SETI Turns Up Stolen Laptop, Still No Sign Of Aliens

The SETI(at)home program has failed to turn up any intelligible alien signals in the background noise that is the universe, but the good news is that it is apparently able to help one track thieves and recover stolen laptops.

A laptop running SETI was stolen from the home of software engineer James Melin, with the thieves making off with several screenplays and novels his wife had been working on. Melin set to work trying to track the laptop, which he managed by keeping an eye on the SETI IP address log. Three times the stolen laptop connected to the SETI servers, still doing its faithful number crunching job, and Melin recorded the IP address each time.

He then passed on this information to the local police, who subpoenaed the internet provider to give them the real-world location of the IP addresses. One SWAT operation later and the laptop was recovered, though no suspects were to be found. It seems that SETI once again has fallen just short of finding even vaguely intelligent life out there or, indeed, down here.

Apparently the thieves, or whomever owned the stolen laptop during its time away from its proper home, put some horrendous rap music onto the machine, though they didn’t break into his wife’s email or private folders.

"I always knew that a geek would make a great husband," she told AP. "He always backed up all my data, but this topped it all. It became like `Mission : Impossible’ for him, looking for hard evidence for the cops to use. ... He’s a genius - my hero."