Dan Fixes Coin-OpsJul 12, 2024

One downside of running linux is that I have NO CLUE AT ALL about modern technology.

Like, I didn't know about USB-C laptop docks? I can run two monitors, ethernet, sound and a bunch of USB ports out of a box plugged into ONE hole on my laptop? And I don't have to buy a dock specifically for my specific make and model of laptop? And this is real?

The flipside of your software being so light it can run on a toaster is that you'll spend years quite happily running it on a toaster and then have no idea what's going on in the world outside, and this is like when I borrowed someone's truck and went to start it and looked all around the steering wheel and they said what's up and I said where's the bloody choke on this thing

Show threadDan Fixes Coin-OpsJul 12, 2024
Two notes, first the choke thing yes really did happen ("But what about if your throttle cable snaps?" I said), second even though it's impressive that you can squeeze all that fun through one tiny hole I still have Feelings about USB-C that run the gamut from Reservations through Concern through Vicious Mockery, oh you think you can pull FIVE SMEGGING AMPS through that tiny little thing do you, alright fine maybe??? for a little while??? when the connector's brand-new???
Show threadDan Fixes Coin-OpsJul 12, 2024

🐰 Dan I've been pulling five amps through this connector for five years now and it's fine

🦝 FIVE YEARS *IS* BRAND NEW GET OFF MY LAWN

Show threadDan Fixes Coin-OpsJul 12, 2024

🐁 We made a new invention where your monitors, network, controls and sound all go through one hole

🦝 so when that hole wears out, as all electric holes eventually do, the plan is...?

🐁 we're gonna make it wear out FASTER by pulling FIVE

🐁 SMEGGING

🐁 AMPS

🐁 through your one (1) Omni-Hole™

Show threadDan Fixes Coin-OpsJul 12, 2024

Five amps is about 31.25 quintillion (31,250,000,000,000,000,000) free electrons tryna squeeze through your hole in one second

They rub up against each other and that's why things get hot. A significant part of my job is replacing connectors that have burned to a crisp and gotten so angry that they've gone "Right, hell with this" and started to desolder themselves from the board

Electrons are real and they have mass, the more current you draw the more Physically Big the connector has to be, you cannot fix this with software or investment

Show threadDan Fixes Coin-OpsJul 12, 2024
One easy troubleshooting step in any electronics thing is turning the thing off and then poking your finger on all the connectors in turn until one of them gives you a scar, I look forward to doing this with your laptops in the near future
Show threadDan Fixes Coin-OpsJul 12, 2024
I have to use the backs of my knuckles now because my fingertips don't feel heat anymore because I've been a dumbass too long, but now I can pluck the packet-curry packets straight out of the boiling pot when the timer honks so y'know swings and roundabouts I spose
Show threadDan Fixes Coin-OpsJul 12, 2024

I did fix laptops too back in the day, and there were basically two things that went wrong

1) the bit between the motherboard and the screen was often a crappy little flexi ribbon cable coiled around the hinge like a mainspring, it wears out as you open and close the lappy and a wire eventually cracks, your screen would only work at certain angles and then it'd die completely

2) the charging hole wears out and you have to hold the wire just right

Aye there was sometimes other stuff, but those were 90% of the problems.

The best laptops - my beloved Toshiba Tecra M4 - had the charging hole as its own whole separate little assembly that plugged onto the motherboard on an internal connector like a JST or something

So you'd cycle the barrel jack connector a thousand times, and then you'd throw away the barrel jack hole and cycle the JST connector once, like the hour hand on the life clock of your motherboard

(the crap ones had the power socket soldered to the board and it was always a right bastard to desolder 'cause of the big ground plane sucking up all your heat)

Show threadDan Fixes Coin-OpsJul 12, 2024
I strongly suspect that these USB-C OmniHoles are gonna be surface mounted on weak little tiny pitch joints that I'll need my bloody microscope to even see never mind solder
Show threadJeffJul 12, 2024
@ifixcoinops This is why I love my framework. It's got 4 USB-Cloaca Omniholes. I use one for a dual-HDMI dock and a second one for the charging cable because stupid dock overheats because of everything you have said in this thread. The omniholes are on easily replaced daughter boards, so when the port goes, it's a 30 second swap with a new part from framework, and they put 3d models of the case online, and have encouraged people to use them to come up with other daughter boards.
Show threadJeff
@ifixcoinops I too run toaster capable Linux and BSD operating systems on my machines. Running them on new hardware is like dropping a giant hemi in a '33 Ford. It's so fast. You should try it.
Jul 12, 2024 at 6:43amWeb