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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?
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
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.
Who even needs a display? Run X over SSH.
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
That's what you get for traveling on an unnamed airline.
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?
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. :)
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
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