!

To participate on TalkShoe, you can use the browser-only client, or you can try out the classic TalkShoe Pro Java client; however, for maximum fun, you should call in. For the web UI, just click the "TalkShoe Web" button on our profile page at 10 pm Sunday. To call in on regular phone or VOIP lines (take advantange of your free cellphone weekend minutes if you like): dial (724) 444-7444 and enter our talkcast ID, 45077 -- during the call, you can request to talk by keying in *-8. Talk with you then!

Tags: creepy, halloween, holidays, podcast, scary, spooky, talkcast

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Enterprise, Software, Odds and ends

Big Brother! ActyMac DutyWatch spies on your employees

by Steven Sande (RSS feed) on Apr 9th, 2009

Employers: do you want to know exactly what your employees are doing every second of the day on their Macs? Would you like to be able to log every keystroke they make, take screenshots of their Macs every once in a while, or even take pictures of them with the iSight that's built into their Mac to make sure that they're working? If so, ActyMac DutyWatch is just your cup of tea.

Without your employees knowing, you can monitor everything they post, open, and use. DutyWatch captures all keystrokes and logs every program that is launched or quit. If an employee uses certain keywords, DutyWatch sends you an email so you can scrutinize that person even more closely. DutyWatch also records every email, chat, website visit, or web search. Make sure that your employees aren't reading TUAW on your dime!

In the example above, your employee Michael has been spending a lot of time watching QuickTime movies and IM'ing in Adium. Of course, he'll lie to you and tell you that he's been watching training movies and texting the Miami office, but you've got just the proof you need to fire him. That'll get those other slackers in line!

You can purchase ActyMac DutyWatch for US$99.95 direct from the website, and quantity discounts are available.

Tags: big brother, BigBrother, creepy, keystroke logger, KeystrokeLogger, security, software

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Software, Odds and ends, Universal Binary

Dream recorder

by Scott McNulty (RSS feed) on Dec 29th, 2006

If I were giving out awards for creepiest Mac application Dream recorder would be the front-runner. This app, as the name implies, aims to help you record your dreams and get a sense for how well you are sleeping. As you can see in the illustration to the right, the proper usage of Dream recorder involves:
  1. Placing your Mac on a night table next to your bed (the Mac must have a camera attached to it).
  2. Take a picture with Dream recorder in the dark, so it can adjust its settings.
  3. Go to sleep. Dream recorder will take a picture of you every 2 minutes by slowly brightening the screen.
  4. Dream recorder will determine the best time to wake you, based on a range you enter and what sleep cycle you are in.
  5. When you wake up, hit the space bar to stop the picture taking and to start the audio recording (this is where you tell the Mac about your dreams).
The developer has kindly uploaded a sample of what the resultant movie, constructed from all those pictures, looks like. Creepy, huh?

There is a 15 day trial, after which a 3 license pack costs $45. Dream recorder requires OS X 10.4.8 and Quicktime 7.

Tags: creepy, dream, Dream recorder, DreamRecorder

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