21–30 of 78 posts
I would love to use solid wood for cabinet backings, but I don't. The reason? $ and time cost will be 5x, and it will not be as durable as layered ply. Plywood actually makes a better cabinet!
The difference between me and SJ? He could sell the shit out of that expensive, not-as-good cabinet. And that got artists and engineers excited to start making high-quality things to go in that expensive cabinet.
No one who has practical experience wants to deal with black solder mask, adhesives, non-uniform screw sizes / driver kinds, lack of repair docs, proprietary ICs and underdesigned charge circuits.
A macbook's innards isn't a beautiful piece of wood. It's a gaudy epoxy river pour with embedded 24 carat gold flakes that has no business being there.
I can no longer find a link to this... But I do remember an article about the uniquely machined stainless steel screws that Apple used to assemble Macbooks. They were infact unique. Very "square threads". IMHO that was SteveJ (and perhaps Woz). They cared less about share price, and were focused on everything that could add unique value -- including the special screws. Now SHV trumps everything, and we have "...fiduc…
> They cared less about share price
And yet the value of Apple went up into the $trillions.
Steve is concerned with the esthetics of the PC board https://www.folklore.org/PC_Board_Esthetics.html
I expended effort to lay out the wires so they formed a neat pattern. Why spend time doing that? It made it easy to check for errors in wiring, as then the pattern would be disrupted. The end result was I almost never made a wirewrap mistake, and the work was appreciated.
I also soldered components on, and also took care to orient the resisters all the same way, and align everything neatly. I'd use needle nose pliers to bend the leads just so, too. It also made visual error checking fast and easy. Again, no errors.
I can do nothing but agree - but don’t tell the author about Louis Rossmann, who has been opening, repairing, and bemoaning the horrible electronics design of Apple products. Like someone here noted, the scapegoat of our times, Car manufacturers figuring out how to „appear nice on the back“, Apple managed to hide its poor engineering behind the veneer of branding and shiny materials.
Rossmann has competing business interests to defend.
I can do nothing but agree - but don’t tell the author about Louis Rossmann, who has been opening, repairing, and bemoaning the horrible electronics design of Apple products. Like someone here noted, the scapegoat of our times, Car manufacturers figuring out how to „appear nice on the back“, Apple managed to hide its poor engineering behind the veneer of branding and shiny materials.
Apple device innards are made to appeal to people who have no idea about hardware engineering / repair. For the rest of us the design just screams wankery. No one who has practical experience wants to deal with black solder mask, adhesives, non-uniform screw sizes / driver kinds, lack of repair docs, proprietary ICs and underdesigned charge circuits. A macbook's innards isn't a beautiful piece of wood. It's a gaudy e…
It's startling to imagine what Apple would be capable of, if survivable hardware was a remote business priority for them.
This quote comes up often in SJ biographies or anecdotes and they universally attribute it purely to aesthetic concerns. Admittedly the man cared quite a lot about "beauty", but I've always thought this was more about the caring and less about the beauty. To spend time making something most people never see look just as good as the things they do see you have to care quite a lot. This care begets a wide range of (usu…
Steve is concerned with the esthetics of the PC board https://www.folklore.org/PC_Board_Esthetics.html
I had a job wire-wrapping circuit boards in college. I expended effort to lay out the wires so they formed a neat pattern. Why spend time doing that? It made it easy to check for errors in wiring, as then the pattern would be disrupted. The end result was I almost never made a wirewrap mistake, and the work was appreciated. I also soldered components on, and also took care to orient the resisters all the same way, an…