Enter Joon Maeng. I have no idea who he is, and I don’t follow him on Twitter. But despite that, I can tell you when he took this photo and posted it on TwitPic, he was near the I-105 in Hawthorne, California.

How do I know that?

His smartphone embedded metadata into the photo, and TwitPic uploaded it with the image online. Anyone with a specific kind of software can easily extract that same information - or worse.

I picked Maeng as my example, because his location at the time the photo was taken is relatively safe  to publish forever online - its the side of the highway, and the photo was clearly taken at some sort of event.

However, I could also tell you way more information about a few not-so-lucky folk. One girl that springs to mind is a Justin Bieber fan - she posted a picture of her with her phone, showing off a Bieber sticker on the back of it. She looks young, maybe 13. As soon as she posted that picture, anyone with the right software could tell you where she took the photo - and I don’t mean “in her bedroom”, as evident from the shot - I mean her address.

That’s a real screen shot of the personal information of a tweeter (with the important parts blacked out for privacy by me, of course) as it appeared a few minutes ago on www.icanstalku.com; a website trying to raise awareness about the dangers of posting your photos online without being cautious about the metadata and geo-tags your smartphone may be attaching to the photo.

Here’s how Maeng’s tweet looked on the site:

And here’s how he intended it to look (as it appears on his Twitter page):

The information you see in the screenshot from I Can Stalk U is the metadata that their program pulled out of the photo Maeng posted to Twitter. Not to worry that this personal information (such as Young Miss Bieber’s home address) is going to be available on the site forever - since it’s an  awareness site, the data is only briefly available on the site before the page refreshes and the tweets are replaced with new ones. The personal addresses of twitter users are not available online for longer than a few moments, making it impossible for someone malicious to track them down via I Can Stalk U.

But - anyone who downloads the correct software COULD extract the information from the picture as long as it’s available.

According to this article in The Toronto Star, some sites (such as Facebook) automatically strip the data from the photos when they’re uploaded. Flickr gives users the option to choose whether or not to enable geo-tagging. Some sites don’t offer users that privacy however  - such as Craigslist, and many social networking applications for smart phones. That means all those lonely individuals posting anonymous photos of their, um, privates on craigslist may not be so private if someone was so inclined to grab the metadata of their photos. We’re talking instant address of the girl that posted photos of her hoo-ha online.

Unwittingly leaving these options enabled on your phone (or in rare cases, your camera) can potentially create some very scary situations for social media users, whether you’re vagina-girl on Craigslist or Bieber-fan on Twitter.

So, how do you remain safe?

I Can Stalk U gives really great step-by-step instructions on how to make sure your smart phones aren’t attaching personal information to your picture uploads, depending on which kind of phone you have. The iPhone one is a little complicated, but I am going to be sure to be MUCH more careful before posting photos on Twitter directly from my iPhone.

If you upload from TwitPic.com, there’s a box you can uncheck to ensure the metadata is NOT sent with the photo when you upload it. That option unfortunately isn’t available (yet) when you directly upload from your phone.

There’s also many free applications for both PCs & Macs that can strip the metadata from your photos before you upload them online -  do a quick google search for “remove metadata from photos” and you’ll find tons of tutorials and software available.

I’m going to end with a note on the obvious - if you want to be protected, stop posting so much personal information online!

While I am registered for Foursquare, I haven’t really used it very much - it makes me nervous “checking in” in at venues around my city… helloooooo stalkers! Foursquare (and the matched public Twitter posts) are not only a goldmine for stalkers, but it’s also one for thieves - people literally announce when they are out of their homes. It’s a little too much for me. I might check into a festival or large-scale event here or there - but I would never check into my house (with an address! Come on, people!) or into a bar, grocery store, etc. I can see the social benefits of the application, but still… it gives me the heebiejeebies. I can tell you when half the people on my Twitter list arrive at work daily, when they leave for a vacation, what time they prefer to grocery shop… and so on and so forth.

And, if Foursquare and Facebook’s new “privacy” settings (read as: lack thereof) weren’t bad enough - now, metadata and geo-tags from smart phones are making it even harder to ensure our private information stays private.

Who DIDN’T love Russian nesting dolls (aka Matryoshka Dolls) as a Kid? I know I had a set (very similar to this classic set), and I now am the proud owner of Matryoshka measuring cups for all my baking fun.

Today, I stumbled upon these little guys:

I kind of wish they had cute little faces!

How cute, right? Called the “Matryoshkus Nero” (don’t ask me what that means), they start out as a Terabyte and open up revealing every level all the way down to a bit.

Terabyte –> Gigabyte –> Megabyte –> Kilobyte –> Byte –> Bit… My inner geek is squealing.

I’d totally buy a set if they were a little less expensive - they’ve got a $50 price tag, and that’s way to much for me to justify spending on a toy (even one as geektastic as this!) If only they were 15 or 20 bucks! Sigh. One day, when I win that lottery…

When I left to go to University, our dog was nearing her end - she was in the teens, and sadly was put down in the fall during my final year. A few months later (although, with the amount I managed to get home - it seemed like only days), My parents brought home Kodee - a fluff ball mop of loving and cuddles; also know as a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel. When my sister moved out to attend college in Peterborough, my parents decided to bring home ANOTHER Cavalier, and named this one Becky. Becky is the complete opposite of her sister - she’s more crazy than anything else. Don’t even ask me how many things in my room she’s chewed.

Before she got Becky, my mom always joked that since she had two kids who moved out, she needed two dogs to replace us. Turns out, it wasn’t actually a joke.

Don't let their cute looks and pink sweaters fool you - they may just be a students worst nightmare.

My sister and I are both living at home this summer, and things have changed quite a bit since adding two dogs to the family.

For instance, my mom made the pups’ a delicious breakfast with squash, kibble, and fresh fruit the other day. My sister  and I were left fend for ourselves, and ended up with burnt toast.

The dogs get fed promptly at the same time, every night - and they ALWAYS eat before us (”They’re hungry!” my mom says). They’re usually fed by 6:30, but my sister and I are lucky if dinner is on the table before 8:30!

Just yesterday, I had a shower then made my way to the kitchen to make a sandwich. My mom was washing the floor. “Don’t walk on my clean floor!” she said. “But Mom,” I protested, “I just got out of the shower and my feet are CLEAN”. She made me stand on a rug and hop across the kitchen to the living room (where there’s carpet) when leaving. This is the same woman who laughs and goes, “oh how cute!” when Kodee and Becky chase a squirrel through the garden and then run into - and through - the house with muddy feet.

And heaven forbid I leave something on the kitchen table when I leave the room (a glass, or a pad of paper); but it’s “adorable” how Becky yanks 15 different toys out of her bin and strews them around. In fact, her favourite spot to leave them is near my bathroom door, so I trip in the middle of the night.

When we run out of squash (which the pups get with every meal), it’s the end of the world and my mom or dad must RUN, not walk, to the nearest store to replenish the supply. I’ve been waiting two and a half weeks for my mom to remember we’re out of mayo.

When I was really little, I drew my mom an amazing picture, full of colours. The problem was, I coloured it in crayon… on the kitchen wall. Subsequently, I got my toys taken away and was sent to my room for the day. Becky (who is 15 months old I might add) still isn’t house trained. In fact, on one occasion we watched her play outside for a good 15 minutes, ask to come in, and promptly go on the rug in the den. When Becky has an ‘accident’ (and I use that term loosely, because I think it’s safe to say she just doesn’t like going outside!), she gets scolded and locked up for about 5-10 minutes before she whimpers and is let out again because, oh, she looks so sad.

And to make matters worse, she calls me “Kaitlyn” and Kaitlyn “Lauren” more times than I can count in a week when she gets flustered, but I’ve yet to see her confuse Kodee and Becky!

Last week when my mom yelled “Girls! Come here!” and my sister and I went to see what she wanted, her response was rather surprising: “Not YOU!” she laughed, “The dogs!”

Ouch.

So here’s my advice to all you college-bound students: be careful! Your parents might just replace you with a pet or two… and before long, they’re be shouting “girls!” and mean the dogs.

But, I do have to admit - it’s hard to stay irritated at Kodee when she puts her paws on your shoulders and gives you a puppy hug. And Becky is just so gosh darn cute when she lies outside my bedroom with her nose under the gate (see the beginning of the post on her chewing to understand why there’s a gate there!) begging to come in and lie on the bed (or see my boyfriend, who I think SHE thinks is a dog!)

So although I will admit to referring to my mother’s new ‘children’ as the spawn of satan on more than one occasion…

You win again, dogs!

…they’re just so hard not to love.

Run for the hill, folks. Newsweek.com is reporting that zombies have, indeed, ATTACKED!

AHHHHH!!

Yes, that IS a serious screenshot. “But Lauren,” you say, “I don’t see anything about Zombies on NewsWeek at ALL!”

Well, dear Watson, that would be because like any good government conspiracy, there’s a coverup.

One thing is for certain - the Konami Code is responsible for the outbreak.

In case you don’t know what that is, the Konami Code is an old “cheat” code from NES video games… so once you’re on News Week’s website, type as follows:

Up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, b, a, enter.

Marry me, News Week.

If you’re interested, you can find more sites that have konami code easter eggs here. Although I’m not sure how accurate the list is - they still have Facebook listed, and it doesn’t work for me anymore. Boo.

EEP!

Well, not quite today - but on Monday I sure did. I went to a press conference at the Lloyd Richards’ Hangar at the Timmins Victor M. Power Airport (quite the mouthful, eh?) for Young Eagles Day, which is coming up this weekend. I was expecting a quick shoot - bing, bang, boom, vis, interview, done. But, when I arrived, one of the local newspaper reporters had arranged to fly with one of the pilots - and asked if I wanted to go along. Um, YES PLEASE!

Now, I’ll be honest here - I just could not turn down an opportunity like that. But I’m a nervous flyer. I’ve flown a whole total of 6 times in my life - two when I was so young, I can barely remember (both times to Flordia). Another two times to NYC - and yes, I was nervous then. Especially on my most recent NYC trip with friends, when the airline decided to put me miles away from the boy AND my 2 buddies we travelled with (not so fun). Actually, make that 7 times - I just remembered I took a sightseeing helicopter ride over Niagara Falls once, and yes, if I recall correctly, it made me feel pretty sick too. Especially when the pilot turned the damn thing sideways to “give us a better look” at the Falls.

Yup, THIS was what I flew in.

And lastly… two times from Timmins to Toronto, on a little Air Canada Jazz plane - and I thought THAT small a plane was nerve wracking. Let me tell you, it was NOTHING compared to the little guy I was in a few days ago.

But the nerves, the shaky hands, the hours it took me to get my “ground legs” back, and the waves of nausea were so. totally. worth it.

Sitting in the front seat was actually really fun, and I felt fine. Sitting in the back however… lets just say I should have remembered how sick I’d feel as a kid in the back seat of my parent’s SUV before getting into the back of the plane. Let’s just say the plane was 300 times worse. I can liken it to the dizzy, sick feeling I get after spinning around in a desk chair for a good 3 minutes.

It actually was so bad towards the end I couldn’t look out the window for more than a few brief seconds - and let me tell you, there was NO way I could have held my camera steady to film a shot. Sadly, that meant missing out on some potentially amazing shots of the Xstrata Met Site (which is WAY bigger than I ever could have imagined), the open pit Dome Mine, and some other mines in the area. My dad (who used to fly with my grandfather when he was a kid) says it has something to do with not being able to see the horizon - I guess the horizon keeps you feeling more “grounded”, which would help explain why I felt fine when I was in the front of the plane (plus, I had controls and, you know, FLYING THE PLANE! to concentrate on). Good thing I’m not an astronaut  -there’s NO horizon out there to save me! (which possibly explains why 50% of astronauts in NASA’s space program get sick in space).

Now, onto the most important part of my flight - flying the plane! So, our amazing pilot Yvon asked me if I wanted to give it a whirl. And I mean, how could I say no? So, I grabbed the wheel… and he promptly let go. Gulp.

Allow me to show you, rather than tell you, what happens next.

Yup. I might have scared the beejebus out of the newspaper reporter who kindly offered to film my flying attempt (and I may or may not have squeaked “OH MY GOD I CAN’T DO THIS!” at the pilot… but he just said “Hey, I’ll level out the plane for you and then keep trying”. Yvon was really patient, helpful, and trusting  - which was awesome. When I finally got the hang of it, I was so excited - and it felt amazing to be FLYING 3,000 feet in the air, all by myself. Very cool moment. I did give the controls back to Yvon after only a few minutes though, since we were approaching a dark cloud and some rain.

I now totally want to get my pilot’s license one day (and then I’ll fly myself to Bermuda! Or somewhere balmy and warm ;)