Well, into another adventure. The fellow that passed away last year has a PC that they can't get passed the PW. Justin was always very security conscious. Unfortunately, he didn't tell anyone what they were. I got asked to see if I could get in. I knew nothing about what operating system it had on so when it arrived at my door, I found it was an HP and originally had Win7 on it, but the battery was dead and no power cord. I told them they needed to find the cord.
It took about a week but finally I could fire it up. Surprise, surprise, he had Fedora installed, one of the Unix based systems. Which version? Who knows, but I do know I know nothing about the software. Then they brought up that he had bought bitcoin, something else I know nothing about other than it's got its own security.
Now it's dropped off of its highs of $17-18,000 per coin, but it's still in the $7500 area so there could be some money there, if we can figure out how to access it. Heck, a hundred dollars worth bought early would be quite a bit. So as I hit obstacles, I figured I ought to start asking questions. Before I get too far here, I need to back up.
This is my live in's sister that I don't like a whole lot. A few weeks ago she wanted me to help her with getting a renunciation for for his wife to sign for his estate. I had no idea what she was up to and I definitely was worried about it. I let his wife know that if she brought her the form, she shouldn't sign it and should talk to the lawyer that I took them to for other legal work. Unfortunately she didn't listen to me and signed it which means that anything discovered now would not be his wife and children.
So I was questioning her this morning since even a hundred dollars in bitcoin could be a sizable fortune today. According to her, he started buying in 2010 and had invested not $100, but $1000 in bitcoin. Here's where it gets bizarre. The highest price for bitcoin in 2010 was something like $.34 and it never hit a dollar until Feb 2011. If he had an average price of fifty cents per bitcoin and $1000 invested, the value today at around $7k per would be fourteen million dollars. Could be considerably more if he bought even $200 worth in 2010 at pennies on the dollar. Say he bought $200 worth at fifteen cents, that would be over $9m.
All sitting in the hands of that woman if what she believes is true and the PC and bitcoin security can be cracked.
It took about a week but finally I could fire it up. Surprise, surprise, he had Fedora installed, one of the Unix based systems. Which version? Who knows, but I do know I know nothing about the software. Then they brought up that he had bought bitcoin, something else I know nothing about other than it's got its own security.
Now it's dropped off of its highs of $17-18,000 per coin, but it's still in the $7500 area so there could be some money there, if we can figure out how to access it. Heck, a hundred dollars worth bought early would be quite a bit. So as I hit obstacles, I figured I ought to start asking questions. Before I get too far here, I need to back up.
This is my live in's sister that I don't like a whole lot. A few weeks ago she wanted me to help her with getting a renunciation for for his wife to sign for his estate. I had no idea what she was up to and I definitely was worried about it. I let his wife know that if she brought her the form, she shouldn't sign it and should talk to the lawyer that I took them to for other legal work. Unfortunately she didn't listen to me and signed it which means that anything discovered now would not be his wife and children.
So I was questioning her this morning since even a hundred dollars in bitcoin could be a sizable fortune today. According to her, he started buying in 2010 and had invested not $100, but $1000 in bitcoin. Here's where it gets bizarre. The highest price for bitcoin in 2010 was something like $.34 and it never hit a dollar until Feb 2011. If he had an average price of fifty cents per bitcoin and $1000 invested, the value today at around $7k per would be fourteen million dollars. Could be considerably more if he bought even $200 worth in 2010 at pennies on the dollar. Say he bought $200 worth at fifteen cents, that would be over $9m.
All sitting in the hands of that woman if what she believes is true and the PC and bitcoin security can be cracked.
Wow Roth! Let me get this straight, the wife signed a paper so the mother now gets whatever money is discovered? What the heck was she thinking?
She's the one that doesn't comprehend everything she's told, came over from Laos at 12 or 13 and went thru the Philly school system in age equivalent grades. She didn't even speak English when she arrived. I tried to get her to speak to the attorney, even gave the attorney a heads up to expect a call. Why she didn't listen to me is a good question.
I doubt she had any idea of what she might be giving up. I'd like to believe that her kids would be well taken care of by grand mom if this thing ever gets resolved. In anyone else's hands, I'd have no issue. However, I don't trust her as far as I could throw her and, these days, that wouldn't be far.
CDs are coming home sometime tonight so there may be some information in there. If I can get into the PC and find anything that gives a picture of what's there, I might need to get in the middle of this.
I doubt she had any idea of what she might be giving up. I'd like to believe that her kids would be well taken care of by grand mom if this thing ever gets resolved. In anyone else's hands, I'd have no issue. However, I don't trust her as far as I could throw her and, these days, that wouldn't be far.
CDs are coming home sometime tonight so there may be some information in there. If I can get into the PC and find anything that gives a picture of what's there, I might need to get in the middle of this.
Disks were a bust, either totally blank or old XP Win7 stuff. Think they may have been from his job because there was enterprise stuff. I'm guessing he has to have a Thumb drive somewhere if it hasn't gotten thrown away.
I did find other avenues than the PC since, even if I get into the PC, I might not be able to access his bitcoin wallet unless he saved his credentials somewhere. I found an article that if they can find transactions from his bank account, they might be able to then contact who the money went to and get access that way.
I did find other avenues than the PC since, even if I get into the PC, I might not be able to access his bitcoin wallet unless he saved his credentials somewhere. I found an article that if they can find transactions from his bank account, they might be able to then contact who the money went to and get access that way.
roth...I like my banner...which I really only use on ECF for me....to remind me how long I've been on this "vaping adventure"...
(And...to put things into perspective when buying vape gear...by looking at "Money Saved".)
It lists "Years/Months/Days"...rather than "Total Days"...(I'm too lazy to mentally divide days by 365)...
Also it does NOT waste a line for "# Cigarettes Avoided"....Who Cares???
If you want to use it...just click on it...
..
Thanks. The one I have now seems to be working and I use it the same way, to keep track of money saved and cigarettes avoided.
That is a QUITE colorful banner, roth, and I noticed that it's also available in multiple other colors...
But...I'm perplexed what "Vaping Since 15/02/2010" means...(or is that the way Green Lane-ers write dates?)...
..
..
Actually, that's the way most of the world writes the date dd/mm/yy. In fact, I think the US is the only country that uses mm/dd/yy.
Except to see less of me, I'm tired of all of the ad's.
I WILL also be dropping my supporting membership when it expires, if they need money to run the site, then they can get it from all the popup ad's they are running.
I WILL also be dropping my supporting membership when it expires, if they need money to run the site, then they can get it from all the popup ad's they are running.
Except to see less of me, I'm tired of all of the ad's.
I WILL also be dropping my supporting membership when it expires, if they need money to run the site, then they can get it from all the popup ad's they are running.
Strange, I don't get any pop ups in here.
I only get pop ups if I’m not logged in. They were doing pop ups for the current contest.
That would explain it, I'm logged in all the time. I have my standard sights all open continuously for ease of access.
I think I've solved the bit coin mystery. His wife provided me with a lot of information and a Toshiba USB external drive. I found three files on there with one that provided a link to Blockchain. A few guesses on what the user name and password was on two of the files and I was in. Rather than a fortune, I found 7 bitcoins worth about $50k. There were a couple transfers als0 and when I worked on the second file. I got in that one also and it had a zero balance and two transactions that matched the other account so he took the contents of that wallet and put it in the other. These were transactions from 2013.
The third file had his mothers name on it and similar userid and pw info with a file name "AP_info". I tried various (all) combinations in Blockchain but no luck so what that might lead to is a mystery.
The interesting thing was in his email from '011. He apparently was trying to buy $300 worth from someone in Canada. The value of those would have been in the millions, however there was only one email and it was for a wire transfer. Whether he ever completed it is the question. I'm hoping he just decided not to follow thru as my tracking on the company led to a 1 star rating and people complaining about never hearing anything after they sent their money.
He might have gotten screwed and never told anyone he lost his money. All in all, finding $50k and another $750 in Paypal and it was a decent day.
I think I've solved the bit coin mystery. His wife provided me with a lot of information and a Toshiba USB external drive. I found three files on there with one that provided a link to Blockchain. A few guesses on what the user name and password was on two of the files and I was in. Rather than a fortune, I found 7 bitcoins worth about $50k. There were a couple transfers als0 and when I worked on the second file. I got in that one also and it had a zero balance and two transactions that matched the other account so he took the contents of that wallet and put it in the other. These were transactions from 2013.
The third file had his mothers name on it and similar userid and pw info with a file name "AP_info". I tried various (all) combinations in Blockchain but no luck so what that might lead to is a mystery.
The interesting thing was in his email from '011. He apparently was trying to buy $300 worth from someone in Canada. The value of those would have been in the millions, however there was only one email and it was for a wire transfer. Whether he ever completed it is the question. I'm hoping he just decided not to follow thru as my tracking on the company led to a 1 star rating and people complaining about never hearing anything after they sent their money.
He might have gotten screwed and never told anyone he lost his money. All in all, finding $50k and another $750 in Paypal and it was a decent day.
Why is everything an issue? My gf was blowing some leaves as I cut down a few trees and she tells me the trigger on the Echo blower is "stuck". Now this is maybe a three year old blower. So I stop what I'm doing and look for a YouTube on getting to it. Of course nothing for my model so I have to wing it.
I end up having parts and bolts all over the drive and still can't get to the linkage as the carb is in the way. Off with the carb or at least loosened since the wire to the throttle needed to attach to the wire on the trigger. thru a "U" on the end.
The first thing I noticed was a small cable tie in the "U". Apparently that was the only thing holding the rod and the cable together. I put a cable tie back on it about the same size as what was originally there but after almost having it back together I had "repairer's remorse". I kind of wish I would have tries something bigger since the small one didn't hold originally.
However, even more importantly, couldn't they have engineered something a bit more full proof?
I end up having parts and bolts all over the drive and still can't get to the linkage as the carb is in the way. Off with the carb or at least loosened since the wire to the throttle needed to attach to the wire on the trigger. thru a "U" on the end.
The first thing I noticed was a small cable tie in the "U". Apparently that was the only thing holding the rod and the cable together. I put a cable tie back on it about the same size as what was originally there but after almost having it back together I had "repairer's remorse". I kind of wish I would have tries something bigger since the small one didn't hold originally.
However, even more importantly, couldn't they have engineered something a bit more full proof?
For as much as those cost I would think there could have been a better design than a tie.
I agree Hitt. I thought about it after I vented last night and how difficult it was to replace the tie, since there wasn't a lot of working area. My first thought was, if they had built the trigger rod with the "U" upside down, I don't think the cable tie would have been needed. Then I thought, what if the person on the assembly line actually installed the trigger rod incorrectly and used the cable tie to save the time of fixing their mistake?
If I have to disassemble it again, I'm going to figure out how to expose the other end of the rod to see if it might have been installed in the trigger the wrong way. The more I thought about it, the more that thought made sense.
If I have to disassemble it again, I'm going to figure out how to expose the other end of the rod to see if it might have been installed in the trigger the wrong way. The more I thought about it, the more that thought made sense.
That very well could be what happened. I get equipment in once in a while where the customer tried to fix it before sending it to me. I had one last week where they hooked up some wires wrong and ruined a $700 circuit board.
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