3 ms·

Designing the perfect laptop

6 points by snydeq 18y ago

mtw 18y ago
fail. i thought at one point the laptop would also make coffee, since they added in the design pretty much everything that came through their mind
- unalone 18y ago
  What do you expect? Ask people for "perfect" and they'll give you "impossible." If you want something that's realistically perfect, chances are one of the leading laptops today nearly matches what you want.
- shutter 18y ago
  I'd settle for a laptop that tells my coffeepot to make coffee.
  - nuclear_eclipse 18y ago
    /me smells a good idea for a network-enabled coffee maker, with web-based configuration of scheduled brewing, plus REST API for controlling the coffee maker via other applications.... grin
    - kaens 18y ago
      http://www.faqs.org/docs/Linux-mini/Coffee.html http://www.faqs.org/docs/Linux-mini/Coffee.html
    - shutter 18y ago
      I guess all you need is an X10 controller or somethingorother. Too bad I couldn't get it to actually change the filter and stuff.
arthurk 18y ago
Definately not what I would call a "perfect laptop". "A detachable, integrated smartphone" Really?
jcromartie 18y ago
The "perfect laptop" described here sounds more like The Homer. It's like they asked 10-year-olds to design it.
- jrockway 18y ago
  Exactly. I could do much better -- "It would have negative weight, so it would actually float. It would have 128 dual-core CPUs and 42 GPUs. It would ship with a new operating system that would do all my work without me even asking." This is equally unrealistic, but a much better fantasy.
  - jcl 18y ago
    And a cupholder on both sides.
- antiismist 18y ago
  Yup. A big part of good design is making tradeoffs, which isn't really addressed hear.
- iigs 18y ago
  Thank you for introducing me to "The Homer". That's good stuff right there. I had to make at least three conscious attempts to continue reading the article, each time my soul having been crushed by the fact that people thought having a three rotating folding screen with integrated smartphone, external wireless subdisplay and midi jacks and 500g flash drive was a good idea.
euccastro 18y ago
I mostly want less stuff in a laptop. A well-built 12" tablet, except: - entirely solid state: no fans, mechanical hard disks, optical drives, or other moving parts barring the LCD, - no touchpad, only trackpoint, - no camera, - no fingerprint reader, - no "trusted computing" hardware, - no Windows bundled, - a serious warranty on the LCD: no dead pixels, free replacements if vertical dead lines in X years, - good battery autonomy, - decent linux drivers for all hardware available. Still waiting..
mseebach 18y ago
Light and with a DVI port. Why do most laptops (Apple is the only brand with DVI without a docking station, I think) only have VGA ports? DVI->VGA is trivial through a simple adaptor, if the graphics adaptor supports it (and it does), but the other way around is impossible.
Kilimanjaro 18y ago
The perfect laptop is a 10" MacBook Air For only $999

6 points by snydeq 18y ago

mtw 18y ago

fail. i thought at one point the laptop would also make coffee, since they added in the design pretty much everything that came through their mind

unalone 18y ago
What do you expect? Ask people for "perfect" and they'll give you "impossible." If you want something that's realistically perfect, chances are one of the leading laptops today nearly matches what you want.
shutter 18y ago
I'd settle for a laptop that tells my coffeepot to make coffee.
- nuclear_eclipse 18y ago
  /me smells a good idea for a network-enabled coffee maker, with web-based configuration of scheduled brewing, plus REST API for controlling the coffee maker via other applications.... grin
  - kaens 18y ago
    http://www.faqs.org/docs/Linux-mini/Coffee.html http://www.faqs.org/docs/Linux-mini/Coffee.html
  - shutter 18y ago
    I guess all you need is an X10 controller or somethingorother. Too bad I couldn't get it to actually change the filter and stuff.

arthurk 18y ago

Definately not what I would call a "perfect laptop". "A detachable, integrated smartphone" Really?

jcromartie 18y ago

The "perfect laptop" described here sounds more like The Homer. It's like they asked 10-year-olds to design it.

jrockway 18y ago
Exactly. I could do much better -- "It would have negative weight, so it would actually float. It would have 128 dual-core CPUs and 42 GPUs. It would ship with a new operating system that would do all my work without me even asking." This is equally unrealistic, but a much better fantasy.
- jcl 18y ago
  And a cupholder on both sides.
antiismist 18y ago
Yup. A big part of good design is making tradeoffs, which isn't really addressed hear.
iigs 18y ago
Thank you for introducing me to "The Homer". That's good stuff right there. I had to make at least three conscious attempts to continue reading the article, each time my soul having been crushed by the fact that people thought having a three rotating folding screen with integrated smartphone, external wireless subdisplay and midi jacks and 500g flash drive was a good idea.

euccastro 18y ago

I mostly want less stuff in a laptop. A well-built 12" tablet, except: - entirely solid state: no fans, mechanical hard disks, optical drives, or other moving parts barring the LCD, - no touchpad, only trackpoint, - no camera, - no fingerprint reader, - no "trusted computing" hardware, - no Windows bundled, - a serious warranty on the LCD: no dead pixels, free replacements if vertical dead lines in X years, - good battery autonomy, - decent linux drivers for all hardware available. Still waiting..

mseebach 18y ago

Light and with a DVI port. Why do most laptops (Apple is the only brand with DVI without a docking station, I think) only have VGA ports? DVI->VGA is trivial through a simple adaptor, if the graphics adaptor supports it (and it does), but the other way around is impossible.

Kilimanjaro 18y ago

The perfect laptop is a 10" MacBook Air For only $999