gallon. I never thought $3 would sound like a bargain, but today it
does. The rise in fuel costs has made some people consider alternate
commuting methods. Something I have adopted, as have many other
Americans, is the bicycle. It's good to see so many other cyclists
out there everyday, but there has been a downside. Bicycle thefts are
up here in Austin and around the country. If your bicycle were to be
stolen and the police recovered it, could you prove it was yours?
Your bicycle should have a serial number engraved in the frame at the
bottom where your pedals attach. You will need to provide this serial
number to police to recover your bike. If your bicycle does not have
a serial number you will need to engrave your driver's license number,
school ID number, Social Security number, etc. yourself. If you've
engraved the information yourself it should be straightforward to
recover your bicycle. Most of us know our Social Security number by
heart and could easily produce a driver's license or school ID. But
what about the serial number? Where did you write down? Did you
write it down? Could you find it when you need it? Could you
describe your bike to the police?
I was pondering all of the above last week when I remembered that
GMail isn't just an email provider. It's a fully indexed, taggable,
database full of meta data. I took several photographs of my bicycle
including a closeup of the serial number. I emailed these photos to
my GMail account. In the body of the email I entered the make, model,
description, and serial number of my bicycle. I hope I will never
need it. But if I do need it I know right where my information is. I
can very easily print out all the information I need or simply email
it to the police.
I plan to record all of my information information such as driver's
license number, passport number, credit card information, etc. and
send myself a GnuPG encrypted email. I'll be able to recover the
information quickly, but it's safe from prying eyes.
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