My theory with laptops is that you can't expect the hard drives to last more than two years and should expect them to go at any moment. A hard disk is a fundamentally stupid thing to put in something that moves around all the time. Optical drives will go quickly as well and in my opinion should be left out of portables. DC boards appear to be another flakey item (that's what finally went on my G3), I don't know what kills them.
I guess as much RAM as possible can help to extend hard disk life. Making sure your laptop always has good airflow must do something to help keep everything going.
I can't wait for solid state disks to be cheap enough and reliable enough to be regular fixtures in laptops.
― Ed (dali), Wednesday, 19 April 2006 20:06 (eighteen years ago) link
Do you have any theories about logic boards?
My mom has the first model of the white powerbook--and it's still fine after three years, but she uses it a lot less than I do.
― Mary (Mary), Wednesday, 19 April 2006 20:12 (eighteen years ago) link
I think what kills logic boards is the fact that as the laptop gets hanles, especially if you pick it up by one corner, it places a lot of stress on the board and on the solder that holds components to it. Eventually something cracks or becomes disconnected. I gues to reduce this, always pick up the laptop by both sides and always use on a firm surface, says the person using his work laptop balanced on his knee, lifted there by once corner.
I guess you shouldn't expect a laptop to last like a desktop. Plan on replacing them every couple of years or so.
― Ed (dali), Wednesday, 19 April 2006 20:23 (eighteen years ago) link
[1] unless stet, who is currently looking after it, has broken it. or one of our mutual friends has been sick on it. mate?
― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Wednesday, 19 April 2006 20:24 (eighteen years ago) link
― gabbneb (gabbneb), Wednesday, 19 April 2006 20:25 (eighteen years ago) link
― JW (ex machina), Wednesday, 19 April 2006 20:26 (eighteen years ago) link
― gabbneb (gabbneb), Wednesday, 19 April 2006 20:28 (eighteen years ago) link
xpost
― Tracey Hand (tracerhand), Wednesday, 19 April 2006 20:29 (eighteen years ago) link
I wish I had a Tekserve repair buddy. *sigh* I picture sort of Marlon Brando in On the Waterfront type?
But on TV, they are always using their laptops on their beds! Oh maybe they stopped circa Buffy.
Maybe I should get a Mini next? I'm already got the Mini external drive.
But why is it portable if you are only supposed to move it around gingerly?!
― Mary (Mary), Wednesday, 19 April 2006 20:32 (eighteen years ago) link
― TOMBOT (TOMBOT), Wednesday, 19 April 2006 20:36 (eighteen years ago) link
buy bag from this web site. always use padded sleeve. do not fling. attempt to find some measure of happiness in this hypersexualized environment that shows every sign of worsening.
yeah, the bed thing is a big no-no, even APPLE says so in their literature! must be a hard surface.
i still am sort of in shock that they trashed your entire hard drive, that's just incredible.
― Tracey Hand (tracerhand), Wednesday, 19 April 2006 20:37 (eighteen years ago) link
― JW (ex machina), Wednesday, 19 April 2006 20:39 (eighteen years ago) link
other portable things:
http://www.calglass-pcc.com/catalog/glassware/stemware/images/308472.jpg
http://www.goodnessdirect.co.uk/detail/414538b.jpg
http://nosheep.net/wp-content/upload/random_kittens.jpg\
http://www.pediapak.com/images/baby-mother.gif
etc.
― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Wednesday, 19 April 2006 20:44 (eighteen years ago) link
― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Wednesday, 19 April 2006 20:45 (eighteen years ago) link
These are meant to be good cases.
Jon, there are no good sleves at the apple store. I only ever saw one good sleeve, with stiff impact resistant sides and I only saw it once and never again.
― Ed (dali), Wednesday, 19 April 2006 20:47 (eighteen years ago) link
― Tracey Hand (tracerhand), Wednesday, 19 April 2006 20:47 (eighteen years ago) link
Alison Hannigan's computer never died.
― Mary (Mary), Wednesday, 19 April 2006 21:21 (eighteen years ago) link
― JW (ex machina), Wednesday, 19 April 2006 21:23 (eighteen years ago) link
― Mary (Mary), Wednesday, 19 April 2006 21:57 (eighteen years ago) link
― gabbneb (gabbneb), Wednesday, 19 April 2006 21:58 (eighteen years ago) link
― TOMBOT (TOMBOT), Wednesday, 19 April 2006 23:18 (eighteen years ago) link
― naus (Robert T), Wednesday, 19 April 2006 23:29 (eighteen years ago) link
― Tracey Hand (tracerhand), Wednesday, 19 April 2006 23:30 (eighteen years ago) link
The genius bar guy should have mentioned that up front. Every computer I've taken to the genius bar has come back restored to its "out of the box" state - wiped hard drive, etc.
Get a inexpensive HD from Best Buy and just back things up.
― LOL Thomas (Chris Barrus), Thursday, 20 April 2006 00:26 (seventeen years ago) link
― LOL Thomas (Chris Barrus), Thursday, 20 April 2006 00:34 (seventeen years ago) link
― phil d. (Phil D.), Thursday, 20 April 2006 00:47 (seventeen years ago) link
― JW (ex machina), Thursday, 20 April 2006 01:38 (seventeen years ago) link
GF: A bit of sick on the power transformer, that's all. You'll wipe that off easy, with a cloth.
― stet (stet), Thursday, 20 April 2006 01:46 (seventeen years ago) link
Aww, Jon, did they mock you? Did they not let you pose as a genius and hit on coked up NU students?
― Ed (dali), Thursday, 20 April 2006 04:52 (seventeen years ago) link
― Dan I. (Dan I.), Thursday, 20 April 2006 07:27 (seventeen years ago) link
I was looking at the bluetooth keyboard and some employee came up to me and he very pointedly looked about 8 inches to the left of my eyes while we were talking. Also, not very helpful about battery life in BT devices. I ended up getting the wired keyboard and a mighty mouse as I love the mighty mouse so.
I got hit on my a girl in the checkout line who liked my bag, which I had just bought a new cell phone holder for at the bike shop on 6th Ave and Canal though. She was cute.
http://www.chromebags.com/metropolis_olive.jpg
― JW POSING FOR CONSUMER PRODUCTS NOW AND THEN (ex machina), Thursday, 20 April 2006 13:06 (seventeen years ago) link
― Ed (dali), Thursday, 20 April 2006 13:50 (seventeen years ago) link
never buy luggage of any sort without a moneyback/replacement guarantee
― TOMBOT (TOMBOT), Thursday, 20 April 2006 13:52 (seventeen years ago) link
― RJG (RJG), Thursday, 20 April 2006 13:55 (seventeen years ago) link
― Ed (dali), Thursday, 20 April 2006 13:55 (seventeen years ago) link
― JW (ex machina), Thursday, 20 April 2006 13:58 (seventeen years ago) link
The funny thing about this is that I seem to be the only person who actually let "geniuses" take my computer who got it back with files fully intact, non-wiped. Which pissed me off cos I was at that fucking Apple store for like 5 hours doing the back up on spot and I actually didn't care that much about "losing" data that was mostly easily re-gettable anyway (I would've only lost a handful of photos from my digicam that I didn't have on hard disc from my old computer, and term papers from previous semesters that I still had hard copies of anyway). The genius basically refused to send my computer into the shop without me purchasing a $200 hard drive and backing up all my "important" data, myself, in front of everyone in the damn store. Son of a bitch.
― Allyzay Rofflesbot (allyzay), Thursday, 20 April 2006 16:20 (seventeen years ago) link
― JW (ex machina), Thursday, 20 April 2006 16:35 (seventeen years ago) link
― JW (ex machina), Thursday, 20 April 2006 16:46 (seventeen years ago) link
There is something liberating about a clean drive though. Like the first stage of a break-up when you feel free before you get lonely and wonder what did I do?
― Mary (Mary), Thursday, 20 April 2006 18:03 (seventeen years ago) link
Doesn't mean anything right now (except perhaps to me, TOMBOT, JW, and Ed), but still interesting.
― LOL Thomas (Chris Barrus), Monday, 1 May 2006 23:03 (seventeen years ago) link
― Ed (dali), Tuesday, 2 May 2006 05:32 (seventeen years ago) link
this is interesting because it means (to me) that apple has finally got to the point where they feel confident enough that we (the users) aren't going to notice the cpu load of handling everything as part of a rel db (well obviously since we all play along with iTunes already).
I'm slightly more interested in rumors about the inclusion of a Torrent client as part and parcel of 10.5.
― TOMBOT (TOMBOT), Tuesday, 2 May 2006 13:47 (seventeen years ago) link
― stet (stet), Tuesday, 2 May 2006 13:54 (seventeen years ago) link
― TOMBOT (TOMBOT), Tuesday, 2 May 2006 14:15 (seventeen years ago) link
I don't consider it to be that big of a deal... Your average 10.x.x point update runs over 50MB and Apple has to pay for that bandwidth just like everyone else. Being able to distribute that out in exchange for some iTunes credit makes a lot of sense.
I believe it's unlikely that the "torrent" components will be extensible out to developers. Back during the Rhapsody developer meetings there was a lot of talk about being able to hook into OS X's software update engine and use it as a general application updater but then Apple decided not to.
― LOL Thomas (Chris Barrus), Tuesday, 2 May 2006 21:21 (seventeen years ago) link
― JW (ex machina), Tuesday, 2 May 2006 21:27 (seventeen years ago) link
― JW (ex machina), Thursday, 4 May 2006 16:44 (seventeen years ago) link
FUCK
― Holy makkara, Toivo! (OutDatWay), Thursday, 4 May 2006 16:59 (seventeen years ago) link
― stet (stet), Thursday, 4 May 2006 17:36 (seventeen years ago) link