[PLUG] Rebuilding laptop battery packs

[Keith Lofstrom]

On Tue, Dec 30, 2014 at 10:35:27AM -0800, Denis Heidtmann wrote:
> Please excuse my ignorance, but can you elaborate on this statement?  What,
> for example, makes a T60 "far better" than a ThinkPad E or T?  Is it only
> the screen size/shape that you object to?

Besides screen shape, there's keyboard feel, trackpoint, driver compatibility,
resemblance to my other machines, and training and software optimization to
use all these things.  Newer laptops are somewhat faster, but for fast I use
X and 100Mb ethernet to local servers.  I am concerned about the "features"
that protect Hollywood profits and M$ users from themselves and from Linux. 
Do the new machines come with component-level service manuals?

I design extreme newness, but the customer facing features stay the same. 
Most people have better things to learn than about my inability to match their
expectations, so I try to optimize (under the hood) what they already know how
to use.  Clever is brilliant design within constraints, not baffling others.

My wall sockets have a third prong and child-resistant sliders and ground
fault and arc fault interrupters in the breaker box, but an 80 year old
appliance can plug into them - the same form factor that Harvey Hubbell
designed a century ago.  That standardization enabled everything we do today.

There are people enamored with new for newness sake, rather than well-built and
usable.  They should find something important to do instead.  With a long term
distro like SL7, and MATE so that Gnome stays familiar, why stay on the
newness treadmill?

Don't you think we are getting enough coal smoke from China, making stuff
to pass briefly though our hands on the way to the toxic waste landfill?

I guess that makes me a bad consumer.  Again, I reference this Onion video:
http://www.theonion.com/video/sony-releases-new-stupid-piece-of-shit-that-doesnt,14309/

Keith

-- 
Keith Lofstrom          keithl at keithl.com