If some guy had my MacBook, and I did this, I would generally include details like, I don't know, my name and contact email or phone number. You know, so the Mayor's office or Police Department PR people could reach out to me, or others might help me ("hey - that's Joe from Flat 3") retrieve it.
Unless, this guy had my MacBook in a viral ad campaign that is.
Edit: Here's the owner of the MacBook http://twitter.com/#!/jmk He seems real, but he does work for an agency that specialises in interactive ad campaigns.
Josh is a real guy, I've been friends with him for a long, long time. He's completely legit and this situation is very real, and he did file a report first thing. I think he threw the site up without knowing how big it'd get.
I'm the owner of the tumblelog, This Guy Has My MacBook, and the one whose MacBook was stolen. All I can say is that it's not a marketing stunt, and I'm not collaborating with Hidden in any way. I'm simply mentioning Hidden because it's the only reason the tumblelog is possible.
The Snopes addict in me always goes looking for the verifiable facts, which is what led me to your (very real) Twitter account. Wish I'd dug further and found your HN id as well!
Now, this could still end up being marketing and the world may still Rapture on Oct 21. But if Hidden weren't your client before this, they should be afterwards.
I also know the owner (http://twitter.com/jmk) - it's definitely real, and not an ad campaign :), though I do appreciate the skeptic instinct.
He's been posting off/on to his personal FB/Flickr accounts about the stolen laptop saga for a few months now, and mentioned setting something like this up to try and get some attention after he pretty much exhausted all his other avenues. Looks like that part worked :)
Hope someone recognizes the scumbag (if he turns out the be the thief that is...)
Yeah, my first instinct is that it's really a pure ad campaign.
I'm also really surprised that hiddenapp.com didn't link to this blog on their splash page. Let's say you build an app and someone use it and popularize it, would you link to it on your frontpage? Of course; that'll give you even more credibility. It probably doesn't link to it mainly because they don't want to be associated with this ad campaign.
This has been done a few times legitimately, I wouldn't be surprised at all if someone started emulating a legitimate trend for advertising purposes... In fact I'd say we're about due for it.
The 'this app is awesome' comments, and the prominent FB like / Twitter plugs kind of lend credence to the theory too.
Unless, this guy had my MacBook in a viral ad campaign that is.
Edit: Here's the owner of the MacBook http://twitter.com/#!/jmk He seems real, but he does work for an agency that specialises in interactive ad campaigns.