While we sort through the story of the accidentally uploaded mugshots of alleged MacBook thieves which may or may turn out to be a hoax (we're contacting the laptop's owner for an update), our thoughts turn to how we should go about protecting our own MacBooks. If you have a MacBook or MacBook Pro, here's a great way to protect your investment: Lifehacker's Adam Pash put together a clever AppleScript that will send you pictures of the thieves.

Using the freeware app iAlertU that works as an alarm system for your MacBook, along with a Mac FTP app called Transmit, Adam shows you how to set up a script that will use the MacBook's bulit-in iSight camera to automatically take a picture of anyone who moves your laptop. Then it'll FTP that shot to a site of your choosing. Take a look at the post for full instructions.

If you can use a script to automatically FTP shots, it stands to reason that you might be able to do a similar routine to trigger an alarm to auto-upload with Photo Booth, too. Cool stuff either way. – Charlie White

Hack Attack: Turn your MacBook's iSight into a FTP backed up security camera [lifehacker]

Contact information for this author is not available.