Bloom Laptop Designed For Easy Disassembly 151
Zothecula writes "It's a given that we will one day be discarding our present laptop computers. It's also a given that e-waste is currently a huge problem, that looks like it's only going to get worse. While most of the materials in a laptop can be recycled, all of those pieces of glass, metal, plastic and circuitry are stuck together pretty tight, and require a lot of time and effort to separate. What is needed are laptops that are designed to be taken apart, for easy recycling – that's why a group of graduate students from Stanford University made one."
Easily swappable parts (Score:5, Insightful)
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Small, easily disassembled, cheap: pick 2.
Re:Easily swappable parts (Score:4, Informative)
Take a look at the Nohrtec Edubook, which is completely modular [youtube.com], mod'able, and which is often shipped to clients disassembled for them to assemble themselves. Mike Barnes intentionally created a netbook computer that can be torn down and repaired easily, targeted at developing countries. Very interesting model. Uses rechargeable AAs, too.
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At the risk of sounding pedantic, I think that "many" is a bit generous here. Yes, AA batteries are thicker than the Macbook Air, the Dell Adamo, probably a handful of Sony units, and I think there was an ultrathin Thinkpad released a year or two ago. All of the above have something in common: they were EXPLICITLY built to be as thin as possible, to the point where "it's ridiculously thin" was the primary selling feature.
By contrast, you could comfortably fit "C" size batteries into my XPS M1730; a round of
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In fact, to expound, if you tear apart most laptop battery packs, they contain rechargeable AA batteries...
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Small, Easily Disassembled, cheap, proprietary.
Pick any three. (FTFY)
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"Small, easily disassembled, cheap: pick 2."
Not necessarily. Desktop case form factors were both standard and cheap.
Nonstandard cases are good for vendor lock and to deter upgrades though. Anyone remember the Packard-Bell cases shaped like an inverted "T"? :)
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Not necessarily. Desktop case form factors were both standard and cheep.
But not small, even MiniITX can't get down to the sorts of sizes of things like an eeeBox or MacMini without a significant amount of expensive custom parts.
So you've only validated the GP's point – you chose cheap and easily disassembeled, but lost small.
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Anyone remember the Packard-Bell cases shaped like an inverted "T"?
Yes, and I can't fathom WHY Packard-Bell is no longer sold in the US.....
Oh yeah, that and the fact they sucked otherwise....
Re:Easily swappable parts (Score:5, Insightful)
Small, easily disassembled, cheap: pick 2.
Why?
The proper pattern is: Powerful, High Quality, Cheap, pick two.
The "easily disassembled" part is a function of a good design. As such, it falls under high quality. Small is also a function of the design, and as such falls under the high quality.
So you can have a small, easy to disassemble, powerful laptop, but it won't be cheap. You can have a small, easy to disassemble laptop for cheap, but it won't be powerful. You can have a cheap, powerful laptop but, depending on exactly how cheap it is, it won't be small or easy to disassemble or both.
The real trick here will be to get manufacturers to play along. Desktops are easy, having lots of space is a good thing. Laptops are harder, because leftover space is a bad thing, and a standardized format will invariably lead to wasted space for many designs.
In the long run, though, things would be a lot cheaper. We'd be spending $50 for a laptop case, $150 for a motherboard, $300 for that kickass new processor, and $150-$400 for the screen. We'll get a custom laptop market similar to the custom desktop market, and that will be very, very cool. In this scenario you could build a reasonably powerful laptop for $300-$400 if you chose last gen's components instead of the latest and greatest.
If we could get some kind of standardization in the laptop market it would be wonderful in my opinion.
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The "easily disassembled" part is a function of a good design. As such, it falls under high quality. Small is also a function of the design, and as such falls under the high quality.
Not necessarily. Apple's machines are generally very well designed but are generally a pain in the ass to dissemble and service. Similarly, there have been many crap machines that have been really easy to disassemble and service that I've owned with terrible designs.
The two are rarely related in terms of functional design and ease of disassemble when it comes to the average user.
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Not necessarily. Apple's machines are generally very well designed but are generally a pain in the ass to dissemble and service.
That depends on what you mean by "well designed". Apple's offerings look good, and are decently sturdy, sure. They aren't designed with serviceability in mind, though. If anything they're designed to be a pain in the ass to service, so that noone besides Apple service points will want to touch them.
There should be no reason why a laptop couldn't be well designed like an Apple, and easy to service. These are in no way mutually exclusive, which was the GP's point.
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There should be no reason why a laptop couldn't be well designed like an Apple, and easy to service.
When you say "easy to service", do you mean "easy to service by a trained individual with a proper toolset and work environment", or "easy to service by some random person who put a computer together once with a philips screwdriver and a kitchen table" ? Because these are *very* different design constraints.
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However, the modern iMacs only allow you to upgrade the RAM without special tools like giant suction cups.
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Exactly. It's a problem across many industries - just ask any auto mechanic. The people designing the product aren't thinking in terms of servicing the product.
Yes they are, they're just considering it as a secondary (well, tertiary or lower) priority to things like size, weight, battery life and "can pull it apart with nothing more than a pocket knife".
Which is generally a good engineering decision, when a machine spends 99.99% of its time as a laptop and 0.01% of its time disassembled on a workbench.
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You can't seriously compare a space-wasting AXT tower with most products made by Apple. Or compare oranges with oranges and use the Mac Pro as the Apple product to compare against your ATX tower.
The smaller and more portable you get, the more customs the parts are. Even then, changing the RAM in the new Mac mini is extremely easy, no tools required.
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OTOH Laptops a few ounces do make a
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And all that added up to be more than my Quad core i5 18" Nvidia gfx card monster I bought from toshiba.
Laptops are delicate, I dont want modular, I want cheap to replace. Otherwise I'd buy Panasonic toughbooks.
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In this scenario you could build a reasonably powerful laptop for $300-$400 if you chose last gen's components instead of the latest and greatest.
You can buy a reasonable powerful laptop today for $300-$400, with the added bonus that it's probably had at least a modicum of engineering effort put into making sure the whole package works together (cooling, power draw, etc)
There is only one type of person for whom building a computer vs buying something off the shelf is cheaper: those who have the requisite
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As long as laptops are judged almost exclusively on power-for-pound (or power-for-cubic inch), where power could refer to battery life or processor speed, this just plain won't happen.
Look what happened when Mac moved away from "standard" (if mac-specific) form factors for things like batteries - you get computers like the one I'm typing on, where I have 4.5 hours of development time, unplugged, without an increase in size or weight.
That's valued a lot more at the moment than disassembly is, rightly so - I
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Good point. If someone getting paid minimum wage has to spend an extra hour breaking down my old laptop *once* for recycling, and I get an extra hour or two a day of productive IT work at much-more-than-minimum-wage out of it for three years of use... focusing on saving time at the breakdown point presents a skewed vision of the value of the time involved in manufacture, use, and disposal of the laptop.
Number of times I've had to crack open whichever laptop I've owned during the ~9 years I've owned one: 2
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It's one of the few areas where market forces actually works. You just have to make sure you keep an eye on how their disposing of the waste.
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That works too. The point I was making was mostly that I'm more interested in getting more productive usage out of the system over its multi-year lifetime than I am concerned with an extra few hours of assembly/disassembly/maintenance time during the life of the device. I'll happily pay a little extra to cover the extra hassle of assembly/disassembly if I get more power & functionality in a smaller footprint.
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On the other hand, I've disassembled my current laptop all the way down to the motherboard in order to replace the heatsink/heatpipe/fan assembly. It was a $60 part and ~1 hour of my labor to save a $2000 laptop, so it was definitely worthwhile.
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That's valued a lot more at the moment than disassembly is, rightly so - I work on my machine every day. I feel like breaking it down maybe once every two years.
I know what you're trying to say, but your words are (amusingly) confusing. It kind of sounds like you work on (as in, modify, tweak) your machine each day, and you have a dance party on about a bi-annual (talk about your confusing words) basis. :-)
Perhaps:
"I use my machine for work every day. I feel like opening my machine and replacing parts only about once every two years."
(Why yes, I have been doing a lot of proofreading lately. How did you guess?)
Re:Easily swappable parts (Score:5, Insightful)
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Not only that, but this might finally be a way to not being forced to pay the M$-tax on laptops. At least in this country it's currently - for all practical purposes - impossible.
Also, I used to work for a computer repair shop. We would have eaten these things up. We really hated the typical laptops which were a RPITA to work with, and almost impossible to fix even when you discovered the problem. I've really been looking forward to something like this.
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Not for recycling.
If you are recycling stuff from an old laptop you don't really care that much if some stuff has to break in the process. By the time it hits the dump, hardly anyone would be reusing the parts as is. Costs too much to check if stuff is still working well enough.
Maybe someone should come up with a more environmentally friendly mining system that mines and processes certain types of landfills
When
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Shuttle was showing of what they hoped would become a laptop motherboard standard at a recent trade show.
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Oh, you mean like an iPhone or an iPod touch? It's still your full computer but it's also pocketable. At your desk, it connects wirelessly to your screen, keyboard, mouse, etc. Just wait a few years. I'd bet Apple already has prototypes of such things in their labs, somewhere.
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Why would you drop the multi-touch screen? You are on the go, your complete computer is with you but just with a smaller display and a touch interface.
When it's "docked", you use your regular, big LCD display, your full-size keyboard and your mouse/trackpad. As for the I/O, either all wireless and/or via the dock connector.
Easy recycling? (Score:4, Insightful)
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I wonder why nobody else thought of this concept before. Size matters?
Re:Easy recycling? (Score:4, Insightful)
How about easy repairing so we don't toss them out so quickly in the first place?
The large laptop manufacturers will resist this because it conflicts with their "built in obsolescence" design principles. If you can keep the main laptop and only swap out keyboards, LCDs, motherboards, etc as needed you'll do it instead of buying a brand new one with a new MS license associated to it.
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They already require computer manufactures to meet certain epa guidelines for materials used. Why not just go one step further and force them to adopt a 5 point disassemble guideline.
If a laptop can be disassembled by blindfolded a 5 year old Chinese child it passes the test.
Still I just see this style of design as a natural step in the evolution of computers.
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I used to own a Vaio SR490 that took a small bump when I crashed my motorcycle. It still worked just fine, but one of the screen hinge caps broke and the DC plug was exposed.
I wanted to replace it, and the cheapest I found that little piece online was $40+shipping. Cheapest I found it from Sony? $60+tax+shipping. It's a small piece of molded plastic, that even after manufacture, storage, etc cannot cost more than a few dollars.
I could have continued using the laptop as is, but it was bugging the hell out of
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I'm sure manufacture, storage and inventory were only a few dollars. So were the manufacturing, storage, and inventory costs for the dozens of parts which never got sold.
The parts business is one of statistical inventory. Cheap prices OR large inventory
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I think that the problem with Laptops is that they are not upgradable at all. If something dies, most of the time, the whole laptop needs to be replaced. Sure, you can order specialty pieces to replacement, wait for t
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Meh, I've been fairly happy with Dell laptops for that sort of thing. Just try to stick to parts that are used with their corporate laptops. Most of their midrange Inspiron lines are compatible with parts from their long-support-cycle Latitude corporate line.
I've replaced plenty of keyboards, and upgraded CPUs and even a GPU in some of my Dell laptops. Plus if you're friendly with your IT guys from work, they might even let you grab some extra parts from them ;-P
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I have been repairing and upgrading laptops for ages. Some are more difficult to maintain than others. All in all, once you get the knack to work on them and have the right tools, most are not that much different from a branded desktop. This especially valid for the corporate series from all manufacturers.
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The CPU and Blu-ray should be pretty straightforward. Most/all laptops use standard optical drives already. Pull the old drive out--usually it's held in with one or 2 screws. It should be marked on the bottom with a picture of a CD next to it. Once the screws are removed it should slide out of the case. If the back of the drive has what appears to be slightly-smaller-than-standard SATA ports you need a SATA drive. Otherwise you ne
Easy updating? (Score:2)
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I like reusing older tower cases, especially ones with Windows 95 and 98 stickers on them. Usually with a decent PSU, they will do a good job. To boot, a thief breaking in won't bother with what he thinks is an ancient machine, and will go for something else in the house.
I miss the old case I used to have which had Medeco locks not just on the front to lock out PS/2 keyboard access, but separate ones to lock the case closed. A would be thief would have to yank out a crowbar and do some heavy prying to ge
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Word up!
It's sad that PCs have usable lifespans (with the help of upgrades) of 5-10 years, but laptops go out of date in maybe 3-5 years, and smartphones are probably down to 1-2 years. You can see where all of the money is nowadays... the things with the shortest lifespans and planned obsolescence (laptops without Vista/Win7 drivers, and smartphones that no longer get OS updates abound!)
I wish more laptops had upgradable GPUs. Some high-end ones do. That's pretty much the only thing keeping me from reu
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The end result is that this technology is going to be much more useful for recycling, although if we can easily replace the HDD, optical drive, network card and video card, that would go a long way.
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Not really a new concept... (Score:3, Informative)
Back in the 1990s a Taiwanese manufacturer, Clevo, made "kit" laptops so that OEMs can pick and choose which parts they want for their laptops.
These laptops were incredibly easy to assemble and disassemble. As an OEM, you can choose what kind of screen and what resolution/size, what motherboard, what cpu, what kind of battery, choose between trackpad, mini trackball or trackpoint... It also made it somewhat easy for people to upgrade their laptop. Even a choice of docking station all the way up to sophisticated docking stations which can have PCI/ISA cards installed.
Computers just aren't as customizable nowadays.
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Several of Clevo's models are still like that, especially the larger ones. Shop outside the box and you can find lots more options in laptops.
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Sager used to use Clevo as the OEM, and those were quite customizable. Want three HDDs? Go for it. A slot with a generic MP3 player? Yep. The laptop could even use desktop chips (say b-bye to your battery life, but for LAN parties, it was essentially desktop performance.)
I also miss standardized docking stations. IBM, HP, and Dell used to have nice docking stations which could not just allow for USB connections to be done, but additional PCI cards, better video, and would provide decent security again
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You mean that laptop shoppers want a laptop in which every component is sized to meet the maximum likely size of any possible compatible device, plus extra space for a subcase and connectors? Really? Laptop shoppers?
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Perhaps they count "desktop replacement" behemoths as actual laptops or they're expanding laptop to include luggable and portable.
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You mean that laptop shoppers want a laptop in which every component is sized to meet the maximum likely size of any possible compatible device, plus extra space for a subcase and connectors? Really? Laptop shoppers?
I don't think you understand laptop shoppers. Well in excess of 99% of laptop sales are:
1) The hot saleswoman convinced the head of IT to buy quantity one thousand of her mfgr / brand / model despite him not even getting a date. Or if no saleswoman, there were box seats professional sports tickets involved.
Or
2) My mom wants to spend $500 on a laptop. Go to Best Buy and take the $499.99 laptop off the shelf. Mission accomplished.
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Apple's sales figures would like to disagree with you.
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Or alternatively... (Score:2)
Bonus: The technology would be worth millions, because there's many years of old electronic (and other) waste sitting around to be had for the taking, including in landfills and other locations. The problem with trash is that no one likes to separate out the organics from the recyclables from the re-usables. We humans don't even like to throw trash away in multiple places (l
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I find that a sledge-o-matic(tm) works quite well. I'm sure I could automate that by attaching it to some hydraulics or something ;)
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.. build a machine that's capable of disassembling laptops (or other electronic waste) into its component materials for recycling.
Depends how you define "component materials" and "recycling". There are innumerable levels not just binary yes no. I can't see reusing much above the molecular level, so you're talking about grinding to a fine powder and using the powder as kind of a "laptop ore" to be refined, which takes boatloads of energy. Worth it for rare earths, not so much for polymerized dinosaur, and by weight most of it will be polymerized dinosaur. The other problem is disposal of mixed "waste". Contaminated silicon is not
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Interesting... you're assuming a specific method of recycling then proceeding to poke holes in what you believe I'm suggesting. This is an excellent example of a "straw man" argument.
What I'm actually suggesting is a technology that isn't developed yet... machines that could separate any given item into its component parts with a high degree of accuracy and speed. This may mean a process where the first stage is "chop it into small bits" or it may not. There are other approaches.
Yes, it'll take ener
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What I'm actually suggesting is a technology that isn't developed yet...
aka Magic. I feel if you're depending on magical thinking to make it work, you're better off with a more versatile unicorn like a Mr Fusion to provide infinite free energy, and pushing the waste into existing well developed refining technology using that free energy.
Interesting... you're assuming a specific method of recycling then proceeding to poke holes in what you believe I'm suggesting. This is an excellent example of a "straw man" argument.
No, I was providing the best currently available real world technology to meet your goal, and then poking holes in it. If I knew magical thinking was part of the business plan I'd probably go full star trek technobabble instead.
Yes, it'll take energy. Just about everything does :)
Unless you acco
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Heh... so I'm either depending on "magic", which won't work because magic doesn't exist, or I'm using a method that generates toxic waste, and therefore it won't work because I'll have disposal problems. Sounds a lot like you're looking for justification for a conclusion you've already reached, instead of the other way around. Just because you can't imagine how to do something doesn't mean it won't work.
Technology not invented yet isn't the same as magic, and as you note it isn't the same as "real worl
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Heh... so I'm either depending on "magic", which won't work because magic doesn't exist,
Well, it inherently limits the usefulness of the discussion. My imagination is different than your imagination doesn't really accomplish anything.
I'm using a method that generates toxic waste, and therefore it won't work because I'll have disposal problems.
Ah the key to our misunderstanding. Its the inputs that are toxic and they will be output, somewhere. You can't accept tons of lead and heavy metals and strange organic compounds at the intake, and not expect some expense to prove that the plastic baby's nuks at the output are not full of lead. That lead has to go somewhere, and costs of material handling and
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Agreed. At the lowest level, "Laptop ore", or ground up e-waste would take a lot of energy to recycle:
First, thermal depolymerization. This takes a lot of electricity to turn the long chain plastics back into short chain crude. It also takes a lot of water. However, one does get usable oil for this method.
Second, after the organics are dealt with, filtering that out, so you have a pile of minerals and metals. Separating that will be annoying because there will be so many items to filter out, be it copp
Slashdotted (Score:2)
The server is starting to collapse, but at least here's the Youtube link [youtube.com] in the article
what we need (Score:3, Insightful)
As responsible consumers, we should be looking at devices designed to last significantly past the next design cycle, that are designed to have (at least) the parts replaced that are most likely to fail (screens, drives, batteries), and that meet our current needs, not just elevate our "cool". And then keep them for a long time.
Manufacturers will resist this because they've built their business model on regular forklift upgrades. They'd have to be different companies to evolve beyond this. Probably smaller companies.
eWaste eRecycling is not the answer. It mitigates the problem but does not solve it. Tossing your old device in a recycle bin is not an excuse to replace it at every incremental improvement.
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I hit submit too soon. I wanted to conclude with: As consumers, we need to be less affected by hype and spend more thought on what our actual requirements are and what they might be over the projected life of a device. We really need to lengthen the upgrade cycle, and companies need to get used to the fact that if they're going to come out with tiny incremental improvements every year, we'll only be buying their devices every fourth or fifth year.
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...actually expecting consumers to be thoughtful about what they want and what they buy.
You better be careful. Some fanboy might screech at you for being a geek and for having inflated expectations of mere mortals.
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I'd submit that geeks are the worst abusers of the device-of-the-month club. It should start with us.
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Or... install a Sandforce SSD into every common consumer's laptop, marked up for labor, and call it an upgrade.
It would feel like you just swapped out a 486 for a Quad-Opteron.
I'd think rust platters recycle easier too than entire laptops.
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I should also say, upgrades that can be done in software ought not to require a hardware swap. For instance, you shouldn't have to buy a new device in order to get a new app or an app upgrade that doesn't need new hardware.
I'm not saying we should whine until we get our way, I'm saying we should vote with our feet.
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> As consumers we want products we can afford that will do what we want for a reasonable amount of time. Because many costs are externalized, and credit is often expensive to the average person, it is usually the case that it is not affordable to buy a long term product.
Yes yes yes. The problem I have is this. I'm going to pick on Apple... just 'cause, but there are many other targets. The original iphone you bought in 2007 still works fine if you haven't physically abused it. Electronics don't we
We need standards (Score:2)
All computer manufacturers would need to make their own wish-list, then sit down with the others and come up with some sorts of standards for the parts.
Given that there's a lot of different laptops available, I would assume a list of form-factors based on current LCD sizes (8.9", 11.6", 13.3", 15", 17", 21"), with options depending on the case size for compact or full-size keyboards, 1.8" and 2.5" bays for SATA hard drives, swapable GPU, standard batteries sizes, etc.
Then add bonuses like having hard drive
Arrrrrgh (Score:2)
Woo... hoo? Welcome to 1994 (Score:3, Interesting)
Go, Stanford!
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On the other side of the spectrum, I was trying to replace the trackpad in my MacBook Pro. It turned out that I had to take out several tiny screws to open the back cover. The trackpad was under the battery, but guess what? The battery is attached with anti-tamper screws!
I have yet to find a screwdriver that will fit those damn screws. Maybe it's time to rob a Genius Bar?
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Drill 'em out.
Re:Powerbook G3 Pismo (Score:5, Informative)
The battery is attached with anti-tamper screws!
I have yet to find a screwdriver that will fit those damn screws. Maybe it's time to rob a Genius Bar?
Geeze dude hit a (real) hardware store before committing larceny. I believe you're describing a T6 variant, possibly a TS6 or TR6 but certainly a TX6 which looks like a TS with the pins shaped like a TR but it only has 5 pins. Somebody living a mac lifestyle can probably purchase some tools. It'll set you back about as much as a really good cheeseburger, and probably come in handy elsewhere in the future.
Either that or google will find you the exact answer.
Note by "real hardware store" I mean the neighborhood place staffed by crabby elderly semi-retired craftsmen, not a big box store with minimum wage morons whom barely know what a hammer is.
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Nope, I have a Torx set. I've been to multiple hardware stores, Fry's, and my local hacker's collective. So far, nobody has had the correct screwdriver.
Just for the record, the screws have a tri-tip notch. It's sort of like a Phillips but with one of the legs missing. The notches don't extend all the way to the ends of the screw, so the screwdriver has to be an exact fit.
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my local hacker's collective
You had me going till there. A "real" hackers collective would have a guy with a lathe and a milling machine and a dremel grinder and you'd go home with a homemade bit made out of an old piece of rebar. And a set of homemade straight slot metric brass screws to use instead of the trilobes.
Just for the record, the screws have a tri-tip notch. It's sort of like a Phillips but with one of the legs missing. The notches don't extend all the way to the ends of the screw, so the screwdriver has to be an exact fit.
My guess is a wiha number 71952, about $7 but if you're paying list price you're doin it wrong.
http://www.wihatools.com/200seri/284_TW_and_TS.htm [wihatools.com]
Or you can go to the apple websites and pay $50, your choice.
A bit of time
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But they'd also probably want to remove the hardware, install Gentoo, and put it inside a stolen payphone to use as a Skype device. (If they haven't done that already.)
And yeah, the Mercedes Logo screwdrivers on that page look right. Too bad I don't know which one fits...
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Tri-wing? Really? That's not so hard.
Just buy them straight from China [dealextreme.com]. Free shipping, too.
(No, they ain't Wiha, Xcelite, or King Dick [kingdicktools.co.uk]. They may not be ideal tools to use every day, year after year. But they'll do just fine for occasional jobs.)
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http://www.harborfreight.com/100-piece-security-bit-set-91310.html [harborfreight.com]
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http://www.applecomponents.com/?search_within=1&p=all_items&last_cmp=&last_cat=Service+Parts%3A+Screws&s=driver [applecomponents.com]
Sweet, even Apple screwdrivers are hugely overpriced. $50 for a screwdriver? It's not highway robbery, it's Apple. Awesome.
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Actually, it's not even Apple. It's some random shop trying to cater to the DIY Apple crowd quick making a quick buck, while working through the idea that if they can afford an Apple, they can afford to get screwed over $50 for a screwdriver.
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Is that the Wiha $6 screwdriver with a roughly 500% markup?
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Debian should be able to install on it, or Yellow Dog Linux, which is targeted specifically at Mac hardware.
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On the other hand, I once owned a Mac desktop (can't remember the model, it was from the mid-1990s) that had absolutely the dumbest internal design I've ever seen. I had to completely disassemble the whole thing and remove the motherboard just to get to the RAM slots. And it wasn't particularly compact or portable, so there weren't even any good excuses for making it that way.
Buzzword Quotient (Score:4, Interesting)
The advertisement is a buzzword masterpiece. You only mentioned one of many flaws.
The goal in this team's Ivy League education is to learn how to string buzzwords together to generate interest in fundamentally flawed ideas.
Good to know the ruling class is staying busy.
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Its the expensive indium they're trying to recycle, unless they are complete idiots. By expensive, I mean a couple bucks per gram. At a rate of a couple grams per screen. So, a dumpster full of dead LCDs has maybe "thousands of dollars" worth of Indium in it, more or less. The hard part is separating it from thousands of pounds of polymerized dinosaur and plate glass without spending more than thousands of dollars of labor, energy, and capital expense..
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does require citation. Nothing trollish about pointing that fact out.
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At least /. has diversified a bit, it's not from MIT.
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If they got rid of most of the screws from these things, it would solve so many problems.
Except most of the screws are a *critical* structural features.
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Obviously B'Elanna Torres was not a part of the design team, if she were
...the instruction manual would be written in Klingon.