Satellites beat ID chips for recovering lost pets

Roving gangs target walkers at Jamaica Pond and in South Boston. The Turnpike Authority traps motorists before empty tollbooths. Kentucky Fried Chicken offers to fill potholes with ads - and people think it's a good idea.

And now, according to the JP people I know, packs of coyotes command wide swaths of Forest Hills Cemetery, where they target domestic dogs for dinner or for recruitment.

If he could swing the cost of a new GPS unit, I am sure my buddy John, who lives near Forest Hills Station, would be the first to attach one of the devices to his dog's collar.

The RFID chip implanted under your dog's skin or attached to his collar will not do the same job as a GPS unit. A microchip will help identify your pet. But it will not help you track the animal as it races through the Arboretum. For that, you'll need SpotLight, which the American Kennel Club will begin selling next month for about $250.

In most cases, you should be able to locate your dog almost instantly with SpotLight (www.pawgps.com). It can even provide turn-by-turn instructions if your dog is loose or has been abducted.

You can create a "safe zone" perimeter for Fido (such as your yard). SpotLight will alert your mobile phone if the GPS unit crosses that boundary.

The initial cost includes lifetime enrollment in the AKC's Companion Animal Recovery Service (www.akccar.org), which will help your pup's rescuers track you down - but only after they've actually found the dog.

To use SpotLight, you will need to pay a monthly fee, expected to be about $5.

Music and Technology

Can't find a local drummer? No problem

The Doors stumbled into each other in Venice Beach.

But tomorrow's genius bands might form over the Internet, through something like the Ondo, an instrument recorder, mixing board, and mobile phone - all rolled into one bendy and twisty handset.

The Ondo is a bit like the Tonium Pacemaker, the hand-held turntable for DJs who like to travel ultralight. But the Ondo also has three detachable flash memory sticks, which you can clip to an instrument you want to record.

This way, a drummer in Dayton can hook up with a bassist in Berlin and a producer in St. Petersburg.

The musicians can record their sessions separately, clip their flash drives back into their Ondos or their PCs, via USB, and share and mix their music with a third Ondo user.

The Ondo's flexible materials will allow a DJ to alter the music by touching, bending, and twisting the device.

The creators of the Ondo concept, the European ID firm Pilotfish (www.pilotfish.eu), has designed products for Asus, Logitech, and Siemens. The company says most of the Ondo's technologies will soon be mass produced.

But the makers of one of those technologies, OLEDs (for organic light emitting diodes), continue to report problems and delays with their manufacture.