Surface Pro: 'Virtually Unrepairable' 418
An anonymous reader writes with a link to an article at Wired with some harsh words for Microsoft's new tablet: "The Surface Pro is not a repair-friendly machine. In fact, it's one of the least repairable devices iFixit has seen: In a teardown of Microsoft's tablet-laptop hybrid, the company gave it a rock-bottom score of just one — one! — out of 10 for repairability, lower even than Apple's iPad and the Windows Surface RT."
Yawn. (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Yawn. (Score:5, Funny)
Nuh uh! All 10 surface pro buyers are furious!
Re:Yawn. (Score:5, Funny)
Nuh uh! All 10 surface pro buyers are furious!
I was confused until I realized you were using binary. Good one!
Re:Yawn. (Score:5, Funny)
132 is even worse. (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Yawn. (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Yawn. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3)
And it is high time someone pointed out how stupid that is.
...preferably by taxing it.
Re:Yawn. (Score:5, Funny)
I'm not exactly sure what is supposed to be special about Surface, but people only appear to dance with them. I could see a lot of screens getting broken.
Re:Yawn. (Score:5, Funny)
I'm not exactly sure what is supposed to be special about Surface, but people only appear to dance with them. I could see a lot of screens getting broken.
The thing i got out of those commercials was how much the screen was smudged. You are shooting a commercial and you can't clean the smudge prints of the screen? Seriously? Why do I want a laptop that is dirty? Bad enough a cell phone screen gets smudged up, but dang, a laptop (yes, I know they are tablets, but lets be real, with the fucking keyboard cover, it's a laptop. With finger smudges all over the screen.)
Re:Yawn. (Score:5, Funny)
Nobody repairs tablets.
Historically this is true. The makers of the Rosetta Stone [wikipedia.org] knew this would be the case, so they introduced redundancy so we could still retrieve the information even of part of the tablet broke. They wrote everything three times! From what I understand, the Surface Pro is stuffed with lots of redundant code [slashdot.org] for the same reason.
Re:Yawn. (Score:5, Insightful)
A sealed case isn't a huge deal in the case of the iPad or decent Android tablets, since there are no moving parts, no particularly hot-running components, and a top quality battery that should last for several years.
But the Surface Pro isn't like that. It's a notebook, complete with full OS, SSD, fans, and a powerful CPU, crammed into a tablet form factor.
What happens when that SSD starts failing from the heavy IO load of desktop software? Or one of the fans blows a bearing?
Re:Yawn. (Score:5, Interesting)
"What happens when that SSD starts failing from the heavy IO load of desktop software? Or one of the fans blows a bearing?"
you throw it away and buy a new one.
Do you think microsoft expects anything else?
Re:Yawn. (Score:5, Funny)
"What happens when that SSD starts failing from the heavy IO load of desktop software? Or one of the fans blows a bearing?"
you throw it away and buy a new one.
Do you think microsoft expects anything else?
Yes. I expect them to tell me that I have to buy all new software as well.
Re: (Score:3)
"What happens when that SSD starts failing from the heavy IO load of desktop software? Or one of the fans blows a bearing?"
You realize that you are only renting the device at a cost per month of it's purchase price divided by the number of months you've had it. Which will probably be inversely proportional to it's actual use.
The GOOD new is that if you don't use it, the cost per month will be near zero! CHEAP!
Re:Yawn. (Score:5, Informative)
The problem is getting to the SSD. It took the folks at ifixit, professionals who do this kind of thing day-in-and-day-out, over an hour to even take the cover off to get to the inside of the machine. It required a heat gun and a tool to separate the black-tar-like adhesive. They said it was a new record on how long a device took them to gain access to it's insides.
Then you have to remove more than 50 screws to get to the underside of the main board to be able to remove the SSD.
As part of their removal process they said that the majority of people who decide to take apart their surface will likely break it because there are four cables that surround the inside perimeter of the display and that you will cut one of them unless you are extremely careful.
And even once you take it apart, you still have the challenge of putting it all back together again. Since you've now broken the adhesive that goes around the outside, you would then have to scrub it all off from the complete perimeter of the device, obtain new adhesive, and apply it again.
No... this is not a repair that 99.9% of people could conceivably perform in their own home.
Re:Yawn. (Score:4, Informative)
Right, I was merely pointing out that while they made the thing impossible to maintain or upgrade (and how the hell are you supposed to get inside it to clear the dust off the fans/heatsinks?), they're using bog standard notebook components. A real tablet would have soldered the NAND chips to the motherboard. Heck, even the Mac Air have a custom form factor SSD in order to save space in the small chassis. The Surface Pro doesn't even do that, it has a full sized mSATA card in it.
Re:Yawn. (Score:5, Insightful)
Expect Microsoft to make it much easier to get at the SSD in future revisions. Not for the benefit of customers, for the benefit of their repairs department.
Apple made the same mistake years ago with their laptops. You had to remove the motherboard just to replace the HDD, and the HDD was the part most likely to fail. Later models made the HDD much easier to get at, along with RAM and the power socket (until it was replaced by magsafe).
The Surface Pro is too expensive to just throw away, MS will want to fix them to cover warranty claims (which are a minimum of 2 years in Europe).
Wrong Comparison (Score:5, Informative)
They compare it to the iPad, which is pretty bad to repair... However, as a general purpose computer running a full OS, a fair comparison would also be the MacBook Pro Retina. ...1 out of 10 as well.
http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/MacBook-Pro-with-Retina-Display-Teardown/9462/ [ifixit.com]
This is a bad trend with custom screws, glue and all sorts of crap.
Re: (Score:3)
At the price they sell it for, you would definitely want it repairable.
This trend of having expensive eqipment that is intended to be disposed in a landfill like a razor blade is ridiculous.
It's the future... (Score:2, Informative)
Sadly more and more devices are like this now. Apple seem to have popularised it and made is acceptable and other companies seem to be continuing the trend.
Re:It's the future... (Score:5, Funny)
Sadly more and more devices are like this now. Apple seem to have popularised it and made is acceptable and other companies seem to be continuing the trend.
Microsoft's tablet is unrepairable BUT IT'S ALL APPLE'S FAULT!!!
Re: (Score:3)
Sadly more and more devices are like this now. Apple seem to have popularised it and made is acceptable and other companies seem to be continuing the trend.
Apple devices are often repairable, what they are often not is user-repairable. They will gladly offer things like battery replacements, basically at the same price for what a standalone battery would have cost you. If you ever have to replace it then it's a little bit of more work, and in return you get more battery volume and more battery time.
Re: (Score:3)
I've used a lot of iDevices, and in my experience battery replacement isn't necessary. By the time your battery is suffering, the device is up for replacement.
Re:It's the future... (Score:5, Insightful)
We all understand that Apple has convinced people they always have to have the most shiny new thing, and so batteries don't have time to wear out.
For the rest of us, though, many parts of devices need replaced (batteries, cables, cases, etc.) long before the useful life of the device is up.
hard to avoid for thin/light devices (Score:3)
The thinner and lighter the device, the more likely it is that they're going to stiffen things up by gluing components together and turning them into structural elements.
Yeah, but the difference is... (Score:3, Insightful)
Most of them lied about it for liability.
When a small device manufacturer says it, they mean 'not servicable by ANYONE' :)
Re:It's the future... (Score:5, Insightful)
No USER serviceable parts is a far cry from NO REPAIRS POSSIBLE AT ALL.
A: someone can repair it.
versus
B: NO ONE can repair it.
BIG DIFFERENCE
Re:It's the future... (Score:5, Insightful)
It's also worth mentioning that "No User Serviceable Parts Inside" is frequently code for 'There's AC power at local grid voltage and/or a beefy inverter in here, don't fuck with this unless you know enough to know that this warning isn't meant for you'.
It's much less common to see the warning on devices powered by external DC supplies, especially now that cold cathode backlights seem to be giving way to LEDs. Such devices are frequently less likely to actually be user-serviceable in any useful way(given that AC PSUs are, by necessity, frequently built from pretty chunky components that you don't even need sharp eyes to rework, while low-voltage DC gear seems to get smaller every year); but that specific phrase mostly seems to show up when there is a shocking surprise available inside.
Re:No User Serviceable Parts Inside (Score:3)
Re: (Score:3)
My guess is the jolt stopped his heart -- and that it wasn't a teeny weeny 150w ps. I used to reverse solder caps for fun at the workshop. They create quite the BANG when plugged in. Stunk like bad shrimp, though.
Re:No User Serviceable Parts Inside (Score:4, Informative)
Those capacitors are large enough to store enough charge to stop your heart.
All he likely did was bridge pos and neg when touching the board and ZAP!
This is pretty much well-known to anyone with electronics experience. If that kid didn't know WTF was up, he shouldn't have been taking that thing apart without proper supervision.
Re: (Score:3)
I can fix anything surface mount. It's actually easier than through hole. Just because you dont own the proper tools does not make it "impossible"
Re:It's the future... (Score:4, Insightful)
Go for it, hot shot. Replace that custom ASIC. I'm sure Digikey will have it.
Replace that micro with the part number ground off. I'm sure Digikey will have that too, with the custom firmware already flashed too!
Re:It's the future... (Score:4, Funny)
Parts are easy to get. Digikey has 99% of the stuff out there. really esoteric stuff, write the manufacturer asking for a "engineering sample" and you get 2-3 of them from free in 3-4 weeks.
and unless you did something really stupid, 99% of failures on big chips are soldering failures. simple hot air rework on them fixes the problem most of the time.
Re:It's the future... (Score:5, Funny)
Get used to it, been that way since Genesis.
Re:It's the future... (Score:5, Funny)
Get used to it, been that way since Genesis.
Leave Peter Gabriel and Phil Collins out of this!
Re:It's the future... (Score:5, Funny)
I could feel this trend coming in the air tonight.
Enter the modern world of ... (Score:5, Insightful)
... waste!!! Manufacturers just want you to buy another to replace yours which is designed to break soon. Manufacturers win with more diversion of economy (e.g. repeat sales). World loses.
Re: (Score:2)
Sad but true. I still have quite a few old phones which work perfectly fine but can't really be re-used.
Re:Enter the modern world of ... (Score:5, Funny)
Self-breaking windows :(
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
I disagree. I think this will hurt sales more than anything.
I don't own an ipad for this very reason and I won't be the owner of a surface pro either, apparently.
Yea, this.
Given the option, I refuse to buy products that are designed to fail within a specific period of time, namely because I'm not an idiot with more money than sense.
Re:Enter the modern world of ... (Score:4, Insightful)
And you and the GP are irrelevant minorities.
Re:Enter the modern world of ... (Score:4, Insightful)
I'm not an idiot with more money than sense.
And you and the GP are irrelevant minorities.
That explains a lot about the direction our society is headed in; given the alternative, I'd have to say I'm happy to be in the minority in this case.
Re: (Score:3)
Hurt what sales? I don't think many people are interested in the Surface either way.
Re:Enter the modern world of ... (Score:5, Funny)
Hurt what sales? I don't think many people are interested in the Surface either way.
People in submarines are very interested in surface.
Re: (Score:3)
I disagree. I think this will hurt sales more than anything.
I don't own an ipad for this very reason and I won't be the owner of a surface pro either, apparently.
You don't have to throw it away just because something breaks. Apple offers service and repairs of iPads.
Do you only buy cars that you can repair everything on yourself?
Re:Enter the modern world of ... (Score:4, Funny)
At least his rock is modular and replaceable.
Re: (Score:3)
No - he's NOT the only one to think that way. I think the same way, and my youngest son does. I haven't run a survey or a poll on the subject, but surely there are more than three of us.
Re: (Score:3)
Meanwhile the iPad has no moving parts, therefor it will work forever, or until you use it as a shield or weapon. The Surface Pro, Macbook Air, and Retina Macbook Pro will only work until the fans get jammed with dust, dirt, cat hair, human hair, etc. With my now 7 year old laptop, that happened at least every 3 months. Smaller fans mean it's more difficult to clean. At least with a full size laptop I have the option of inserting the compressed air nozzle down the ram upgrade panel and blowing the dust out. Until the fans get gummed up (which happened at the end of it's extended warranty) this can be done.
Intel needs a mobile part that is HEATSINK-ONLY, no fan. Until then, ARM parts are the only option.
Unfortunately the lithium-ion battery in the iPad will wear out in 3-5 years.
Re: (Score:3)
If people want "small and portable", they won't be buying a surface pro...
They're more likely to buy an ipad, which is not only smaller and more portable, but is also cheaper and easier to service.
Re:Enter the modern world of ... (Score:5, Insightful)
Every clip, connector, screw, etc that is needed to make something 'repairable' adds weight, bulk, and cost. People have clearly demonstrated that weight, size, and cost win out over repairability when making their purchasing decisions. You can't lay it all (or even most of it) at the feet of the manufacturers.
Re:Enter the modern world of ... (Score:4, Insightful)
And who in the consumer world expects their device to go wrong and therefore need to be repaired. People just don't think like that. They've got used to laptops being so expensive to repair they might as well buy a new one - tablets are just as bad.
Re:Enter the modern world of ... (Score:4, Insightful)
People have clearly demonstrated that weight, size, and cost win out over repairability when making their purchasing decisions.
Er, no. People can only buy what is available. It is the manufacturers who decide what weight, size and cost their products will be, not the purchasers.
If all manufacturers choose not to make their products repairable then where is the choice?
Re:Enter the modern world of ... (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Enter the modern world of ... (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Enter the modern world of ... (Score:4, Informative)
That thing have over 90 screws. Certainly that disproves your theory.
Re:Enter the modern world of ... (Score:5, Insightful)
And it's software, too. I'm sure most /.ers saw the article about Office 2013 being tied to a specific system... for life. Fatal laptop problem that requires replacement? You'll need to buy a new copy of Office as well; no re-installation of your copy of Office on your new laptop allowed. (Frankly, I think MS is going to have to do an about face on that policy unless they want to lose home customers in droves.) My wife -- who owns the only computer in the house that runs Windows -- was disgusted when she read that. She won't be a repeat Office customer after learning that.
Re: (Score:2)
Your solution needs a heavy duty military grade "Like" button that won't break after 1048576 uses.
as repairable as any modern gadget (Score:4, Insightful)
"It simply is not designed to be opened or fixed at home, except perhaps by teardown expert"
Hasn't that generally been the case for a few decades now, for lots and lots of things? They are basically bitching that there are lot of screws and glue. It's not a simple device.
Re: (Score:2)
some have still some parts to replace.
like battery etc.. http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Microsoft+Surface+Pro+Teardown/12842/ [ifixit.com]
dunno why the fuck the article links to wired.
Re: (Score:2)
Nobody should have to apply heat to a lithium ion battery in order to replace it. That is insane. Every step past removing the kickstand seemed to require you to pry the glass cover and LCD off a rigid metal frame, also with liberal application of heat to the device.
Re: (Score:2)
They also said that the battery is impossible to remove without destroying the back cover. Where will you get a replacement cover from? Better get your 3D printer ready. Even then, only a person of great skill could get to the battery without destroying other components in the process.
Re:as repairable as any modern gadget (Score:5, Informative)
Not true, a couple of years ago I would have argued with you as I repaired many MacBook Pros and Thinkpads etc. which were easy to get apart and put back together without breaking anything. Now they are specifically designed to stop you doing that. It is only the timeframe that I am arguing...
Re:as repairable as any modern gadget (Score:4, Insightful)
It's not that they're specifically designed with preventing repair in mind; it's that they're not designed with repairs in mind at all. In the increased pursuit of miniaturisation Apple (and now MS) have completely removed repairability as a design consideration.
Re: (Score:3)
Hasn't that generally been the case for a few decades now, for lots and lots of things?
Yes, but that doesn't mean we should stop complaining about it. No, it means that we should complain louder than ever. There's no reason, besides greed, that these things are not repairable.
I'm shocked ... (Score:5, Insightful)
OK, not really.
For starters, I can't imagine it being easy to make a tablet you can open up and make changes to.
And then every manufacturer would rather you replace the device when it breaks or needs upgrading. And if they can get you locked into their software, even better.
Companies don't really care about consumers rights, and they never will. They're only in it to make profit -- I don't care who the vendor is, they'll all do it.
Microsoft, Apple, and even Google since they're trying to drive everything you do to the things that make them money and make sure you have to keep buying their stuff.
Re:I'm shocked ... (Score:4, Informative)
It IS possible to do better. The Nexus 7 and Kindle Fire HD both got 7 of 10 in repairability scores from iFixit. When the battery dies in my nexus 7 (and it will), I'll just buy a new battery and slap it in.
Brave New World (Score:5, Insightful)
"Ending is better than mending. The more stitches, the less riches."
-Aldous Huxley
Of course a consumer society isn't supposed to have anything that can be repaired by a normal human being. If you want anything, you're supposed to cough up your hard-earned cash to your corporate overlords.
Link o iFixit (Score:5, Informative)
This is not news (Score:2)
High volume consumer devices have been not-repairable for years. If it fails during warranty, you get a new or "refurbished" unit for free. If it fails outside of warranty you may get a new or "refurbished" unit at lower than list price. Or you may not.
Short of sliding it off the table onto a concrete floor at Starbucks, the failure rate on these should be vanishingly small.
If you're really worried, you can "Protect your Surface with a 2-year extended warranty and technical support service." for $99. Best B
Re:This is not news (Score:4, Funny)
Best Buy will sell you a "Product Replacement Plan" for a price.
When the BB cashier offers a warranty plan, I like to respond by saying I don't think the company will still exist in 2 years... :)
Re:This is not news (Score:4, Interesting)
It means they take a unit someone else has returned as broken. Wipe it with a rag to get rid of the finger prints and send it to you.
At the hardware company I worked for we would run a batch of tests first, but, yes, that's essentially it. People would buy our hardware from a store, take it home, try it out, decide they didn't like it and return it, and we could no longer then sell it as new. So we'd have to raise the price to everyone in order to pay for people who abused easy return policies.
Thinness, weight and repairability (Score:5, Insightful)
So like everything there's a choice. Do you want a core i5 processor or do you want a long battery life? Do you want a super thin machine, or do you want an easy to repair machine?
Much huff about nothing (Score:2)
Let's be realistic. Tablets and phones are pretty much assumed *NOT* to have any user serviceable parts in them. Hell, even laptops -- I don't recall these ever being held to that standard and they had a much better chance of ever getting user-upgradable CPU/RAM/Harddrive features. Most people could never take the damn things apart to upgrade them anyway. It's only been the recent last 8 years or so the Dell has removable plates next to the ram -- the CPU has always been buried. So stop with all the arm
The only thing to score lower... (Score:2)
The iPad 2 Smart Cover [ifixit.com], the only thing to score lower at a pitiful 0 out of 10! </joke>
Why Wired? (Score:2)
No one wants a repairable tablet (Score:3)
Fact is the majority of consumers couldn't repair their tablet even if it scored '10 of 10'. Given the choice, they would choose the thinner and lighter product every time.
For Business A CAPEX Sink Hole (Score:2)
The "unrepairable" Surface Pro (that Microsoft is aiming at business) is symbolic of an unfortunate trend in Corporate IT budgeting towards thinking of user devices as "burned money" with little or no long term benefit. While conventional laptops retain some value beyond the current quarter and a certain level of repair costs can be budgeted towards them, devices like the Surface Pro turn budgeting of such estimated costs into a total crap shoot.
is this a bad thing? (Score:2)
I like modular designs - what programmer wouldn't?
but there is no question that modularity constrains the overall design. the module itself must have a fixed interface, making it inefficient by varying degrees, depending on how far from the sweet spot you are. (imagine that cars had modular engines: would the module interface be big enough to handle a particular displacement? could you drop in a hybrid version?) not only are you loosing efficiency within the module, but the connected modules have to ass
Did they put it back together? (Score:3)
Anyone can take something apart. It only counts, though, if they get it back together AND it works again. How can they give that thing a "1" out of "10" if they were not able to make it run again? Wouldn't that be a "zero?" Finally, before anyone can say 'who wants to repair something like this, anyway?' let's just note that it's a $900 dollar device with a 1-year limited warranty. Why wouldn't you want to fix the earphone jack if it gets tweaked and will only play one channel, replace the battery if it dies, or put a new screen in if you drop it and it cracks? Those are all pretty common repairs for devices like this.
$1000 tablets don't deserve a free ride on this. (Score:5, Insightful)
There are a lot of responses here that say "All tablets are like that".
First, Many of those tablets cost $200 (Nexus). It is a lot more acceptable to have a sealed $200 device than a sealed $1000 device, regardless of form factor.
Second, Almost no other computing device is sealed to this extent with an inch wide strip of tar like adhesive that needs a heat-gun to pry apart (who knows how well it will go back together). I take nearly everything apart, but I would mess with this kind of extreme adhesive job, especially on a $1000 device.
Third. It isn't even about repairs. If this was pure reliable solid state, it wouldn't be a big deal, those parts could run for decades. But this has two fans, meaning they will accumulate dust/have bearing failures, and in few years need replacing/cleaning, it has batteries with short finite life that will fail in few years, the SSD is small size and has an OS with propensity to write a lot to it (swap files) etc, and has a significant chance of failure. These should be considered serviceable components, because chances are significant that one or more of them will need service in a few years. Having them sealed, non-serviceable in $1000 device is unacceptable (IMO).
Re: (Score:3)
First, Many of those tablets cost $200 (Nexus). It is a lot more acceptable to have a sealed $200 device than a sealed $1000 device, regardless of form factor.
I'm not sure I see the connection between price and acceptable levels of serviceability. Is it that if it's cheap and breaks, you can buy another so it's no big deal; but if it's expensive then you should be able to repair it? I'm sorry, but I'm not sure many people agree with you. The iPad and iPad mini received almost as bad a score (2/10 each), and yet they are wildly successful. It seems that the only people that have a problem with this practice are people like you that like to take things apart.
Second, Almost no other computing device is sealed to this extent with an inch wide strip of tar like adhesive that needs a heat-gun to pry apart (who knows how well it will go back together).
Again,
It can (Score:3, Insightful)
It can be repaired, it's just difficult to get inside due to the strong epoxy and 90+ screws all around. And for the Apple haters, I see lots of repair shops repairing iPhones and such.
The problem is, the companies don't want you to repair it. They want you to buy a new one, hence why it's difficult to repair. This is the throwaway generation, it's all disposable. The trash piles up, but nobody notices until it's in their backyard and their water starts tasting like epoxy and baby diapers.
Even Cars are are so tight under the hood these days, a lot of mechanics I know don't go near them. Have you even tried to reach through all that shit to change a spark plug? Good luck getting your hand out of the wires and metal without a lost thumb.
Bottom line, modern products are shit with pretty packaging so the youngsters think it's good. When it breaks, (Usually within 1 year) no big deal, mom and dad will get a new one. Just throw it over there in the trash and lets take a trip down to the mall. What a shitty world, but hey, there's money to be made in them their hills!.
Re:HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY! (Score:5, Funny)
well, you fucked that up, I can only hope your love life is better
Re:HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY! (Score:4, Funny)
Roses are red,
Violets are blue,
And Microsoft's tablet is full of glue!
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Face is all red,
Head's got no hair,
Fix Ballmer's laptop, he'll throw you his chair!
Re:HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY! (Score:5, Funny)
Xbox is red, Windows is blue, And Microsoft's tablet is full of glue!
Re:disposable tech (Score:4, Insightful)
If they insist on killing the culture of repair, as you put it - they really need to stop throwing shit in the ocean and landfills. It's only sustainable if you actually recycle.
Re: (Score:2)
With increasing level of integration, and cramming so many devices into such small packages, means that you need very specialized manufacturing process.
Re: (Score:3)
I think you misunderstood me. What I meant to say, is if they insist on devices being unrepairable and unserviceable, then they need to enforce recycling - else we just waste that much more of the valuable resources that go into them. It's irresponsible not to do so.
Re: (Score:3)
'They' certainly don't care about your "faggy pinko" (words I'm inserting into 'their' mouths, not mine) concerns like the environment. Someone else will figure it out.
Re: (Score:2)
It comes and goes. Lately I've seen a lot more of it. Modding hardware, improving it, fixing things, build your own, etc. The hobby electronics/diy/maker thing is popular right now. As far as trends go, I'd say it's a pretty good one, and I hope it sticks around.
Re:disposable tech (Score:5, Insightful)
Hardware manufacturers have been trying to kill off the repair business for the same reason video game makers are trying to kill off the used game market - every dollar you spend fixing something you already own, is a dollar they don't get.
What blows my mind are the hypocrites here on /. who will wail endlessly about EA and Sony locking a game disk to a particular console (i.e., something that really doesn't matter in the 'big scheme of things'), then subsequently accuse people who complain about hardware makers doing the exact same thing of being "buggy whip makers," even though the trend of planned obsolescence in hardware is far more dangerous to society than anything having to do with a stupid fucking video game.
Re:disposable tech (Score:5, Informative)
I've spoken to people at my local TV repair shop, and they expect to be out of business soon. Modern hardware isn't repairable. Even replaceable components aren't: They cited the flyback transformer as an example. A frequent failure in CRT displays, and easily replaceable: A little soldering, but that's all. Except that the newer CRTs (before everything went flat) needed calibrating for the exact value of resistance and inductance of the flyback, to compensate for slight variences between individual components even off the production line, and those calibration values are stored in an EPROM chip which cannot be so easily replaced, in a propritary format for which the manufacturer never released any tools or documentation, accessible usually by entering a secret handshake known only by the manufacturer via either a hidden serial port or the IR control interface. The flyback may be replaceable, but it won't do you any good. It's easier to just buy a whole new TV than to reverse-engineer one enough to repair it.
Re: (Score:2)
I take it the conversation started with a comment about the stability of Windows?
Re: (Score:3)
It means you can't repair it unless you leave the holodeck first. Freakin' DRM, I tell ya...
Re: (Score:2)
And why isn't it irreparable, as opposed to unrepairable? The both pass the dictionary test, but...
virtually unrepariable
virtually irreparable
literally unrepairable
literally irreparable
I like that last one best.
Re: (Score:2)
Can we stop the irrational hatred of Apple too? Or are you doing the usual fanboi thing?
Sorry, but when did porn and Diablo 3 is the benchmark for utility? Did I miss a memo?
Enjoy your 5 hour battery life, I'll stick with the 10 I get out of my original iPad.
Glad you like your Surface Pro -- but that doesn't mean people aren't getting a lot of use and uti