A Notebook Story

I didn't know it was "in the general" public since I've been in the hospital. The police have just called my brother-in-law and let him know that it's been found. This was a T61p that was "maxed out" in every way, The best physical scenario is that they haven't messed with it phyically. If the OS is intact, the best scenario is that they haven't messed with the Finger Print reader. I'll be able to log right in. As long as it is a microsoft system I can deal with it. If it's a linux system...which I doubt, I'll be at a loss until I can get a microsoft system on it.

I'll keep you all informed. We had some lost systems on but we've never had a found system as far as I know.

-Renee

 

did part of that story get cut off?

 

Not that I know of Max. I did return and add two words to it. See if reads any better or you could ask what you are curious about.

Renee

 

I knew the hospital part, but didn't know your notebook was stolen. Besides the OS, which is easily fixed, I hope it's in good shape. It's always good to see a happy ending.

 

uhh...is a congratulations appropriate? I'm not real sure what is going on here.. Is there more to this story in some older posts or something?

 

yeh this story is not complete.

well everyone can make the assumption that this is a story about a stolen laptop thats high end. poorly phrased, but i can assume that much.

then you go on about windows versus linux which i dont understand.

anyway, i'm gonna make another assumption and say youre not a native english speaker.

edit: are you trying to say the thief, or "they" as you call it, would put linux on the system? how long has this thing been missing?

 

Thats great that you got it back. I'm actually really surprised it was recovered, maybe the thief had a change of heart or just likes macs better, lol.

 

I'm very happy to hear your laptop was found ! Here's to hoping it's in excellent condition !

 

Any idea how the laptop was able to be recovered(ex: people who stole it gave it back, cops found it someone reported it etc)?

 

I don't really know what is going on and can't really infer from the OP. But I too am curious how it was recovered if it was stolen. Computrace? Or perhaps selling it and the serial was reported stolen and somehow reported?

 

Sometimes the police catch a break.

I saw a Latitude D630 on Craigslist a year-and-a-half back. Price was right in-between "gotta get rid of it to pay tuition" and "too good to be true". Managed to get the Service Tag and Express Service code (so I could get specs from Dell's website) and found it had a 3-year warranty with CompleteCare, and then realized I'd tried purchasing a Macbook six months before that and got the same guy.

That put my antenna up, so I called Dell. Found the listed original owner through them (a church) and talked to their computer guy. It had been stolen a month before from a pastor who'd set it down in a college library.

Seller got squirrelly on me, even though I offered to show up and pay cash (I'd already talked to the police by then, and was trying to set up a "buy") and disappeared. The local police couldn't get him (encrypted e-mail account, etc.) but a nearby state university police force had more time on their hands. They called me a year later, and I gave them the info I had. They caught the guy with multiple laptops and had a confession inside of a couple of hours.


P.S. Hope you're doing okay, Renee!!! Sorry to hear of your troubles.

 

Well I am a native speaker and have been around, a lot longer than you, since before there were pcs and I worked for 30 years for Digital Equipment Corporation. But I'm willing to let you do my proofing.

LoneWolf, hello to you. The trouble was that you tried to buy a MacBook at all.

 

Wasn't for me personally. I sometimes buy laptops in need of love (if I can get a deal), repair/refurbish them, and sell them back out. A hobby, and one that pays for some of the small things, like my new ThinkPad.

I'm sort of the electronic version of an animal shelter that way.

 

Jaredy,
There was compuserve on the system but I don't think thats how they found it, because I didn't tell anyone it existed or was on the system. And thank you for not infering anything. I'll let you know what details the police disclose tomorrow, if they come in the AM. I have an appt in the PM to continue getting out of this nut house. (coloquilism)

 

Firesnake,
I doubt it was a romantic as you put it in any respect. It sure wasn't returned by the thieves. I suspect the police were tipped off by the land lady. So it was that kind of thing. The land lady had lots of troubles with these particular tenants after I was removed from the picture.
-Renee

 

I'm sorry to say that I'm still not totally clear on what happened here. OK your notebook was stolen a long time ago and recovered. But you mention something about being in the hospital? Hopefully you're doing better now?

It seems (to me) like everything you have posted was written as a short note to a small group of people who know wth is going on rather than complete thoughts. I feel like an outsider on a public forum because I don't know what you are talking about or who it was directed to. I don't want to go digging through your old posts to figure it out, anyone want to provide some CliffsNotes for me? And using the 'quote' button makes it easier to tell which post you are replying to.

Sorry, but this whole thread just confuses the hell out of me, so I was just looking for some clarification.

 

Well I may have something to clear your thinking.

Let me give a little background on me first. First of all Im from the VMS Cluster and I/O group from Digtal Equipment Corp. For 20 years while I was at Digital I was a VMS Engineer. I left after Windows V3.11 and was back in DC at the time Windows 95 came out.

I was hit by a car july 4th 2008 by an illegal alien. I am now crippled because I've had a tramatic brain injury and have a few more days in this hospital. I have Medicare/Medicaid. I was ready to leave in Feb but the SSN was not ready to move me yet.

I just found that COMPUTRACE was involved in the recovery of my computer. I got the note from my sister. My t61p had EVERYTHING including the fastest processors and computrace. Around November my sister reported that my notebook was stolen while I was still trying to utter groups of sentences. Computrace was how they tracked my stolen computer down. I haven't figured it out yet how computrace was involved but it was. I have a long note describing Computrace involevement but nothing on how they got involved. Perhaps I'll get more from the police if I see them tomorrow.

My point is professional people spare nothing when it comes to machinery. Thats why I got mine back. I bought the computer new from Ebay when Lenovo began to slip orders. It came with two years of insurance unfotunately. I say unfortunately because I would have bought the full amount if I could. Like I say, I'm the first two get a machine back as far as I know.

-Renee

 

wow that's a lot of info, sorry to hear it.

Looking forward to hearing more about the recovery, though.

 

Wow. Apparently I missed a lot in my absence from the forum. Let me say that I'm glad it doesn't seem to have affected your typing or cognitive skills, though I'm sure the healing process has been a long one. Have had several experiences with close friends with TBI, and it's never an easy process. I hope you're still getting the healing help you need.

I've never done much with VMS myself, other than dink around with it at the university a former girlfriend went to back in the mid-90's. Windows for Workgroups 3.11 was still in full stride, Windows NT 3.1 was shiny new (as were the Pentium 60/66MHz processors), and PowerPC 601 chips had just come around in the newest Macintoshes, along with MacOS 7.1.2 to support them. It seemed a little clunky at the time, but that was probably due as much to my puttering around with a CLI I'd never used, without anyone to teach me the ins and outs.

 

On the ends and outs.... I find there aren't any like windows has.

-Renee