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How I resurrected my MacBook Pro by putting it in the oven

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Re: How I resurrected my MacBook Pro by putting it in the oven

#171

Post by dfc »

GFK_of_xmaspast wrote: post #163
dfc wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ihe UX of OSX is not that of a high end unix workstation. High end unix workstations do not need homebrew. High end unix workstations do not provide the miserable, second class Xwindows experience that is found on OSX.

So I used "high end unix workstations" for years and years and years and OSX isn't perfect, but jesus christ I'd take its UI over just about any of the UIs from its competitors. (and remember trying to compile anything on sunos and only having suncc? fuck that, imo, I'll deal with xcode)

You will take the Xwindows experience over the Xwindows experience in just about any competitor UI?

Re: How I resurrected my MacBook Pro by putting it in the oven

#173

Post by auctiontheory »

larrys wrote: post #141
mikeash wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Microwaves interact with metal in interesting ways. It will likely induce high voltages in the computer's wiring, causing the chips to release all of their magic smoke.

I grew up in a time when microwave ovens were first released. As such the very first thing you learned is no metal in the microwave oven. I'm wondering if people who are younger somehow think of this differently or aren't automatically taught the same thing. I mean it seems so obvious (to me) that I wouldn't even think to point it out to someone actually. It's like saying "don't let the car run over you" or "don't pl…

I so 100% relate to your post that it makes me feel very old. "The kids these days" don't know about metal in microwaves?!

Re: How I resurrected my MacBook Pro by putting it in the oven

#174

Post by iancarroll »

mst wrote: post #81
iancarroll wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can I ask why a store (sixrig) has ads on their site?

Well, you can , yes. But given he's a happy customer of their hands on service and didn't even mention the site, I'm not sure the answer you'll get will be terribly relevant.

Why does the store (sixrig) has ads on their site?

Re: How I resurrected my MacBook Pro by putting it in the oven

#175

Post by jrockway »

cgio wrote: post #166
aidos wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Eventually the gas in the bulb expands too much and the bulb itself shatters. In my experience, other than having to clean up the broken glass, the microwave still runs fine. At one point we had a bulb where the glass expanded out enough to ease the pressure created. We could use it again and again. Maybe it's a bad thing to do, maybe there's some horrific gas that's created. Someone on here could weigh in on that. I…

I think it depends on the kind of lightbulb, but I would be especially careful with eco(?) energy saving light bulbs From http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-506347/An-ene... Energy-saving light bulbs are so dangerous that everyone must leave the room for at least 15 minutes if one falls to the floor and breaks, a Government department warned yesterday. The startling alert came as health experts also warne…

My thought while reading this was "this must be an article from the Daily Mail". Then I looked at the link's URL more carefully.

FWIW, we were discussing incandescent bulbs, not CFLs, as referred to in your excerpt.

Re: How I resurrected my MacBook Pro by putting it in the oven

#176

Post by jrockway »

ja27 wrote: post #125
kevinchen wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple's laptops are RoHS, so the melting point of that lead-free solder should be even higher than 183 C.

And all the joints look like cold solder joints instead of nice, shiny but toxic, lead-filled goodness.

I use lead-free solder for hobby work. A good joint is still shiny as you'd expect.

I basically notice no difference, except the need for a higher working temperature.

Re: How I resurrected my MacBook Pro by putting it in the oven

#177

Post by pyoung »

danmatan wrote: post #101
JohnBooty wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Non-Mac laptops drop off in value even more quickly.

Anecdotally confirming. When shopping around for the past 10 years, I've usually bought used PCs and used parts, both desktops and laptops, but after deciding to try out a Mac in early 2012, buying used just didn't seem to be worth the discount. It doesn't seem to be so bad right now, but part of this may be due to my insistence on getting at least 4GB of RAM for a MacBook Air, which was hard to find on the used mark…

Adding to the anecdotes[1], of the last 5 computers that I have owned, 0/2 of the Macs are still running, compared to 2/3 of the non-macs. Because of this, I refuse to ever purchase a used mac, the discount is not worth the risk, especially considering the fact that it's nearly impossible to repair them on your own.

[1]Random idea for a website/service: Computer reliability statistics by model/year. Could be really useful for people in the market for used machines. Not sure how/where you would get the data though. Seems like forums are overrun with anecdotes, but actual data is few and far between.

Re: How I resurrected my MacBook Pro by putting it in the oven

#178

Post by prewett »

dfc wrote: post #171
GFK_of_xmaspast wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So I used "high end unix workstations" for years and years and years and OSX isn't perfect, but jesus christ I'd take its UI over just about any of the UIs from its competitors. (and remember trying to compile anything on sunos and only having suncc? fuck that, imo, I'll deal with xcode)

You will take the Xwindows experience over the Xwindows experience in just about any competitor UI?

The X Windows experience on my MacBook Pro is great! I get a OS that does pretty much everything my ThinkPad with Linux did, plus:

* wifi works out of the box and reconnects practically instantly out of sleep [1]

* sleep works without me spending two weeks recompiling Gentoo with different kernel options and finally discovering some boot flag that worked until Ubuntu broke it in one of their updates

* I don't need to edit my XF86Config file (maybe not necessary any more)

* no hassle of getting a compositing window manager working (hopefully compiz/emerald works better now than in 2008), figuring out how to disable gdm/kdm because the window manager options with the distribution are always terrible so I just start from .xinitrc because figuring out how to get gdm/kdm/xdm to run what I want seems to change every time I have to look.

* no more poor battery life

* filtering through low quality apps (KDE: crash-happy and UgLy), GNOME: pretty but light on the features); still scarred over X-CD-Roast...

* AirDrop!

* no arcane errors about sound because Ubuntu suddenly decided that I needed Jack (or maybe it was the other one), when ALSA was working just fine

* oh, yeah, whenever I need to run an XWindows program it integrates seamlessly into my other programs. So much so that I tend to forget to use Ctrl for the keyboard shortcuts instead of that Apple command key with the weird symbol on it. It even seems to cut and paste from the rest of the system reasonably well.

Yeah, I'm totally loving the XWindows experience on MacOS X!

[1] I switched to Ubuntu because wifi and sleep just worked, and then they just didn't work after some updates

Re: How I resurrected my MacBook Pro by putting it in the oven

#179

Post by prewett »

larrys wrote: post #165
beachstartup wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

microwaves induce a current in metal. if there's a gap for that current to jump, you'll see it jump, and it'll probably cause problems including fire, but if there's no gap to jump, all that voltage potential just stays in the metal. put a table spoon in the microwave and turn it on - nothing happens. i do this all the time when reheating soup. i've won money on small bets like this too. non-technical people have no…

Preface for anyone reading this: I don't have any technical degree only what I have picked up over time. That said: So in terms of the instructions "wrap the chicken" assuming the chicken were wrapped in a way that there was no crunchiness that produced metal gaps then it would merely block the chicken from cooking in the area wrapped, right? So in theory a nice idea but in practice people slap on the tin foil and th…

I think that water in a microwave can get super-heated (hotter than 100C) if the surface is smooth, or there are no more little air bubbles to start the boiling. Then, when you put something in, it gives a surface for bubbles that are desperate to form something to form on, and they all do it at once.

I had a spectacular explosion with my glass teapot one time. The microwave at work was in a different room, so I would heat up the water to boiling, and then not hear the bell, so some time later I'd remember, and do it again. Apparently reheating causes the bubbles to basically get used up so there wasn't anything to start the boiling. So the third time I was standing there waiting so I wouldn't forget, and suddenly I hear a BOOM and the pot was half empty with a lot of water outside. I think there was just one giant bubble that eventually formed and blew everything out. (The pot was unharmed)

Re: How I resurrected my MacBook Pro by putting it in the oven

#180

Post by prewett »

null_ptr wrote: post #156

It makes me sad to read how some mistreat their laptops. Why keep it on 24/7? Even if you're using your computer 12 hours a day you're letting it burn for nothing for the other 12! And then you buy a new one every year.

Electronics likes being in a steady thermal state, and mechanical devices like a hard drive have less wear when continuously spinning. It's the spinning up and down that causes a lot of the wear.
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