@doctorow:twitter  I mentioned this to you at CCC!

Much like the UGrokIt folks, my motivation for developing this system is mostly personal. To quote their site: “U Grok It was born as a way to reduce our family stress over all the everyday items that go missing just when you need them.”

I’ve been a 3-4 season commuter cyclist in Washington for the past few years and I’ve found a ‘spectacles, testicles, wallet, and watch’-ish routine somewhat incapable for the variety of trips I take (school, work, short). Sure I can rememember (most of) the basics (wallet, keys, emergency kit, phone, lock, water bottle, change of shoes, pocket knife, lighter) most of the time, but in society it’s tricky for me to have a worry-free, healthy day without each of those. And that’s not counting the extra stuff I need.

Of course I’m not saying there aren’t issues with this system (or probably any system like it). Security, losing the phone itself, hefty addon hardware, actual usefulness are the obvious ones and have been stated earlier. But I do think that keeping track of personal items is an interesting problem and this is a fair shake at a solution.

 I honestly can’t see any one of the demonstrated use cases without laughing.  Lose your keys? Try leaving them in the same place every time. The stuffed animal? Seriously!?  I don’t even get the girl w/the gym bag use case, and that biz traveler is an idiot.  I don’t need a device to do the “last sweep to remember where I placed everything in the hotel I’ve been at ONE freaking night”.  I wouldn’t trust that man with my corporate merger! He might forget where the assets and liabilities were placed.

Locating your mobile phone, so you can use it to find whatever else you’ve lost. 

I’d like a version that doesn’t require a phone.

…the nearly pointless land-line phone in his hotel room

By nearly pointless do you mean pointless unless you want to order room service, query reception about the noisy renovation work which has just woken you up, confirm with reception that the fire alarm was a false alarm without getting out of bed, contact a guest in a different room when you are in a hotel abroad or be cheaply contacted by friends and family when you are in a hotel abroad?