Re: TiBook runs only off the battery

In article <1129384039.270206.256600@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
spinoza1111@xxxxxxxxx wrote:

> John Johnson wrote:
> > In article <u1x2o3ttd.fsf@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
> > cstacy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx (Christopher C. Stacy) wrote:
> >
> > > John Johnson <null@xxxxxxxxxxx> writes:
> > > > My first new mac was a G3 Powerbook. I abused that thing
> > > > for 4 years, after which the CPU failed. I call that fair.
> > >
> > > How do you abuse a CPU?
> > a) "that thing" was intended to refer to the PowerBook in general, but...
> > b)You put it in a foam-padded sleeve inside a backpack and manage to
> > wake the sucker up...multiple times.
> >
> > I believe (without any real evidence) that the cases where the PB was
> > hot, with a dead battery, or hung with a black screen (also hot) when I
> > pulled it out of the pack, contributed to the eventual CPU failure. It
> > only happened when I was still running OS 9 (which is one reason why I
> > tolerated 10.1 as well as I did ;-), and was _quite_ irritating.
>
> I had these problems with the Vaio as well. They can damage software as
> well as hardware on Windows (which we know blows) because they cause
> chains to be broken, etc., and Microsoft recovery sux.
> >
> > Since I replaced many other heat-sensitive components myself over those
> > 4 years (HD, RAM, added AirPort later), failure of those components was
> > not so much an issue.
> >
> > I used that PB pretty much daily for those four years, carting it from
> > home to school, traveling across the country a couple of times, etc. I
> > wore out one main battery and was one year into the replacement when the
> > machine crapped out. All that time, it lived inside a Spire USA sleeve
> > case, and my backpack.
> >
> > I certainly wouldn't call that PowerBook "designed for obsolescence." I
>
> I would. The advertising constitutes a claim that your use was not
> excessive because the advertising shows Powerbook users cavorting like
> fauns in Arcady, in the wilderness, with their Powerbook. This claim is
> false if you have to treat the thing with kid gloves.
>
Nowhere in Apple's advertising do they indicate that leaving their
PowerBooks closed, running, and inside an insulated sleeve is "not
excessive".

I rather suspect that I also overheated the machine (meaning, exceeded
the operating temperature limits of the computer), but cannot confirm
that, as I never had a thermometer with me when I opened it up.

> > wouldn't even say that about the Titanium that replaced it. Apple tried
> > something pretty bold there: alight, thin portable machine that could
> > honestly be called a desktop replacement, with a wide screen and a
> > gorgeous case. For all that, it was a flawed design. That happens
> > sometimes.
> >
> > Anyway, none of this gets to the problem of the OP: his TiBook isn't
> > much use to him just now. I don't know what, if anything, can be done
> > about that. I believe that buying a new PB or iBook is not necessarily a
> > bad move. Whether or not it is a good idea depends far more upon what a
> > person wants out of the machine (performance, durability, etc.), their
> > tolerance for cost, how long they can afford to go without replacement,
> > etc. This is to say, whether or not a new Apple portable is a good buy
> > or not depends on the same factors that affect any other company's
> > portable machines.
>
> The fact is that MOST end users cannot sit back as in the mythos, and
> speculate about costs and benefits and "what they want". I'd suggest
> that for MOST laptop purchasers, the same factors govern as does our
> purchase of long-distance air travel.
>
> Most people just consider cost.

Unless their software is Mac-only, or it is required for their job, a
Windows machine will almost always be cheaper than a new Apple machine
of similar specification (for reasonable definitions of "similar").
People whose first consideration is cost are exceedingly unlikely (IME)
to even consider a purchase from Apple. But that's just an opinion.

[snip]
>
> The original vision of Alan Kay et al. at Xerox Parc was far less
> limited. His 1974 sketch of children playing with a "computing book"
> was of children using what looks like the Powerbook...on the grass.
> This would be either actual folly with ANY modern laptop, or an
> epistemological folly in the sense that the end user is in the dark as
> to the specific effects of specific actions, only knowing (if that)
> that the biome (trees and grass and moisture and stuff) seems in a
> global, holistic sense, to really hate computers (even Macs) and to
> destroy them (black screen, pfft, bang zoom) just as soon as it can.
>
Er, I used my G3 PowerBook outside all the time, and that didn't break
it. I use my AlBook outside sometimes, and no ill effects yet. But
anecdotes are pretty meaningless in this sort of argument.

Look, I'm all about the problems of a capitalist economy, and believe me
that I understand where you are coming from. However, we've run pretty
far off-topic, and I don't think that our own points of disagreement
will change as a result of conversation: I don't think that anything
short of the production of your ideal computer will count as evidence
against the "designed for obsolescence" theory. I'm not convinced about
this theory at the moment, though I'll admit to not having looked at the
materials cited earlier in the thread.

So, thanks for the interest, I hope the OP didn't mind the digression.

--
Later,
John

johajohn@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

'indiana' is a 'nolnn' and 'hoosier' is a 'solkk'. Indiana doesn't solkk.
.

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