Blueproximity on your Thinkpad

I was pointed at a nifty app for my laptop: Blueproximity.

The firm I work for requires every employee to lock his/her laptop with a screensaver/lock whenever you walk away from it. Most firms do nowadays. And every now and then comliance checks are carried out.

Last week we had some compliance officers on our floors and I tend to forget to lock my machine up when I go for a coffee. Soo... I could use something to automate that process for me.

The usual thing you'd do is set up a screensaver timer based upon keyboard/mouse activity. But when you're on a conference call or just talking to someone, it would lock up whenever you didn't want it to.

Furthermore, a laptop can't tell when you walk away to lock up for you, so the 30 minutes interval you had set for the screensaver lock kicked in just 14 minutes and 27 seconds late for the compliance officer check...

But... you're laptop can tell if you've gone away. It can even tell if you've walked away more than, say, 7 meters for more than 10 seconds and lock up for you. And upon you're return, say if you get closer than 4 meters for a second, unlock you're machine again for you.

How, you ask? With Blueproximity (available for you through synaptic). Pair your telephone through bluetooth to your laptop and your laptop will be able to tell if you've gone or jst returned and lock/unlock your laptop for you.

One caveat though: always wear your phone close to you and don't leave it next to your laptop when you do get a coffee...