I think my flatmate might be stealing my food

[ergot]

This is a very strange request, but I think my flatmate is stealing my food. "Just ask him!" you say? The circumstances are very strange at the moment and asking him is just not an option. Its not much food, just some slices of bread, eggs, condiments that sort of thing, but I want to find out ... and had a cheeky idea.

I have a pocketpc with a camera on it and lots of storage. I can record up to about 4 hours, and want to accidentally leave it in our kitchen recording so I can see if hes got the munchies, but when I lock the screen, the camera stops recording. In fact, when i try to launch anything the camera stops recording...

I cant just leave it recording in case he figures out what I am doing (very bad thing), so I need some advice on what to do...

I am not desperate, i mean its kind of a novelty really so I don't want to spend lots of money or go to great lengths, but before I give up I thought I would ask a bunch of techie people like you guys if you had any suggestions.

My phone is running Windows 2003 second edition version 4.21.1088 (build 14132). Its a pretty chunky device and is called a "Harrier" which seems to be a private brand for our countries phone provider (Telecom).

Thanks guys! help me bust this snack thief.

[ctmagnus]

What I would do is plan to eat out every meal for a week or so and lace all my food in the fridge with a good amount of castor oil. :mrgreen:

[OneAngryDwarf]

People here know what the harrier is. It's made by HTC. Sorry I don't have any advice for your problem except to eat his food. Use his mobile phone minutes too. Also put saran wrap on his toilet seat so he'll get a nice splashy surprise. Besides that, we know what the "harrier" is.

[martin_ayton]

Also put saran wrap on his toilet seat so he'll get a nice splashy surprise.

Ahh, memories. When I was at university, there were some industrial chemists in my hall of residence. One of their 'friends' got them with the saran wrap thing (over here, we call it 'cling film') and they got their own back in an inventive way: They got some polymer chips which rapidly expand to several hundred times their starting volume when in contact with water and taped them inside the bowl of the toilet - out of sight but definitely in the line of fire of the flush... . Watching their 'friend' being chased out of the toilet by a floor-to-ceiling wall of foam was sweet revenge :devilboy:

Childish, I know, but very, very funny.

[hamishmacdonald]

I know it may not be the technical solution you're looking for, but...

Talk to him.

It may feel difficult and awkward and "Why should I have to do this?", but the sooner you clear the air, the better.

The best solution I've found is to talk from the position of making a request (e.g. "I've noticed some food going missing, so, however that happened, I realised I should clear up my position on groceries -- which is that I'd prefer we shop separately and not eat each other's food.").

The worst way to go about it, and the best way to ruin your home-life, is to set traps and test him and gather evidence to confront and blame him, while you silently seethe away.

Usually when people do something that irks us, they aren't doing it with malicious intent. They're actually not thinking about us at all.

[Constant Caffeine]

Well this is not a PDA solution, but it is software nonetheless.

http://www.gotchanow.com/

[Sven Johannsen]

Asking is not going to be near as awkward as explaining the clandestine surveillance.

[Guest979]

Maybe you could find a case/cardboard/random object that you could put over the screen? I'm not sure how your PDA is shaped, or if that would block the camera.

[ergot]

Thanks for your replies guys! I knew some of you would take the just talk to him approach, but I assure you the circumstances are so incredibly obscure that it is simply not an option, for now anyway. I wont get into the depth of the situations so just take my word for it.

I was thinking, when i use the system screen lock and have the time set to 0, it asks for the password once the device is turned on, so if I had it so he needed to turn the device off before he can see whats on the screen that could work?

Any other ideas?

Much appreciated!

[Constant Caffeine]

I was thinking, when i use the system screen lock and have the time set to 0, it asks for the password once the device is turned on, so if I had it so he needed to turn the device off before he can see whats on the screen that could work?

I’m not sure if I understand you correctly. Using the software ‘Gotcha’, it does not require any user intervention when the camera detects motion. The software will record the movement until it stops. All data is saved to your hard drive. You can run the application minimized if you like.

Now if both you and your flatmate has access to the same computer, there be a problem. If you are running WINXP you could create user accounts which may solve the problem.

[Denis Khitrov]

What about something like Pocket Cotroller? But in this case you should be in the range of bluetooth abilities.