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Monday, September 10, 2012
Thursday, September 6, 2012
My Macbook Pro Was Possessed!
Today was the weirdest day. I was sitting at my desk and was working on my pc. I also had my Macbook Pro open and about halfway through the day I noticed that strange foreign music was playing out of it. At certain moments the screen kept changing. I almost freaked out when I saw the pink screen of death flash for a moment. Pictures were flashing up that I had nothing to do with anything I had on the computer and I really thought that it was possessed. I started thinking about a when I could fit a trip into the apple store, but after a few minutes the activity stopped. All was fine for a little while. A few hours later I received a phone call from the main campus and it was a woman who told me that she could see my MacBook Pro come up on her iPhone when she tapped her home button three times from the locked position. She said she noticed it in a meeting and that everyone in the room could see it on their phones as well. They noticed a square with a triangle on it and when they tapped it they could see my computer name. 
I tried it out myself with my iPhone and realized it was happening there too. I immediately checked my sharing settings in system preferences and they were off. I checked my bluetooth and shut that off. It was still there on my phone. I could not see anything on the phone, just the listing that my computer was there. I closed all my programs out and restarted my computer.
It took me an hour to figure out I left my AirServer on and anyone on the same wireless account with an ipad or iphone could start broadcasting to my Macbook Pro. The people in the meeting were broadcasting al their iphone stuff to my Macbook Pro all day. Unbelievable.
In case you do not know what AirServer is, it is an affordable app ($14.99 for 5 downloads) that you download to your computer so that you can Mirror broadcast your iphone or ipad to whatever computer is on the same wireless connection. No dongle is needed to mirror on a laptop or macbook if they have the app on them. HOWEVER, if you fail to shut it off, other people can also broadcast on your computer. I was a mile down the road, but sharing the same wireless connection because it was networked. I am so relieved I do not have to contact the Vatican or the Apple store, I simply have to remember to quit when I am done mirroring. I can see how easy it is to have students share their ipads while in a classroom, but they can also take over if they like unless their teachers remember to quit AirServer.
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