Olga once again confronted her nemesis on her walk yesterday morning. Her nemesis wisely stayed out of reach. This cat lives at the same place as Door Cat, but this is not Door Cat, unless it has taken over from the previous Door Cat. Or maybe they work in shifts like Ralph and Sam?
I was confronted with an ethical quandary this weekend. A student left a pair of Apple AirPods (wireless earbuds) in the library several weeks ago. They sat on my desk in plain sight for ages and no one claimed them. So at the end of the year I brought them home -- because, frankly, I could use a pair of AirPods.
Problem is, they didn't have a case. And you need a case, because it's the "brain" of the AirPods and also the method by which they are recharged. So I went to the high school lost & found, which has about 20 pairs of unclaimed AirPods, and the attendant happily gave me a matching case as well as another pair. (I think we all feel like unclaimed lost & found stuff is common property at the end of the school year. Whether this is right or wrong is debatable, given what happened next.)
I carried the AirPods with me when I went out with my boss Friday afternoon, and then when I got home I tried to link the latter pair with my phone. But I had a message on my phone screen saying the owner could see the location of their AirPods with Apple's "Find My Device" app -- and indeed it showed me a map of all my movements that day. THAT freaked me out a little bit. Was someone actually watching me carry around their AirPods, or could they only theoretically see me, if they bothered to look?
This drove home the fact that these AirPods are smarter than your average headphones, and they still belonged to someone else. I found that when I added them to my own "Find My Device" list, they were identified by a student's first name, i.e. "Joe's AirPods." So then I looked in our student database and was able to determine who they probably belonged to. I e-mailed the student and said, "Hey, I think I have your AirPods!"
And the student wrote back, and long story short, I'm leaving them at the front desk of the school for him to pick up. This makes me wonder why we don't use our own phones to identify the owners of ALL the AirPods in the lost & found, rather than letting them just sit unclaimed. (And why don't students look for their lost stuff, for Pete's sake?!)
This also means I still have a pair of AirPods -- the first ones, abandoned in the library -- without a case. It turns out buying a replacement case costs almost as much as buying a new pair of AirPods, so I guess I'll just buy my own pair and return the unclaimed ones to the library. I suppose there's a slim chance their owner will resurface next year. (I really can't identify that person because there's no case and thus no "brain.")
I mowed the lawn again yesterday and did quite a bit of tidying. (Ignore the dead dog at left.) I mowed down the daisy patch, finally -- it was looking weedy and the daisies were browning and enough is enough. I also pulled out most of the remaining forget-me-nots. And today we might actually get RAIN, which would be fantastic. It is dry as a bone out there.
When working in the garden there is inevitably some damage. This rose was on a twig that got broken, so I cut it and brought it inside and now the kitchen is smelling positively rosy.
Oh, and here's a mystery. Some kids living a few houses down have some kind of noisy toy in their back garden. It sounds like radio-controlled racing cars, maybe? They play with it for hours. You can hear it in this video (in which I give you a completely irrelevant visual of bees on the blackberry blossoms):
What do you think that is?!
23 comments:
Sounds like a remote control car to me, my sons had a couple when they were young, they'd race them up and down the driveway.
We often have to listen to jet skis. No bees and beautiful garden though. I guess that student wasn't too worried about his AirPods. He had probably already bought another pair. I love that shot of Olga and the cat.
Well I couldn't hear anything much - just urban hum and I have listened to that video twice. Using someone else's i-pods would not have sat well with me. I am glad that you tracked down the owner. Better to purchase your own i-pods.
Don't you find it unnerving that these things track you?
I hate it. I have earbuds that neatly wind back into their case but don't follow me around, lol
The garden is looking wonderful, just how a garden should look, natural.
Briony
x
Yes, remote control car, lots going around here. Wait till the kids advance to drones. That shakes up the neighborhood.
Scary that you can get tracked like that. Makes me want to never touch anything or turn anything on again!
Interesting about the ear buds tracking you. They are so expensive to buy yet kiddies aren't at the desk each morning to find out if theirs has been found.
It took me quite a few seconds to see the dead dog in the garden.
No idea what these pods are or what they're for, but I conclude whatever it is, they're expensive. These kids must be very affluent not even to look for them.
Sounds like toy race cars. Probably on a driveway.
The only thing I can identify are the kids' voices! I hear a whirr sound, but I am not familiar with that sound! Sorry, I am no help here.
I do believe those earpods and anything similar are why so many people have to wear hearing aids later on in life!
I will wish you a happy Father's Day because you two are Olga's dad's!
I don't think I really knew that about airpods, so yikes & thanks! I rarely use mine anymore because they bother my ears (and they won't stay in - I apparently have weird shaped ear canals?). And finally, I usually want to use them to watch things on my iPad at home & Mike doesn't pay attention & tries to talk to me & I just can't handle the stress. More than you needed to know. Ha!
Your garden is so beautiful. I hope you get rain for it soon.
I love my air pods. Love, love, love them. Before I really learned to use them, they did fall out a lot but I've figured it out now. They do still fall out every once in a while if my ears get sweaty. Who knew that ears could sweat?
Olga is going to get that cat one day. I have faith in her!
I don't really know what people use air pods for. The modern world has definitely moved on from my little air-pod-less world. If students abandon their air pods I guess it seems safe to rescue them from their unclaimed abandonment. How weird though that the "owner" can track you.
Love that photo of Olga and the kitty cat.
I don't think I would want to use someone else's airpods since (as Ms. Moon points out) ears sweat and that would gross me out.
I don't hear any weird noises in your video?!
so it was one case, two pair of airpods that they both matched? well, you did the right thing, returned them when you realized you could find out whose they were but I don't think it's wrong to take something that's been abandoned for months. Do these kids not know there's a lost and found at their school? or rather they just don't care in which case even better if someone else uses the item. but you know, everything tracks us.
so miserably hot here right now and going to get worse next week. hopefully we'll get some rain soon.
I have family members with AirPods, so I'll have to ask them if they realize they can be tracked. I use much less sophisticated wireless ear buds, but I only use them for the occasional audiobook, so they suffice.
Glad to see Olga still has it in her! Smart kitty to stay out of her reach.
Remote control something, probably car. I'm not sure what airpods even are although my son-in-law seems to often have them in his ears. I'm fine with my wireless headphones. I thought they were pretty expensive so why the student (or parents) wouldn't check lost and found for them baffles me!
No idea what the noise is but I can certainly hear to kids talking and screaming. As I recall, AirPods cost a pretty penny, in my budget that would be a serious loss. I was at the Apple store a year or so ago when a guy at the same table was there because he lost his and only had the case left. It cost him to get them replaced.
It is kind of creepy to know that your movements can be traced so easily. I guess when it comes down to it, we are all carrying around a tracking device with us.
I have read that after Russians loot Ukrainian homes and take airpods and other apple products, they can be tracked. So the Ukrainians send armed drones after them. It's a nice thought, looting is bad.
We can be tracked on our smartphones too, as I’m sure you know.
During Covid, a coworker told me the government was injecting tracking devices in us via Covid vaccines.
I laughed and pulled out my phone (he has one too):
“They don’t have to—we carry them voluntarily.”
We had the same problem with unclaimed things at the end of the year. However before the high tech age you could take the material home and no one would be looking for it. Some of these articles are dumped so that they can get something new.
Since I haven't yet solved the mystery of why I can't get audio on my new computer, I can't solve your problem. Your yard looks fantastic, even with the dead dog.
I just cannot imagine having something as expensive as a pair of Airpods and just losing them. I mean, 20 unclaimed pair???? That's crazy.
Sounds like radio controlled cars, or perhaps a video game blasting through an open window.
River: That's what I thought too -- especially the way it keeps slamming into something!
Mitchell: He probably did! Jet Skis are the worst. Well, maybe second to leaf blowers.
YP: It's not a super obvious sound but it's there -- a sort of repeated electrical squeal.
Briony: It DID freak me out! I wouldn't have minded if they were my own AirPods but the fact that they were someone else's and THAT person could theoretically see my location was creepy.
Sabine: I think it's illegal to fly drones in residential areas here. Maybe just below a certain height.
Bob: Well, starting with our phones. They're the best trackers of all!
Andrew: I am mystified about the kids not trying harder to find them.
Boud: They're wireless earbuds, so you can listen to music (or whatever) with no wires. They're about £100 a pair.
Marcia: I'm sure they don't do our hearing any favors! The Apple ones just sort of hang in the ear -- they don't fit very tightly inside -- so I think they're less damaging.
Bug: I have the same problem. They don't feel like they fit very well.
Ms Moon: I guess ears would sweat just like any other body part! The AirPods feel very precarious in my ears -- like they might fall out at any moment -- but I haven't worn them long enough to know if they actually do.
Robin: It makes me wonder why this kid didn't use the "Find My" app to locate his AirPods while they were at school!
Ellen D: I'm not fazed by using them as long as they're not visibly dirty. (Plus I wiped them down first.)
Ellen: Yes, exactly, one case and two pairs of pods. And I still have one pair.
Kelly: Well, I don't think anyone else can track them, but I think THEY can track their pods if they're lost somewhere or with another person. Know what I mean?
Margaret: Yeah, they're not cheap!
Sharon: The weird thing is, it costs more to replace the case than the pods themselves. I guess because the case has more technology in it.
Allison: Interesting! Now that's an aspect of modern warfare I hadn't even considered!
Fresca: Oh, yeah, phones are the best trackers. But my question is, who would care? I just don't think anyone out there has spare time (or the interest) to watch me go about my day.
Red: Yeah, I think that's part of why so much stuff goes unclaimed. I got a jacket from lost & found a couple years ago and it has a wonky zipper. I realized that's probably why the owner ditched it! (I still use it, though.)
Catalyst: That dead dog is always lying around! LOL
Debby: It IS crazy. I couldn't believe it when she pulled open the drawer and showed them to me. Yeah, I think they are radio-controlled cars, on a back patio, probably.
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