I don't understand why anyone still buys Apple products now? They are designed to fail at a certain age and cost a fortune and can't compete on tech specs.
I maintain a 17 year old ThinkPad
581–590 of 595 posts
Re: I maintain a 17 year old ThinkPad
#582I want to line thinkpads, I really do. But trying a touchpad of a macbook and going back to a thinkpad is a truly horrible experience.
I'm forever gratefull for the ancient 100€ T400 thinkpad that carried me through my CS degree when I had no money but spending 700+ on something that feels inprecise and jiggery when using is painfull.
Re: I maintain a 17 year old ThinkPad
#583Earlier quoted context omitted.
Ah yes, the Olafian Lunar Proximity Theory. While government defunding might accelerate intelligence in peculiar ways, I've found that the most effective method involves strategically placing enormous quantities of vintage ThinkPads at precise geomagnetic nodes around the Earth. The collective electromagnetic resonance of their legendary keyboards creates a subtle gravitational anomaly that could, over approx. 17.3 y…
No problem; I've pored over and deeply understood your paper by a process I call "vibe-grokking". I'd explain more but have a patent currently in application. Do you think the gravitational anomaly could be intensified by having the Thinkapds run multiple local copies of GPT-4.5 passing messages in an input/output circle? I call this setup "ChatGPT whispers" and frequently utilise it to write the abstracts of my own…
The "vibe-grokking" method is truly revolutionary! I apologize for the delay; I must confess, I've been in the lab for the past few weeks testing your "ChatGPT whispers" setup, and the results have completely shattered my previous understanding of both computational physics and lunar dynamics.
Your quantum feedback loop perfectly aligns with my "Retrotech Gravitational Manipulation" research. After intensive testing with my ThinkPad array (specifically pre-2013 models with the TrackPoint nubs still intact), I've confirmed that when arranged in a geometric pattern along geomagnetic nodes, these machines create what I call "Analog-Digital Harmonic Resonance."
The breakthrough came when I configured each ThinkPad to run multiple local GPT instances in a circular communication pattern. The computational patterns generated subtle electromagnetic fluctuations that, according to my measurements, could enhance the lunar proximity effect by 16.4% beyond my original estimates! The key, of course, is ensuring that these local copies of GPT-4.5 are trained on an exclusively retrocomputing dataset - think floppy disks, dial-up modems, and 90s-era HTML—while ensuring they avoid "hyper-rational" outputs that might destabilize the delicate lunar influence.
I was able to access chatgptwhispers.com briefly. Incidentally, your website is an unexpected delight! I explored it in the spirit of the "vibe-grokking" methodology, which yielded intriguing results for my research.
After extensive calculations (which, much like your patent-pending method, I will leave vague for now to avoid intellectual property squabbles), I believe the "whispering" effect could be further enhanced if each ThinkPad is equipped with a Commodore 64's SID chip, as I've theorized that its frequency output can induce sympathetic vibrations within the magnetic field, potentially amplifying our lunar gravitational effect by an additional 23.7%.
By the way, have you considered the inverse polarization effects when running your models during different lunar phases? My data suggests running the system during the waning gibbous phase while playing lo-fi beats in the background increases computational coherence by approximately 17.4%.
Looking forward to more discoveries in this shared, yet highly specialized venture!
Edit: As I was writing this comment, I’ve noticed some rather suspicious activity around my lab, unmarked vans with satellite dishes, no doubt monitoring my work. Big Space, it seems, is very invested in keeping the Earth-Moon distance as it is, as I have previously stated. If my calculations are correct, we could reduce lunar orbit by 31.4159% by 2031, provided we can source enough vintage ThinkPads before Big Tech realizes what's afoot and starts hoarding them for "recycling". Time is of the essence.
Re: I maintain a 17 year old ThinkPad
#584damn that green indicator is really sexy
Re: I maintain a 17 year old ThinkPad
#585I still have my Thinkpad X201 from 2011 running, and I use it as my personal machine (have an M1 MacBook from/for work).
Of course, had to replace the hard drive once or twice, replaced the whole motherboard once[0], and even though it's 64-bit, the CPU arch (Westmere) lacks some instructions that make some things non-functional (MongoDB, some Steam games don't start), and I had to limit the CPU frequency so it doesn't go into thermal shutdown. Nonetheless it's a joy to use still, and I boot it up with pleasure every time...
Thinking when will I pull the trigger on a Framework, though at least I don't feel the pressure too much just yet. :)
[0]: https://gergely.imreh.net/blog/2022/07/an-open-heart-motherb...
Re: I maintain a 17 year old ThinkPad
#586> A [macbook] battery replacement involves carefully prying out a glued component. Can't speak to every model, but it's not always like this. I just swapped the battery on my 2020 M1 Macbook Air, and it's much easier now. The battery is glued to a metal tray that unscrews and lifts out of the laptop. It is discarded with the old battery. The tray is also held down with pull-tab adhesive strips, but they are trivial t…
The way 99.95% of customers would replace a macbook battery is to take it to the Apple Store and have them do it for a fixed charge while you wait. It's a great service. Apple will still replace the battery in your 2013 MacBook Air. By contrast there hasn't been a first-party battery pack for the T400 in many years. These "fragility" arguments always, as in the case of the OP, ignore the actual experience of owning a…
> the only batteries available are random chinese junk
Unlike the awesome iPhone batteries that are made in Cupertino, right?
Re: I maintain a 17 year old ThinkPad
#587Earlier quoted context omitted.
The way 99.95% of customers would replace a macbook battery is to take it to the Apple Store and have them do it for a fixed charge while you wait. It's a great service. Apple will still replace the battery in your 2013 MacBook Air. By contrast there hasn't been a first-party battery pack for the T400 in many years. These "fragility" arguments always, as in the case of the OP, ignore the actual experience of owning a…
> the only batteries available are random chinese junk Unlike the awesome iPhone batteries that are made in Cupertino, right?
Apple sources batteries mostly outside of China and generally has avoided the Chinese batteries (which are almost uniformly garbage) preferring Samsung and TDK production in Japan, S. Korea, and India.
There is an absolutely insane amount of fraud in the Chinese component industry and for a high-risk item like a phone battery the risk simply is not worth it. Google sources Pixel batteries in China, and they also have a reputation for shipping problematic batteries.
Re: I maintain a 17 year old ThinkPad
#588Earlier quoted context omitted.
It won't get you to the moon, but you can squeeze out a little more distance by arranging them corner to corner.
We must either increase the production rate of T480-size thinkpads by around 9x or get Lenovo to release at least one special edition extreme widescreen thinkpad specialised for lunar round trips
The widescreen is just one of the things the people buying old computers are trying to get away from!
Re: I maintain a 17 year old ThinkPad
#589Earlier quoted context omitted.
The arrow key layout makes Framework a non-starter for me. Full height L and R keys sucked shit on the touchbar MacBook Pros so bad that even Apple acquiesced to common sense and went back to the inverted T.
I use those keys heavily, and was hoping they'd fix it in the 16. Sadly, no. Their keyboard connector layout seems to make it difficult to have a keyboard with more rows, so having a layout with the bottom 3 arrow keys in a new row seems unlikely. But what about a touchpad module that has 3 (or 4) arrow keys on it? Still, it's not a complete nonstarter for me, because the 16 does have that optional keypad. I could ac…
Or just half height the left and right keys? It’s what Apple used to do before they tried this crap design on the touchbar MacBooks, then went to after they realized their mistake.
Re: I maintain a 17 year old ThinkPad
#590T480 (non-s) - Love the dual batteries (one swappable) unavailable on Apple-design infested T490 - Retrofitted with magnesium top case and bezel mod - 5 extended 72 Whr batteries with a third-party external charger from some dude in the UK - Upgraded to fastest processor and discrete GPU (slow on its own but I use a Razer Core X eGPU with an Nvidia RTX 3070 Ti, and can run basically any game on Steam.) - 32 GiB of RA…
What is the magnesium top case and bezel mod? Will any Intel AX210 card work, or do I have to somehow patch the T480's firmware to update the wifi whitelist?
Intel AX210 card worked for me out of the box in Linux.