Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Student can't afford tablet for girlfriend, so builds her one for $125

geek.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 54 posts

Re: Student can't afford tablet for girlfriend, so builds her one for $125

#21

Post by bad_user »

jtchang wrote: post #13

By 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,…

My problem with DIY (for whatever is not software development) is that whenever I try something, it's never perfect from the first try and the second time around it is just boring and I don't bother with it anymore.

For example this kind of project I wouldn't try if I'd be in the same situation, as the quality of the assembled box matters here and there are dozens of things that could go wrong, making me exceed the $125 budget (I've been in this exact situations before, several times :))

I would feel bad about giving a broken device to my girlfriend and if on a budget, old-fashioned flowers work great ;)

Re: Student can't afford tablet for girlfriend, so builds her one for $125

#22

Post by nl »

16s wrote: post #17
jakeonthemove wrote: post #14

Great 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.

Most of the knock-offs aren't illegal.

There is a minority that put the Apple logo on them, which is clearly illegal, but...

Beyond that the look of Apple's products are protected by design patents and the law on them is much less clear cut and varies by country (see the Samsung case for example).

There are a large number of non-iPad knock offs available for under $125, though. A quick search on DealExtreme will help..

Re: Student can't afford tablet for girlfriend, so builds her one for $125

#23

Post by dmak »

16s wrote: post #17
jakeonthemove wrote: post #14

Great 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.

I don't see how is a "knock-off" illegal. They try to mimic the real one, and it looks like crap, but it doesn't mean it's a illegal product. It's not like they're stealing anything.

Re: Student can't afford tablet for girlfriend, so builds her one for $125

#24

Post by dmak »

Groxx wrote: post #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 :)

It really looks thick. I am almost sure it is not close to the size of an iPad.

Re: Student can't afford tablet for girlfriend, so builds her one for $125

#27

Post by sliverstorm »

Heh, this reminds me of high school. iPods were a year or three old. I managed to get my hands on one with a catastrophically failed hard drive in pieces, for free. I took it home, reassembled the hard drive and the iPod, got it working, and gave it to my girlfriend of the time.

As best I know, it still works to this day. And the more I have learned about computers, the less I believe it myself- among other things, there were fingerprints all over the platters!

Re: Student can't afford tablet for girlfriend, so builds her one for $125

#28

Post by Anechoic »

jtchang wrote: post #13

By 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'm going to make a generalization here and say that most Americans have lost this kind of DIY spirit.

I disagree - most Americans in my experience are perfectly willing to DIY, just not in the same areas that you or I may DIY. When my car needs a new timing belt, control arms or brake pads, I'm perfectly happy to do the work myself. When it comes time to acquire vegetables, I'd much rather go to the local supermarket or farm stand and buy the them.

On the other hand, my mom has a mechanic do all her car work and grows her own vegetables. I could go on about my friend who makes her own pottery and stationary, my brother who does his own carpentry, a friend who makes his own beer, etc etc. We are all DIYers in our own way.

Re: Student can't afford tablet for girlfriend, so builds her one for $125

#29

Post by X-Istence »

sliverstorm wrote: post #27

Heh, this reminds me of high school. iPods were a year or three old. I managed to get my hands on one with a catastrophically failed hard drive in pieces, for free. I took it home, reassembled the hard drive and the iPod, got it working, and gave it to my girlfriend of the time. As best I know, it still works to this day. And the more I have learned about computers, the less I believe it myself- among other things, t…

I've taken hard drives apart, removed the platters, wiped them down, shoved everything back together after not finding anything really wrong with it (and this wasn't being careful or nice with the platters/heads) and it has worked fine now for the last 6 years... still not sure why at one point it stopped spinning up.

Re: Student can't afford tablet for girlfriend, so builds her one for $125

#30

Post by Rajiv_N »

Kudos to the kid for doing this. Certainly better than selling your kidney to buy an iPad2 (http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2011/06/02/boy-sells-kidney-to-b...)

On a side note, is that an apple logo I see at the bottom of the tablet? Wonder how apple feels about that? :)

Post reply on HN