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AMD Hates Laptop Stickers As Much As You Do

pickens writes "David Pogue writes in the NY Times that when you buy a new Windows PC, it comes festooned with stickers on the palm rests: one for Windows, one for Skype, one for Intel, one for the laptop company, maybe an Energy Star sticker and so on. 'It's like buying a new, luxury car — and discovering that it comes with non-removable bumper stickers that promote the motor oil, the floor mat maker, the windshield-fluid company and the pine tree air freshener you have no intention of ever using,' writes Pogue. But the worst thing is that when you peel them off, they shred, leaving adhesive crud behind. 'When you've just spent big bucks on a laptop, should you really be obligated to spend the first 20 minutes trying to dissolve away the sticker goop with WD40?' But AMD has a solution. Starting next year, AMD will switch to new stickers that peel off easily, leaving no residue; after that, it's considering eliminating the sticker program altogether."

5 of 597 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Two words: rubbing alcohol by Chemicles · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Agreed. The reason WD40, baby oil, and rubbing alcohol all work great (as opposed to water) is because they are much more non-polar than water and dissolve the adhesives and other goop from the stickers much more easily. Anyone remember "like dissolves like" from general chemistry?

    Rubbing alcohol is my preferred goop cleaner because, as the parent says, it's cheap and lasts for years.

  2. Re:Two words: rubbing alcohol by IICV · · Score: 4, Interesting

    And if you put it in a spray bottle (99 cents) and mix it with a lighter (another 99 cents) you've got hours and hours of entertainment! The fire is relatively low-temperature, so you can do stupid shit like put some on your hand and light it. Burns really cleanly too, so it doesn't set off most fire alarms.

    And if you put some rubbing alcohol into one of those 5 gallon drums, shake it up to disperse the stuff well, then drop a match into the throat you'll get a pretty awesome gout of flame. Just, you know, make sure you're not aiming it at anything you care about.

    Basically, pyromania knows no bounds with rubbing alcohol.

  3. Re:WD40 by maxwells_deamon · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Peanut butter is the best stuff for removing sticky. The mix of polar and dipolar in a thick paste will cut everything in a mild way. Then sponge off with soapy water.

    Really, it works

  4. Re:WD40 by pspahn · · Score: 3, Interesting

    When I lived in Tahoe, we would go up to Boreal Ski Area in the late afternoon and ask the people leaving for their tickets. Crank the heater up in the truck and put the ticket+wicket over the heat for a few minutes and you could peel it right off and stick it on a new wicket and ride for free when the mountain was open at night.

    I'm sure that by now they use those perforated tickets, so probably not feasible anymore. Good times while they lasted.

    --
    Someone flopped a steamer in the gene pool.
  5. Re:Goo Gone or limonene by ultranova · · Score: 4, Interesting

    We're just as a part of nature as bees and lemon trees, so why is stuff we made suddenly unnatural?

    Mainly because our minds can invent new things faster than our bodies can adapt to them, thus something invented by us is more likely to cause serious trouble for our metabolism than something that bees or trees invented millions of years ago.

    --

    Forget magic. Any technology distinguishable from divine power is insufficiently advanced.