That image has one hell of an alt text.
Looks kinda like a localization failure. If you have e.g. Chinese in UTF-8 but mess up the output (or input) somewhere it tends to look something like that.
Student can't afford tablet for girlfriend, so builds her one for $125
11–20 of 54 posts
Re: Student can't afford tablet for girlfriend, so builds her one for $125
#12>One thing Wei may not appreciate is Sun taking the time to stick rhinestones all around the edge of the casing he so lovingly created What's wrong with her personalising this? That piece of editorialising was unwarranted, I'm sure he was delighted that she fell in love with it enough to put her own mark on it. To the critics below: it just made me sad because if my boyfriend made me something awesome like this and I…
Because it would say, at least to my instincts, "your case is not quite good enough, I need to fix it". Only after that would I realize that it's a good thing she cares enough to bother with it.
Re: Student can't afford tablet for girlfriend, so builds her one for $125
#13By all accounts Wei is a badass hacker in the truest sense of the word. Being able to source the parts on the cheap and basically put it together by himself is remarkable and a testament to good old-fashioned hard work.
I'm going to make a generalization here and say that most Americans have lost this kind of DIY spirit. Instead we just whip out our Visa/Mastercard and decide to just buy what we need on credit. Yes, a solution to the problem nonetheless. But the amount of learning that you gain from doing a project like this should not be underestimated.
Re: Student can't afford tablet for girlfriend, so builds her one for $125
#14Great DIY project, but I don't think it was because he couldn't afford one... for $125, you can get a pretty decent tablet in China (a good iPad knockoff or even one with a unique design and a capacitive touch screen).
Re: Student can't afford tablet for girlfriend, so builds her one for $125
#15By all accounts Wei is a badass hacker in the truest sense of the word. Being able to source the parts on the cheap and basically put it together by himself is remarkable and a testament to good old-fashioned hard work. I'm going to make a generalization here and say that most Americans have lost this kind of DIY spirit. Instead we just whip out our Visa/Mastercard and decide to just buy what we need on credit. Yes,…
Well, actually as much as I love DIY stuff, if I can find a good and affordable solution for something, I'll buy it - no need to reinvent the wheel, so to say.
But yes, that does lead to people just giving up if there's no solution already available.
One of the most interesting examples is CPU/RAM upgrades - I am simply amazed at how many people think that if you can't upgrade it on the manufacturer's site (where they'll rip you off like there's no tomorrow), then you can't do it at all... The same goes for car audio - I'd never leave it to some shop to do it!
Re: Student can't afford tablet for girlfriend, so builds her one for $125
#1678 dollar laptop running Windows 7? Hmm...
That was my first thought as well, but what was he supposed to run on it? Unity?
It does look quite bulky though, but that is often the way with DIY things.
Re: Student can't afford tablet for girlfriend, so builds her one for $125
#17Great DIY project, but I don't think it was because he couldn't afford one... for $125, you can get a pretty decent tablet in China (a good iPad knockoff or even one with a unique design and a capacitive touch screen).
Maybe he doesn't want to break the law and buy an illegal "knock-off" tablet.
Re: Student can't afford tablet for girlfriend, so builds her one for $125
#18"roughly the same thickness as an ipad" - the photo strongly implies otherwise. It looks nearly an inch thick.
Epic build, I would love it if anyone could find the construction details - hackaday would probably like it too :)
Re: Student can't afford tablet for girlfriend, so builds her one for $125
#19By all accounts Wei is a badass hacker in the truest sense of the word. Being able to source the parts on the cheap and basically put it together by himself is remarkable and a testament to good old-fashioned hard work. I'm going to make a generalization here and say that most Americans have lost this kind of DIY spirit. Instead we just whip out our Visa/Mastercard and decide to just buy what we need on credit. Yes,…
I'd be willing to bet that's a global phenomenon, anywhere people have enough money to "just whip out [their] Visa/Mastercard". For places with money like that, you're also getting closer to the 'time is money' adage, and spending many hours on a build amounts to working for well below minimum wage. Unless you love it, it's essentially not worth it, and those that do love it will do it anyway (see the DIY crowd on Instructables, Hackaday, at Burning Man, etc).
Re: Student can't afford tablet for girlfriend, so builds her one for $125
#20By all accounts Wei is a badass hacker in the truest sense of the word. Being able to source the parts on the cheap and basically put it together by himself is remarkable and a testament to good old-fashioned hard work. I'm going to make a generalization here and say that most Americans have lost this kind of DIY spirit. Instead we just whip out our Visa/Mastercard and decide to just buy what we need on credit. Yes,…
I'd be willing to bet that's a global phenomenon, anywhere people have enough money to "just whip out [their] Visa/Mastercard". For places with money like that, you're also getting closer to the 'time is money' adage, and spending many hours on a build amounts to working for well below minimum wage. Unless you love it, it's essentially not worth it, and those that do love it will do it anyway (see the DIY crowd on In…
I used to be all about the DIY stuff, but 'time is money' really is true. When I was broke, spending all weekend changing the timing belt on my car in the rain made sense. Now it doesn't.