30 October 2008

Found thumb drive, Dickson Shopping Centre: 166 Egypt holiday pics!

| Needle
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I found a 1Gb SanDisk Cruzer Micro thumbdrive in Dickson Shopping Centre today. It was lying on the ground under the covered walkway that runs along the National Bank building, near the two outdoor post boxes. It’s missing its lid, but is otherwise completely intact.

The drive contains a whole raft of family snaps from a holiday in Egypt, and I have to say: some of them are absolutely breathtaking.

Somebody out there MUST want these pics back – if anyone reading this forum knows who it might be, whim me.

I don’t want to just upload them all to the net, since some of the pics have kids in them (and even the adults might have reservations about having their faces plastered all over the web). But if anyone has any clue as to who might be the rightful owners, PLEASE do not hesitate to let me know.

Oh, and also: jealous. Damn near in f***ing tears jealous. I mean, just…wow!

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Good job needles, classy. Forget the wingers mate, you did the right thing

Jonathon Reynolds3:40 pm 01 Nov 08

Gungahlin Al said :

We left it at the office with contact details for if found/not found, but have heard nothing…

That is one of the few things that can be tracked back to an owner (or at least the owner of the phone account with a carrier)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Mobile_Equipment_Identity

Gungahlin Al3:36 pm 01 Nov 08

We found a Nokia N95 at the Home and Leisure Show last weekend. Nice little unit.
We left it at the office with contact details for if found/not found, but have heard nothing…

yup, ‘cor’ photo is karnak complex – temple of amun… cor, indeed!

good on ya, needles, and ditto to pretty well everything posted above decrying babyface…

dragonflygal10:57 pm 31 Oct 08

Hey Needle, have you seen this website?

ifoundyourcamera.blogspot.com

Might be worth trying if you haven’t already.

Meconium said :

Whim you? Wrong forum mate! 😉

First posted this over there, they suggested here, I copy+pasted 🙂

bigfeet said :

And the last photo, god (gods) it looks familiar, but I just can’t place it. I keep thinking somewhere around Luxor (Karnak). Was it in with identifiable Karnak pics, or near some Valley of the Kings pics?

Yeah, I think it might be another Karnak pic, but I’m not 100% sure.

blingblingbears9:28 pm 31 Oct 08

aww those pics are awesome! I have always been facinated with Ancient Egypt and those pics just want me to go there even more now!

Whim you? Wrong forum mate! 😉

They don’t jog my memory of who owns them, but they certainly jog my memory of my travels around Egypt and the Middle East, and makes me want to go back tomorrow.

Quick point : its the Temple of Hapshepsut, not the Tomb. It was a mortuary complex after her death, but not where she was interred, although there is evidence that she was supposed to be placed beneath the temple, but the ground was poor for building chambers.

And the last photo, god (gods) it looks familiar, but I just can’t place it. I keep thinking somewhere around Luxor (Karnak). Was it in with identifiable Karnak pics, or near some Valley of the Kings pics?

Stuff privacy…post more pics!!

harvyk1 and peterh – like I said, I booted into Linux before even plugging in the drive 🙂 I still can’t stand the various varieties of PenguinOS, but they do have their occasional uses.

reepy – from awesome to awful :-/ Later this weekend I might have another look through the pics for closer details, but I don’t expect to find anything much. And I couldn’t locate a photo kiosk anywhere near the DSC 🙁

And for the rest of you…

http://i35.tinypic.com/2uscr9z.jpg – Abu Simbel (near Aswan)
http://i37.tinypic.com/16bycjk.jpg – Karnak?
http://i37.tinypic.com/s60i10.jpg – Tomb of Hatshepsut
http://i35.tinypic.com/dgl4x5.jpg – es-Salamat (aka The Colossi of Memnon)
http://i34.tinypic.com/24pf6op.jpg – I dunno, but COR!!

Apologies to anyone whose copyright I’ve breached (unless you’re Zahi Hawass, in which case go choke) – I’m just hoping they might jog the memory of someone who knows who owns them.

Here’s a nice story about someone doing something similar to Needle. Might have some good ideas to help track down the owner.

Here is another story about what you shouldn’t do when you find a lost camera with someone’s photos.

harvyk1 said :

Jonathon Reynolds said :

Yeah, I was just thinking that, I know of a case where an IT security company was called in to do a security audit on a certain very large (and they thought very secure) company, so what did the security company do? Got some USB drives, placed some code on it, and “accidentally” left them for all the smokers to find. Of course a few of the workers placed them into their machines thinking they had just found a “free” USB drive, in reality they had just opened a backdoor into the company, which the security consultants then used to gain access.

wouldn’t happen these days, now would it?

people are just too busy leaving notebooks in qantas lounges or cds that aren’t encrypted.

I use device control. stops unauthorised devices being used on my pc. I can override the settings, for known devices, but it means that I am aware it has been tried, usually by a moron who thinks that they are a pc expert, with no A/V or spyware anywhere near their PC.

Wow- Capital letters and everything. Chill out! It’s the weekend!

tylersmayhem4:33 pm 31 Oct 08

It’s comments like that that make people not bother to do the right thing. Needle has gone out of his/her way here to try to help someone out who might, just might, be extremely upset over the loss of their once-in-a-lifetime holiday snaps. Simultaneously, they’re doing their best to protect that person’s privacy. Kudos, Needle – the world could do with a few more people like that.

Yes Babyface…you are a DICK! You on the same page as another DICK called Realityskin. Both your scathings against people using the RA for a legitimate good cause is beyond poor form. I don’t think I’m along in suggesting you log off RA, and don’t bother returning. You are a poor human being, who I wouldn’t feed.

Jonathon Reynolds said :

… and we hope that you had your PC fully patched and running all the latest anti-virus/malware/spyware.

You’d be a great target for instigating an malicious attack via social engineering – just grabbing any usb stick you find literally on the street and plugging it in is a brave move. Your PC may now be infected with a nasty Egyptian virus…

Yeah, I was just thinking that, I know of a case where an IT security company was called in to do a security audit on a certain very large (and they thought very secure) company, so what did the security company do? Got some USB drives, placed some code on it, and “accidentally” left them for all the smokers to find. Of course a few of the workers placed them into their machines thinking they had just found a “free” USB drive, in reality they had just opened a backdoor into the company, which the security consultants then used to gain access.

Sammy said :

Then I came across the photos of their Porsche, in front of their enormous house, and I decided they could afford the loss 🙂

Oh dear! Laughed? People in this Bendigo cafe turned around to see what was going on when I read that!

All in favour of some posting of photos (without people).

Deadmandrinking1:09 pm 31 Oct 08

^and did the house have it’s number? Both of those might have helped…

Deadmandrinking1:02 pm 31 Oct 08

Sammy said :

A while back we found a digital camera that had been left in a taxi by a visiting tourist. The taxi driver knew that the visitors were from Adelaide as a result of chit-chat in the taxi.

Anyway, I decided i’d attempt to determine the identity of the owners using the photos on the camera. I got damn close as well. There were a bunch of photos on the camera of the mother in bed in hospital having just given birth, and you could *almost* read her wrist tag which would’ve contained her name.

Then I came across the photos of their Porsche, in front of their enormous house, and I decided they could afford the loss 🙂

Did the Porsche have a license plate????

I might consider uploading one or two pics somewhere this evening, just to help spread the word a bit.
Monument-only pics, though – Aswan and Hatshepsut should do…

StrangeAttractor11:16 am 31 Oct 08

I was recently in Egypt, and took nearly 1000 photos while we were there, and we did have close to 160 top notch shots. But I’ve not lost a thumb drive.

An awesome place to see if you can afford to visit. Cairo is the kind of place you wonder how on earth people manage to live there, you come back to Sydney and say: “Wow, it’s not crowded or dirty, and the air is clean!”

Good on you for doing something Needle.

You could post part of a photo, without faces.

Burnt out buses in Civic.

Photos of the Middle East on a USB drive found in Dickson.

Coincidence??????

Quick – someone think of the children and call the Terrorism Hotline before this all gets out of hand!

i doubt that people would keep the only copy of their holiday snaps on a single thumbdrive.

You are not familiar with human behaviour are you?

…your reservations about posting the pictures to help find who owns it “since some of the pics have kids in them” is very stupid.

Since posting the photos would be an unnecessary first step (might become necessary if they really can’t be tracked down), saying that is a bit of a wank. Especially that line about the kids.

That said, if the photos are really good, maybe a nice one without people in it? Please? I promise I won’t infringe on their IP.

A while back we found a digital camera that had been left in a taxi by a visiting tourist. The taxi driver knew that the visitors were from Adelaide as a result of chit-chat in the taxi.

Anyway, I decided i’d attempt to determine the identity of the owners using the photos on the camera. I got damn close as well. There were a bunch of photos on the camera of the mother in bed in hospital having just given birth, and you could *almost* read her wrist tag which would’ve contained her name.

Then I came across the photos of their Porsche, in front of their enormous house, and I decided they could afford the loss 🙂

Jonathon Reynolds, I booted into Wubi/Ubuntu first 🙂

I might look into either the Times or the Police. Since I don’t actually live in Canberra, it’s a little difficult for me (I only come here for work), but I’ll see what I can do.

I just thought posting on a fairly well-travelled forum would be a shot in the dark…and they suggested I try the same thing here :-Þ

Thanks for the well-wishes, and for the terrible jokes – both are always good on a Friday morning! 😀

jessieduck said :

Good on you for trying to find the owner – very noble.

Mummy, pyramid schemes! So bad they are brilliant.

Hope the owner gets their drive abck.

I just have to echo what the others said. Babyface, you are a tool.

Needles – good for you for doing the right thing. Maybe place an ad in the “lost and found” of the CT? May not even cost anything.

Spectra said :

babyface: It’s comments like that that make people not bother to do the right thing. Needle has gone out of his/her way here to try to help someone out who might, just might, be extremely upset over the loss of their once-in-a-lifetime holiday snaps. Simultaneously, they’re doing their best to protect that person’s privacy. Kudos, Needle – the world could do with a few more people like that.

Kind of like…. (wait for it) …. a Pyramid scheme.
Oh god…that’s at once the worst and best thing I’ve read all week.

+1.

Have an opinion and share it if you must, babyface, but don’t slag someone off who’s trying to help out. I personally think this site has a better chance of reuniting the item with its owners than the plods’ lost property. (And that’s more about the propensity of people to go to the cop shop if they lose something of this nature and NOT a stab at the AFP.)

Holden Caufield and BerraBoy, on your way to Offal thread the pair of you. Golf claps all around.

babyface: It’s comments like that that make people not bother to do the right thing. Needle has gone out of his/her way here to try to help someone out who might, just might, be extremely upset over the loss of their once-in-a-lifetime holiday snaps. Simultaneously, they’re doing their best to protect that person’s privacy. Kudos, Needle – the world could do with a few more people like that.

Kind of like…. (wait for it) …. a Pyramid scheme.
Oh god…that’s at once the worst and best thing I’ve read all week.

Maybe it’s a trick to get you to buy into holiday scheme in Egypt that will turn out to be a load of crap but will make a chain of people quite wealthy. Kind of like…. (wait for it) …. a Pyramid scheme.

I’d hazard a guess that the thumb drive was used to get the photos processed so maybe it would be worth checking with the shops that do prints?

The 166 would be the crème de la crème of the trip ready for an album.

Good on you for trying to find the owner- very noble.

Needle, it is highly possible that a said member from the family was smart enough to upload the pictures to their own computer and then put some images on the stick so that they could get some prints done… in which it must have been dropped or what not. In that sense they may not be so concerned with getting it back since a gig is so cheap these days.

The right thing to do would be to hand it into a Police Station if you feel so inclined to.

Gungahlin Al6:51 am 31 Oct 08

Oh… sneaky type, huh?

The old

stalk a girl
find out where she lives
break into house
steal a thumb drive
claim to have found it
have her collect it
go out to dinner as reward

trick

i doubt that people would keep the only copy of their holiday snaps on a single thumbdrive. your reservations about posting the pictures to help find who owns it “since some of the pics have kids in them” is very stupid.

Holden Caulfield12:57 am 31 Oct 08

Maybe he should have asked his mummy first?

Jonathon Reynolds12:30 am 31 Oct 08

… and we hope that you had your PC fully patched and running all the latest anti-virus/malware/spyware.

You’d be a great target for instigating an malicious attack via social engineering – just grabbing any usb stick you find literally on the street and plugging it in is a brave move. Your PC may now be infected with a nasty Egyptian virus…

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