Laser Etching a Laptop

ptorrone writes "I didn't really plan using a $20,000 laser cutter on my 17" PowerBook to etch a 19th-century engraving of a tarsier, a nocturnal mammal related to the lemur (also the vi book cover), but it seemed like it had to done. The results are stunning..."

TIger

[klaasb]

Why not choose the tiger from this O'reailly book??
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/mactigerpg/index.ht ml [oreilly.com]

Would have made more sense to me anyway.

Why a tarsier?

[Fitzghon]

Why didn't you etch his Noodliness, the Flying Spaghetti Monster?

Fitzhon

Warranty...

[BBCWatcher]

...voided?

Re:Copyright

[WindBourne]

O'Reilly has more of a clue than most companies. I suspect that they are sitting back and thinking that they just got free advertisement and will have more as the laptop gets exposed.

Kind of like all the penguins that everybody is selling for Xmas. That will help Linux as most will think that Tux looks similar.

Make mine vintage Betty Page

[bobalu]

If you're going to all that trouble you might as well make it worthwhile!

the tricks that can be played on eyes...

[escay]

is it just me or does it look like the tarsier is looking away in the last (different lighting) photo of TFA?!

Tatoos for the Laptop

[JFaclcon]

I think it's actually a pretty cool idea. Even if a person had a $20k machine, if they charged someone $100 just to tatoo their laptop with their favorite image, they would have it paid for only after 200 customers, which I'm sure there are at least 200 geeks out there willing to shell out a hundred bucks to have their favorite image etched on their little portable. Kudos for that idea.

Re:Now, I have to wonder...

[ScrewMaster]

What would make more sense, from a business standpoint, is to provide the service to large corporations that supply laptops to their employees. Etch the company's corporate logo onto the laptop, along with a phone number to call for a reward. Unlike an adhesive sticker, this can't be removed and would make a stolen computer a hell of a more difficult sell, assuming a thief would even bother with it in the first place.

Re:Copyright

[AtomicBomb]

One more piece of trivia: the cover page woodcut animals featuring in front of the OReilly books are from the Dover Pictorial Archives. It is a collection of 18th to 19th century wood and copperplate engravings of animals, ie no copyright issue to care about... In fact, the students in my former research group get used to choose one from the archive as well as a decoration for their own thesis. Many university/art school libraries have that collection. Feel free to use them when need a drawing of some cute animal.

http://www.oreilly.com/news/lejeune_0400.html [oreilly.com]

Re:Etching provides security.

[sammy baby]

An Apple Powerbook isn't a car. Laptops are much less likely to be stolen for the purposes of selling off the pieces than they are to be stolen for the purposes of selling whole (or keeping).

Re:Few to no reasons to be concerned about the las

[Anonymous Coward]

Sorry, you're totally wrong. I hate slashdot: people post what sounds like authoritative information and it's modded to 5 regardless of its accuracy.

My company has a laser cutter that I use frequently. I have used it for both cutting and etching. You can adjust its power output over about a 2-order-of-magnitude range. Depending on the material, some power levels etch and others cut.

There's no such thing as a "cutting" vs "etching" laser. The laser's effect depends on the material. The same power setting that etches acrylic will cut cardboard. The same setting that etches metal will cut acrylic.

Laser

[BrotherBlades]

The machine he used to do this is actually really cool. Basically an old-fashioned plotter with a medium power laser attached to it. Actually the first laser engravers were modified Roland plotters that someone decided to bolt a laser onto. Cool hack if there ever was one.

I've been a programmer for ten years, but recently invested in one of these machines as a bit of a sideline. I couldn't resist having my own laser.. now if only I could get shark-mounted ones then I would be really happy!!

I haven't been brave enough to put my laptop into the machine, but maybe now I'll try. :) I'm thinking maybe engraving an image of a Commodore 64 or maybe a VAX logo into it would be good..... or possibly just "DON'T TOUCH!" in 4 inch high letters. :)

Another thing that looks great to run through a laser engraver are regular computer cases. The laser basically vaporizes the powder coat on the case, leaving bare metal for a really high-contrast effect. Our company, INSIGNO http://www.insigno.ca/ [insigno.ca] (shameless plug) has done a couple of these for casemodders and they looked really great when they were done.

Eve

[Murgalon]

Not very creative. I would have done an image of Eve holding the apple (logo).