[Noisebridge-discuss] Interview about planned obsolescence?

Brian Morris cymraegish at gmail.com
Sun Jan 22 06:55:55 UTC 2012


Umm, there's a lot more to a laptop than the motherboard and the outer
shell.
(try taking one apart sometime, or look on the hacker shelves at NB for
examples).

I existed on used laptops for many years and still do much of the time. But
also I got upgraded ones or did that myself.

Of course you can't blame all the obsolescence on the hardware (or on the
software either).

Considering trying to build my own tablet from a motherboard, touchscreen
and other parts as needed. Actually I think the case would be the hardest
part. Perhaps to reuse a slightly too large case and shim it.


On Sat, Jan 21, 2012 at 8:58 PM, Gopiballava Flaherty <gopiballava at gmail.com
> wrote:

> Would it be better to dispose of a motherboard and keep the case for your
> new laptop, or would it be better to give the old laptop to somebody else?
>
> I suspect that the case is a fairly small component of the resources
> needed to build a laptop.
>
> Laptops are getting smaller and smaller, and the space for multiple
> connectorized modules isn't there.
>
> Thanks,
>
> gopi at iPhone
>
>
> On Jan 21, 2012, at 21:44, Brian Morris <cymraegish at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Back in the 90s Apple made a bunch of notebooks computers with upgradeable
> cpu "daughtercards" that could extend the life of the machine by several
> years. I happen to have three of these (two upgraded) in my collection and
> could supply pictures of the guts if desired (although my camera is pretty
> shabby 2mpxl = web only)
>
> Amazingly although they haven't done that in a decade, just a few years
> ago they made a notebook with an upgradeable graphics card.
>
> I think that if they wanted to they could standardize motherboards in
> their laptops so that when case designs remain the same they could be
> upgraded even if no daughtercards (such as going from a core2duo to an i5
> maybe.
>
> I also have a G4 powermac upgraded to a 3x faster cpu. The G5 models all
> had different cpu sockets and no upgrades were possible even by 3rd parties
> due to Apple proprietary knowledge. Prior to the g5 all mac towers were
> upgradeable for the cpu and graphics cards as well.
>
> On Fri, Jan 20, 2012 at 11:19 AM, Mitch Altman <maltman23 at hotmail.com>wrote:
>
>>
>> While I was in Berlin, at 28C3, I met Anna Salzberg, a French journalist
>> doing a long, well researched story on planned obsolescence.
>>
>>
>>
>> She is interested in seeing how companies purposely (and otherwise) make
>> products that are designed to break within a certain length of time, or are
>> purposely made obsolete by newer products that are not compatible with
>> older products -- where the net effect is that you "need" to throw away
>> your old product and buy a new one.
>>
>>
>>
>> She is still doing research for this story, which, I think, will be
>> really good and worthwhile when it comes it.
>>
>>
>>
>> If you would like to be interviewed for the story, please contact Anna
>> directly.  She is cc-ed on this email.
>>
>> anna.salzberg at pltv.fr
>>
>>
>>
>> If you prefer, all comments are annonymous and confidential.
>>
>>
>>
>> If you work at a company that may be engaged in this kind of planning
>> (either purposely, or otherwise), Anna will especially like to hear from
>> you.
>>
>>
>>
>> Best,
>>
>> Mitch.
>>
>>
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>>
>
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