Theft update: Some progress

[thatcrazycajun]

Was able to get most of my meds replaced; unfortunately, my insurer will not reimburse for lost or stolen drugs. And I am going to see my doctor for a new prescription next week.

Shopping around now for a replacement laptop below $800. Recommendations extremely welcome. Will also have to replace cell phone charger; may as well see if I can upgrade the TracFone itself while I'm at it.

And they even got my copy of Bard II by Keith Taylor, part of a favorite series of mine, which I will now have to scrounge around used bookshops for, or else have shipped from a dealer through Amazon.

Have gotten passwords changed on all the most critical online web accounts; am still working on the rest. Holding together with hope, spit and baling wire.

And I spaced on watching last night's Heroes episode; need someone to get me a copy of it somehow.

Comments

[redaxe.livejournal.com]

Some places to check out that often have good deals on laptops:

Hot Deals Club
Cheap Stingy Bargains

I think both most often have Dell bargains, but do spot others. (In case you don't like the brand; I know some love it, some hate it.)

Also, Best Buy always seems to have a couple of laptops below $800; currently, there are four or five, if you look in their weekly ad. (Though my experience with their weekly deals is that you really do want to get them early in the week -- they start Sunday -- to avoid out-of-cheesestock errors.) I prefer BB to CompUSA largely because the latter relies on rebates to drive its prices down, whereas BB has eliminated rebates. Also, check the other big box electronics places near you; Fry's ought to be competitive.

Finally, you can always look online. I have found TigerDirect to be reputable, though you need to shop carefully. So is NewEgg. And of course, you can use Price Watch, which has links to and lists of lowest priced goods.

Watch Heroes on NBC's site: http://www.nbc.com/Heroes/video/episodes.shtml The left-hand icon (Nathan) is s02e11 ("Powerless"), yesterday's ep.

Good luck!

[autographedcat.livejournal.com]

I bought a nice Toshiba laptop at Best Buy for $549 a while back. It's not a power-user system, but I don't need it to be, since it's just a secondary/travel computer for me.

[mdlbear]

Dell has a couple -- go to their "small business" section and you can even get one with XP on it.

HP and Compaq (same company under the hood) also have some in that range.

If you can find one, I'd actually recommend a used IBM laptop.

[redaxe.livejournal.com]

I love the real IBM laptops. But they sold to Lenovo long enough ago now that if you want current or close to current tech, you can't find it in IBM-branded. (At least, that I know of; I'm certainly not an expert.)

[mdlbear]

Last time I looked, IBM was still selling Lenovo laptops as Thinkpads. There's also a line of Lenovo-branded laptops that I'm not familiar with.

Whether you need current tech or not depends a lot on what you use it for: if it's games or Photoshop, you need current (and HP has some AMD 64X2-based lappies for cheap). If all you're doing is web browsing and text, older is fine.

[redaxe.livejournal.com]

Ah. I was specifically distinguishing between IBM-built and Lenovo-built; I don't have experience on the Lenovo, but had heard that the quality took about a half-notch downturn from IBM's machines.

Yes, on everything you said about current tech. I'd just add that for an outlay on the order of $600-$800, I'd want to be as current as possible, because I don't want to be spending that much every year or two. I'm looking at a laptop in 2008, and I'd hope it would carry me four or five years, even doing 2D graphics (Photoshop, Corel Draw (I'm playing with Inkscape as a replacement, because I don't know how many more versions Corel will have), etc., which is both a hobby and part of my profession).

[mdlbear]

Actually, Lenovo was the main manufacturer for Thinkpads even when they were IBM-branded. Few, if any, were ever built in factories owned directly by IBM.

[dsthomas.livejournal.com]

You can also get a refurbished one at Dell.com

[sdorn.livejournal.com]

Getting a laptop below $800 should be easy: go to any big-box retailer and just check. Unless your stolen one was almost-new, it'll be better in capacity and performance... if you can get XP instead of Vista.

The leftmost guitar was a replacement for one that was stolen.

[robin-june.livejournal.com]

I've been ruminating on how similar (or not) the theft of a laptop would be to the theft of musical instruments (i.e., what I have past experience with).

Guitars and mandolins are "pawnables," in that I got some of them back by checking the area pawnshops (and music shops who thought they were pawnshops, but that's a whole 'nother long convoluted story). Our case's Burglary Dept. detective told us that instruments would usually get pawned really quickly, whereas microwave ovens would get used up by cooking crack cocaine. At the time, computers weren't as prevalently available as laptops as they are now, so I don't know the probable fate or location of your machine these days.

Is there any chance that your police dept's detective on your case can advise you of what would be the best direction for your own legwork?

[darrenzieger.livejournal.com]

Don't go without _any_ of your meds -- if there are any gaps, let Anne and I know and we'll help if we can.

[thatcrazycajun.livejournal.com]

Bless your heart and thank you both, though you two have such a row to hoe already I would hesitate to ask in any event.