The park was Corona Heights, the rockiest park with my favorite view of the city. Today's dog walk was unusual; there was a little gray dog that was actually faster than Malcolm—fast enough to run up from behind and jump over him. I'm not sure Malcolm had seen other dogs much faster or agile than him, other than the trio of Italian greyhounds who don't play much. They ran around each other in the lower field, and later atop a series of large stone points above the field, overlooking a vista from Market Street to the Bay. The owner, in a blue baseball cap, afforded his pup more freedom than usual, and looked on quietly as they played, recalling his dog with a whistle when necessary.

Before Malcolm could eat the phone, I picked it up. I pressed a key and it powered up. The last call was 20 minutes ago, so the owner could have easily left the park already. I had to take it with me. The last few numbers were 212, 415, 415 but I wasn't quite ready to dial all the numbers while walking through the park.

I saw several dog owners looking for something on the ground and asked all of them if they had lost phones. Turns out, they were just looking for dog crap.

Here's the creepy part. Walking home, I scanned the menu. Gmail! Sms! Call Logs! I was so curious about who this person was, it was honestly took all I could muster to not dive into and read all the messages. Would you have read the texts? Are you disgusted at my impulse? Well I didn't do anything snoopy, so you can stop judging me now, OKAY?

Instead, I found the entry for "home" and called it. The guy picked up at the same time as his answering machine and after the beep, he confessed to not have been going nuts looking for it like you or I might have after 4 minutes, but hadn't even noticed it was gone. I gave him my address and he said he'd come right over. When the doorbell rang, it was the nice man in the blue hat, and his super-speed dog.

"Oh, it's you!" he said.

Having some association with the man beforehand made me glad I didn't dive into his personal data. I would have felt icky.

What would you have done?

Around 1,000 laptops and iPods are also lost in the depths of black cabs each month, with the VP of security company Credant Technologies, who carried out a survey on the matter, commenting that in ye olde London times, "It used to be small items like brollies and briefcases stuffed full of boring office papers. Now it's laptops, smartphones and thumb drives, all chock-full of valuable information to an identity thief." [Credant Technologies, via The Reg]

Image credit: Annie Mole

What really sold us is that the creators knew the guy who played Locke (Terry O'Quinn) also played Admiral Pressman in TNG. [The Fine Brothers - Thanks Ray!]

Posted by Flickr user Hot Meteor, these ads represent various aspects of the Dharma Initiative, except marketed towards the masses. Computers whose buttons you have to push every 108 minutes, submarines, mysterious smoke, sweet-ass jumpsuits and six-screen TV stations with 4x DharmaZoom?! Yep, I'd totally buy into that. But seriously, where's the Dharma Beer? [Hot Meteor via Nick McGlynn]

"The new Legacy Collection Millennium Falcon from Hasbro is the greatest Star Wars toy ever made. No joke. Beats Amidala’s Royal Starship. Beats the AT-AT. And even the Imperial Troop Transporter. This Falcon is the “hunk of junk” we’ve been waiting for since May '77.

First thing you’ll notice when you crack the cardboard is her size. Some 30 percent larger than the original from back in the day. You know—the one your Mom tossed in the garbage while you were in college rolling D20’s and learning BASIC. So prepare to upgrade your playroom/display case shelves to docking bay 94 size.

This Falcon has plenty of interior room for parties. And doesn’t lack for little nubs to slot your figures atop. Or chairs where they can take a seat. The chairs are particularly cool. Remember those babies? From the scene where Luke trains with the saber and Han flips him attitude? The ones that George Lucas copied for his custom Lear Jet back in the '80s. You knew that, right? That he took a large portion of his Star Wars gold and used it to have the interior of his private plane modified to resemble the interior of the Falcon! (Not true, of course. But still—my favorite old school SW rumor!)

This Falcon’s paint job is slick. And so detailed I’m guessing it must’ve been done by next-gen droids, or Jawa slave children with very small hands. All the tech in this Falcon is state of the art. She’s got sound effects up the gundark. Triggered via multiple buttons strategically placed around her sturdy Corellian hull. The orange light at the rear of the cockpit is cool. As is the sweet blue band of engine light that accompanies the jump to hyperspace. But my fave feature has to be the twin LED’s that illuminate when the boarding ramp slowly lowers at the touch of a button. Perfect for lighting up the squishy floor of any odd looking asteroid cave.

One can only hope this magnificent spice smuggler heralds an approaching renaissance from the boffins at Hasbro. The build quality, attention to detail, and sheer number of features on the Legacy Collection Falcon will raise the expectations of Star Wars Fans the republic over. Owning your own freighter ain’t cheap. You may need to sell your mint in-box landspeeder from ’77 to cover the cost. But she’s worth it. See you on the Kessel run! I think 11 parsecs is doable! "

Jesse Alexander also blogs at Global Couch.
[Hasbro]

According to a study by the Ponemon Institute and Dell, only 30 percent or so lost laptops are ever recovered. Los Angeles' LAX airport reported having the most lost laptops out of any other airport, with 1,200 going missing every week. The most likely place for you to lose your computer is at security checkpoints and departure gates—so no matter how many beers you downed this weekend, try to be a little more alert while going through those areas, yeah? [Newlaunches]

picture credit: Mike Reger

Take a look for yourself and get stoked for Lost's return in a couple weeks. – Jason Chen

The Final Episode [YouTube via Blowing Smoke via TV Squad]

First, be prepared, giving yourself a fighting chance before any mishap occurs:

GPS In Your Car: Any time you're traveling through unfamiliar areas, a GPS navigation system will tell you where you are and where you're going. This is a great way to avoid disaster before it happens. You can get a really good one for as little as $275.

Map and Compass: It's easy to keep a map in your glove box, and it's a great backup in case your GPS system lets you down. Have a map for everywhere you're planning to go.

Clothing: Dress as if you're going to be required to walk dozens of miles in whatever climate is along your route. In winter, have a good pair of hiking boots in the car. In summer, never drive barefoot, because you never know how far you'll be required to walk.

Food and Water: If you're going on a long car trip, always have a cooler with plenty of drinks packed inside, including bottled water, and take yourself a shopping bag full of food, too. It's always nice to have plenty of food and drinks around, anyway.

Notify: Tell friends and family where you're going and when you plan to return. If you won't be back at that time, call them and tell them. Communicate.

Gas: Refuel before your gauge registers a quarter full.

Extra Car Key: Something as innocuous as getting out of your car to pee and then dropping your keys in the snow where you can't find them could be fatal.

If you get lost or stuck, stay with the vehicle. Studies show that you're more likely to survive if you don't venture out looking for help. Wait for the help to find you. Plus, put together a survival kit with the following items:

Candle Can: This might seem quaint, but we seasoned mountain travelers always carry an empty soup can and a supply of at least a dozen long-burning votive candles. Put the candle into the can, light it, and it will supply just enough heat to keep you from freezing to death in a closed vehicle after you've run out of gas.

Lighter: You'll certainly need a lighter to ignite that candle.

Reusable flare: Check out this CommuteMate Reusable Roadside Emergency Flare, visible from 1000 feet.

Whistle: While you're waiting to be rescued, make lots of noise. That's easy with this Coleman 5-in-1 Survival Whistle which also functions as a waterproof matchbox, a liquid-filled luminous dial compass, firestarter flint and a signal mirror.

Florescent spray paint: Keep a can of this in your survival kit, and then you can paint a huge message on the road or in the snow: Help!

Extra cellphone batteries: Your cellphone is continually checking to see if any calls have come in even if it's out of range of cellphone towers, and it can function as a beacon that will help rescuers find you. Keep it on at all times, especially if you're lost. We always travel with three cell phone batteries, all fully charged. On most cellphones, that will hold you for at least a week.

First Aid Kit: Your choices of medically-related items to include vary according to where you live and what you're doing, but a small, rudimentary first aid kit won't take up too much space.

LED flashlight: Take along this $12 LED flashlight that doesn't need batteries at all, it's hand-cranked.

Personal Locator Beacon: If you really want to go all-out, equip yourself with a $650 PLB. Just be careful not to set off a false alarm.

Commenters, please add your ideas! – Charlie White

We picked up on a similar product earlier in the year called DataDot that was sort of similar. Rather than helping you find lost toys, however, DataDot let you put your items in a big database after placing unique little dots on them. You guessed: just as useless.

Our advice? Keep track of your goods lest they find there way onto eBay, the 21st century's equivalent of the back of a truck. And you'll save nearly $60, too – Nicholas Deleon

Product Page [Girl Shop UK via Ubergizmo]

If it were up to me, I'd just give them all loaded iPods and solar chargers. They don't really need anything else—no need for GPS with Lock able to track his way across the island. And no need for cellphones because Sayid has been building a renegade communication device for two seasons now. Just give them all iPods to shut them up. – Travis Hudson

Gadgets You Need If You're Lost [PC Mag]

This kind of reaction to its online offering would count as an unqualified success for ABC, especially since the delivery cost is low and there's virtually no additional production costs associated with putting the programs online. We're thinking this is just the beginning, where all the other networks are also jumping on the bandwagon, along with web video-hungry viewers.

ABC shows offered online draw 3 mln views [Reuters]

We got this email yesterday from a tipster who mysteriously insisted on anonymity (cough, cough):

I work with ABC and wanted to give you a heads up on an unprecedented interactive project ABC is working on, a project that has never been done that combines the internet and a international hit television show. They aren't releasing the information wide until next week.

ABC, Channel 4 Television in the U.K, and Australia Channel 7 will launch the "Lost Experience," a revolutionary interactive experience based on the international hit television series, "Lost". Working together, more than 30 broadcasters from Europe, Africa, Asia Pacific and the Middle East will release clues with new information regarding the mystery and mythology of the island featured in the series. Fans looking to solve the puzzle will find audio, video, and text clues in locations around the world, along with an online community in which to connect and collaborate with others. Just like any other good mystery, clues can and will happen anywhere at anytime across multiple platforms.

This type of experience is more commonly known (at least to nerds) as an alternate reality game, or ARG. The first one of these to go supernova was The Beast, developed by a team at Microsoft in 2001 to promote the movie A.I. We didn't play it ourselves but became totally obsessed with it anyway—it turned out to be far more absorbing than the movie it was meant to drum up interest for—and followed the daily progress of the players who banded together to solve it over at Cloudmakers.

The team behind The Beast went on to do ilovebees (a.k.a. Haunted Apiary) to promote the game Halo 2, and eventually ended up leaving Microsoft to form a company dedicated to ARG development. We don't know if they're involved in Lost Experience, but we're looking forward to seeing how this thing develops nonetheless.