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Apparently the laptops are given to a recycler to be destroyed by an institution. He’s trying to refurb and sell. https://twitter.com/rdklinc/status/1617541547

Apparently the laptops are given to a recycler to be destroyed by an institution. He’s trying to refurb and sell. https://twitter.com/rdklinc/status/1617541547469193217 https://twitter.com/rdklinc/status/1617541547469193217 > Wrong -- it means that 1000 of these devices were dumped from an institution to a recycler without even bothering to log out first. And these apathetic institutions don't return calls when asked to unlock because they want the machines destroyed.

chongli 4y ago
Isn't this just a case of "buyer beware" for the recycler? If the machines haven't been properly erased so that they can have ownership transferred then the recyclers should refuse to accept them. On the other hand, if the original owners want the machines actually destroyed and not resold then I don't see the problem here.
- judge2020 4y ago
  On the third hand, they're a recycler. It's unfortunate these Macs can't be reused, but I imagine the Recycler got these for free or bought them and paid scrap metal prices, not "we'll resell this" prices.
  - psychphysic 4y ago
    I disagree. I think apple should run a refurb but they wouldn't as that would depress their retail price. The devices are recycled just for parts. Even the motherboard will have parts removed and reused. It's a lot more work than flipping the laptop on eBay.
    - robertoandred 4y ago
      Apple's sold refurbished products for decades.
      - psychphysic 4y ago
        I'm totally wrong. Like the most wrong I've ever been. Well once I made a marmite pizza, other than that I've never been so wrong in my life
      - sgerenser 4y ago
        Indeed. Probably almost half of the Macs I’ve bought over the past couple decades have been refurbished.
    - mikestew 4y ago
      I think apple should run a refurb but they wouldn't as that would depress their retail price. I think people should at least make a good faith effort to look this shit up before gettin' all snarky: https://www.apple.com/shop/refurbished https://www.apple.com/shop/refurbished
      - psychphysic 4y ago
        Yikes I was totally wrong.
        mikestew 4y ago
        Like I’ve never made a mistake, have an upvote. :-)
  - TomSwirly 4y ago
    > It's unfortunate It's not just "unfortunate": our wildly consumptive and wasteful nature is a crime against future generations. It's not just that our consumption and waste production are at record levels, to the point that we have damaged our climate!, but that they continue to increase at exponential rates.
    - widowlark 4y ago
      This is incredibly well said, thank you. All of this central control assumes the central control will still be there in the future. Someday, apple will cease to exist, and when it does, there will be millions of unverified bricks that used to be computers.
kube-system 4y ago
Yeah, this is a problem with how many recyclers sell their services. What they sell to businesses is something like "we dispose of your device and securely shred your data" beside some picture of physically shredded hard drives... but reality is often something more like "we have a kid run DBAN on it and then flip it on eBay". Recyclers are going to have to have to make it worthwhile to the businesses they source their product from, and be a little bit more upfront about it, if they want to recycle these devices. What they want to do is whine to Apple so they can continue to go behind their customer's backs like they do now with every other device.
nix23 4y ago
>Apparently the laptops are given to a recycler to be destroyed by an institution. He’s trying to refurb and sell. So he stole those then? Because he's not the rightful owner right? Even trash belongs to someone.

chongli 4y ago

Isn't this just a case of "buyer beware" for the recycler? If the machines haven't been properly erased so that they can have ownership transferred then the recyclers should refuse to accept them. On the other hand, if the original owners want the machines actually destroyed and not resold then I don't see the problem here.

judge2020 4y ago
On the third hand, they're a recycler. It's unfortunate these Macs can't be reused, but I imagine the Recycler got these for free or bought them and paid scrap metal prices, not "we'll resell this" prices.
- psychphysic 4y ago
  I disagree. I think apple should run a refurb but they wouldn't as that would depress their retail price. The devices are recycled just for parts. Even the motherboard will have parts removed and reused. It's a lot more work than flipping the laptop on eBay.
  - robertoandred 4y ago
    Apple's sold refurbished products for decades.
    - psychphysic 4y ago
      I'm totally wrong. Like the most wrong I've ever been. Well once I made a marmite pizza, other than that I've never been so wrong in my life
    - sgerenser 4y ago
      Indeed. Probably almost half of the Macs I’ve bought over the past couple decades have been refurbished.
  - mikestew 4y ago
    I think apple should run a refurb but they wouldn't as that would depress their retail price. I think people should at least make a good faith effort to look this shit up before gettin' all snarky: https://www.apple.com/shop/refurbished https://www.apple.com/shop/refurbished
    - psychphysic 4y ago
      Yikes I was totally wrong.
      - mikestew 4y ago
        Like I’ve never made a mistake, have an upvote. :-)
- TomSwirly 4y ago
  > It's unfortunate It's not just "unfortunate": our wildly consumptive and wasteful nature is a crime against future generations. It's not just that our consumption and waste production are at record levels, to the point that we have damaged our climate!, but that they continue to increase at exponential rates.
  - widowlark 4y ago
    This is incredibly well said, thank you. All of this central control assumes the central control will still be there in the future. Someday, apple will cease to exist, and when it does, there will be millions of unverified bricks that used to be computers.

kube-system 4y ago

Yeah, this is a problem with how many recyclers sell their services. What they sell to businesses is something like "we dispose of your device and securely shred your data" beside some picture of physically shredded hard drives... but reality is often something more like "we have a kid run DBAN on it and then flip it on eBay". Recyclers are going to have to have to make it worthwhile to the businesses they source their product from, and be a little bit more upfront about it, if they want to recycle these devices. What they want to do is whine to Apple so they can continue to go behind their customer's backs like they do now with every other device.

nix23 4y ago

>Apparently the laptops are given to a recycler to be destroyed by an institution. He’s trying to refurb and sell. So he stole those then? Because he's not the rightful owner right? Even trash belongs to someone.