“It was surprising” that enough information was embedded in the machine to track her down, Maxwell said. More evidence of the sacrifice to privacy that comes with the digital soup we’re swimming in? Proof that the cloud is not a metaphor? You can find that by right-clicking on a song and going to “get info.” That brings up various pieces of data stored with the file - including, in this case, an e-mail address that served as the “Apple ID” on one of the tracks.įrom the e-mail, he was able to find a phone number using other databases and - voila. The Post’s Ryan Kellett knew enough about iPod technology to examine the digital “watermark” associated with each purchased iTunes track. “I will go to my grave saying Aerosmith is my favorite.” Despite some ribbing from friends about the “Glee” track, she said she felt the playlist was a good reflection of her personality: a born-in-the-’60s core with plenty of modern flavors. “This is what I listen to,” said Maxwell, who works at an international development company. Although some of the hip-hop and rap was courtesy of her two teenage sons, the Eminem tracks were her doing.Īnd Maxwell is also responsible for “Teenage Dream” from the cast of “Glee.”

“The owner is a dude aged 39-42,” offered 0073, while jonmiller1 got more specific: “a college-educated Caucasian female in her 20s with Appalachian heritage.”Īctually, the owner is Miami-born Maxwell, 47, who was walking her dog on the Silver Spring trail and lost the Shuffle just before she turned off to go back to her neighborhood.Īs the guesses indicate, you can’t really judge a book by its cover when it comes to mining playlists for clues to character. Likely to be white, educated and sporty,” RubyRedbag commented. That drew plenty of guesses, none correct. They posted the playlist online and challenged readers to identify the owner based on the music. To help track down the owner, some of my Web-savvy colleagues offered to play along in a little armchair anthropology. The thing had a personality - annoying at first, when Eminem came blaring through, but more subtle when Cake, Shirley Bassey and Florence and the Machine followed along.

How to find lost ipod