Ben Heck's PS3 Slim Laptop 84
We've occasionally discussed Ben Heckendorn's various console modifications, and he's now come out with a new one: a laptop version of the PS3 Slim. It has volume control buttons for the built-in speakers, and plenty of vents for cooling. The display is a 17" widescreen panel, and the Slim's hardware doesn't fill that much space in the case, so there's a neat little compartment for the power cord. Ben's blog post shows details of the laptop's construction.
Re:Small briefcase is more like it (Score:2, Insightful)
We called those luggables back in the days.
Re:Is he selling these on eBay afterward? (Score:3, Insightful)
However, while the market might be there, I suspect that, once tapped, he couldn't hold out for long. 1 guy, using more or less standard home modding methods(albeit applied with competence substantially above average), doing bespoke pieces would have a hard time competing with a smallish pro outfit doing larger runs at somewhat lower prices, with the benefit of actual machine tools, and parts you can only (cheaply) buy in lots of 100, and possibly rework kit above the level of a soldering iron and strong nerves.
Re:Is he selling these on eBay afterward? (Score:4, Insightful)
I would agree with you that it would be difficult to make good money on this as a career move, but he could possibly make a decent amount of extra income (on top of his day job) through doing custom jobs. He would have to charge above the odds to make each individual job it worth his while, but as he would be serving a small niche this wouldn't be unreasonable.
Of course he may be of the attitude that he does not want to take money for this, as it is his hobby and he might not want his hobby to become a chore (even if it is a chore that earns him money).
Re:is it discreet enough? (Score:3, Insightful)
Because real laptops cannot possibly run games.
I must be getting old.
But Does It Run Linux? (Score:2, Insightful)
The original ("fat") PS3s all included an option for the PS3 hypervisor to host an "OtherOS", like Linux, instead of booting into the GameOS. PS3 Linux was a PPC distro running on the Cell's 2.4GHz PPC CPU core, with access to the bus, 6 of 7 working DSPs and other devices (but not the RSX GPU) through drivers and filesystem mapping APIs. I could run Ubuntu on the PS3, install a driver and use mplayer to watch full HD movies from the hard drive or streaming from a network fileserver. I could program the Cell, including its SPUs, in a familiar environment.
The PS3 Slim has removed OtherOS support from its hypervisor. So it can't run Linux. So it's not really a "laptop", except that it can sit on top of your lap.
Re:He should have... (Score:1, Insightful)
It's you who needs to read the damn article. It is a PS3 Slim, or heck, just look at the link (http://benheck.com/10-01-2009/ps3-slim-laptop#more-697), that itself tells you it is a PS3 slim.