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Filing the corners off my MacBooks

kentwalters.com

231–240 of 700 posts

Re: Filing the corners off my MacBooks

#231

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Using a 3 prong extension cable on the charger will prevent this.

How? The (US) charger's only got 2 pins so ground stays unconnected.

There are grounded duckheads for this purpose, e.g. https://amzn.to/4cnzuef (note out of stock. I guess your best bet is to use a UK duckhead, but half of those have a dummy ground...)

if you take the plug part from the brick you'll note that there's only two pins but the button-like thing is a ground

as noted in a sibling, the power adapter extension cable does plumb the ground through (https://www.apple.com/shop/product/mw2n3ll/a/power-adapter-e...)

Re: Filing the corners off my MacBooks

#232
post #102

I too find the sharp corners incredibly uncomfortable for my weak sensitive baby wrists but I chose to overcome this by wearing a wrist band. Two very different approaches

Yeah, I wear a wrist band as well. I've used these (https://www.vivehealth.com/products/wrist-support) for some years now but they've since changed the material to something with less give.

Do you have a brand you'd recommend?

Re: Filing the corners off my MacBooks

#233
Love that he took it so far. I filed mine a while back - it’s so much more comfortable to use. When I drop it and a corner get mashed, I file that back flat. It reminds me of kintsugi where it shines from the fine filing.

I filed my work dell laptop too. Very different feel, but it is nice not living in feel of your own stuff.

Re: Filing the corners off my MacBooks

#234

I just did this to my MacBook not because of the sharp edge but because the pitting turns a sharp edge into a sawblade. Something about the grounding on on the frame when plugged in mixed with my sweaty hands leads to damage along this sharp edge on every MacBook I've ever owned. See https://www.reddit.com/r/macbook/s/hbyVh5SJhw for another poor soul with the same caustic skin

I’ve been traveling around the world. It is 50 / 50 of the socket is properly grounded —-anywhere in the world. I get a tingling zap on the wrist when not properly grounded. The charger also gets hot and sparks.

>The charger also gets hot and sparks.

Some heat is normal, but the sparking seems concerning.

Re: Filing the corners off my MacBooks

#235
post #53

> This was on my work computer. Bold move to do this on your work Macbook. I'd be too worried of getting chased down with a bill when returning the laptop eventually.

Honestly that was the cherry on top for me -- the employee confident enough to just decide "this is my work computer, I need it to do work, I can't do work with my hands being irritated, so I will sand down the edge." Pure gold.

Re: Filing the corners off my MacBooks

#236
I have never understood how Jony Ive is highly regarded as a designer when he put not only sharp, aluminum edges but sharp aluminum corners exactly where your body spends almost all the time for continuous contact with the device.

He honestly seems like a terrible designer, which seems corroborated by him doing nothing of remote interest outside of Apple and barely inside it. The items that are regarded as design epochs, like the iPod, we're not his.

Re: Filing the corners off my MacBooks

#237

I just did this to my MacBook not because of the sharp edge but because the pitting turns a sharp edge into a sawblade. Something about the grounding on on the frame when plugged in mixed with my sweaty hands leads to damage along this sharp edge on every MacBook I've ever owned. See https://www.reddit.com/r/macbook/s/hbyVh5SJhw for another poor soul with the same caustic skin

Oh is that why it happens? Was wondering why the spot directly under my wrist was pitted into a sawblade. I also filed it, though just enough to remove the pitting, nothing like the OP did. It's easy for me to feel the mains frequency while gently rubbing the top surface of the MacBook while it's plugged in. Really feels unsafe, but neither me nor the computer have suffered any serious injuries yet.

> It's easy for me to feel the mains frequency while gently rubbing the top surface of the MacBook

I haven't been a regular Mac user, but I've had maybe 3 work MacBooks since 2010 and I recall having this issue with all of them.

Why haven't they fixed it?

Re: Filing the corners off my MacBooks

#238

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ve been traveling around the world. It is 50 / 50 of the socket is properly grounded —-anywhere in the world. I get a tingling zap on the wrist when not properly grounded. The charger also gets hot and sparks.

but it's never going to be grounded, there isn't even a ground pin on the charger

If you swap in the extension cable head, that does indeed have a ground pin, at least in Australia anyway. The grounding comes from that metal ring that the connector uses as a guide. https://www.apple.com/au/shop/product/mw2n3x/a/power-adapter...

Re: Filing the corners off my MacBooks

#240

Not all heroes wear capes. This is excellent and can't wait to get aluminium mac next to try it – don't think Space Black is a good way to go. Author's another post on "The Seasons are Wrong" [0] is excellent too and I fully support both approaches. [0] https://kentwalters.com/posts/seasons/

Does Europe and America really call the summer solstice the “start” of summer. Wow. In India our summer holidays start at the end of March and finish in the start of June. That’s usually our hottest months too. And a lot of our regional “New Year” calendar’s and related festivals are on April 14th and can probably be considered the start of summer.

Europe does not. Summer is June, July and August with a bit of give here and there.
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