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Options For a Laptop With a Broken Screen?
DefenseSupportParty writes "I recently traveled via an unnamed airline, and stupidly checked my laptop. Unfortunately, the screen broke in transit and they refuse to take responsibility for it, claiming that it could have been broken before the flight. I'm not really in the mood to replace the screen if I have to pay for it, as I have other laptops that I can use. At the same time, I don't want to waste computing power that could be put to good use. I've thought about the common stuff: file server, SETI@Home, but I'd like to do something a little more creative. Does anyone have good ideas for a relatively powerful laptop without a display?"
Braille Quake is available for Windows & Linux.
How about you take a few more flights and then set up a beowulf cluster?
As with almost anything computer related, it depends? How powerful is the laptop? Is it a last year model? Perhaps something a bit older?
Run 10,000 instances of progress quest.
1) plug it into a television
2) add IR
3) add connection to file server with videos 4) ???
5) entertainment
Buy a cheap external monitor.
How about setting it up a a monument to your carefree lifestyle? I mean, really, who on earth checks laptops?
If you don't need the laptop, and the screen is relatively easy and inexpensive to replace, and the laptop has decent specs, why not fix the screen and sell it to someone who needs a laptop for just the cost of the screen replacement? You don't need it, they do, it's a (presumably) decent laptop. Everybody wins, and they might bake you a pie or something someday in return.
Built in UPS, plenty of computing power as you say.
Best use I can think of is as a server - web, mail, mysql, whathaveyou. Wear and tear on the hard drive not an issue if you're using something set up correctly - the hard drive will be spun down most of the time.
"Actually, I enjoyed this in the same vague, horrible way I enjoyed the A-Team" P. Opus
See if you can find a cheap screen replacement on Ebay.
That which does not kill me only postpones the inevitable.
Just brainstorming here... How about using it as a media center alternative? Remote over WLan (iPhone or remotes with wifi support) and off you go. Or more interesting, perhaps... use the wifi remotes along with some kind of home automation software. Then all you have to do is hook up your house and that computer could control all of your house :)
You could throw it at the airline rep who basically told you to fuck off and sue them (in so many words it sounds). I suggest you aim for the head.
Hook it up in your network as a MythTV. I don't think you need an attached display to use it; if you do, use an old external monitor.
Why not take it to small claims court? They broke your laptop, they should fix it.
http://computershopper.com/laptops/howto/replace-your-laptop-screen
Buy a usb keyboard and mouse and a 19" external monitor. Set the power saving to just turn off the screen when you shut the lid, not go into standby. Instant energy efficient desktop computer. What you do with that is the same questin of what you do with any surplus computer.
You may already be set up the way you like, but I'm not and others might also not be, so here goes:
Use it as a media center. That is, connect it to your TV and sound system, and have it play video and music from wherever you got it (sshfs/NAS, w/e).
For that, you want something which can start and stop (suspend/resume) quickly. You'll probably also want to connect a wiimote, so that bluetooth chip on your wifi NIC is going to come in handy. Saving yourself from running more cables (wifi) probably isn't going to hurt either.
Why fix the screen when you can replace it with a bigger and better one? :)
Simply hook up a monitor and you have a energy-efficient and quiet desktop. For fun, strap the laptop to the back of the monitor.
With older laptops you could fool around with those mini-LCD screens, use them for displaying the weather for instance. But as you mention it's a powerful laptop, so it would probably make a decent desktop.
This sig is intentionally left blank
Use self-powered USB drives, and have this be your server. Yes, its boring, but that way its a server with a built-in UPS!
Test your net with Netalyzr
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Train_wreck_at_Montparnasse_1895.jpg
Sorry this happened to you, but why the fsck did you check a laptop? You are lucky to have gotten it back at all, even with the broken screen.
The chances are good that someone out there has that same laptop with a bad motherboard and a good scree; check eBay.
I muse my broken-screen ibook as a "mac mini" for the
kids. Plug in a USB hub; keyboard/mouse and a screen.
It works beautifully.
Who even needs a display? Run X over SSH.
Use it as an HTPC in a streaming mythfrontend/mythbackend setup.
Quite often, the parts you need are available on eBay especially if you use a Dell. (Availability of parts is the #1 reason I recommend Dell, not because they are "better." The #2 reason is because new Dell laptops almost always have accidental damage coverage available as a purchase option in the warranty... accidents happen, BUY IT! By the way, Apple computer does NOT sell accidental damage warranty coverage. If you buy an Apple, make sure you get it through a 3rd party vendor that does offer it or never buy Apple laptops...they are too expensive for accidents.)
The position of the airlines is 100% correct. There should be a certain level of abuse that passengers should absolutely expect. If you don't expect it, then you are an idiot and need to learn the hard way. CARRY ON anything you believe to be valuable and/or breakable.
I used one to teach myself AutoCAD on.
Was a bench carpenter for 27 years and decided I was getting to old for the sawdust.
A co-worker had given me a busted lap top and and so I got a monitor I'd leave at the shop with my toolbox but would take the half-lap-top home with me.
I'd study Autocad during lunch...
Now I work in the cad deparment programming CNC routers and doing construction drawings for some stuff some may thing is cool.
Infinite Dimensions
So there is certainly a place for half-lap-tops... especially with the low cost flat screen today.
DefenseSupportParty...checks in laptop on the plane....have you guys been using the Qantas lounge computers again?
http://michaelsmith.id.au
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XdbQyW7eXfs
How about you setup this laptop in a trunk of your car and run some wires to the dash. Instead of radio deck, you could put touch screen and have a thing called "carputer". You can find more info here: mp3car.com.
o_O
I did the same thing with a laptop several years ago. I ended up putting Ubuntu on it and used it as a server for a few websites (Plone/Zope, MRTG, NTP, DNS/DHCP) and some other things at home. Works well, is quiet and tucks away nicely.
Alternately, I hear that vSphere will have better hardware compability/support, so you might be able to fit v4 on it and run several VMs of your choice.
I had a laptop here, fairly new unit with a dead screen. I ended up putting it in my media center and hooking it up to my LCD TV with a Logitech wireless keyboard. Makes a really nice little surfing machine / Video player / DVD burner / etc. while sitting on my couch and it takes up almost no room in my media cabinet.
Play me online? Well you know that I'll beat you. If I ever meet you I'll "/sbin/shutdown -h now" you. -Weird Al, kinda.
Most screens will run $100, and while laptops aren't made to be "easy" to repair, You'd be replacing the entire screen, which is just popping the case open and unscrewing a few things.
I've replaced the backlight on my laptop's screen (a much harder task!), so this ought to be gravy for you, and cheaper than repairing it otherwise.
Build a floor stand with an arm for a VESA-mount flat-panel monitor. (I've seen great articulating mounts for $50 at BJ's and Costco). Clamp the laptop to the stand near the bottom as part of the counterweights, and add a wireless keyboard & mouse combo.
The result: a computer that sits next to a recliner.
If you don't want it when you're done, take it to the nearest senior center or retirement home and plug it in there...
In the US, HD cable providers are required by the FCC to give you a receiver with firewire output if you ask. You may have all the hardware you need for mythTV, without even buying a tuner card.
There's no failure quite as dissatisfying as a complete and total solution to the wrong problem.
If you let the world know the name of the airline that ripped you off, could we not boycott them?
I'm sure damaging a customer's gear and then refusing to pay for the damage will look REAL good for PR...
So why not complain?
Are you a sheep?
That's what you get for traveling on an unnamed airline.
Who even needs a display? Run X over SSH.
Why troll?
I was wondering the same thing...wish I had some mod points...
If you don't have the imagination to figure this one out, send it to me and I'll do the thinking.
OpenBSD CARP Cluster, with built-in UPS... Clustered Firewall, DHCPd, Samba, NFS, httpd, ftpd, sftpd/sshd, etc.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Take advantage of the situation. Install a touchscreen.
Why not name the airline, you anonymous coward ?
Will it blend?
Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
Give it to a blind person in need of a laptop - perhaps to a charity that works with the blind.
Why not install a touchscreen 7" monitor in your dash, and have a carputer? Mount the reasonably powerful laptop w/broken screen in the trunk, wire it in to a power supply, attach a USB GPS antenna, and go from the audio out to the amp / speakers?
All the MP3s you can store, instant access to the OBD-II information, "free" GPS, and (with Backtrack III or the like), war-driving capability. Have it get email from your wireless access point and read it to you on the way to work. Keep a copy of the local yellow pages on the drive, and look up the nearest Cuban restaurant.
There are a lot of great "front ends" out there, and most all of them are skinnable to your heart's content.
Hope that this helps / is something in which you might have interest.
http://www.mp3car.com/
[NT]
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
Buy a new screen. Laptop screens are pretty modular since the computer manufacturers don't make the screens themselves. If you are too unskilled to replace it yourself, you can always pay a repairperson.
I've been asking myself the same question recently as I'm in the same boat. I'm using mine right now as a low-power file server, but the thought of a Car PC has crossed my mind many times. Especially with smaller touchscreen LCDs getting cheaper and cheaper, it's may be more viable than you think.
Get the last word with your own homemade cruise missile!
Build a box that will house the laptop, keyboard on the outside, a projector, either consumer or home-made, and speakers and you will have a portable drive-in movie theater, big screen gaming system, or, the least fun option, door-to-door powerpoint sales tool. Extra points if the box looks spectacular.
*Whoosh*
For more information, read the last 10 years of Slashdot comments.
That sounds like you've got a T60p, not a regular run-of-the-mill T60.
Before Lenovo messed with IBM designs, they had very good displays. Now the best you can get is two TN screens in their W700ds.
Twitter supports and protects racists - by smearing their critics with the "Hate Speech" label.
Most newer laptops have a connection for both an external monitor and an s-video out. For less than the cost of a new laptop display, you can get a much bigger desktop screen.
Remove the screen, install an ABS plastic cover for the keyboard (Using the hinges from the previously removed screen), and hook up a pair of MyVu glasses to it. Voila! Extra privacy as well.
I'm not sure I spelled "Voila" right...Grammar Nazis?
"Yeah, but by we know yo mama gives EVERYBODY root privilege..." -jpetts (208163)
Oh what's that? This has already been suggested six hundred and seventy four times, basically at a frequency of every 5th post?
Oh.
Well I don't care I'm posting it anyways, what good is the internet if I can't chime in about something?
Attach an LED readout screen, and create an MP3 server for your car.
The ______ Agenda
Rip the key board out mount the key board in some sort tin contraption. Now mount the keyboard and laptop in the tin contraption on the wall outside of the house/unit/apt/country lane.
Then put up a sign.
"Please enter the 64char apt code then hit enter. To gain entry or ring tenant".
Now load the laptop up with every annoying you got the answer wrong game show sound. Just randomly play one of the files, when ever someone hits a key other than say "+". Where "+" actually rings you and lets you know someone is at the door. :)
Seti@Home is a pointless waste of energy. If you want to contribute to a project of that sort at least choose something like WorldCommunityGrid where the goal is something more beneficial.
I don't know a single lawyer who has ever managed to pass a bar.
I've met a few clever ones who thought to pass it lengthwise.
Post on slashdot, but next time mention the name of the airline instead of "unnamed airline". And don't be self-deriding, as if you should expect checked luggage to be damaged.
If you hire FedEx to ship a package, do you expect them take to be abusing it so that it gets broken? Sure there's a chance, but it's still their actions..
Consider it a warning to /.ers against utilizing that airline.
The airline PR people may be so embarrased that they buy you a new laptop.
It's actually fairly cheap compared to placate in that one situation compared to the good will they stand to lose with a stupid policy of not accepting responsibility for damage they do to passenger luggage.
Discarded laptops are perfect for all in one home server. Most real servers are overpowered for home use including silly electricity bill, heck most recent spec desktops are overpowered. Laptop esp. no screen = low power, quiet, small.
I have a full LAMP stack running ampache (streaming mp3s from my home archive to any web browser), torrentflux-b4rt (headless torrents and usenet), DLNA media server (like itunes) and steam left4dead game server running 24/7 no issues on an IBM T41 (Pentium M 1.6, 512M RAM) so your recent spec laptop should blaze.
Heck stick an external USB drive onto it and you also have a NAS solution. I have NAS so thats redundant (and incidentally the linux solution works well with the NAS, point everything at the mounted share, esp. if the NAS supports NFS though samba works fine for the above applications).
I have colleagues who go down the windows home server route and they swear by it as well.
Why do people post stores like this and for some reason purposefully leave out the airline? If it is a factual occurrence you are perfectly within your rights to tell us about it, and we would all be better informed by doing so.
Why was the airline not mentioned?
If the airline wronged you, you should be spreading the word. If they won't accept the cost for poor service then word of mouth for their crap service should be the consequence.
Don't defend bad businesses.
I have my screenless (screen was *working*, but the hinges were broken and it was a pain), keyboardless, laptop as a router, webserver, SMTP, POP3, DNS primary and slave. P3 650Mhz Coppermine running at 500Mhz with 128MB RAM is very adequate for most basic server usage, just don't throw too much PHP/SQL at it. Assuming the battery still works, you get a built in UPS. You'll need to find another NIC assuming it doesn't have two already if you want it to be your router. Good luck!
1. Hook it up to your TV, wireless keyboard/mouse, should make a decent Hulu box. Maybe a USB tuner could work with MythTV?
2. Bend up a bracket, buy a monitor, bolt it to the back and you have a small footprint desktop.
Of course, software includes just playing pictures as a phenomenally overpowered picture frame, but it could serve up your CDs, etc, and be a backup file server.
deleting the extra space after periods so i can stay relevant, yeah.
Had you read the last 10 years of Slashdot comments, you would realise that the correct expression is: "You must be new here".
Do you or your partner snore? - Visit www.snoring.com.au
There are several options you can do:
1. Purchase a brand new laptop screen from an online supplier - replacing this usually involves
just removing the bezel and about a dozen screws holding the screen onto the lid chassis, and
swapping connectors.
2. If the screen has just lost illumination from a failed fluorescent tube, you might be able to
repair it yourself. There are guides on how to replace the fluorescent tube.
3. You could try sending your PC to a PC repair shop - but they will charge you $100 for
inspection, component price as #1, and another few hundred $$$ for work time.
4. Keep looking around for online retailers and E-bay, and see if anyone has a reconditioned
screen - it might have a slight scratch or defect, but otherwise usable.
Vintage computer adverts: http://www.vintageadbrowser.com/computers-and-software-ads
http://www.screentekinc.com/notebook-screens.shtml
Excuse me, but please get off my Pennisetum Clandestinum, eh!
There are many open source nas implementations available: FreeNAS OpenFiler and NASLite to name a few. I have personnaly set up 3 different NASLite boxes, and is the one I recommend for stability and simplicity (It is not free, but reasonable--around $35US). You will, however need to connect the laptop to a monitor for initial installation and setup.
"If your parents never had children, chances are you wonât either." -Dick Cavett
Laptops make great lightweight backup machines with a stack of USB external drives on them, as print servers, or especially as modest capacity monitoring systems to report on and provide alerts for upstream switches, datacenter power, etc. With their built-in wireless and modem ports, they have another two ways to reach out and send alerts without buying new components. And they're certainly suitable as migration servers for what's been running on someone's server since 1993 and needs to be transferred to contemporary hardware, especially with virtualization capabilities to simply image and run the old OS in a virtual environment.
http://www.provantage.com/kensington-k33907us~7KNS904C.htm
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/searchtools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4431380&SRCCODE=GOOGLEBASE&cm_mmc_o=TBBTkwCjCVyBpAgf%20mwzygtCjCVRqCjCVRq
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815136002&nm_mc=OTC-Froogle&cm_mmc=OTC-Froogle-_-Video+Devices+++TV+Tuners-_-Hightech+Information+System+Ltd.-_-15136002
Search for usb video adapter mac to find external video "cards" For less than $100 you can get an external video card.
Set it up as a P2P server, wirelessly networked to your internet connection, and put it somewhere unobvious eg garden shed, under the floor, etc.
Then, when the Copyright Police raid your home looking for all that illicit stuff you're sharing, they'll confiscate your desktop PC, find nothing on it, and have to return it with a note of apology.
Quidquid Latine dictum sit, altum videtur (anything said in Latin sounds important)
Over dial up, with no monitor. Great!
Servers you right for flying on an unnamed airline. I've flown a lot and have flown on some really bad airlines, but at least they all had names. The fact that this airline was unnamed should have been your first clue to avoid it.
I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
Just read what it says on the back of your ticket, in fact they tell you to not check things such as laptops because they do not insure them.
checked the laptop your lucky it was it stolen
Laptop throwing contest.
Or just dont waste a perfectly good laptop when you could do any of those thing w/ a much less expensive and more configurable desktop, just spend 60 bucks on ebay for a new screen
Laptop with a dead display would be great for a MAME machine. Get an old arcade cabinet (or build your own), hook a monitor to the VGA out, and throw the laptop in the back--clean and easy with no heat problems.
It should be impossible, in theory, and usually in practice, for insurance to be a good value for anybody who flies with any frequency. Insurance companies make profits, after all. They probably pay out half of what they take in, if that.
Insurance is only for risks where you can't handle the cost of the risk. For example, financially you could not handle replacing your house, so fire insurance makes sense. Life insurance can make sense to look after a family. Health insurance to cover a $300,000 operation can make sense, while dental or optical plans make little sense. Extended warranties (which are just insurance) make no sense and are very high margin because of that. Which is why they push them on you.
For anything small, it is far better to self-insure. That's a mathematical certainty.
Now there are two exceptions. One, if you know you are taking a risk that is far above average, and the insurance company hasn't figured out to charge you more or block you, insurance can be a value. Secondly, with medical insurance, you may find you don't want to have to consider cost when making medical decisions, you just want it covered. (Of course now an insurance company will be weighing cost as it decides if you are covered.)
Has it been over a year since you last donated to the Electronic Frontier Foundation
Replacing screens can be a pain, actually, and people overcharge for them.
When I wrecked a screen on an older laptop, I saw somebody selling the exact same laptop (down to the sub-model) on eBay with no hard drive. I picked that up cheap, and took out my hard drive from the old laptop and slotted it in the new one -- bingo, easy fix full working laptop. plus I had the driveless, screenless laptop as well to do things with. These can be useful, for example you can put a flash card in them or an older drive, and make them drive a digital picture frame, or mythtv station etc.
Has it been over a year since you last donated to the Electronic Frontier Foundation
Since the laptop already has built in wireless, put it in your living room, ditch your router and plug this straight into your modem. The advantage is that you can run your torrents and ed2k with no interruption and minimal energy use, and also play all the video/audio on your network on your living room entertainment system. If the machine is powerful enough, it can easily do all these things.
Or, give it to me, and I'll do this!
Install MythBuntu and hook it up to your TV.
http://www.tightvnc.com/
http://sourceforge.net/projects/ipcop/
Consider: if you fix the laptop, plug it into the power and use it for something marginally useful (running Seti@home, using it as TV box, a server, etc) it will sit there consuming power 24x7, doing nothing useful ... most of the time. That is like fitting a 100W light bulb in a broom cupboard and leaving it on all the time.
You are paying for the wasted electricity ... maybe double if you have an air conditioner ... and filling the atmosphere with CO2 for your children / grand-children to deal with.
Stick on an external drive if needed. With Handbrake you can trascode those movie backups and stream them via Coherence to a UDMA/UPnP device (XBOX 360, PS3) etc. You have to do a custom setup with Handbrake to get the AC3 audio, basically select XBox360 as the target to get the defaults, change audio to AC3 direct stream copy or whatever, use AVI container, use Xvid(or FFMPEG not tested though) and viola.
Still requires some tweaking, I still get some weird artifacts with Xvid.
Use the easy_install Coherence method because the package in Ubuntu Intrepid sucked hard.
Also need 100Mbps ethernet to your XBOX360 to get acceptable AC3 audio. Not sure why but it streams at 30Mbps, your wiFi will probably fail at this. I troubleshot codecs forever until I read a post about bandwidth, copper made it awesome. Tip: if it works ok from a USB memory stick but sucks over wifi, you need a bigger pipe.
Cars are obviously built for transporting people, is in 'uncreative' if you have a car and decide to drive it to work?
Similarly, laptops with broken screens that are otherwise stable are useful as either desktop replacements or as lightweight servers. They are compatible with both of these uses, and in the latter case, are actually quite well suited, if sufficient for your needs.
I'm using a 25 dollar used Pentium IV to serve around 5 million hits a month for a website I host, Apache/Linux, etc with good uptime and a load average around 0.01 most of the time. Pretty much just a vanilla install of CentOS with patches installed, etc.
It's amazing what you can do with junk and a decent O/S nowadays!
I have no problem with your religion until you decide it's reason to deprive others of the truth.
Obviously you can convert it into a desktop by plugging in an external monitor...
...Let's get this straight. The airline contends that you bought a ticket on them in order to check a broken laptop through normal baggage handling (you wouldn't be taking it to use on your trip if you knew it was broken ahead of time) just so that you could get your laptop repaired for the cost of a plane ticket and your time. And you're letting them get away with this garbage? You must be new to life overall.
...but...
Here's the rub. TSA opens and checks most bags. They check for bombs that might look like...oh...say...laptop computers. So they make you show that your computer actually operates like a computer.
They open your bag and your laptop either operates perfectly, or they don't let it on the plane and probably question, if not arrest, you. Really good chance that your laptop operated just fine when they inspected it. So what happened?
Option 1: TSA broke it while "inspecting" it. Real good chance there since they had it out and were handling it. But because they broke it themselves they put it back in and shipped it along so as not to have it be their problem.
Option 2: It was broken after the TSA inspection and before you picked it up again.
Option 3: There is no option three. It was broken during the baggage handling, the airline didn't tell you not to put laptops in your luggage because they get broken all the time, and now they don't want to pay for it.
You've already shown yourself to be stupid twice now. Once when you checked your laptop, and the second time when you let the airline bluff you out of what you're due for their damage of your equipment. Do you really want to go for three?
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
Use it to test applications for blind people
In my experience, laptop computers still have phone line sockets, whereas recent desktops don't. You could use the laptop as a fax server, among other things...
Sim server for osgrid? Just install Ubuntu and access it via ssh.
I had an HP DV6707US that I'd had for around year when I dropped it and shattered the LCD. HP wanted $400 for the screen, so I got a 22" Dell Ultrasharp and made it into a desktop for my office. My considerations for when I use it for something else are currently: Carputer Media controller box for my home theatre Server You could do pretty much anything you want with it really, aside from the mobile computing work it was designed for. Hook it to an external display for initial setup, then remote into it when you need to alter anything.
Lawsuit. They broke your property, and lied about breaking it.
And you think that's okay?
It's not, and they know it, and they know you won't likely do anything - which is why they get away with it.
They owe you a new laptop.
As long as it's not a noisy desktop replacement, you can hook it up to your HDTV, throw on XBMC and have a nice quiet little media server client. That's what I did. Works well. Much more quiet than the XBOX 360, and considerably more versatile.
if you want to repurpose it as a headless server I can heartily recommend Amahi server.
It's basically a file/dns/dhcp/vpn/calendar server and you can easily extend it with some other apps (torrents/newsgroup/wiki/recipes).
The best weapon of a dictatorship is secrecy, but the best weapon of a democracy should be the weapon of openness.
Hammer
Doorstop
2" lift monitor stand
Man, take it to the head office! Make them look like crap! Bitch and moan until they take responsibility for their actions.
It's plain and simple, If you break something of someone's, you pay to get it replaced or repaired. That is not negotiable.
It's not honorable to do otherwise.
[rant]
Why does everyone have this attitude that everything is not their responsibility nowadays? "Oh I hit your kid with my car, but he wouldn't have died if the car companies designed the car right." (Did you ever notice how car hoods are becoming more rounded in the last few years? That's why.) "Oh I spilled hot coffee on myself, and you didn't warn me that my hot coffee was hot, pay for my medical bills"
What the crap, seriously? It's like we're going backwards as a society...
[/rant]
Do you have a VGA connector (or whatever that newer type of connector is called)
I don't know if it's funny or sad that most laptops still come with VGA, ten years after the introduction of DVI, and with most displays being digital.
Escher was the first MC and Giger invented the HR department.
carputer. just hook up a 7" touch screen, gps, etc. and have fun cruising down the highway.
Not only can you buy a cheap external monitor, but depending on how the built-in monitor is connected, then you can also remove that too.
If you do this, you are left with a very small form factor computer with integrated keyboard. This is something like a modern-day Commodore 64.
I speak from experience. Circa 2001 my Compaq Armada 1700's monitor broke at work. The "temporary" solution was to hook me up to an external monitor, keyboard, and mouse. Since I preferred the internal touchpad and keyboard, a helpful coworker found a screwdriver and together we removed the monitor.
At first, I doubted that it would boot without the integrated monitor, but it did. The same could be true for you.
Sorry, you must be new here.
Guns don't kill people, "with glowing hearts" kills people.
If you don't mind opening it up a little, remove the whole cover -- screen et al. Hook up an external monitor and you have a Commodore-64-looking PC. (OK, not quite the same looks, but you get the drift)
I know you said you didn't want to replace the screen, but this isn't exactly in that line of thought...
Cheap monitor, keyboard and mouse = great kids machine.
"Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much." - Oscar Wilde
3) Profit!
It's more fun anyway when you can't see the playing field.
Get Valium .. it does wonders .. calms you down a bit too ;)
--- I am known for the ones who want to find me on the net. Is that a privacy risk or a privilege? One might wonder..
Rather obvious, I would think. Has to be stationary for this though.
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
I'm flying with *, and you?
--- I am known for the ones who want to find me on the net. Is that a privacy risk or a privilege? One might wonder..
.. Do we have to welcome such slow robot brain? They are too slow to become our overlords anyways!
--- I am known for the ones who want to find me on the net. Is that a privacy risk or a privilege? One might wonder..
I've had a few headless laptops. I pull out the screen from the case and run it headless for a while, even sometimes if that means buying a TV-Tuner card and running from TVs. Honestly, Its somewhat useful. Another option is a Razor-Thin server. Load X, CDE/Twm and a VNC Server that asks for login from X (Or just accept remote X logins), or tunnel X over SSH and use Hamachi to do out-of-network-tunneling. Simple, no?
Paris Hilton.
Remember what she did to airline passengers' luggage? That's normal. Rly.
--- Grow a pair, liberals... stop letting the Republicans bully you!
NFS Server. Samba Server. SqueezeCenter Music Server. SwissCenter Media Server. Wizd Media Server UPNP Server. BTW, run a VNC server on it and pop up the screen on another computer running the VNC client should you have the need during configuration or when running your server apps.
Either would be nice. I love the pvr I built using mythtv. I had the best luck on my older hardware with the mythdora distro.
-- Programming with boost is like building a house with lego. It's a cool but I wouldn't want to live in it
Laptops are pretty easy to stow in trunks and other small spaces. Small touchscreens are available to mount within reach.
Lets be honest here, a screenless laptop is likely pulling a lot less than 100W even at full load, and a TV box or home server is a lot more useful than a light bulb you can't see.
And turn it into the multimedia center for your home if its got the power... A linux or higher end windows load... pack it with ram... get the biggest drive you can either internal or external and LOAD IT UP... Emulators, Games, Big Screen Apps, DJ Software, Karaoke Software, DVD Movies(Whole Dumps, menu'd out), Music(1000's of hours), and ANYTHING that looks good on a big screen... and LP70+ made by InFocus can be found online for as little as 300$-400$ and a screen is EASY to MAKE... Get x10 8 foot long 1" x 1" and make a frame for the screen... putting 45's / in at the corners and bracing in to keep it straight and firm... Get 2 packages of thumb tacks(White) and a few people... 3 heavy count cotton bed sheets, one black 2 white... Wash and dry the sheets and lay them out as flat as you can... Stretch them over the frame (Black first, whites on top) as TIGHT as you humanly can, thumb tacking it all the way... Then get x4 small 2" L brackets... Bend the top to about mid way to hold the screen in place at the top. The bottom 2 get a SLIGHT bend upwards, you then insert the top of the screen into the brackets you just made, and set the bottom of the screen brackets on the wall so that the screen fits snugly and does not come out of the top brackets... Hang a black curtain about 2' wide across the top, and black drapes down the sides to hide the screen edges... and BAM!!! A Theater Multimedia Setup in your house for under 500$ !!! Enjoy!
My sister dropped her laptop in the winter and cracked the LCD quite nicely. I found a "broken" laptop on eBay (similar model) for about $50. Once I received it, I simple disconnected the LCD assembly from the dead unit and connected it to hers. Problem solved!
This came up at work because the display inverter went out in my macbook pro. We considered turning it into a touch screen kiosk before we got it fixed.
We would have used this for distributing information to employees, but it could be useful in the home as well, like a calendar for the family or grocery list tracking or what have you. Could even build in an Asterisk box if you wanted.
IMAGE VERIFICATION IS EVIL!
http://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/8hcir/i_need_a_super_cheap_super_tiny_pc_that_has_a/
Persian Project Management Software as a Service
Nobody's given the correct answer:
- Small Claims Court.
"It was probably broke before you checked it," is not a valid excuse for an airline to refuse baggage insurance (or any other company for that matter). It is THEIR responsibility to check the luggage/item and verify it is not broken prior to accepting it under their liability insurance, and since they failed to do that, the legal presumption is that the laptop was 100% okay when received and damaged during transit. In fact in many cases the mere threat of court action is enough to make the airline cough up the cash.
This is somewhat similar to how the law presumes a mail-order package is 100% the seller's responsibility, even if said package was lost by the post office, or stolen by the neighborhood teenager. It's the seller's fault and requirement to issue a refund. The law is designed to protect the *customer* not the airline or seller.
One other option:
- Call your credit card company. Many of them provide protection, such that if an airline damages your luggage, you can get a refund of all your ticket money and/or replacement of the damaged good.
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall
You can always use X Windows for video output (unless you're a gamer), and almost all laptops have VGA or DVI connectors that will let you drive a monitor that's at least as good as the screen in the laptop.
I've occasionally run into limitations with external monitors that have much better resolution than my laptop, because at least with VGA they don't seem to be able to do the right thing about resolution. For instance, my 1680x1050 monitor decides to stretch 1280x1024 wider instead of displaying it in native resolution with black space - not only does it make images and video look wrong, but what it does to fonts is really appalling. (That laptop has a 1024x768 screen and supports external displays up to 1280x1024; the other laptop that does 1440x900 mode also gets stretched, but at least it's not as ugly.) The monitor documentation looks like it would probably be able to make better choices if I were using DVI, but the laptop doesn't support it.
On a desktop, you can fix this problem by adding a newer graphics card (so if I buy a cheap high-res display for my older desktop, I need to buy a medium-priced graphics card to get better than the 1280x1024 motherboard graphics or else buy a new motherboard), but that option's typically not there for laptops.
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
A few years ago we updated laptops at work, and my T41 not only doesn't have IR, it also doesn't have a serial port. I wasn't using my old serial-port-based Palm VII much by then, and it didn't seem worth buying a USB-to-serial adapter for it. (I could still use the Palm on my home desktop, but the point was to sync it with my work laptop, and the older software didn't seem to work right on XP. Eventually I got a Nokia phone with Bluetooth, which doesn't seem to work reliably either...)
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
No serial port, no IRDA, just USB and parallel.
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
We have a broken screen iBook G4. The screen still works, just large black splotches cover about 20% of the viewing area. My daughter uses it to watch videos and play some kids software, we use it for playing iTunes and for listening to streaming radio. Still works as a machine.
"It was probably broke before you checked it," is not a valid excuse for an airline to refuse baggage insurance (or any other company for that matter).
A man sues his neighbor because, he says, he loaned the neighbor a pot, and the neighbor returned the pot with a hole in it.
The neighbor says:
First, I never borrowed the pot.
Second, it had a hole in it when I got it.
Third, I returned it in perfect condition.
Does it have working wireless?
Then it's possible to create a system that scans for every open wireless network and try to connect to it's router, and hope it's a simple off-the-shelf router, and activate the security. That would be a lession for all users with open networks, and in the same time be annoying...
Get a Justice of the Peace to witness and sign a statutory declaration that the laptop was in good working order when you checked it into luggage. Fax a copy to the airline, with a written letter of demand that they accept the cost of the replacement of the screen. If they still won't replace it, take them to (small claims) court.
If they busted $400 worth of my stuff, I'd be pissed even if I had a replacement. Is it okay to slash all the tires on my neighbors SUV because he's also got a sedan? I think not.
Almost every airline specifically disclaims liability for damage AND LOSS for checked electronic equipment, valuable wearables like fur, jewelry, bearer instruments such as cash and stocks, and most things other than clothes.
You might have a case if the overhead bins were full and the airline required you to check it. But really the burden to remove valuable items is on you even in that situation. Case law in this respect is fairly well established.
Beyond that though, the time and environmental constraints of operating an airline require somewhat rough handling of bags, stacked one on top of others in the bin of the aircraft, and the potential to get rained on when loading/unloading/waiting. One should think very carefully before checking anything valuable.
The credit card suggestion is a good one though.
I always thought replacing a laptop LCD would be costly and difficult, but having done it the other weekend for a friends laptop it was (relatively) cheap, and very easy, only took part of a morning
(In New Zealand,) a replacement 15" 1280x800 screen cost NZ $350.
Without any instructions (Asus laptop... hard to find service manual)... I was able to take out the old screen and insert the new one within about 1.5 hours, using simple tools like a small screwdriver.
Get over the "it's too hard" problem, and just replace the screen... or just use it as a controller for your robotic toaster.
I ran some java AWT based installers over ssh on machines that only boot to consoles. It is very possible to serve graphical apps from machines that cannot themselves display them. The parent isn't as trollistic as you seem to think. The technique is actually useful.
Parent *WAS* modded -1 Troll.
I did use my score to make him visible and let moderators do their job.
I also posted a similar reasoning to yours in
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1220227&cid=27802107
I'm glad to see we all agree that headless boxes are useful :)
I would use it as a media center for your living room if you have a large LCD or Plasma with a VGA input. You could use it to play all your music and also play downloaded/streamed movies. I find it comes in handy when friends are over and you want to pull up a funny youtube video and of course I always use it for music at parties.
Oh the horrors... CO2 for my children and their children and so on and so on...
Give it a rest.
On the other hand, maybe the OP should plant a tree to offset the CO2 which will be spewed into the atmosphere due to his/her selfish and negligent use of a spare laptop. Or better yet, pay Al Gore a few bucks.
My employer offers a dental plan which covers 2 exams a year for me and my wife fully paid, and almost 90% paid coverage for everything else. It costs me nothing extra. I would call that a very good value.
Ask Me About... The 80's!
"Behead" it. http://hackaday.com/2008/07/24/behead-your-laptop/
Here's a suggestion: Grid Computing. If it is a powerful computer, temporarily hook a monitor up to it so you can navigate to a grid computing website and let them use your whole computer. Another suggestion: Use it as a "desktop", as long as there is a VGA input, you can hook a monitor up to it and kind of "dock" everything to it, such as your mouse, keyboard, speakers, etc. It works well, I do it.
My old Toshiba A215 developed a funky screen, but it found new life as a network interface for a couple of cheapo winprint-only printers. Load XP-Pro so you can access via RDP. Use ghostscript and Redmon to serve Linux or Mac workstations, and plain old SMB print sharing for Window users. Best part is, it works fine over wireless so I can put it and the printers on a cart and move them anywhere. And, built in battery backup!
Tape your now half laptop to the windshield of your car.
Now, when-ever you drive to the airport, your half laptop will be there to remind you to NEVER Check Your Laptop Again
If it has tires or tits, it will give you problems.
" You must be new here" "Beowulf cluster" My god it's Marty McFly and the Doc and his Delorean, or Mr Peabody and Sherman in the Wayback machine.
Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.
Insurance is only for risks where you can't handle the cost of the risk.
Is driving a car one of them? At least the State of Indiana requires all drivers to either carry insurance from a licensed insurer or deposit $40,000 with the Bureau of Motor Vehicles.
Best use I can think of is as a server - web, mail, mysql, whathaveyou. Wear and tear on the hard drive not an issue if you're using something set up correctly - the hard drive will be spun down most of the time.
If a hard drive is "spun down most of the time", how can the MySQL server achieve durability? Or are you talking about storing a transaction log on a flash drive?
I had an old Compaq (well, a few years old), and I kept forgetting the unobtrusive RCA jack in the back that represented "composite video".
What subnotebook PC would you recommend that has a composite or S-Video output? My Eee PC 900 has neither.
A great many laptops have S-video out. That is better quality than composite, if your TV (or other video component) has S-video in.
There are also S-Video to composite cables that just mix the Y and C channels. But that doesn't really help for owners of a PC that can only do VGA, or only do VGA and DVI.
My Mac has HDMI out, and if your laptop has anything like that, you also basically have TV out; you just need an adapter cable.
Only for an HDTV, not for an SDTV, unless your Mac's mini-DVI connector has both composite and HDMI signals on it.
And my TV has a VGA in.
When was it purchased? I want to be able to carry my laptop to clients' homes, and most of them have 480i CRT SDTVs because 480i CRT SDTVs were the only affordable TVs a decade ago. Heck, one client last year was still a (still working, paid-for) TV from the pre-DVD era. I could tell because it only had RF in, no composite.
Someone must have said this someplace, but what about actually fixing the laptop? "How do I use a computer without a built in monitor" is a fucking terrible Ask Slashdot and those who modded it up on the firehose are part of what is wrong with this place today. You're not nerds, you're just fucking lazy wannabes. You can get a display for many laptops for $100, complete — you don't even have to break it out of the shell. As far as I can tell the only reason not to do this with a powerful and thus valuable laptop is if you're afraid of turning a screwdriver. Did you even check eBay for replacement panels?
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
The specific disclaimers of liability are typically there to dissuade claims - it would be akin to me putting a disclaimer on my shirt that states, "Caution :You will be sucker-punched" and then me going around punching people.
Just because they say it - doesn't make it (legally) true.
Notice : I am not a laywer, lawyer or layer or any combination.
There's a gorilla from Manilla whose a fella that stinks of vanilla and has salmonella.
If you're into gaming just buy an adapter to connect your laptop to a TV and a couple game controllers and install The Gorilla on your PC. That way you can turn your broken laptop into a ghetto retro gaming system with an interface you can navigate using only a gaming controller.
(Unfortunately the guy who created The Gorilla apparently died about 2 years ago so don't expect any updates soon...)
They are definitely there partially to dissuade claims, they are also there from operational discoveries that certain services can not be economically and reliably performed.
But your analogy isn't complete. It would be like me going up to you, you have a shirt on that says "Caution: You will be sucker-punched" and me saying, "OK, sucker punch me." If we both agree about the facts of the case, I think you would have a hard time finding a judge to convict me of assault.
As you point out, certain rights are inalienable if it is a right that can not be legally waived, or the contract is ruled to be too one sided. That is why if the bins were full, the GP might have a better case. He reasonably wanted to take the flight he paid for, the airline asked him to check the bag, and he didn't have other options immediately available. But the fact the GP sought the bag to be checked, he consented to the terms of the contract, and had other options available to him.
I am neither a lawyer, but I have had exposure to aviation law.
I bough a new screen for my Nephew's computer on E-bay for around 60 bucks and was able to replace it myself. it is not that hard to do.
Tsukasa: All I really want, is to be left alone...
The parts are often worth more than the whole, and you'll be helping someone out who needs a new [fill in the blank].
If you must check your sensitive tidbits, why not have someone at the check in counter verify and sign off on working condition of the contents before relinquishing your bag(s)?
Or take photo evidence at the counter of such.
from 09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0
to 45 2F 6E 40 3C DF 10 71 4E 41 DF AA 25 7D 31 3F
Never travel on an unnamed airline.
I had a broken screen that caused me all kinds of grief with Gateway. I finally (kinda) got what I had coming to me, though. You can read about it at:
omnux.com/kvandivo/laptop
http://www.WinWithRealEstate.com/
You cannot sue them. In the "Contract of Carriage" you agreed you will hold them harmless if you are unwise enough to check any electronics, camera equipment, musical instruments, art, legal documents, and many, many other things. The airlines are basically responsible for your clothes, shoes, sundries, and the actual bag, within limits; the stuff you HAVE to take with you.
Go onto any domestic airline's web site and search for "Contract of Carriage" or "Terms of Transportation."
If you go to the US Airways web site, look for "Terms of Transportation" and look for Section 11.2.
I have refused to let them take my camera equipment from me to check it. They tell me there won't be enough room in the overhead, I explain there is over $20k in cameral equipment in the backpack, and it goes where I go. I tell the gate attendant to force me and my carry ons, plus my checked luggage, onto a later flight on several occasions, but have yet been forced to do so.
Anonymous Coward, Esq.
If it is a home server, it is probably sitting idle 95% of the time. If it is a TV box, probably 80% ... unless you are a hopeless TV addict. For that 80-95% of the time it is no more useful than a light bulb in a cupboard. (OK, the TV box might be recording something that you might watch later. But unless you actually do watch it, that's just wasted electricity ... and factored into my 80% guesstimate.)
I think it is time you discussed this with your children.
And don't forget to talk about that gas-guzzling SUV you drive around in, etc, etc.
I'm curious, do you unplug all your network hardware when you're not actively using it? By your logic, a cable/dsl modem and router are as useful as a light bulb in a cupboard a good deal of the time as well.
By their nature laptops are fairly power efficient, especially when idle, and a good chunk of their power draw is from the display, which is non-functional in this case anyway. I'd wager that a headless laptop would draw less power as a DVR than a set-top DVR from your cable or satellite company, and a laptop as a home server would certainly draw a lot less power than a desktop in the same role.
I power it off. Don't you?
But your analogy isn't complete. It would be like me going up to you, you have a shirt on that says "Caution: You will be sucker-punched" and me saying, "OK, sucker punch me."
My shirt has a clause stating "you may opt-out of the sucker-punch by hitting me first".
But you just gotta have another sigarette