Flutterby™! : Laptop down 2003-03-26 19:44:53.879113+00

Laptop down

2003-03-26 19:44:53.879113+00 by Dan Lyke 9 comments

Fudge. I think I've torqued the power connector on my laptop. Damn damn damn damn damn. Damn.

These things need to be more robust than they usually are. Should I fly out and resolder a heavier duty connector on?

Given the issues I had with trying to resolder the power connector on my old Presario, I took it down to the Fujitsu recommended service center. But I think I'm going to build an attachment of some sort that has another connector, and a firm attachment to the case between the current one and the new one.

I had a PowerBook 5300 for a while with what must have been the wimpiest power jack ever. At first, the power would sometimes cut out; you could nudge the power jack and it would come back. Then it would get worse, so it'd only accept power if the jack was held at a certain angle... and it would just degrade over a couple of months until it was impossible to get it to charge up at all.

Apple really took a beating on that machine: I sent it in for a warranty fix three times, since each fix extended the warranty. The way they dealt with it was to swap out the entire logic board with a new one - including the processor! By the third time, they had discontinued the 5300... so they gave me a new 1400c (their new low-end laptop, slightly better than the 5300) in exchange for a promise to never, ever bother them again. And I originally bought the 5300 from some cut-rate overstock reseller, too; so I doubt they even made a profit on the sale to begin with.

Mybe you need one of these .I understand that the Army is using an even tougher version in the current unpleasentness abroad. Something about a sandproof cover....

Yeah, those look cool, but I'm kinda thinking that I need to start planning now for my next laptop, and that it's going to be a 3 piece thing, separate keyboard, head mounted display, and the guts in some sort of backpack or shoulder bag. If I made it modular enough I could swap the display for something better whenever I had the plugs available. I've been thinking about trying to find a camcorder or digital camera eyepiece display that I could mount back near the ear on a set of semi-reflective (sun) glasses, but finding one high enough resolution to be useful seems to be a challenge.

One of the things that this current grind at work is showing me is that I need to start getting a little out there in terms of diddling with hardware. Software, at least on WIMP style GUI interfaces, is over, and it's time to push beyond the limits of the platforms we're working on if I'm going to escape from the hell that is Microsoft Windows development.

Army laptop update: I flipped past MSNBC, where a reporter was showing off a military grade laptop that he claimed could be thrown out a helicopter and still work. We have to take his word for it, because he could not get it to turn on. Must be that fog of war I keep hearing about.

Yay! It's back. Cheaper than I expected. Apparently a spring had fallen off in the docking bay mechanism and done something wonky to the power connector, so most of it (all but the express charges) was warranty covered.

Links for future perusal for a unique portable system: http://www.handkey.com - twiddler2 is USB! GOOD heads up displays are still not cheap.. http://www.xybernaut.com looks interesting, especially the Mobile Assistant Transferable Core.. and just for reference.. The dreamers and home of a lot of this idea:

For starters, I was thinking about ripping apart an old video camera, I've read that the input into the displays is usually just NTSC. Won't be great resolution, but should be small and light enough to not be too obnoxious (although I will still look like more of a total geek), and already has the right optics including focusing mechanisms.