Laptop Stolen/Need Help Translating From Paper Notes

[Wendy Stratton]

My laptops were stolen from my home office, among other things, of course. Luckily I was caught up on transcripts to an all-day job Thurs., which I had worked on Thurs. evening and Fri. morning. I'd even backed my work up to flash drive. Both gone! I do have my paper notes and would really like not to retype them into my RAM 2 if I can avoid it - 260 pages. Anyone know of a machine that reads paper notes? Other suggestions?

[Judy]

Wendy,

After reading your story, I picked up a subscription for Laptop LoJack. $29.99 for one year, if anybody's interested.

Judy

P.S. I'm on Oceanside.

[Stacy Bautista]

I might be chiming in a little late here. Have you tried contacting StenoDoctor or StenoTech? One of the places that sell used equipment might have one lying around and know where you can get one!

[Wendy Stratton]

No, I didn't. I was referred around to trainers and depo firms who might know of someone who had an old optical reader, but no one's seen them around for years.

[Janiece Young]

Can you retrieve the file from your writer? Did your writer have a disk that backed up the electronic file? Older Miras have floppy drives and another electronic card that backs up the files.
Good luck,
Janiece

[Wendy Stratton]

I have a StenoRam II, which works perfectly but does not write to a disk.

[Lance Boardman]

Just a thought for anyone to whom this happens. My notereader can read just about any stenotype forwards and backwards and standing on her head. She actually prefers to type from paper notes, if you can imagine that. I guess she likes the challenge. And she's really fast. We talked a while back about trying to market her abilities to people trying to transcribe steno from reporters who have died or situations like Wendy's.

If anyone ever needs her help, just LMK.

Lance

[Wendy Stratton]

Over the many years I've been reporting, I have very rarely mistakenly turned off my Ram II and lost jobs, thinking I'd already dumped my notes. Thankfully, very small jobs. Until now. So using realtime to retype a small job is usually not that big a deal. Not ideal, but not horrible. I retyped in this case. I was just looking to avoid it if at all possible due to its length. There is benefit to getting the job done this way. Good to know all avenues, like your notereader.

[Shelley Holmes]

Wendy, I suggest reading your own notes out load to a reporter friend and having them take them down on the machine to get you at least to the point where you are reading the english off the computer. Offer them a yummy dinner and make a night out of it. I've done it a few times....